0
0
Koo’s Unexpected Ways KOO APP Can Make Your Life Better!
What is KOO App?
A less known fact is that only 10% of the Indian population speaks the English language. Fewer sources are available for these people who fall under the big 90% population category. Google Play Store and Apple App Stores have been witnessing a spiked growth of an Indian initiative Koo App which is trying to bridge the gap of this 90% population by not limiting communication to the English language only.
Koo App is a valuable addition to the make in India initiative that helps these unheard Indian voices find a medium and get heard and noticed. It is a Bangalore based microblogging and social networking application that includes regional language keyboards, hyper-local hashtags and local language news feeds.
Vision and Mission of Koo
Koo’s vision statement says, “Koo has built a platform to enable a billion Indians to voice their thoughts and opinions freely in their mother tongue.”
The mission of Koo, as mentioned by Co-founder Bidawatka, is to connect our country India and help a billion Indians to voice themselves freely in their own mother tongue. The co-founder of Koo claims that this shall be the first social media networking app which has taken this initiative.
Founders of the Koo App
Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, two of them are profoundly recognised as the co-founders of the Koo App.
About Aprameya Radhakrishna
Aprameya Radhakrishna was the founder and CEO of TaxiForSure, an online car rental service acquired by Ola Cabs. He previously worked as a Software Engineer at Infosys and as the Head of Business Development, PDS India at Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj. He then built Koo, where he still serves as CEO as well as an Angel Investor. Aprameya sir earned a BE in Electronics and Communication from NIT Karnataka before taking admission in an MBA in General Management at IIM Ahmedabad.
About Mayank Bidawatka
Mayank Bidawatka is yet another Koo co-founder. Bidawatka graduated from the Asian School of Management with an MBA. After a year as a Client Servicing Manager at Lowe Lintas, Bidawatka joined ICICI Bank as a Product Manager. Mayank was a member of Redbus’ Core Team/Foundation Team before co-founding The Media Ant. He left that position to work for TaxiforSure.com. He went on to co-found Goodbox. Mayank left Goodbox to become an investor, eventually investing in a number of companies. Finally, Mayank and Aprameya made the decision to co-found Vocal India.
Startup History of Koo App
Koo app was released in May 2020, the time we were facing lockdown. The app rose to prominence after winning the government’s Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge. It won the challenge launched by the Centre shortly after the government banned a number of Chinese apps which were trying to breach national security concerns. Many other local Indian apps such as Zoho and Chingari joined it, they all can be named the local version of TikTok. Following the results of the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the app in his Mann Ki Baat address.
Milestones attained by the Koo App
- Koo claims to have over 1000 celebrities on its platform.
- This app got 1 crore downloads within 16 months of its launch.
- It has announced that it has over 100,000 creators in total.
- Koo has already surpassed the 10 million downloads mark since its launch in March 2020.
- There are monthly 7 to 8 million active users of the Koo app.
- When last reported in December 2021, Koo boasted of having more than 3 crores or 30 million users.
- Koo was ranked in the Top Apps of 2020 in India’s Everyday Essentials category and was recognised by Google Play at the Google Awards 2020.
- In 2020, Koo won the government’s app innovation competition in the social category.
- In 2020, Koo App wins the Atma Nirbhar App Challenge.
The Growth of the Koo App
According to Koo’s co-founder Bidawatka, the sudden rise in Koo’s popularity can be traced back to the surge in the use of digital payment apps in India following the late 2016 ban on high-value currency notes.
Koo’s co-founder and CEO, Radhakrishna, stated that he is strengthening the company’s network and significantly increasing its technology team in terms of engaging more high-profile guests, which even include Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he joins. According to him, following Twitter’s unwillingness to delete some Indian accounts and tweets, it has continued to see an incredible increase in new users of 10-20x compared to a typical day.
Koo’s total revenue in FY21 was Rs 78 lakhs. The company’s revenue from operations increased from nil in FY20 to Rs 7.76 lakhs this fiscal. However, the Bengaluru-based startup increased its expenses by 75%, resulting in a loss of Rs 35.18 crore, which increased by approximately 190% or 3X. As a result, according to reports from January 20, 2022, Koo ended up spending Rs 24.7 crore to acquire Rs 7.7 lakhs in FY21.
Koo’s Future Plans:
Koo is scheduled to purchase Mitron TV, which has been struggling to establish a suitable business model for some time. According to sources dated June 10, 2022, Koo is planning to acquire Mitron TV and has already approved a special resolution that would award Series B3 preference shares to current Mitron TV investors in a share swap transaction. To far, 3182 Series B3 preference shares worth about Rs 28.17 crore have been allotted against 13151 Mitron TV shares.
Koo is capitalising on a developing regional language social networking sector in India. It intends to add support for Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Meitei, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, and Urdu in the future.
