New Delhi, Oct. 14 -- The founder of Zoho, Sridhar Vembu, kept audiences spellbound with a cultural and linguistic outreach never seen before: a social media guide instructing users on pronouncing "Arattai", the homegrown messaging app of Zoho, in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, French, Spanish, and Japanese. The Tamil word "Arattai" translates as "informal chit-chat", calling to mind the warm, spontaneous essence of the banter of street-side chat, intentionally reflecting the many informal and friendly characteristics the app was designed to exemplify.

Vembu said Arattai, though seemingly simple on the surface, is backed by over 20 years of Zoho's proprietary R&D in messaging and audio-video frameworks. This deep background allows it to provide h...