New Delhi: X rival social media app KOO has shut down its operations today. The decision was announced by the company founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka on Wednesday.
The app was launched in the year 2000. The company stated that it is a platform for Indians to share their views on their mother tongue and have meaningful discussions garnered prominence in 2021 after several government officials endorsed it as per Scroll.
The centre has asked X to block certain accounts back in 2020-21 during the farmer’s protests and threatened the company with legal action if it fails to comply with the orders. Just when the business was at its zenith, Radhakrishna and Bidawatka said on LinkedIn on Wednesday that they had experienced a “prolonged funding winter.”
The founders said that while they would have liked to keep the app running, the cost of technology services to keep a social media app running is high and so, they “had to take this tough decision”. They said they built a “globally scalable product in a fraction of the time that X/Twitter did, with superior systems, algorithms, and strong stakeholder-first philosophies”.
The app’s creators declared that in order to facilitate social exchanges in users’ native tongues, they will now assess turning the app’s assets into a digital public benefit. The company’s founders declared that in order to facilitate social exchanges in the members’ native tongues, they will now assess turning its assets into a digital public good. According to MoneyControl, Koo had been in discussions for a buyout with Dailyhunt and Sharechat in recent months. Still, the negotiations ended in failure.
In a post on social media in April, Bidawatka had said: “We have gone to the extent of the founders putting in a substantial amount from their personal funds so that salaries for March can be met.”
