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Doris Yu · · 1 min readTwitter’s rival in India surges amid clash between the US app, Indian government
“An Indian alternative to Twitter is experiencing a surge in popularity after the US microblogging site clashed with the country’s government, a sign of the growing political challenges for social media services,” reported Bloomberg.
Details:
- The Koo app, which was founded in 2020 and had around 2.6 million installs from Indian app stores last year, saw a 20x increase in daily active users following the development.
- From February 6 to February 11, the app’s installs jumped by 901,000, said Koo’s mobile insights strategist Stephanie Chan.
Context:
- The Indian government urges social media apps to block some accounts which allegedly include misinformation regarding the protests by the country’s farmers over agricultural laws. Twitter closed hundreds of accounts accordingly, but refused to ban others, citing concerns over freedom of expression.
- Koo’s sudden rise has sparked concerns over data privacy, as one of its investors is China’s Shunwei Capital. According to the report, the company is looking to buy out the venture firm.
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Jaclyn Tiu
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