Why Is ‘Koo’ App Trending? What is it all about?

A new app called ‘Koo’ is the talk of the town and it became popular overnight. It is trending on number one position which is also an Indian alternative for Twitter. Even #BanTwitter is trending on social media by India’s Hindu right-wing and they have instantly started promoting the homegrown alternative, Koo. The app was commenced 10 months ago and today, it has reached over 3 million downloads.

Now, what is Koo app all about?

To all those unversed. Koo is a microblogging social media app launched by Bengaluru based start-up in March 2020. Having won the Aatmanirbhar App Challenge organised by the Indian government last year in August, Koo is gaining its popularity in a short period of time. The CEO od Koo is Radhakrishna, an Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, graduate. The app was co-founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidwatka and is owned by the parent company Bombinate Technologies Pvt Ltd. The company also operated Vokal, the desi version of the popular app, Quora. Koo has multiple investors including former Infosys CFO TV Mohandas Pai’s 3one4 Capital.

Why is the Indian government promoting Koo?

Yesterday, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal shared an invite with his followers on Twitter to join Koo. Soon after, several ministers and ministries shared invites to join Koo, too. And the question is why is the government promoting it? The desi version of Twitter, Koo was one of the winners of the Atma Nirbhar Innovation Challenge introduced by the government last year, just after a ban on many foreign apps like TikTok. Also, Koo gets mentioned during an episode of Mann Ki Baat when Prime Minister Modi himself spoke on Koo and urged Indians to use it.

Koo can be downloaded from the Google Play Store where it is described as “a personal updates and opinion-sharing micro-blogging platform”. Koo currently has 2.5 million downloads on the Play Store. Apart from Union Minister Piyush Goyal, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, MPs Tejasvi Surya, Shobha Karandlaje and many others are already on Koo. Even cricketers like Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble as well as spiritual leader Sadhguru are on Koo.

Why is everyone shifting to Koo?

The colossal development comes after Jack Dorsey-owned American microblogging app Twitter. has taken action on more than 500 Indian accounts by suspending them. Twitter also reduced visibility of some hashtags in India which has several links to farmers’ protests on agricultural reforms. It said that the Indian government ordered to remove some accounts and soon after, politicians urged followers to switch to rival local app Koo.