In the wake of the ongoing tussle between the government and Twitter, the homegrown social microblogging site has been able to expand its user base since several ministers including Electronics and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, railway minister Piyush Goyal moved to the platform along with other government ministries. Twitter is currently at loggerheads with the government after the latter asked the micro-blogging platform to block several accounts. This has helped Koo to see a massive surge in user base after departments have endorsed the platform. From expressing their stand on Twitter for not fully complying with the government order to take down inflammatory content to urging people to switch platforms, these ministers have influenced the user base of the social media site. Also Read: EXCLUSIVE | BJP Will Bag More than 200 Seats In Bengal Polls, Could Even Surge Past 250: JP Nadda To ABP News
What is Koo?
The Indian app is quite similar to Twitter and has been launched around 10 months ago. At the time of download in Google Playstore, Koo has been described as an app “built for Indians to share their views in their mother tongue and have meaningful discussions”. Its tagline is “connect with Indians in Indian languages”. It is a personal update and opinion sharing micro-blogging platform. “Discussions are around interesting topics. It empowers people to express their thoughts in Indian languages with a strong-knit local Indian community,” the platform added. You can do all things done on Twitter from sharing your opinions, updates. Celebrities can be followed on this platform as well. You can view your feed in Indian languages. This app will also show what is trending.
Who are the founders?
Koo has been co-founded by entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidwatka. Radhakrishna also founded online cab booking service TaxiForSure, which was later sold to Ola Cabs.
Know the investors
As per the Hindustan Times report, Koo in February achieved a major landmark as it raised about ₹30 crores from a clutch of investors, including an entity backed by former Infosys CEO Mohandas Pai. Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, and Dream Incubator have already invested in the platform.
How to download
You can download the app from the Google play store and iOS app store. It can be accessed from the web app too. All the users need is a valid phone number on which Koo sends an OTP for first-time registration.
What are the similarities and differences between Koo & Twitter?
If you have migrated to Koo, you would not be surprised to see similarities between the two platforms. Both the platforms are available on Android and iOS users. The platform of Koo has a quite similar interface as Twitter. Users create messages called tweets for up to 140 characters on Twitter while Koo gives the option to ‘Koo’ in 400 characters. You can update media files including videos similar to Twitter. In fact, it has a trending hashtags section just like the trending topics on Twitter and you have the option to share specific topics or people besides sending direct messages to other users.
While they feed on Koo is divided into two sections Feed and people and feeds enable you to see the posts on the platform while other shows the people followed or relevant suggestions. While Koo shows feed chronologically, that is, the latest update on the top, Twitter can arrange a user’s feed by the number of engagements and reactions on the post.
One of the prominent differences between Koo and Twitter is that the indigenous app offers services in various local languages allowing many Indians to use the platform with ease.
For now, the platform supports Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, and Kannada, other languages including Punjabi, Bangla, Oriya, Malayalam, and Assamese will be added soon.
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