Koo’s user base hits 1 cr mark, eyes 10 cr mark next year

Koo co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna believes that despite the significant surge in its user base, the platform “has not even scratched the surface” when it comes to the growth potential offered by the market, where less than two per cent of internet users actually use microblogging platforms to express themselves. 

“Microblogging in India is restricted to less than two per cent, if you look at only English. The fact that microblogging will enable their voice to be heard by anyone in the country, is something that 98 per cent of the internet-using population is not even aware of. That is the market Koo is looking at,” Radhakrishna said. 

Twitter-rival Koo has crossed the milestone of 1 crore users within 15-16 months of its launch. Of this, nearly 85 lakh downloads have come since February this year. 

“About 700 million (70 crore) people are using the internet today and all of them have a thought or opinion (on various issues). Making them aware of the fact that Koo exists and they can actually come and say what is on their mind on Koo, is what our headroom for growth is. Today we are not even scratching the surface, we can grow much more,” he said. 

Founded by Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, Koo was launched last year to allow users to express themselves and engage on the platform in Indian languages. It supports multiple languages including Hindi, Telugu and Bengali, among others. 

Koo’s popularity in India peaked amid the Indian government’s spat with Twitter and growing calls for expanding the ecosystem of homegrown digital platforms. Koo saw a massive growth in its user base over the past few months, after union ministers and government departments in India endorsed the homegrown microblogging platform. 

Radhakrishna said he does not anticipate any let up in demand, nor expect the enthusiasm for homegrown microblogging solution to wane-off.