Sweden-based caller identification platform Truecaller has announced plans to lay off around 70 employees, representing approximately 15 per cent of its workforce, after reporting a steep decline in revenue and profitability in the first quarter of 2026.
The decision was disclosed alongside the company’s latest earnings report, which revealed a difficult start to the year driven by falling advertising income, increased competition, and market disruptions in key regions.
According to the report, Truecaller’s net sales dropped by 27 per cent year-on-year to 362 million Swedish krona, roughly $39.3 million. The company’s biggest market, India, recorded an even sharper decline, with revenue from the country falling by 41 per cent.
Advertising, which remains one of Truecaller’s largest revenue streams, suffered heavily during the quarter, plunging by 44 per cent.
Speaking on the earnings call, CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala attributed part of the downturn to comparisons with a particularly strong period in 2025, when advertising spending from India’s real-money gaming sector surged during the Indian Premier League season.
“The year on year comparison looks especially weak given that Q1 and Q2 last year included a large contribution coming from the real money gaming sector in India,” he explained.
India’s tighter restrictions on fantasy gaming and wagering platforms such as Dream11 and MPL significantly affected digital advertising spending across the sector. Since those companies were major advertisers, the policy shift created ripple effects for platforms dependent on ad revenue.
The company also pointed to changes in advertising algorithms by one of its major programmatic partners, widely believed by analysts to be Google, which reportedly impacted monetisation performance.
Outside India, ongoing instability in the Middle East also weighed on revenue generation, further complicating the quarter.
At the same time, Truecaller is facing growing competitive pressure.
Telecom providers in India have increasingly introduced Calling Name Presentation (CNAP), which allows mobile operators to display caller identities directly over telecom networks. The emergence of such services challenges one of Truecaller’s core functions and has slowed app growth.
The company previously reported a 5 per cent decline in downloads amid the intensified competition.
Despite the difficult quarter, there were still areas of growth.
Truecaller crossed 500 million active users globally, reinforcing its scale as one of the world’s most widely used caller identification platforms.
Subscription revenue also rose by 27 per cent year-on-year and now accounts for nearly one-third of the company’s total sales.
The company has increasingly focused on premium services such as AI Assistant and Family Protection as part of a broader strategy to reduce dependence on advertising revenue.
Growth outside India also remains a bright spot.
Truecaller said it added more than 50 million users during 2025 and surpassed 150 million users outside its core Indian market.
Emerging markets across Africa and Latin America have become central to that expansion, with the company specifically highlighting strong growth in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Malaysia, and the United States.
It also confirmed that global paying subscribers surpassed 4 million earlier this year, signaling progress in its transition toward a more subscription-driven business model.
Still, investor confidence has been shaken.
Truecaller’s stock has fallen sharply over the past year, reflecting concerns about slowing growth and heavy reliance on advertising in volatile markets. While shares rebounded slightly following the earnings release, the broader outlook remains cautious.
For Truecaller, the challenge now is clear: balancing rapid global user growth with the need to build a more stable and diversified revenue model in an increasingly competitive digital environment.
