Koo, India’s homegrown microblogging platform with about 10 million energetic customers, is wrapping up its operations after failing to safe essential partnerships and funding. Co-founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka introduced the app shutdown on LinkedIn, citing unsuccessful acquisition talks with potential consumers.
“We explored partnerships with a number of bigger web firms, conglomerates and media homes however these talks did not yield the end result we wished,” the founders said in a LinkedIn publish. The collapse of negotiations, together with reported talks with Dailyhunt, led to the platform’s closure.
The platform, which supported a number of Indian languages, attracted high-profile celebrities as customers (the founders say that the platform had 9000+ celebs registered) and secured over $60 million in funding from traders like Tiger World and Accel. It additionally expanded into Brazil, and has about 60 million downloads, as per the founders
However operating a social media platform just isn’t an affordable affair, because the founders famous. “The price of know-how providers to maintain a social media app operating is excessive,” making it troublesome for startups to compete with well-funded international gamers.
Regardless of preliminary success, together with successful the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Problem, Koo struggled to take care of progress and generate income amid what the founders described as a “extended funding winter.” They defined, “We have been simply months away from beating Twitter in India in 2022 and will have doubled down on that brief time period purpose with capital behind us.”
The founders say that they now plan to judge turning Koo’s property right into a digital public good, stating, “We will probably be comfortable to share a few of these property with somebody with an ideal imaginative and prescient for India’s foray into social media.”
Learn Koo founders’ ‘emotional observe’ on the app’s shutdown“Here is the ultimate replace from our finish. Our partnership talks fell by means of and we will probably be discontinuing our service to the general public. We explored partnerships with a number of bigger web firms, conglomerates and media homes however these talks did not yield the end result we wished. Most of them did not need to take care of person generated content material and the wild nature of a social media firm. A few them modified precedence nearly near signing. Whereas we might’ve preferred to maintain the app operating, the price of know-how providers to maintain a social media app operating is excessive and we have needed to take this robust determination.Koo has been constructed with quite a lot of coronary heart. We noticed an enormous hole between the languages the world speaks and the truth that most social merchandise, particularly X/Twitter in India are English dominant. In a world the place 80% of the inhabitants speaks a language apart from English, it is a robust want. We wished to democratize expression and allow a greater solution to join folks of their native languages. Most international merchandise are dominated by Individuals. We imagine that India ought to have a spot on the desk.We constructed a globally scalable product in a fraction of the time that X/Twitter did, with superior techniques, algorithms and powerful stakeholder-first philosophies. Koo used to have a ten% like ratio, nearly 7-10x the ratio Twitter had – making Koo a extra favorable platform for creators. At our peak we have been at about 2.1 million day by day energetic customers and ~10 million month-to-month energetic customers, 9000+ VIPs, that included a few of the most outstanding personalities from numerous fields. We have been simply months away from beating Twitter in India in 2022 and will have doubled down on that brief time period purpose with capital behind us.A chronic funding winter which hit us at our peak damage our plans on the time and we needed to tone down on our progress trajectory. Social media might be one of many hardest firms to construct even with all assets out there as you should develop customers to a big scale earlier than one thinks of income. We wanted 5 to six years of aggressive, long run and affected person capital to make this dream a actuality.”Sadly for us, the temper of the market and the funding winter obtained the higher of us. Timing the market is an underestimated variable. It might outline and low cost all the pieces at occasions. Koo may have simply scaled internationally and given India a world model that was actually made in India. This dream will stay.We’re grateful to all those that’ve supported us alongside in our journey. Our crew, that labored hundreds of man hours to deliver to life this stunning product and firm, our traders that backed us, tens of millions of creators and customers that poured their hearts out on the platform and spent tens of millions of hours consuming content material and our journalist buddies that coated our updates with the general public at massive.Our crew caught round with us by means of thick and skinny all alongside the best way. We’re very lucky to have labored with such a passionate bunch of parents who believed within the goal of our firm. It has been an extended journey of 4+ years from thought to complete. We have had our highest highs and lowest lows whereas operating Koo. It is given us our fondest skilled reminiscences and we’re grateful to the little chicken for that.What we have constructed is actually magnificent. We will probably be comfortable to share a few of these property with somebody with an ideal imaginative and prescient for India’s foray into social media. We will even consider making this right into a digital public good to allow social conversations in native languages, all over the world. That is very troublesome and sophisticated tech and we have constructed it painstakingly in file time.Affected person, long run capital is important to construct formidable, world beating merchandise from India – be it in social media, AI, area, EV or different futuristic classes. It can want much more capital when the area has a world big already. And when certainly one of these firms takes off, it will possibly’t be left to the whims of the capital market, which fits up and down. It wants a strategic outlook to safeguard it and make it thrive. These aren’t to be checked out as revenue churning machines in 2 years from launch. They must be nurtured for a bigger long run play. We might like to see that long run view for giant bets from India.”As for us, we’re entrepreneurs at coronary heart and you will note us again within the area a technique or one other. Until then, thanks in your time, consideration, good needs and love.The little yellow chicken says its last goodbye…—Aprameya & Mayank”
“We explored partnerships with a number of bigger web firms, conglomerates and media homes however these talks did not yield the end result we wished,” the founders said in a LinkedIn publish. The collapse of negotiations, together with reported talks with Dailyhunt, led to the platform’s closure.
The platform, which supported a number of Indian languages, attracted high-profile celebrities as customers (the founders say that the platform had 9000+ celebs registered) and secured over $60 million in funding from traders like Tiger World and Accel. It additionally expanded into Brazil, and has about 60 million downloads, as per the founders
However operating a social media platform just isn’t an affordable affair, because the founders famous. “The price of know-how providers to maintain a social media app operating is excessive,” making it troublesome for startups to compete with well-funded international gamers.
Regardless of preliminary success, together with successful the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Problem, Koo struggled to take care of progress and generate income amid what the founders described as a “extended funding winter.” They defined, “We have been simply months away from beating Twitter in India in 2022 and will have doubled down on that brief time period purpose with capital behind us.”
The founders say that they now plan to judge turning Koo’s property right into a digital public good, stating, “We will probably be comfortable to share a few of these property with somebody with an ideal imaginative and prescient for India’s foray into social media.”
Learn Koo founders’ ‘emotional observe’ on the app’s shutdown“Here is the ultimate replace from our finish. Our partnership talks fell by means of and we will probably be discontinuing our service to the general public. We explored partnerships with a number of bigger web firms, conglomerates and media homes however these talks did not yield the end result we wished. Most of them did not need to take care of person generated content material and the wild nature of a social media firm. A few them modified precedence nearly near signing. Whereas we might’ve preferred to maintain the app operating, the price of know-how providers to maintain a social media app operating is excessive and we have needed to take this robust determination.Koo has been constructed with quite a lot of coronary heart. We noticed an enormous hole between the languages the world speaks and the truth that most social merchandise, particularly X/Twitter in India are English dominant. In a world the place 80% of the inhabitants speaks a language apart from English, it is a robust want. We wished to democratize expression and allow a greater solution to join folks of their native languages. Most international merchandise are dominated by Individuals. We imagine that India ought to have a spot on the desk.We constructed a globally scalable product in a fraction of the time that X/Twitter did, with superior techniques, algorithms and powerful stakeholder-first philosophies. Koo used to have a ten% like ratio, nearly 7-10x the ratio Twitter had – making Koo a extra favorable platform for creators. At our peak we have been at about 2.1 million day by day energetic customers and ~10 million month-to-month energetic customers, 9000+ VIPs, that included a few of the most outstanding personalities from numerous fields. We have been simply months away from beating Twitter in India in 2022 and will have doubled down on that brief time period purpose with capital behind us.A chronic funding winter which hit us at our peak damage our plans on the time and we needed to tone down on our progress trajectory. Social media might be one of many hardest firms to construct even with all assets out there as you should develop customers to a big scale earlier than one thinks of income. We wanted 5 to six years of aggressive, long run and affected person capital to make this dream a actuality.”Sadly for us, the temper of the market and the funding winter obtained the higher of us. Timing the market is an underestimated variable. It might outline and low cost all the pieces at occasions. Koo may have simply scaled internationally and given India a world model that was actually made in India. This dream will stay.We’re grateful to all those that’ve supported us alongside in our journey. Our crew, that labored hundreds of man hours to deliver to life this stunning product and firm, our traders that backed us, tens of millions of creators and customers that poured their hearts out on the platform and spent tens of millions of hours consuming content material and our journalist buddies that coated our updates with the general public at massive.Our crew caught round with us by means of thick and skinny all alongside the best way. We’re very lucky to have labored with such a passionate bunch of parents who believed within the goal of our firm. It has been an extended journey of 4+ years from thought to complete. We have had our highest highs and lowest lows whereas operating Koo. It is given us our fondest skilled reminiscences and we’re grateful to the little chicken for that.What we have constructed is actually magnificent. We will probably be comfortable to share a few of these property with somebody with an ideal imaginative and prescient for India’s foray into social media. We will even consider making this right into a digital public good to allow social conversations in native languages, all over the world. That is very troublesome and sophisticated tech and we have constructed it painstakingly in file time.Affected person, long run capital is important to construct formidable, world beating merchandise from India – be it in social media, AI, area, EV or different futuristic classes. It can want much more capital when the area has a world big already. And when certainly one of these firms takes off, it will possibly’t be left to the whims of the capital market, which fits up and down. It wants a strategic outlook to safeguard it and make it thrive. These aren’t to be checked out as revenue churning machines in 2 years from launch. They must be nurtured for a bigger long run play. We might like to see that long run view for giant bets from India.”As for us, we’re entrepreneurs at coronary heart and you will note us again within the area a technique or one other. Until then, thanks in your time, consideration, good needs and love.The little yellow chicken says its last goodbye…—Aprameya & Mayank”
