Koo App emerging as The Indian, Desi alternative to Twitter

On February 9, 2021, a host of prominent Indian officials endorsed Koo, a made-in-India alternative to the world’s third-largest marketplace “Twitter”. A little-known domestically created microblogging web site appears to own become all the fashion with Indian ministers and organization nightlong. Whereas some merely shared links to follow them on Koo, others asked their Twitter followers to affix the app to induce “exclusive” updates concerning their ministries’ work.

The native firm aforementioned that “The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and a few alternative government departments have created accounts on native micro-blogging web site Koo when Twitter didn't suit the government's directive to dam some tweets and accounts”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in one in every of his Mann Ki Baat monthly radio talks, inspired Indians to use Koo. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal conjointly joined the desi app. Taking to Twitter, he said, "I am currently on Koo." He additional more, “Let the North American nation exchange our thoughts and concepts on Koo". Among its early user's area unit personalities like Sadhguru, IT Minister sitar player Prasad, shopper Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal, and former cricketers Anil Kumble.

Several ministries, officials, and departments have created their profile on Koo. These include the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Central Board of Indirect Taxes, National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, India Post, MyGovIndia, UMANG app, Digi Locker, National Internet Exchange of India, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, and Digital India among others.

The app is developed by serial entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, Koo describes itself as an app “built for Indians to share their views in their mother tongue and have meaningful discussions.” Radhakrishna had earlier based a Uber-rival TaxiForSure, which was nonheritable by native competition olla in 2015 and Bidawatka was a part of the commencement team of redBus, a bus ticketing portal that was bought by Ibibo in 2013. The couple launched Koo in March 2020 and also the app thus far has over 1,000,000 active users.

Koo app is a Made In India, an Indian micro-blogging platform for real-time, exciting, and exclusive updates is a desi app that will be an alternative to US-based microblogging site “Twitter”. Koo supports multiple Indian Languages. The app has won the AtmaNirbhar App Challenge organized by the Indian government. The app claims to take users’ privacy seriously. As per its website, Koo stores user data solely to the extent that's needed for it to produce them with the services.

The nightlong fondness for Koo comes simply just a day after Twitter sought-after formal dialogue with the Narendra Modi government, which had asked the social media platform to block accounts associated with farmers’ protest. On February 10, 2021, a day after Indian ministers supported Koo, Twitter aforementioned it had blocked around five hundred accounts coupled to farmer protests whereas adding that the values underneath pin the open web and free expression “are more and more under threat around the world.”