#Koo’s closure raising questions around Indian startup ecosystem ! Despite the multilingual supported social media platform with a mission of bringing people together and express more meaningfully. Having over 2.1 million daily active users and monthly 10 million active users, it couldn’t generate user engagement enough to to sustain, failed through revenue generation eventually. Despite the startup backed by Accel & Tiger Global among other investors, it raised about $66.4 million & it was highly promoted by Indian politicians & some of the big celebrities with over 9000 VIP accounts, Koo gained its popularity when the Government & Twitter got into compliance issues. Despite the dominance of major social media platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, which generate significant employment opportunities and drive the economies of many countries, there was a strong case for backing Koo in India. As one of the largest consumer markets for social media, India presented a unique opportunity for Koo to potentially make history in the social media tech space. With adequate investor support, Koo could have capitalized on this vast market, fostering innovation and growth in the years to come. We are already tapping into global market with the UPI technology being adopted by Fintech companies. This also highlights that securing funding isn’t enough; a sustainable and compelling plan for long-term growth is crucial and ensuring survival. Having said that building in the social media space seems like a constant challenge as against global rivals. Because clearly, people go where most of the people already are, isn’t it ? Feel free to disagree here. These are some of my takes from the startup’s shutdown story. What do you think about Koo’s shut down? Let me know in the comments! #IndianStartUp #MayankBidawatka #Radhakrishnan #TechIndustry #StartupLessons
Koo, tried blatantly copying a successful product. Considering their user base, I believe they had the same users as that of Twitter in India. Their failure probably can be attributed to the fact that they couldn’t innovate and give a USP that kept users engaged, though they gained initial traction with even Govt. Representatives joining it thanks to Make for India idea. But to carry it forth, they ought to have had significant value addition which twitter couldn’t offer. The startup ecosystem in India holds huge potential nevertheless and I believe this to be an outlier case.
Product Owner @ Clubessential Holdings | Certified Scrum Product Owner® (CSPO®)
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