Social media: Struggling for funds, Koo, India’s homegrown challenger to X, shuts shop
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: As India’s answer to X, formerly Twitter, it had great potential. But, on Wednesday, Koo had to shut shop as it failed to garner enough resources to keep going.
Founded in November 2019 as a multilingual, microblogging social media platform in Bengaluru by co-founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, its services were launched in 2020. By November 2022, it had enrolled nearly 60 million subscribers and was available on iOS, Android, and Web On.
At its peak, Koo grossed about 2.1 million daily active users, 10 million monthly active users, and over 9,000 VIPs, including some of the most prominent personalities from various fields.
Besides Indian languages, it was available in several foreign languages and had been launched in Nigeria and Brazil as well.
Its promoters wanted to go ahead but “the cost of technology services to keep the social media app running is high and we’ve had to take this tough decision,” they announced.
Social media platform Koo had pitched itself as a homegrown rival and viable alternative to Twitter (now X). On Wednesday, however, its co-founders penned a heartfelt note about tough decisions and little yellow bird bidding a “final goodbye.”
In a post on LinkedIn, co-founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka announced that the platform will be discontinuing its services to the public, as talks for a partnership with multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates and media houses did not yield the desired outcomes.
“We explored partnerships with multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates, and media houses but these talks didn’t yield the outcome we wanted,” the note said.
“We were just months away from beating Twitter in India in 2022 and could have doubled down on that short-term goal with capital behind us,” they said.
A funding winter, however, hit the company at its peak, hurting plans and forcing the platform to “tone down” its growth trajectory.
“Unfortunately for us, the mood of the market and the funding winter got the better of us,” the note mentioned as the co-founders signed off saying, “the little yellow bird says its final goodbye,” in a reference to Koo’s yellow bird logo.
Koo’s popularity in India peaked in 2021-22 amid the Government of India’s spat with Twitter and growing calls for expanding the ecosystem of homegrown digital platforms.
At its peak, Koo experienced heady growth in user metrics as union ministers and government departments at that time endorsed the homegrown microblogging platform.
