The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way we live, and it has also integrated technology into our daily lives. With the growing ‘Work from Home’ culture, schools conducting virtual classes, and families stuck in homes using video chats, the importance of video call conferencing apps has increased in India.
Popular video call conferencing apps such as Zoom, Google Meets, etc have become a part of our personal as well as professional lives. These apps have become the sole medium for us to stay connected with our close ones. The increased usage of such apps has exposed security flaws and a lack of privacy actions to safeguard the users’ data.
Adding to the exposed flaws in the apps, recent government decision to ban 59 popular apps increased anti-Chinese sentiment in the country. This led to an increase in downloads of domestic Indian apps. Zoom also came under the radar of the growing anti-China sentiment, later the company had to come out publicly to speak about its origin.
With the growing video service usage in the country, new made in India video call conferencing apps are being launched in the market. Last week, Jio launched its video conferencing app JioMeet, few new start-ups also launched their apps. Bharti Airtel also expressed its interest to launch a video conferencing tool for startups and small businesses.
To cater to the sentiment, Reliance Jio launched its own video call conferencing app, JioMeet. Indians who are now boycotting Chinese imports are heading towards the newly launched video call conferencing apps made in India.
Important organizations in the country are openly boycotting foreign video call conferencing apps. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) asked all traders and retailers to stop using the Zoom app for video conferencing instead, it suggested the usage of JioMeet.
“As a part of the boycott on Chinese goods, a national campaign launched by CAIT on 10 June, CAIT has now decided to stop using Zoom as its communication tool and has adopted Jio Meet, an Indian alternative,” said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary-general, CAIT in a statement.
The local entrepreneurs in the country are also launching video-based apps to capture the mood and growing need in the country. Jaipur-based ‘Data Ingenious Global‘ has launched a video-conferencing app, ‘Videomeet’. The company claims that the app can support up to 2000 people on a single call.
FLOOR, by 10Times, is a business event and video conferencing app that has a wide range of features such as audience poll, Q&A, Content sharing, etc. The platform can be used to host events with up to 1 million participants.
These made in Indian video call conferencing apps are focusing mainly on small businesses and medium level enterprises at the moment. Say Namaste, by Inscript, is an end-to-end encrypted video conferring app with features such as multi party-text, video, and voice calling. The app allows users to chat via messaging feature on the app during an ongoing video call.
The demand for effective and secure video conferencing apps has been increasing as the pandemic is worsening. Companies such as TCS, Infosys etc have decided to continue working from home for some of its employees.
The government supporting the ‘Make in India’ eco-system will bring more players to launch Indian applications as better alternatives to foreign imports.