Yoga guru turned businessman Baba Ramdev has launched a messaging app, "Kimbho", to challenge the monopoly of most popular messaging app WhatsApp.
Patanjali Yogpeeth's spokesperson SK Tijarawala tweeted, "Now Bharat will speak. After launching sim cards, Ramdev has launched a new messaging application called Kimbho. Now WhatsApp will be given a competition. Our own #SwadeshiMessagingplatform. Download it directly from Google Play store."
On the first day itself, the app faced serious criticism and controversies as it was taken o from the Google Play Store due to allegations of security flaws by some of the users who downloaded the app.
According to the company, the app was uploaded for a single day on a "trial basis" and would be formally launched later, but the company's website has a different story to tell, it states that it was “facing extremely high traffic” and was “upgrading” its servers.
Patanjali spokesperson S K Tijarawala tweeted that the app was only uploaded for a single day on "trial" basis and would be back with a formal launch soon. However, a few hours earlier, a message on the app’s website had said that it was “facing extremely high traffic” and was “upgrading” its servers.
“ #Patanjali ne #Kimbho app matr ek din ke liye Play Store par trial par daala tha. Matr teen ghante mein hi 1.5 lakh log ise download karne lage. Hum is bhaari va utsahjanak response ke prati aabhaari hain (Patanjali put up the Kimbho app on the Play Store only for a day on trial. In just three hours, 1.5 lakh people downloaded it. We are grateful for this enthusiastic response),” Tijarawala tweeted.
Kimbho is a Sanskrit word, which means ‘how are you’ or ‘what’s up’.
The app was backlashed by a French hacker Elliot Alderson, who had earlier raised concern over Aadhar security, called the messaging app a “joke.”
"This @KimbhoApp is a joke, next time before making press statements, hire competent developers... If it is not clear, for the moment don't install this app. #Kimbho," Alderson tweeted.
Alderson added that the Android version of the app was a security disaster, and he can access the messages of all the users.
