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Bangalore: After repeated clashes with the local government over the past few months, Koo, India’s alternative to Twitter Inc., has grown past 10 million users to bridge the gap with the US microblogging site.
The 16-month-old app, which allows users to send tweet-like posts in English and seven Indian languages such as Hindi and Kannada, has engaged nearly 85% of its users since February, when Twitter’s dispute with the Modi government. had increased. Government ministers, opposition leaders, cricket stars and Bollywood celebrities have started posting in Indian languages on Ku.
Its San Francisco rival, which had 17.5 million monthly users in India earlier this year, followed new government rules this month after appointing new India-based executives, including one to handle compliance.
Apramaya Radhakrishna, co-founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-headquartered app, said, “We came into limelight because of Twitter’s tensions with the government, but users soon realized they could only express themselves on Ku in their mother tongue. Huh.” Bombinate Technologies Pvt. “Our app connects English speaking India with non-English speaking India in a country with 700 million internet users and it’s powerful.”
The American social media network has been at loggerheads with the Indian government over the content on its platform. In one instance, Twitter first opposed the removal of hundreds of posts by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis, while terming posts by ruling party officials as misleading. After this the police visited their offices. A court in India ruled that the company was “completely non-compliant” with the country’s new information technology regulations.
Earlier this month, Twitter bowed down and told the court that it would fully comply with the rules. This included naming an India-based point person to handle compliance and complaint issues.
A court tussle continues between officials and another social media giant, Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp, over India’s new internet rules.
Radhakrishna said Ku, which has benefited from controversy and is targeting 100 million users a year, from internet users posting in local languages for the first time. The startup plans to expand to countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe where English is not the dominant language.
“An Indian social media startup is taking on a global giant and has a very good chance of winning,” he said.bloomberg
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