Koo is not competing head-on against X (formerly Twitter), or even the recently launched Threads by Meta and is instead going after regional audiences with its language-based approach, co-founder of the homegrown platform, Aprameya Radhakrishna, has said.
Radhakrishna was speaking on the sidelines of journalist Nalin Mehta's book launch. He also spoke during a panel discussion about how Portuguese is the third largest language base on the platform and the flow of language on the platform has allowed even the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to have a reach among their regional audiences, at 200-300 likes per post on the app.
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"We can be social-media-as-a-service, according to your country, since there are problems of data misuse and interference in local affairs", he said on Koo's global plans and referring to other social media companies.
On Meta's Threads, he said, "Threads saw an opportunity to go into a space where Twitter (now X) was faltering, but what they did wrong was that they replicated their lifestyle network of Instagram. All the creators moved to Threads and actually didn't know what to do," Radhakrishna opined.
He further told PTI that Koo is "going after a deeper audience which has never heard of Twitter or Threads as platforms...we go after different audiences." On Koo's positioning vis-a-vis other platforms, he claimed that the company is not competing against others directly since Koo's approach is more language-based.
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Notably, applications like Koo, widely seen as Twitter-rival, gained ground a few years back following clarion calls for expanding the ecosystem of homegrown digital platforms.
In April 2023, Bloomberg reported that Koo had reportedly laid off nearly a third of its 260-strong workforce. A spokesperson told the media company that it took this decision as "global sentiment right now is more focused on efficiency than growth and businesses need to work towards proving unit economics."
Launched three years ago, the Bengaluru-based company emerged as an indigenous alternative to Twitter (now X), after the latter had several disagreements with Indian authorities over the content on its platform. Last November, it raised $6.3 million in a funding round co-led by Tiger Global and Accel Partners, which also saw participation from Kalaari Capital, 3one4 Capital, and Dream Incubator (DI), a Tokyo-based PE firm.
In February, the social media company Koo raised around $10 million in two different tranches from investors, including Capsier Venture Partner, FBC Venture Partners, Adventz Finance, Ravi Modi Family Trust and entrepreneur Ashneer Grover.
After its initial popularity waned, Koo has been struggling to grow its user base and raise additional capital to scale its business.
