Koo targets 10 cr users this year with 'micro-blog of India' tag

This picture has been used for representational purposes

Even as Twitter faces intense scrutiny in India, home-grown vernacular micro-blogging platform Koo, which has crossed 40 lakh users within no time, aims to garner 10 crore users by the end of this year, its Co-founder Mayank Bidawataka said on Monday.

According to Bidawataka, the company is prepared to handle such heavy traffic as it is investing in technologies that can support such massive user base at scale.

"We want Koo to become a world-class app and want to be known as the micro-blog of India. Our teams are prepared to handle the growing online traffic. We have just closed Series A funding and our finances are stable," Bidawataka told IANS.

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.

Koo has fast become a favourite among several Union ministers, including IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who is at the forefront of the government's war with Twitter.

The fast-growing vernacular platform describes itself as a personal updates and opinion sharing micro-blogging service.

"We will add support for more Indian languages as people are now joining on their own with word-of-mouth publicity. We will go deeper into the country with enabling more languages soon," Bidawataka noted.

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.

"The broader idea is to connect people and let them be the voice of India, get new perspectives, meet like-minded people and start meaningful conversations," the Koo Co-founder stated.

The company has plans to monetise the app when the right time is near.

"We will have more business accounts as more brands are joining the platform and that will be separate from common users who will not be bombarded with ads," Bidawataka said, adding that the company will monetise once they reach the scale they are looking for.

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