Truecaller

Truecaller
Truecaller logo
Developer(s) True Software Scandinavia AB
Initial release 23 September 2009 (2009-09-23)
Operating system Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Series 40, Symbian, Tizen, BlackBerry 10, and Windows Phone
Type Telephone directory, caller ID, spam blocker
License Freeware
Website truecaller.com

Truecaller is a mobile app developed that finds contact details globally given a name or telephone number, and has an integrated caller ID service to achieve call-blocking functionality and social media integration to keep the phonebook up-to-date with pictures and birthdays.[1][2] It was developed by the Swedish company True Software Scandinavia AB. The app is available for Android,[3] iOS,[4] BlackBerry, Symbian,[5] Windows Mobile,[6] and Windows Phone.

It uses crowdsourced data, which enables it to work even in countries such as the UK and India where public data is not available.

History

Truecaller was developed by True Software Scandinavia AB, a privately held company in Stockholm, Sweden founded by Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam in 2009.[7]

It was initially launched by BlackBerry on 1 July 2009. After good response from users it launched for Symbian and Microsoft Windows Mobile. It was released for Android and Apple iPhone on 23 September 2009, for RIM Blackberry on 27 February 2012, for Windows Phone on 1 March 2012, and for Nokia Series 40 on 3 September 2012. As of September 2012 Truecaller had five million users[8] performing 120 million searches of the telephone number database every month.[9] As of 22 January 2013 Truecaller reached 10 million users.[10] As of January 2017 Truecaller had reached 250 million users worldwide.[11]

On 18 September 2012, Techcrunch announced[12] that OpenOcean,[13] a venture capital fund led by former MySQL and Nokia executives (including Michael Widenius,[14] founder of MySQL), were investing US$1.3 million in Truecaller to push Truecaller’s global reach.[15] Truecaller said that it intended to use the new funding to expand its footprint in "key markets"—specifically North America, Asia and the Middle East.[16]

In February 2014, Truecaller received $18.8 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, alongside existing investor OpenOcean, Truecaller chairman Stefan Lennhammer, and an unnamed private investor. It also announced a partnership with Yelp to use Yelp's API data to help identify business numbers when they call a smartphone.[17] In October of the same year, they received $60 million from Niklas Zennstrom's Atomico investment firm and from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.[18]

On 7 July 2015 Truecaller launched its SMS app called Truemessenger exclusively in India. Truemessenger enables users to identify the sender of SMS messages. This launch was aimed at increasing the company's user base in India.[19]

Security and privacy issues

On 17 July 2013, Truecaller servers were allegedly hacked into by the Syrian Electronic Army.[20] The group claimed on its Twitter handle to have recovered 459 GBs of database, primarily due to an older version of WordPress installation on the servers. On 18 July 2013, Truecaller issued a statement on its blog stating that their website was indeed hacked, but claiming that the attack did not disclose any passwords or credit card information.[21]

References

  1. ↑ "Swedish Startup Truecaller celebrates 1 Million mobile users". Scandinavian Startups. 2011-03-23.
  2. ↑ Kalle (2011-09-08). "Se vem som ringer med Truecaller" [See who's calling with TrueCaller]. Smartare Vardag [Smarter Living] (in Swedish). Telia.
  3. ↑ "Truecaller - Android-apps op Google Play". Google. Retrieved 2012-10-10.
  4. ↑ "Truecaller - worldwide number search and spam filter for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad". iTunes App Store. 2012-09-27.
  5. ↑ "Truecaller - See who is calling". OVI Store. Archived from the original on June 5, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-10.
  6. ↑ "Search and find people worldwide". Truecaller. 2012-10-01.
  7. ↑ Sredaktion, Dagens P. "About Truecaller".
  8. ↑ Rönnklint, Richard (2012-09-04). "Truecaller når 5 miljoner medlemmar" [TrueCaller reaches 5 million members]. AppLovin (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2012-10-16.
  9. ↑ Harald, Patrik (2012-09-19). "Open Ocean investerar i svenska Truecaller" [Open Ocean invests in Swedish TrueCaller] (in Finnish). Forummag.fi.
  10. ↑ Meyer, David (2013-01-22). "Big in India, Swedish phone directory service Truecaller hits 20M user milestone". Gigaom.
  11. ↑ "Truecaller in 2017". Truecaller Blog. 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  12. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (September 18, 2012). "Open Ocean Invests $1.3M To Push Crowdsourced Directory Truecaller's Global Reach". TechCrunch. (TechCrunch was owned by AOL as of 2012). Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Investor in Community and Open Source Business". Open Ocean Capital. 2012-09-19.
  14. ↑ Videla, Emanuel (2012-09-19). "Miljonregn över svenska Truecaller" [Millions rain down on Swedish TrueCaller] (in Swedish). IT24/IDG. Retrieved 2012-10-10.
  15. ↑ Clayton, Nick (2012-09-20). "Truecaller Collects $1.3 Million for Crowd-Sourced Phone Book". Tech Europe - Wall Street Journal.
  16. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (2012-09-18). "Open Ocean Invests $1.3M To Push Crowdsourced Directory Truecaller's Global Reach". TechCrunch.
  17. ↑ Crook, Jordan (2014-02-06). "Truecaller Lands $18.8M Series B From Sequoia, Partners With Yelp To Verify Business Numbers". Tech Crunch.
  18. ↑ "Sweden's Truecaller clinches $60 million in venture capital funding". Reuters. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  19. ↑ Agarwal, Amit (2015-07-07). "Truecaller Launches SMS App In India, Aims 150 mn Users Base". Digital World.
  20. ↑ Selvan, Sabari (2013-07-17). "Truecaller Server hacking". eHacking News.
  21. ↑ "Truecaller Statement post hacking". Official blog. Truecaller. 2013-07-18.
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