Koo, a microblogging platform that once posed as a rival to Twitter (now X) in India, has announced its shutdown due to a lack of funding and high technology costs, leaving millions of users in limbo.
“We were close to surpassing X in India in 2022, but a prolonged funder winter forced us to scale down our ambitions,” said founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka.
The platform, which provided messaging services in over 10 Indian languages, gained widespread popularity in 2021 during a dispute between the Indian government and Twitter.
As the standoff ensued, millions of supporters, cabinet ministers, and ruling party officials flocked to Koo, promoting hashtags seeking the prohibition of Twitter in India.
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Despite its rapid growth, garnering 20 million users nationwide by the end of 2021, Koo struggled to secure funding over the past few years.
The founders expressed their desire to maintain the app’s operations, but the huge technological costs left them with no choice but to make the “difficult decision” to downsize their workforce and eventually shut down the platform.
The shutdown marks the end of an era for Koo, which was once hailed as a potential alternative to Twitter in India. The platform’s demise serves as a reminder of the challenges faced by startups in the competitive tech industry.
