A day after Baba Ramdev-promoted Patanjali Ayurved’s instant messaging app Kimbho went live in what was claimed to be a test run, it has been withdrawn and will be launched with all technical matters fixed, the company has said, according to a report in the Economic Times.
Kimbho, which means ‘what’s up’ in Sanskrit and directly takes on WhatsApp with even the logo being similar, caused a furore, with a French ‘security expert’ by the Twitter name of Elliot Alderson flagging security concerns about the app and calling it a “security disaster”.
Patanjali spokesperson SK Tijarawala said, “We were only testing it for learnings and over 1.5 lakh people downloaded it. Our app is no longer available and Patanjali cannot take responsibility of various duplicate apps doing the rounds. Our app will be come back again soon after we are absolutely sure of all technical issues, and we will beat WhatsApp. We will never sell private consumer data,” he said.
Patanjali had positioned the app on the swadeshi platform. Before launching Kimbho, SK Tijarawala had tweeted, “Now Bharat will speak. After launching sim cards, baba Ramdev has launched a new messaging application called Kimbho. Now Whats App will be given a competition. Our own #SwadeshiMessagingplatform. Download it directly from Google Play store.”
He had also commented that “Big technology-based apps in India are being run by MNCs; Patanjali believes it is time there is a swadeshi app run and developed entirely by our own people.”
Kimbho application is touted to be a competitor of the messaging app WhatsApp. The tagline of Kimbho is kept as “Ab Bharat Bolega”.
Earlier on May 27, Ramdev launched Swadeshi Samriddhi SIM cards, in alliance with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).