The social network Koowhich emerged as a X’s competitorthen called Twitter, and generated a lot of jokes among Brazilians at the end of 2022, will close its activities. In recent months, the platform had been experiencing difficulties expanding its user base and generating income — the hope for the service was a sale to startup Dailyhunt, but the negotiation failed, ending the company’s chances.
In a post on LinkedIn, the founders of the social network, Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, stated that despite attempts to partner with larger companies, nothing has blossomed. At X, the company also made a farewell post.
Koo managed to raise more than US$60 million (around R$333 million) in investments, but the amount was not enough to keep the business running. A long-term investment would be needed for the company to become profitable, according to the founders.
Koo gave users the opportunity to express themselves in a similar way to that provided by
“What’s on your mind?” asked the platform, inviting the user to publish their thoughts in the same way as X. The company was openly inspired by Twitter, both in its microblogging style and in its symbol, which is also a bird—albeit a yellow one.
The platform gained popularity in India during times of tension between Twitter and the Indian government, when the social network defied requests to remove content. At the time, Koo took the opportunity to position itself as a more obedient alternative, committing to local regulations. This ended up attracting users to the platform.
Koo was a success in Brazil
The application was also launched in Brazil, when, in 2022, it became known by Brazilians who were looking for another social network option after the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk. In November of that year, the company announced that it had reached the mark of 2 million accounts opened in Brazil — at the time, the company went viral when it showed that it was hiring to handle the high flow of Brazilian accounts.
The company’s viral growth meant that, in 2022, it considered opening an office in the country. “We will hire Brazilians for our operations in Brazil because we strongly believe in local employment”, declared Mayank Bidawatka at the time.
The following year, faced with a drop in the number of people using the platform, the Indian company resorted to a rewards program that offered “coins” to those who accessed the service, so that the so-called “Koopons” could be obtained by those who browsed in the app for at least ten minutes daily. From July 2022 to January 2023, 5 million users were lost to the social network, which has continued to decline in popularity in recent months.
“While we would like to keep the app running, the cost of technology services to keep a social media app running is high, and we had to make this difficult decision,” said Aprameya Radhakrishna on LinkedIn.
Still in the publication, the founders of Koo say that they will not stop entrepreneurship. “As for us, we are entrepreneurs at heart, and you will see us back in the arena in one form or another. Until then, thank you for your time, attention, good wishes and love. The little yellow bird says its last goodbye.”
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