What is the Koo app? Why are Indian Twitter users moving to it? What are its key features? ‘Koo’ a twitter alternative is really available in 12 different Indian languages? This article answers all these questions. Launched in 2006, Twitter is the most popularly used microbloggingplatform. From big games like celebrities and industry leaders to common people, many people use this medium to voice their opinions and thoughts. But Twitter is no more limited to that. It has now become an important channel for social media marketing and digital marketing. However, things are changing for Twitter in India. How? I’d need to give you a bit of the context.
Started in August of 2020, farmer protest in India is continually growing bigger. Apparently, many people have taken it to social media sites to voice their concerns, opinions, and views on the matter. Twitter is no different.
According to Indian government, many Twitter accounts supporting this farmer movement are actually Khalistan sympathisers and/or are backed by Pakistan. In that case, it can severely harm civil peace in India. With that concern, Indian government asked Twitter to ban some 1,200 accounts that it thinks are spreading malicious content. However, Twitter has not complied with the government’s wish. So, the tussle between the Indian government and Twitter continues.
We’re not here to discuss politics. Get to the point already!
You must be wondering that.
Okay, let’s get to the point.
So, this tussle has resulted in something good for Indians. Now, Indians are moving to our very own alternative for Twitter- The Koo App!
What is Koo app?
If I explain it very simply, it is an Indian alternative for Twitter. This means that ‘Koo’ a twitter alternative is also a microblogging platform. What makes it different and special is that the Koo app is based and developed in India. Moreover, this app has also won Prime Minister’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat App Challenge in the last August. Since then, over a million people have joined Koo.
This app has come so aggressively in talks only recently. However, it has been around for a year now. The Koo app was released in March of 2020. It has been gaining so much popularity since many Indian officials and politicians made accounts on Koo. Moreover, they urged Indian Twitter users to quit the platform and switch to Koo.
With this change, Indian businesses are also moving to Koo. This is so since along with digital communication patterns, this development is going to affect online marketing and social media marketing patterns in India.
Who developed the Koo app?
The Indian microblogging app ‘Koo’ was co-founded and developed by entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka. Koo’s parent company is Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd. However…
This is not the first app developed by Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd
With movements like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ gaining prominence, Indian have increasingly been moving towards domestic solutions. This is no different in the field of IT.
In fact, ‘Koo’ a twitter alternative isn’t the first app launched by its parent company Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd. It also launched other Indian alternatives to some famous apps. For example, it launched TaxiForSure app as an alternative for taxi services like Ola and Uber. However, the company later sold it to Ola.
But Vokal- another app launched by Bombinate Technologies turned out to be a success. It was introduced as an Indian alternative to Quora in 2017. The platform continues to exist and is enjoying increasing numbers of users with time.
What are Koo’s key features?
Reading this section of the article, you now know that Koo is a microblogging site just like Twitter. But what’s more? Let’s list it out for you.
- Koo allows publishing 400 characters long posts.
- Image, video, and audio embedding is also possible.
- It also allows uploading a minute long video.
- Just like Twitter, you can follow and get followed by different accounts.
- The app can be downloaded from both Google Play and Apple Store.
How is Koo better than Twitter?
Well Koo allows you to publish upto a 400 characters long post. On the other hand, a Tweet can only contain a maximum of 280 characters.
But, the best part about this app is that…
Koo is available in 12 different Indian languages
For Indians, the biggest feature of Koo is that it is available in 12 Indian languages. This means that apart from English, that app also facilitate the following languages:
- Hindi
- Telugu
- Kannada
- Bengali
- Tamil
- Malayalam
- Gujarati
- Marathi
- Punjabi
- Odiya
- Assamese
There is a great number of internet users in India that don’t use English. With Koo supporting 12 different Indian languages, more Indians will now be able to do social networking. On top of that, it plans to support more local Indian languages in future. This tells that Koo has a great potential of strengthening social networks in India.
This being one of the main reasons, many government officials, politicians, celebrities, and other big games are promoting Koo. We hope that with the comfort of using familiar language, more and more people will be encouraged to voice their opinions.
Koo v/s Twitter
Koo basically takes after Twitter. However, some of its features surpass those of Twitter. Let’s find out why Koo is a better choice for Indians:
- Koo is an Indian domestic substitute for Twitter. It is a great step towards strengthening Indian IT market.
- It supports 12 Indian languages and intends to add more local Indian languages in future.
- Unlike Twitter, Koo makes mobile number verification mandatory. Hence, it will be able to prevent the spread of fake content to a great extent.
- Since it is an Indian app, discussions on Koo are more focused around India.
- Koo is currently one of the fastest growing apps. In fact, it is already among top 5 social media apps in India.
Above listed are some of the features that make Koo a better alternative for Indians.
Key Takeaway
From quite some time, India has been trying to strengthen its domestic market. It stands true even in the field of Information Technology. We are seeing more and more Indian alternatives coming up for famous apps and digital platforms. It is the example of one such innovation. The app majorly takes after Twitter but it stands out in some aspects. The best part about this app is, it supports 12 Indian languages and plans to support more local Indian languages in future. As Indians are increasingly shifting towards this platform, it is going to reshape the Indian social networking system. This will apparently affect social media and digital marketing trends as well. The bottom line is, Koo is definitely a promising Indian social networking platform. Hey there! You have reached the end of this blogpost. Got more questions? Make sure to ask in the comments below.
