Ring ring, ka-ching: How Truecaller turned spam calls into ad money

Operating in India since 2012, Truecaller has positioned itself as a dominant caller ID and spam blocking app, currently having 260 million daily active users and 300 million monthly active users in the country. 

The app offers premium membership alternatives to customers, but advertising accounts for over two-thirds of its income. The company reported EBITDA of Rs 596 crore in FY24, highlighting the effectiveness of its business model that has converted a utility service into a prominent advertising platform.

What started as a solution to a common annoyance—unwanted calls—has transformed into a platform that delivers billions of ad impressions to its extensive user base. According to Hemat Arora, VP of Global Ads Business at Truecaller, this evolution wasn't entirely premeditated.

"As they say, it's always easy to look back and connect the dots. Some of it was planned, but much of it happened organically as we focused on solving a real problem," Arora explains.

"Many tech businesses evolve beyond their initial vision, and the same is true for Truecaller."

Hemant Arora, Truecaller

Truecaller's journey reflects a familiar pattern in tech: beginning with a dedicated effort to address a user issue, cultivating a significant user base, and subsequently identifying monetisation avenues that complement the core offering.

The company's mission consistently focused on enhancing communication experiences by ensuring trust and safety, especially in markets such as India, where mobile numbers act as primary identifiers..

A growing problem

The platform's relevance continues to grow in light of concerning trends in spam and cyber fraud. Data shared by the company indicates that one in three calls originates from a number not saved in a user's phonebook, and users receive an average of three spam messages daily.

In 2024 alone, Truecaller claims to have identified and blocked 56 billion spam calls globally.

This service tackles a growing issue in countries such as India, where government data reveals that cyber frauds surged by 900% over four years, resulting in a loss of more than 220 billion INR to cyber scams and frauds in 2024.

The advertising advantage

Truecaller is particularly appealing to advertisers due to its deep integration into users' daily routines and its impressive reach.

As already mentioned, the company reports 260 million daily active users and 300 million monthly active users in India alone, with over 50% of users coming from Tier 2 and 3 cities—a demographic often valued by brands looking to expand beyond metropolitan markets.

"From an advertising perspective, Truecaller offers massive reach and frequency," Arora points out.

"Our platform is deeply integrated into users' daily lives—before making a call, they see an ad. That makes it a powerful real estate for brands."

Hemant Arora, Truecaller

The scale of this engagement is substantial. According to company figures, Indians spend 963 minutes on voice calls each month, while 1.3 billion SMS messages are sent daily. This translates to over four billion daily impressions that Truecaller can potentially convert into business results through its advertising solutions.

The captive audience strategy has enabled Truecaller to engage over 10,000 brands from diverse sectors, with banking, financial services, insurance, e-commerce, and telecommunications standing out as the leading categories.

Innovation within constraints

Unlike platforms focused on video or short-form content, Truecaller operates within a relatively limited advertising space. However, the brand is placing greater emphasis on the quality of reach and a non-intrusive user experience.

Arora emphasises that user experience remains paramount: "Too many ads can be intrusive, and we want to avoid becoming another source of spam. That said, our scale is immense—we generate billions of ad impressions. Our goal is to make advertising seamless for brands." 

The company has created more than 200 custom audience segments for targeted advertising and consistently enhances its measurement metrics to assist brands in tracking effectiveness.

High-impact formats such as the 'Roadblock' ad, which can dominate the entire app for a day, provide brands with outstanding visibility during significant launches.

Truecaller is also exploring cross-platform integrations, including the combination of television and Truecaller advertising to enhance campaign reach.

This strategic approach to innovation enables the platform to sustain its advertising appeal, even in the face of spatial limitations.

A diversified revenue model

While advertising constitutes the lion's share of Truecaller's revenue, the company has developed additional income streams that complement its core business. 

Premium subscriptions offer users an ad-free experience, and company figures indicate that this segment has experienced significant growth—rising by 42% to now represent 29% of total revenue, with over 2.6 million paying subscribers.

The rapidly growing Truecaller for Business service provides enterprises with verified business identities.

"Truecaller for Business is particularly valuable for enterprises, especially those that rely on phone communication—like banks, e-commerce, and logistics companies." 

Hemant Arora, Truecaller

The service enhances trust by verifying business identities, which reduces fraud risks and improves call pickup rates.

This diversified approach provides stability while allowing Truecaller to maintain its position as a leading advertising platform.

Embracing competition

Tech giants such as Google and Apple, along with telecom giant Airtel, have been proactively rolling out features to tackle spam calls and fraudulent messages. Truecaller sees the entry of these players into the spam detection space not as a threat, but rather as validation and an opportunity for growth within the industry.

"We welcome it," Arora asserts with confidence. "The fact that major players like Google, Apple, and Airtel are focusing on spam detection validates the importance of this space."

Arora draws a parallel to the short-form video market, suggesting that a successful industry relies on an ecosystem of various players instead of a single dominant entity. 

With more companies addressing spam and fraud prevention, the entire sector matures—potentially expanding the market rather than diminishing Truecaller's share.

The company remains focused on innovation, investing in emerging technologies such as AI-powered fraud detection and voice cloning identification to maintain its competitive edge.

Establishing trust on both sides

The success of Truecaller as an advertising platform relies on the trust it has established with users and businesses alike.

The app offers a clear value proposition for users—research shows it saves them around 88 to 90 hours each year by filtering out spam calls.

For businesses, particularly in sectors where telephone communication remains critical, Truecaller offers the invaluable currency of trust.

Financial services, e-commerce, and telecommunications companies benefit significantly from verified business identities, which assure customers that incoming calls are legitimate.

"Trust is at the core of Truecaller's value proposition," Arora emphasises, underscoring how this principle extends to advertising practices. The platform maintains strict guidelines, refusing political and gambling advertisements, among others, to preserve user trust.

Marketing strategy

Truecaller, despite its well-established reputation, continues to refine its marketing strategy. Rather than promoting the brand itself, which Arora suggests is no longer a priority given their established user base, campaigns typically focus on specific product updates.

"Word of mouth plays a significant role in Truecaller’s growth. Many users install the app because a friend or colleague recommended it," Arora reveals.

"At this stage, we don’t need to market Truecaller as a brand—our user base and reputation are well-established. However, we do run campaigns to promote specific product updates." 

Hemant Arora, Truecaller

A recent example is the emphasis on the availability of full Truecaller features on iPhones, which were previously restricted. For this campaign, Truecaller engaged actors Deepak Tijori and Sheeba Chaddha to feature in ads produced by the ad agency Talented. 

The ads depict the relief and confidence users experience when Truecaller accurately identifies incoming calls.

This multi-channel approach employed outdoor advertising, digital marketing, print media, and influencer partnerships to engage potential users.