It is not very easy to build a social media platform when you have to compare yourself to the likes of giants like Meta and X.
Koo, India’s homegrown microblogging platform which, at its peak, had around 10 million active users, has decided to shut shop. Founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka said that the reason was unsuccessful acquisition talks with potential buyers.
“Most of them didn’t want to deal with user-generated content and the wild nature of a social media company. A couple of them changed priority almost close to signing,” read the founders’ note about the app’s shutdown, while also adding that the cost of running the technology would be very high.
Its tale, from being cited as an Indian replacement to X to now a failed company, is truly heartbreaking. While several people have been bashing the company, stating that a lack of innovation and allegedly copying ideas as the reason behind its shuttering, there are broader aspects and cautionary points for Indian innovators to look at and learn from Koo’s demise.
Recreating Doesn’t Work
“The little yellow bird says its final goodbye,” concluded the note from the founders. The lesson here is that while trying to be an alternative to the blue bird Twitter, Koo was not able to fly because it lacked anything different.
The same thing happened when Meta tried to launch Threads to compete with X, but never saw the users it expected. Bluesky also never took off. Though the idea of a decentralised social media platform appeals to a lot of people, it is a risky bet to take. But it is important to note that there is definitely a need for building an Indian social media platform.
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal pointed out, “We need Indian social platforms, but recreating what already exists won’t get us there. I believe the future of social [media] is going to be open and based on DPI principles.”
But he also added that it is not enough, giving the example of Mastodon. Interestingly, Aggarwal has also previously said that he is interested in building a social media platform. “India generates 20% of the world’s digitised data. We actually generate much more due to our highly active, young population,” Aggarwal said.
He further explained that only one-tenth of this data is stored within India, with the remaining 90% stored outside the country. Last month, Aggarwal said that he is committed to working with the Indian developer community to build a DPI social media framework. “DPIs, like UPI, ONDC, Aadhaar, etc., are uniquely Indian ideas and are even more needed in the world of social media,” he said.
It seems like Aggarwal should have stepped in and provided some help to the Koo founders.
Up Against Giants
Though Koo won the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge, it was struggling to generate revenue. Mustafa Khundmiri posted on X saying that though Indians love the idea of making an Indian product, Koo simply lacked innovation. “Innovate or die a slow, painful death. And die, it did,” he said.
One of the things that Koo was able to do that none of the other social media companies do anymore is create a community across various cultures and interest areas while also venturing into the field of being language first.
B2C is one of the hardest categories for building a product, especially when you are fighting for the time spent on smartphones and competing with social media giants. Shivam K Dixit explained in his post that Koo had to carve out a niche for themselves, just like WhatsApp for texting, LinkedIn for professionals, and Instagram for friends and families.
Though a funding winter got the better of Koo, it serves as a call to action for startup founders who are looking into the social media space to drive innovation and not just come up with something that has already been done. “We will be happy to share some of these assets with someone with a great vision for India’s foray into social media,” the founders said.
Why Koo Shouldn’t Have Shut Down
Another problem to keep in mind is that single-nation-focused social networks do not necessarily work as users want to explore the world through the platform, not live in a bubble. For example, China’s WeChat works within the country and has a huge market, but its existence outside the country is minimal. Plus, other platforms are not promoted in China.
Though it is said that India will never truly have true sovereignty until the country has its own social media platform, several users on X also point out that a lot of companies simply ride on the trend of nationalism to hype their products instead of providing a good user experience.
The founders also highlighted that it is essential for Indians to build products in futuristic tech niches such as AI, space, EV, or social media, but recreating what already exists has rarely worked. There is a complete monopoly of foreign platforms in India which needs to definitely change, and Koo attempted that with a Desi platform.
The same goes for the investors. They should be willing to take risks and invest more capital on innovative products, instead of playing it safe. We should celebrate the ambitious and audacious attempt by the founders.
That is why Koo shouldn’t have failed. Though it took on the herculean task of building a social media platform within the country, the focus on diversity in language and cultures was an innovative step that even Meta or X haven’t taken as yet. But that turned out to be one of the reasons it had to shut down.
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