India’s Koo App will compete with Twitter; Piyush Goyal, Central Government Departments Create  Account

New Delhi, 10 February 2021: Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who has been quite active on Twitter, announced on Tuesday that he had created an account on the social media platform ‘Koo.’ The application is a part of the Make in India initiative and has been created due to the government’s “disagreement” with Twitter.

Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has already joined the platform and has a verified handle. Many government departments, including IT (Ministry of Electronics and IT), India Post, also have verified handles on this platform.

Koo is an app similar to Twitter that was launched ten months ago. It has also won the self-sustaining App Challenge. Aparameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidavadaka develop the app. The app is available in many languages, including Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Odia, and Assamese.

Indians have created a Micro-blogging sharing platform Koo to share and discuss their thoughts in their mother tongue. Its tagline is “Connecting Indians in Indian Languages.” Koo has raised Rs 30 crore as part of its Series A funding. This funding is from 3one4 Capital of Mohandas Pai of Infosys. It has also received funding from Accel Partners, Kalari Capital, Bloom Ventures, and Dream Incubator.

Koo can be used both in-app and on websites. Its interface is similar to Twitter and has a limit of 350 words. People can address and discuss the issues in their native languages.

There has been a conflict between Twitter and the Indian government for the last several days. Recently, Twitter India’s public policy director (India and South Asia), Last week, the government had sought an answer from Twitter regarding breaking the rules and ordered the closure of 1,178 accounts of Pakistan and Khalistan alleged supporters. The government had warned Twitter that if it does not comply with the instructions, then there could be a fine or seven years in jail under the relevant sections.