Curtains down for Koo; founders say little yellow bird bids final goodbye

PTI, Jul 3, 2024, 2:40 PM IST

Social media platform Koo, which had pitched itself as a rival and viable alternate to Twitter (now X), is shutting down with co-founders on Wednesday penning a heartfelt note about tough decisions and little yellow bird bidding “final goodbye”.

In a post on LinkedIn, co-founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka announced that the platform will be discontinuing its services to the public, as talks for a partnership with multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates and media houses did not yield the desired outcomes.

“We explored partnership with multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates and media houses but these talks didn’t yield the outcome we wanted,” the note said.

The duo said that although they would have liked to keep the app running, “the cost of technology services to keep social media app running is high and we’ve had to take this tough decision”.

Koo at its peak grossed about 2.1 million daily active users, about 10 million monthly active users, and over 9,000 VIPs that included some of the most prominent personalities from various fields.

“We were just months away from beating Twitter in India in 2022 and could have doubled down on that short term goal with capital behind us,” they said.

A funding winter, however hit the company at its peak, hurting plans and forcing the platform to “tone down” its growth trajectory.

“Unfortunately for us, the mood of the market and the funding winter got better of us,” the note mentioned as the founders signed off saying, “the little yellow bird says its final goodbye” in a reference to Koo’s yellow bird logo.

It may be recalled that Koo’s popularity in India peaked around 2021 amid the Indian government’s spat with Twitter (now X) and growing calls for expanding the ecosystem of homegrown digital platforms.

At its peak, Koo experienced heady growth in user metrics as union ministers and government departments at that time endorsed the homegrown microblogging platform.