Truecaller Facing Major Crisis

Truecaller is really going through a rough patch right now, with its shares taking a massive hit that has everyone talking. On Monday, the selloff in this Swedish caller-ID app company picked up speed like never before, all because their ad money just isn’t flowing the way it used to.

The Stockholm-based Truecaller AB, which helps folks figure out who’s calling from unknown numbers and block those annoying spam calls and texts, saw its stock dive a whopping 29%. That drop came right after they announced their fourth-quarter ad revenue would be about 30% lower than last year. Ouch. It pushed the shares down to the lowest they’ve been since the company went public back in 2021.

This isn’t some one-off bad day, weak ad sales have been dragging Truecaller down all through 2025, pretty much erasing two-thirds of its market value. The shares already tanked back in October after their third-quarter numbers came in disappointing, adding to a string of letdowns from the company this year. It’s like Truecaller’s Major Crisis has been building for months.

DNB Carnegie analyst Predrag Savinovic, who still thinks the stock is a buy despite all this, pointed to a big algorithm change from their main ad partner, Google, as a key reason behind the mess. In his note, he said Truecaller had warned about this shift and even tried to guess its impact, but “it is far larger than we had anticipated.” Yeah, that explains a lot.

And it’s not just that, there’s another worry brewing in Truecaller’s biggest market, India. Reports are swirling that the country’s telecom regulators might soon make it so a caller’s name shows up by default on phones. That could really shake things up for Truecaller, which relies on people needing its app to see who’s calling.

Truecaller’s CEO, Rishit Jhunjhunwala, tried to put a bit of a positive spin on it in a statement. He noted that things have stabilized a little in the fourth quarter since hitting rock bottom in November, but “the improvements are, however, not yet material, and we do expect ad revenues to remain muted in the near term.” In other words, don’t hold your breath for a quick turnaround.

Looking forward, Savinovic from DNB Carnegie figures it makes sense to keep expecting weak sales in the fourth quarter, way below what the full year of 2025 looked like, and even missing what most people predict for 2026 and 2027. He sees sales trending down as much as 9% from consensus estimates. So, Truecaller’s major crisis feels like it’s here to stay for a while, putting the whole company under real pressure.

Was this information useful? Drop a nice comment below. You can also check out other useful contents by following us on X/Twitter @siliconafritech, Instagram @Siliconafricatech, or Facebook @SiliconAfrica.