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Koo is an Indian
microblogging Microblogging is a form of social network that permits only short posts. They "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links",. Retrieved June 5, 2014 which may be the major reason for ...
and
social networking service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, ac ...
, based in
Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
. As of November 2022, the company is valued at over $275 million. The microblogging site was co-founded by entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka. While the app was launched in early 2020, its participation and the subsequent winning of the government's Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge which selected the best apps from some 7000 entries across the country. Prior to Koo, its parent company — Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd — launched and is operating Vokal, a question-and-answer app supporting Indian vernacular languages. According to data sourced from Crunchbase, the company raised Series A funding in 2018 from a clutch of investors including Blume Ventures,
Kalaari Capital Vani Kola is an Indian venture capitalist. She is the founder and managing director of Kalaari Capital, an Indian early stage venture capital firm. She was listed as one of the most powerful women in Indian business by ''Fortune India'' in 2014 ...
and Accel Partners India. In the latest round of funding announced earlier this month, former
Infosys Infosys Limited is an Indian multinational information technology company that provides business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services. The company was founded in Pune and is headquartered in Bangalore. Infosys is ...
CFO TV Mohandas Pai's 3one4 Capital also joined the list of those investing in Bombinate Technologies.


History


Initial growth

According to statistics provided by analytics provider Sensor Tower, Koo saw 26
lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For e ...
(2.6 million) installs from Indian app stores in 2020, compared to 2.8
crores A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is eq ...
(28 million) installs observed for
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. From February 6 to February 11, the installations of Koo increased rapidly. The app increased in popularity after a weeklong standoff between Twitter and the
Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
over Twitter's refusal to block accounts which criticized the country's ruling party during the
2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest The 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest was a protest against three farm acts that were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. The acts, often called the Farm Bills, have been described as "anti-farmer laws" by many farmer union ...
. The government demanded that Twitter block the accounts of hundreds of activists, journalists, and politicians, accusing them of spreading misinformation. Twitter complied with a majority of the orders, but refused some, citing
freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
. Following this standoff, many Cabinet Ministers such as Piyush Goyal and various government officials moved to Koo and urged supporters to follow. This led to a surge in Koo's user base. In April 2021,
Ravi Shankar Prasad Ravi Shankar Prasad (born 30 August 1954) is an Indian politician and lawyer, from the Bharatiya Janata Party. A Member of Parliament since 2000, first in the Rajya Sabha (2000-2019) and then in the Lok Sabha (since 2019), Prasad has served as ...
became the first minister with 25 lakh followers on Koo. Koo was the go-to alternative to Twitter in
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
after the country indefinitely banned Twitter for deleting a tweet by Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 A ...
. The tweet had threatened a crackdown on regional separatists "in the language they understand". Twitter claimed the post was in violation of Twitter rules, but gave no further details. Twitter was officially banned in Nigeria on June 5, 2021. The Government of Nigeria created their official Koo account five days later on June 10.


Funding

As of May 2021, Koo investors include
Accel Partners Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional ...
,
Kalaari Capital Vani Kola is an Indian venture capitalist. She is the founder and managing director of Kalaari Capital, an Indian early stage venture capital firm. She was listed as one of the most powerful women in Indian business by ''Fortune India'' in 2014 ...
, Blume Ventures, Dream Incubator, 3one4 Capital, Blume Ventures,
IIFL IIFL Finance Limited (formerly IIFL Holdings Limited) d/b/a IIFL and India Infoline Finance Limited, is an Indian diversified financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. The organisation was founded by Nirmal Jain. IIFL and its group co ...
, and
Mirae Asset Mirae Asset Financial Group ( ko, 미래에셋금융그룹) is a financial services group headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Mirae Asset provides comprehensive financial services including asset management, wealth management, investment banking ...
. On 26 May 2021, Koo raised $30 million (about ₹218
crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is eq ...
) in Series B funding, led by Tiger Global. After raising $30 million from Tiger Global, Koo's valuation increased, reaching over $100 million, up from about $25 million in February.
Shunwei Capital Shunwei Capital () is a Beijing-based venture capital firm founded in 2011. It was founded by Lei Jun (the founder and CEO of Xiaomi) and Tuck Lye Koh. The firm focuses on investing in the technology sector in China as well as other countries suc ...
sold its whole stake in Koo by March 2021. On 25 November 2022, Koo further raised $6 million in a funding round led Accel Partners and Tiger Global.


Koo in Brazil

After crises involving the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, Koo became an attractive social network for Brazilian users. According to one of the founders, Aprameya Radhakrishna, until the 16th of November, only two thousand Brazilian users used Koo, which placed Brazil in position 75 on the list of countries with the most lifetime unique users. On the 18th alone, more than a million Brazilians registered on the social network, which placed Brazil in second place on the list. The app featured at number 1 in the Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store in Brazil. Soon Portuguese support was added in the App. Koo received so many submissions and comments that the site became unstable. Personalities such as Felipe Neto, Casimiro,
Bruno Gagliasso Bruno Gagliasso Marques (born 13 April 1982) is a Brazilian actor. Career He began his career as a child, appearing in Rede Globo soap operas. In 1999, he participated in the episode "Papai é Gay!" on the program ''Você Decide''. The follo ...
and Pocah created their accounts on the social network. However, it became a joke and became a meme in Brazil due to its name, which has the same pronunciation as "cu", a vulgar term for buttocks. Koo held a poll on Twitter asking Brazilians if the name of the social network should be changed, which was rejected. "Koo" reached the Top 3 of Twitter's trending topics in Brazil.


Security incidents

In February 2021, a
cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...
expert showed a data breach on the app, but the company rejected the claim. On November 19, 2022, an update caused a vulnerability allowing profiles to be hacked. KooForBrasil's Twitter profile admitted the failure and apologized saying that there had never been an invasion before.


Interface and features


Logo

Koo's logo is a yellow bird. The design of the bird was streamlined on 14 May 2021.


User experience

Koo's interface is similar to that of
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, allowing users to categorize their posts with
hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...
s and tag other users in mentions or replies. Koo uses a yellow and white interface. On 4 May 2021, Koo introduced a new feature called "Talk to Type" which allows its users to create a post with the app's voice assistant. Koo
marks Marks may refer to: Business * Mark's, a Canadian retail chain * Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain * Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members * Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel ...
verified accounts with a yellow-coloured tick.


Languages

Koo was first launched in
Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
and supports
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
, Portuguese,
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...
,
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...
, Assamese, Marathi,
Bangla Bangla (Bengali: বাংলা) may refer to: *Bengali language, an eastern Indo-Aryan language *The endonym of Bengal, a geographical and ethno-linguistic region in South Asia *''Bangla-'', a prefix indicating Bangladesh Businesses and organ ...
,
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
,
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
,
Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...
.


Reception

* 2020 - Koo got ''Rank 2'' in the Government of India's ' Atmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge' in the Social category. * 2021 - Koo was ranked among the ''Top 3'' social media products in APAC (Asia-pacific) region as per the Amplitude report. * 2022 - Koo CEO Aprameya Radhakrishnan was recognized as the Top 100 global tech changemakers


See also

* ShareChat * Moj


References


External links

* {{Online social networking Internet properties established in 2020 Indian social networking websites Microblogging services Multilingual websites