India's Social Media App Koo is Bidding Farewell and Shutting Down Officially

Koo, the Indian social microblogging platform, is officially closing its doors. Co-founder Mayank Bidawatka posted on LinkedIn stating, "We will be discontinuing our service to the public". This decision follows The Morning Context’s report that discussions for an Acquisition between Koo and DailyHunt failed, leading to the platform’s shutdown. Bidawatka’s LinkedIn update corroborates these developments,noting, “Despite exploring numerous partnerships with major internet companies, conglomerates, and media entities, we did not achieve our desired outcomes. "While we would've liked to keep the app running, the cost of technology services to keep a social media app running is high and we've had to take this tough decision”, Bidawatka added.

Koo, a microblogging platform from India, was launched in March 2020 by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka.It gained attention by winning the AatmaNirbhar App Innovation Challenge, hosted by the government of India, in August 2020. Positioned as India’s alternative to Twitter, Koo emerged amidst growing calls for the adoption of domestically developed products and services.

Looking ahead to April 2023, Koo initiated a workforce reduction as a part of its cost management strategy. Over the course of a year, the company downsized its team of 260 employees by 30 percent, resulting in the layoffs of around 80 staff members.

Koo aimed to provide a unique feature for its users: the ability to utilize the platform in regional languages, particularly those spoken across India. "We saw a big gap between the languages the world speaks and the fact that most social products, especially X/Twitter in India are English dominant. In a world where 80 percent of the population speaks a language other than English, this is a strong need. We wanted to democratize expression and enable a better way to connect people in their local languages.Most global products are dominated by Americans. We believe that India should have a place at the table," says Mayank Bidawatka.

The co-founder stated that the company was poised to become India’s equivalent of Twitter if not for insufficient funding that hindered its progress."We built a globally scalable product in a fraction of the time that X/Twitter did, with superior systems, algorithms and strong stakeholder-first philosophies. Koo used to have a 10 per cent like ratio, almost 7-10x the ratio Twitter had - making Koo a more favorable platform for creators. At our peak we were at about 2.1 million daily active users and ~10 million monthly active users, 9000+ VIPs, that included some of the most eminent personalities from various fields. 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”, mentioned in the LinkedIn post.

However, the company appears to still be searching for a favorable arrangement. Bidawatka mentioned that the company will be "happy to share some of these assets with someone with a great vision for India's foray into social media". He adds, "We will also evaluate making this into a digital public good to enable social conversations in native languages, around the world. This is very difficult and complicated tech and we've built it painstakingly in record time".

Nevertheless, the company’s founders have pledged a comeback. Bidawatka concluded Koo’s final update by stating, "You will see us back in the arena one way or another".