Created the opportunity for Indians to express themselves in their preferred local language – for the first time ever.
Guwahati, 26 August 2021: Koo, India’s multi-language micro-blogging app, has crossed 1 crore (10 million) downloads, registering a massive growth since its launch in March 2020. The platform now has people from all walks of life – including some of the most prominent faces like movie stars, politicians, sportspersons, authors, journalists – sharing their updates and connecting daily with their followers, in eight languages.
The brainchild of serial entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, Koo is now available in 8 languages including Assamese, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla and English. With an India-first approach to building the platform, Koo has introduced a slew of technological features that enable more Indians to engage in online conversations, empowering them to express themselves freely through the platform. Koo enables a deeper connection within the various language communities by helping find Koo users with similar interests in the same language. Koo is committed to think India-first and release a number of features catering to Indians over the next few months.
A Koo spokesperson said: “Koo was started with a dream to create a digital platform where millions of Indians could express freely and share their thoughts in their preferred language. Since we launched in March 2020, the response has been heartening. Koo has achieved 1 crore downloads now. Our growth in the future will be at an even faster pace than what we’ve experienced in the recent past. We are both humbled and excited to pave the way for homegrown digital companies to go global as India aspires to make the ‘Aatmanirbhar Digital India’ dream a reality and unite the country through technology and languages.”
Koo has seen many prominent faces on the platform. The likes of leading actors like Anupam Kher, Tiger Shroff, Kangana Ranaut; prominent ministers and politicians such as Himanta Biswa Sarma, Debabrata Saikia, Dr Jury Sharma Bordoloi, Ranoj Pegu, Prof. Jagdish Mukhi, Nitin Gadkari, Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot, Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Supriya Sule, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sanjay Singh, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Basavaraj Bommai, H D Kumaraswamy, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Chandrashekhar Azad to name a few; sportspersons like Mohammed Shami, Wriddhiman Saha, Aakash Chopra, Javagal Srinath, Saina Nehwal, Abhinav Bindra, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Mary Kom and many others.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Press Information Bureau (PIB), Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, MyGov, Digital India, BSNL, India Post, National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) now have a presence on Koo. Chief Ministers of 14 Indian states, politicians from various political parties – both regional and national – and media houses are also active on Koo. The platform is now host to a plethora of Government departments and individuals who use it to showcase developments and share updates with people in Indian languages.
The app facilitates active conversations as creators can express themselves and users can follow creators of their choice to create a customised feed. It is a one-of-a-kind, multi-lingual India-first platform. The app has received appreciation from all quarters, having won the Aatmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge in 2020 held by the Indian government. It was also named Google PlayStore’s Best Daily Essential App for 2020 and got a special mention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address.
Additional Information
● Downloads are accelerating
Between February and August 2021, Koo saw 85 lakh users (8.5 million) download the Koo App.
● Koo App to be available in Gujarati and Punjabi
The Koo App will soon be made available in Gujarati and Punjabi. Currently, the Koo App is available in 8 languages - Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Bangla and English
● A Wide Representation on Koo
o Multi-party Political Voices: Koo has representation from Chief Ministers of 14 Indian states and several Cabinet ministers – both Central and State. In addition, official handles or leaders of almost all political parties of India including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) , Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United), Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSR Congress), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Janata Dal (Secular), Lok Janshakti Party, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, Azad Samaj Party and Apna Dal, among others have handles on Koo.
o Leading Media Houses Present: The Koo App boasts of over 2,500 media handles across languages and from national and regional media houses. The list includes some of the most reputed media houses like Dainik Jagran, Times of India, NDTV, India Today, Republic TV, Network 18, Zee News, Amar Ujala, The New Indian Express, The Sentinel, Guwahati Times, News18 Assam NE, ND24, Northeast Today, News Daily 24, Dainandin Axom, etc.
o Celebrities: Several high-profile celebrities have created official handles to connect with fans. Tiger Shroff is the most recent high-profile celebrity to start using the Koo App. Apart from him, other well-known celebrities on the platform include Anupam Kher, Kangana Ranaut, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Vijayashanti, Anushka Shetty, Pranitha Subhash, Eesha Rebba, Naga Shaurya, etc.
o Sports Stars: In the run up to the Olympics, conversations on sports saw a spike on Koo. The India-England tour star, Mohammad Shami, has been very active as the conversations related to cricket and sports have begun to increase across languages. Hima Das, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishan Porel, Pragyan Ojha, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Aakash Chopra are some of the cricketers on Koo. Other sports stars include Olympians like Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, Saina Nehwal, Lovlina Borgohain, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, MC Mary Kom, Manu Bhaker, Yogeshwar Dutt, etc.
o Spirituality Leaders:Spiritual leaders from various belief systems can be found on Koo, including Baba Ramdev, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar, Sadhguru, Gaur Gopal Das and BK Shivani.
o Business Accounts: In addition, several prominent brands like Flipkart, Amul, Practo, 1MG, HDFC Securities, UCO Bank and Steel Authority of India Limited; and business leaders like Mohandas Pai, Neeraj Khandelwal, Lizzie Chapman, Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan are on Koo.
● International Expansion
Koo App is available in Nigeria and remains bullish on expanding to other countries worldwide. The expansion will prioritize regions where, apart from English, other languages form part of the day-to-day conversations.
About Koo:
Koo was founded in March 2020, as a multi-language micro-blogging platform in both Indian languages and English, which gives a voice to the millions of Indians who communicate in Indian languages.
Currently available in Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Gujarati, Bangla and English, Koo enables people from across India to express themselves online in their mother tongues. In a country where under 10% of the population speaks English as a native language, Koo meets the need for a social media platform that can deliver an immersive language experience to an Indian user, thereby enabling them to connect and interact with each other.
Source: Krishna Priya, PR Consultant (Koo App)
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