Interview with founder of Koo, a microblogging service for regional language speakers in India that recently passed 3M users, fueled in large part by Modi's BJP
Aprameya Radhakrishna made Koo for local-language speakers. Overnight, Hindu nationalists drove its success. — • BANGALORE, INDIA Tweets: @marklittlenews , @restofworld , @anupkaphle , @cengizyar , @_meher , @anupkaphle , @nilchristopher , @restofworld , @bibhasdn , @leomschwartz , @lmatsakis , @hanaatameez , and @restofworld Tweets: Mark Little / @marklittlenews : “I'm an entrepreneur; I'm extremely apolitical” 🤦♂️ It's 2021. How do we still have technologists washing their hands of the political impact of their tech? https://restofworld.org/... @restofworld : When @aprameya developed @kooindia, he wanted a local language alternative to Twitter. But after a contentious few weeks between India's ruling Hindu nationalist party and Twitter, his app has been thrust into the limelight as a “free speech” alternative https://restofworld.org/... Anup Kaphle / @anupkaphle : India's ruling party is encouraging its followers to leave Twitter for a new app called #Koo. Rest of World's @NilChristopher spoke to @aprameya, founder of Koo, about the app's sudden popularity and what he makes of the platform being compared to Parler https://restofworld.org/... Cengiz / @cengizyar : Since being embraced by India's ruling Hindu nationalist party, Koo has grown from below 100k daily active users to nearly one million. @restofworld's @NilChristopher spoke to @aprameya about the app's sudden popularity and its comparisons to Parler. https://restofworld.org/... Meher / @_meher : Koo was founded as a local-language social media platform for Indian users (a great idea!) but overnight, it's become a Hindu-nationalist alternative to Twitter. @NilChristopher asks the founder what he makes of his sudden success with India's far right: https://restofworld.org/... Anup Kaphle / @anupkaphle : How a Twitter alternative in India became the darling of Hindu nationalists You don't want to miss this excellent interview with the founder of Koo, by @NilChristopher https://restofworld.org/... Nilesh Christopher / @nilchristopher : How @IndianKooApp became India's Hindu nationalist-approved Twitter alternative A contentious Q&A with the man behind Koo @aprameya who made the app for local-language speakers and what he makes of the platform being called India's answer to Parler https://restofworld.org/... @restofworld : After a contentious few weeks with Twitter, India's ruling Hindu nationalist party is urging followers to leave the platform for a new app: Koo. We spoke to its founder about his sudden popularity and whether the platform is India's answer to Parler https://restofworld.org/... Monty / @bibhasdn : If your platform lets people communication or create content of any sort, and if you think that your platform will stay apolitical, then that's a pretty high delusion. And you're likely intentionally blind if you say that, when your platform is the RE hub. https://restofworld.org/... Leo Schwartz / @leomschwartz : .@NilChristopher interviews @aprameya, the founder of Koo, an alternative to Twitter that has been championed by Hindu nationalists and India's ruling party: https://restofworld.org/... Louise Matsakis / @lmatsakis : Koo is being pegged as the Parler of India. @NilChristopher interviewed its founder, and it went as you might expect. It's incredible to see an entrepreneur in 2021 who believes their “free speech” platform can be “apolitical” https://restofworld.org/... https://twitter.com/... Hanaa' Tameez / @hanaatameez : This @restofworld interview became increasingly more stressful to read (by no fault of the reporter) and now you must read it too https://restofworld.org/... https://twitter.com/... @restofworld : When @aprameya developed @kooindia, he wanted a local language alternative to Twitter. But after a contentious few weeks between India's ruling Hindu nationalist party and Twitter, his app has been thrust into the limelight as a “free speech” alternative https://restofworld.org/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Koo crossed 3M users not on regional-language appeal alone but because the BJP urged its followers off Twitter and onto the app — making it functionally India's answer to Parler, except backed by the ruling party rather than pushed out of mainstream app stores. Founder Aprameya Radhakrishna insists he is apolitical, a framing observers like Mark Little openly mocked given who was driving his growth.
The arc since then is instructive: within months Koo exported the same government-friendly-alternative positioning to Nigeria, and by 2024 sources described layoffs of roughly 80% of its workforce and an inability to raise more funds — evidence that party-driven adoption did not convert into a durable business.
First-order effects
- The BJP's migration call converts an organized political network into Koo's user base overnight, directly pulling engagement away from Twitter in India.
- Radhakrishna's apolitical branding collides with a Hindu-nationalist user surge, forcing moderation and identity choices the founder claims he never intended to make.
Second-order effects
- Twitter now operates in India against a rival favored by the government, sharpening pressure on its compliance posture and content-takedown decisions.
- Koo tests whether the party-endorsed alternative playbook travels, taking the same positioning to Nigeria where government friction with foreign platforms created an opening.
Third-order effects
- Reporting on community apps like Kutumb shows where this pattern leads: political mobilization moving onto domestic platforms that sit beyond civil watchdogs' scrutiny.
- Koo's slide into mass layoffs suggests politically fueled adoption without independent revenue is structurally fragile — patronage is a distribution channel, not a business model.
The trend: Ruling parties are seeding homegrown social platforms as political infrastructure, but patronage-driven growth has yet to prove commercially durable.