Microblogging and social networking service Koo, which was touted as a desi alternative to X (Twitter), recently announced that it is was discontinuing its services.
Co-founded by entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, Koo was launched in 2020 amid much fanfare and gained quick fame in the wake of a standoff between the Union government and X (then Twitter) over the platform's refusal to remove certain contents and block certain accounts. A slew of cabinet ministers, BJP leaders and Bollywood celebrities then joined Koo, giving the platform a much-needed push and increased visibility.
However, four years after it was launched, the founders announced that they were shutting down Koo. The founders were forced to shut down the platform due to the funding winter. According to them, they needed five to six years of aggressive, long term and patient capital to make Koo a huge success.
Despite winning the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge' in the Social category in 2020, and being ranked among the top 3 social media products in the Asia–Pacific (APAC) region, Kood had been assailed by funding troubles. The company was forced to lay off 30 per cent of its workforce in April 2023 amid the fund crunch.
“It takes a lot to euthanize something you built with so much love,” the founders said in a LinkedIn post, adding, “may be next time”. They said they can and they will try to challenge global giants at their game.
Hesitant investors
According to the founders, they explored partnerships with multiple large internet companies, conglomerates and media houses, but these talks did not yield the desired results.
They said most of these organisations did not want to deal with user-generated content and “the wild nature of a social media company.”
“While we would've liked to keep the app running, the cost of technology services to keep a social media app running is high and we've had to take this tough decision,” they said.
They claimed that they were just months away from beating X in India in 2022 and “could have doubled down on that short term goal” if they had enough funding. The founders said they were hit by a prolonged funding winter, forcing them to tone down on their growth trajectory.
Koo could have become successful internationally if the market was favourable and they had enough funds.
“The funding winter got the better of us,” they said.
“Social media is probably one of the toughest companies to build even with all resources available as you need to grow users to a significant scale before one thinks of of revenue,” they said.
The founders said they intended to democratize expression and help people connect with each other in their local languages, and built a product that was globally scalable in a fraction of the time that X did. They noted that X had superior systems algorithms and strong stakeholder-first philosophies.