Koo eyes more users amid Twitter backlash

Homegrown startup Koo – often called the Indian alternative to Twitter – sees the backlash against the Musk-led microblogging site as a great opportunity to expand its presence in India and abroad, its co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna told DH on the sidelines of the GTA summit on Tuesday.

“We see this as a great opportunity to not just be a microblogging platform for India but also for the rest of the world,” Radhakrishna said.

Koo, which lets people send out posts in as many as 10 Indian languages, said many English-speaker Twitter users have started looking for an alternative to the site after Elon Musk took the helm of Twitter and made many hasty decisions including charging for verification.

The Tiger Global-backed app recently crossed 50 million downloads and is now looking to widen its user base to include more global users, with US being the first target geography.

“We will now make a conscious effort of going and telling other markets - the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and other major markets - where Twitter already has a good presence and where users will now look for an alternative,” Radhakrishna added.

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“Our product is ready, it’s just about enabling a few languages which will take a few days,” he highlighted, adding that the app will turn its focus back to India for a deeper reach after expanding its footprint globally.

Koo is already working on “a single migrate button” which will allow users to seamlessly switch from Twitter to Koo to auto follow the same people they were following on the former. In addition, all of their tweets will be migrated too.

Musk’s controversial announcement soon after taking over the reins of Twitter, on charging users for a verified badge on the platform has polarised netizens globally. German platform Mastodon and Koo at home have been the favoured beneficiaries - recent media reports have highlighted fresh sign ups on these platforms in mass numbers.

Radhakrishna however, does not see Mastodon as a potential new rival.

“I have used their product and I think we have a much better product,” he said, adding that in his opinion Mastodon is not equipped to replace Twitter whereas Koo is the real “like-to-like and beyond” alternative to the platform.

Twitter and Mastodon did not immediately respond to DH’s queries seeking comment.

Koo now hopes to achieve 100 million downloads in the coming six months.

On raising fresh funds Radhakrishna hinted that it is likely next year.