India’s X alternative Koo to shut down services

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Millions of social media users in India find themselves stranded as homegrown microblogging platform Koo, positioned as an alternative to Twitter, has announced its closure.

The platform’s founders cited a funding shortage and high technology costs as reasons for this decision.

Launched in 2020, Koo offered messaging services in over 10 Indian languages and gained prominence in 2021 when several ministers endorsed it amidst a dispute between the Indian government and Twitter (referred to as “X” in the original text).

The conflict began when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration requested Twitter to block a list of accounts accused of spreading fake news, which included journalists, news organizations, and opposition politicians.

X complied initially but then restored the accounts, citing “insufficient justification”.

The standoff continued with the government threatening legal action against the company’s employees in India.

During the dispute, a wave of supporters including cabinet ministers and officials from Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swiftly migrated to Koo. Many used hashtags advocating for X (Twitter) to be banned in India.

By the end of 2021, the app had amassed 20 million downloads in the country.

However, the platform has faced challenges securing funding in recent years.

On Wednesday, founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka lamented that Koo was poised to surpass Twitter in India in 2022, but a prolonged funding drought had forced them to scale back their ambitions.

“We explored partnerships with multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates and media houses but these talks didn’t yield the outcome we wanted,” they wrote on LinkedIn.

“Most of them didn’t want to deal with user-generated content and the wild nature of a social media company. A couple of them changed priority almost close to signing.”

In February, Indian news outlets reported that Koo was in discussions to be acquired by news aggregator Dailyhunt, but the negotiations fell through.

In April 2023, Koo had to lay off 30% of its 260-member workforce due to significant losses and insufficient funding.

The founders expressed a desire to continue operating the app, but cited the high costs of technology services as a major factor that compelled them to make this difficult decision.