Webaroo has an innovative and exciting product – SMS GupShup, a social messaging platform that connects people to larger social groups and networks. The product has seen rapid adoption, jumping from one million users when it was launched in 2007 to more than 40 million users today. We spoke to Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO, Webaroo, to understand what has led to this phenomenal success.
Growth Path
SMS GupShup takes customers beyond one-to-one messaging to social messaging, where they can network and communicate with a number of people at the same time. Consumers can use the platform to connect with friends, while businesses can use it as a mobile marketing platform to advertise their services and engage their customers.
According to Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO, Webaroo, “Our vision was to enable group messaging for everyone – if we can communicate as a group through SMS, a lot more social and interesting things can happen. This vision really evolved from the fact that we saw mobile as an emerging medium with tremendous growth opportunities at the bottom of pyramid. Besides voice, the only other feature that works on every single handset is SMS. Though ubiquitous across handsets, SMS is currently limited as it enables only 1-1 messaging. We therefore, decided to set up a group messaging platform that enables 1-N messaging, and allows people to create their own groups and communities.”
And the number of subscribers that SMS GupShup boasts of is testimony to the fact that this vision has been more than realized – 40 million users and growing. Webaroo has also launched Reply-All Chat, a carrier product that enables N-N messaging and is similar to the “Reply-All” and “CC” feature of e-mail. This product has also been launched in Indonesia and Philippines, besides India. “We aim to grow globally,” declares Sheth. “We have barely scratched the surface – there are billions of people who can use this product, and we will take it to them in every country.”
Winning Post
Webaroo featured as one of the product companies in the EMERGE 50 Product category, and with good reason. “We are the fastest growing product company in Indian tech history,” points out Sheth. “Few product companies have seen this rapid rate of adoption, with the potential to generate huge amounts of revenue.”
The Success Ladder
- A simply designed and engaging consumer product, with a strong consumer focus
- Webaroo’s ability to innovate and develop strong technology
The X Factor
“If you have a product that is really useful to crores of people, that product grows naturally,” points out Sheth. “I have noticed that, generally, if a company launches a product that not only brings true value but is also easy enough to use, then the company tends to be long-standing and successful. It seems like an obvious fact, but is rarely implemented – very few products today are useful to crores of people and simple enough for that many to use!”
Obstacle Course
- Hiring great talent: “India for all its success in IT has mostly had success in IT services, and very little in IT products,” states Sheth. “We do not have a deep talent pool of product-oriented resources. In services we just build what the customer tells us to – here, in the product area, we have to decide what to do. So there is more demand for creativity, innovation – skills that are hard to come by the current scenario.”
- Expanding globally, which generally takes more resources and efforts than an SME can command in the initial few years.
- Ability to innovate continuously: “We don’t want to stop where we have reached,” declares Sheth. “We want to continue to make more innovative products that are both simple and useful.”
Voice of Experience
Sheth has many pieces of advice for those wishing to emulate Webaroo’s success and growth story – “It’s a phenomenal time for entrepreneurs to build product-based companies. Take the risk instead of settling for the safer option – risks are high, but so are the rewards. But don’t just launch another product; rather solve big problems for billions of users. Be very entrepreneurial and creative in terms of finding different solutions that people have not thought about. Any one of a hundred things can make your company sell, but all 100 things have to go right to make your company truly successful!”
Contributed by Kritika Srinivasan, Prayag Consulting for the NASSCOM Emerge newsletter.
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