Twitter-rival Koo surpasses 40 lakh users in a jiffy

Homegrown Twitter-like platform Koo has garnered over 10 lakh new users in just one week, surpassing the 40 lakh-figure in nearly 10 months of its arrival, as Twitter was caught in crosshairs with the Indian government over its direction to remove nearly 1,400 controversial accounts.

Koo, a favourite among several Union ministers, including IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who is at the forefront of the government's war with Twitter, has reached 4.2 million users within no time. According to data analytics platform Statista, as of January 2021, the micro-blogging platform Twitter had an audience reach of 69.3 million users in the US. Japan and India were ranked second and third with 50.9 and 17.5 million users, respectively.

The fast-growing vernacular platform Koo describes itself as a personal updates and opinion sharing micro-blogging service. The app won the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge held in August last year and Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged Indians to use the Koo app in his 'Mann Ki Baat' speech too. However, Koo also found itself in the midst of several controversies including a data leak row and Chinese investment.

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Koo Co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna denied that there was any data leak. "Koo is an India registered company with Indian founders. Raised earlier capital 2.5 years ago. Latest funds for Bombinate Technologies is led by a truly Indian investor 3one4 capital. Shunwei (single digit shareholder) which had invested in our Vokal journey will be exiting fully," Radhakrishna said in an earlier investment.

Koo has raised $4.1 million as part of its Series A funding.

Infosys veteran Mohandas Pai's 3one4 Capital is the latest addition to the investors on board, according to the company, and Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures and Dream Incubator also participated in the round.

"We have got more love than we expected. Our systems are facing more load than ever. Thank you for placing your trust in us. Our team is working on overdrive to fix it. We request your patience and support through this time. Let's do this together," Radhakrishna had said.