Koo, once touted as India’s Twitter alternative, shuts down after sale talks fail

Cash-strapped social media platform Koo, once drummed up as a homegrown rival to global technology giant X (formerly Twitter), has shut shop after talks with multiple buyers over the past few months failed to materialise.

The internet startup, which sports a yellow bird for a logo, had approached media houses and internet companies to acquire it, but the talks did not yield the expected outcome, co-founder Mayank Bidawatka said in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.

Most of these companies did not want to deal with user-generated content and the “wild nature of a social media company”, Bidawatka said.

“While we would’ve liked to keep the app running, the cost of technology services to keep a social media app running is high and we’ve had to take this tough decision,” the co-founder added.

Prominent wings

Koo had 2.1 million daily active users at its peak and was “just months away” from beating Twitter in India in 2022, but the prolonged funding winter forced it to tone down its growth trajectory, according to Bidawatka.

Founded in 2020 by Aprameya Radhakrishnan and Bidawatka, Koo was considered a homegrown rival option to engage with the world. 

Support from prominent politicians including Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal and former communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad prompted an influx of users to the platform, reaching a peak of 4.5 million users in January 2021.

Twitter had about 24 million users in India in 2022, per Statista.

Koo garnered investor interest as well, with Tiger Global and Accel pumping in upwards of $60 million in total. The company was valued at $274 million in 2022, per Tracxn.

However, things went south when the platform struggled to monetise, creating a severe cash crunch amid tough macroeconomic conditions. In April last year, Koo let go one-third of its 260-member workforce to conserve cash while it explored “strategic partnerships”.

For 2021-22, Koo reported a loss of ₹197 crore on ₹14 lakh in operating revenue, regulatory filings show. The company has not filed its financials for FY23.

“Indian digital products are being made to international standards and it’s time to create global brands from India. As everyone knows, the startup ecosystem globally has witnessed a funding crunch without which Koo would have been on its way to rapid international market expansion,” Bidawatka had said in a LinkedIn post in February.

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