Koo is ‘fully capitalized,’ with over 60 million downloads, and the firm is attempting to become profitable via monetization initiatives. Mayank Bidawatka, the co-founder, said in an interview
Koo is an Indian microblogging platform that debuted in March 2020. The network was developed to compete with Twitter, which has been chastised in India for its content-filtering procedures. Koo lets users publish brief messages, known as “Koo’s ”of up to 400 characters in length. In India, the platform has grown in prominence, notably among followers of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other right-wing organizations.
Koo has positioned itself as a platform dedicated to supporting free expression and allowing people to express themselves freely. The platform has also been lauded for its efforts in localization, with support for numerous Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada.
Koo, on the other hand, has come under fire for its content filtering practices, with some users accusing the platform of enabling hate speech and disinformation to flourish unchallenged. The site has also been accused of being biased in favor of the governing BJP, with several users saying that their accounts were banned or blocked for expressing critical views of the government.
Despite these obstacles, Koo’s popularity has grown, with some high-profile politicians and celebrities joining the platform.
Koo, a Twitter Inc. competitor in India, has let off about a third of its workforce in recent months as the company struggles with losses and an inability to acquire cash.
The three-year-old microblogging app laid off 30% of its 260 employees because “global sentiment right now is more focused on efficiency than growth and businesses need to work towards proving unit economics,” according to a spokesperson for the company, which is backed by Tiger Global, in response to questions from Bloomberg News.
Initially, the Bengaluru-based startup benefitted from Twitter’s spat with Indian authorities over material on its platform, as many residents, including government officials, cricket stars, and Bollywood celebrities, rushed to Koo as a local alternative. However, the present liquidity crunch comes amid a worldwide collapse of technology businesses and sluggish investment activity, which has cut billions off the values of once-flying startups.
Koo is “well capitalized,” with more than 60 million downloads, and the firm is attempting to become profitable via monetization initiatives, according to Co-founder Mayank Bidawatka in an interview. He also said that it presently has one of the greatest incomes per user among other social media firms.
According to Tracxn, the business received funding at a value of $273 million last year, with investors including Accel and Kalaari Capital.
According to the spokesman, the business has helped the fired workers by providing compensation packages, extended health coverage, and assistance in finding new positions.
