Twitter’s desi rival Koo and what’s it all about

While Twitter is butting heads with the government, its rival Koo is going out and about

Ahomegrown social media app Koo has been gaining popularity in India. And it is aiming to achieve something that Twitter couldn’t — reach out to vernacular users. And all of this is rather well-timed as Twitter and the government of India are currently butting heads over banning certain accounts. Of late, Koo has managed to amass quite a few users already including politicians, journalists and government agencies.

WHAT IS KOO?

Koo is a microblogging platform just like Twitter. It won government’s AatmaNirbhar App Innovation Challenge, an initiative to bring India’s digital innovation to the fore. Though launched in March 2020, the app gained popularity after PM Narendra Modi talked about it on Mann Ki Baat.

WHO CREATED IT?

A Bengaluru-based startup called Bombinate Technologies co-founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka.

WHY KOO?

It is currently available in five languages — English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Soon, it’ll be available in seven more languages — Marathi, Bangla, Gujarati, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi and Assamese.

KOO VS TWITTER

Information on Koo is divided into two sections — Feed and People. Twitter, on the other hand, has five sections — Top, Latest, People, Photos and Videos. While the Koo feed appears chronologically, Twitter relies on complex algorithms to highlight tweets that are relevant to a user. Tweets have a limit of 280 characters, while Koo allows 400. Unlike, Twitter, posts on Koo can be edited.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN KOO AND TWITTER

Twitter’s logo has a blue bird while Koo’s logo has a yellow one. Koo also has trending topics and hashtags. Like Twitter, it’s also moulded around the idea of getting the latest information from the people and accounts that a user follows. If you are interested in an alternate, desi Twitter, Koo is something you can check out.