Koo, India’s own microblogging platform, has reached 10 million(1 crore) users in just 18 months of operation, the company announced today. This signals a massive rise in user base, and shows that India was in desperate need of a homegrown alternative to Twitter, which has had a rough going in the country this year.
Perhaps it is the sour relationship between Twitter and the ruling government, or the fact that Twitter is mostly restricted to English speaking users, Koo has been able to amass a large userbase in a short time. However, Aprameya Radhakrishna says that this is just the beginning, and he platform “has not even scratched the surface” when it comes to the growth potential offered by the market.
Now, the company aims to grow to 100 million (10 crore users) in the next year.
“Our headroom for growth is tremendous, and we hope to hit 100 million downloads in the next one year from 10 million now, and after that to take it to 500 million in the next few years,” the founder said.
While this is a huge goal, it’s certainly not unachievable. India’s internet base is rising everyday, thanks to some of the cheapest data rates in the world. This has allowed India to become one of the biggest markets for tech based companies. However, microblogging has still not become mainstream in the country, due to the language barrier.
Koo provides a better solution, offering the facility in native languages so everyone can have a voice.
Moreover, Twitter, the biggest microblogging platform in the world, has had a few spats with the Indian government. While things seem to have calmed down for the time being, this opened up a chance for Koo to get more users. Endorsements from cabinet ministers and Indian celebrities helped as well, and now, Koo has a fledgling user base.
The platform also gives a great emphasis to freedom of speech, since Twitter has been accused of taking down posts unfairly from both ends of the political spectrum.
