Kumu grapples with declining users, rising competition

Candice Lee also worked on this story.

Following three rounds of layoffs and a spate of resignations, Kumu’s worries are far from over. Amid stiff competition from players like TikTok, the company has seen a decline in users.

Additionally, the Philippines-headquartered livestreaming platform’s core business has seen drops in downloads and consumer spend since the start of 2022.

While it addresses these concerns, the company says it’s also reworking its overall growth strategy, including how and when to invest in talent, intellectual properties, and audience communities.

Why is Kumu’s user base down?

In the Philippines, Kumu’s downloads declined by over 2.3x across iPhone and Android devices from January 2022 to February 2023 compared to the previous 14-month period, according to insights from Data.ai.

Its average monthly active users (MAUs) in the country on both iPhone and Android devices dropped by nearly 20% over the same period.

This slump is visible in its global business too.

The company – which has users in over 55 countries – has seen its global downloads decline by over 2.2x during the same period, while its average MAUs dropped by over 16%.

The company says that the slump in downloads and MAUs “was a natural outcome of us cutting almost all our paid acquisition and content production.”

While this may be the case, Kumu has been facing tough competition from TikTok, which has risen in popularity in the Philippines over the last two years. The ByteDance-backed firm began as a short-video platform but quickly moved into the livestreaming space with the launch of TikTok Live in 2019.

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