Highlights
- Koo was launched by a Bengaluru-based startup in March 2020
- It claims to be an app for Indians to share views of their mom tongue
- It received the centre’s AatmaNirbhar App Innovation Problem in August 2020
New Delhi:
One other Made-In-India initiative, Koo, is gearing as much as give US microblogging website Twitter some competitors. And Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, for one, appears enthusiastic about it. “Join with me on this Indian micro-blogging platform for real-time, thrilling and unique updates,” he, sarcastically, tweeted, inviting folks to affix the brand new platform. Whereas Koo, at first sight, might come throughout as one other try like Tooter, which referred to as itself a “swadeshi social community”, what’s completely different with Koo is that it was recognised in a prestigious competitors held by the Indian authorities beneath the Made-In-India rubric in August 2020. Most likely due to that, ministers and authorities our bodies are already making a beeline to affix the brand new app on the town. Additionally it is troublesome to lose sight of the truth that Koo gaining reputation amidst a bruising ideological debate involving Twitter in India.
Listed below are a few of the issues you need to learn about Koo, the brand new desi Twitter lookalike on the town:
-
Koo was launched by a Bengaluru-based startup co-founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna, who can also be its CEO, and an alumnus of Indian Institute of Administration Ahmedabad. It was launched in March 2020.
-
On its web page on Google Play Retailer, Koo calls itself, “a private updates and opinion-sharing micro-blogging platform”. It empowers folks to precise their ideas in Indian languages with a robust knit native Indian group,” it says additional.
-
Koo claims to be an app constructed for Indians to share their views of their mom tongue and have significant discussions.
-
Koo received the Centre’s AatmaNirbhar App Innovation Problem held in August 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in one among his Mann Ki Baat month-to-month radio talks, inspired Indians to make use of Koo.
-
Amongst its early customers are personalities like Sadhguru, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Client Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal, and former cricketers Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. Authorities think-tank NITI Aayog, too, has already opened an account on Koo.
-
On the primary look, Koo affords virtually all – if no more – options accessible on Twitter, together with sharing of textual content, video, and audio messages.
-
With near 2.5 million downloads until now and 1,000,000 lively customers, Koo has a 4.7-star score on Play Retailer. Whereas a few of these seeking to be part of the app complained of “an OTP situation,” the builders assured them by responding to their opinions that the glitch was momentary.
-
Koo comes 14 years after Twitter was launched and follows different gamers like Mastodon and Tooter which have sought to a chew of Twitter’s market.
-
The app has witnessed extra vocal backing from the Centre and its ministers following the the more and more vicious face-off between the federal government and Twitter over the problem of free speech.
-
Koo helps a number of Indian languages, making it probably extra enticing for the nation’s non-English and non-Hindi talking communities.
