Made-in-India microblogging app Koo has received considerable backing from the netizens after union ministers and official accounts of ministries started moving to the app. However, soon questions were raised about the financing and ‘Chinese investment’ in the app.
As per the reports, Shunwei Capital, a Chinese investor, has a small single-digit stake in the company at present. However, the stake is now being bought by the other companies.
In a tweet, co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna replied to the questions raised over app’s Chinese connection.
https://twitter.com/aprameya/status/1359501894779953158?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAprameya in a tweet confirmed that there is a single-digit Chinese investment in Koo app, but it happened during the time when the capital was raised 2.5 years ago. He said, “Koo is an India registered company with Indian founders. Raised earlier capital 2.5 years ago. Latest funds for Bombinate Technologies is led by a truly Indian investor 3one4 capital. Shunwei (single-digit shareholder) which had invested in our Vokal journey will be exiting fully.”
Koo has raised almost Rs 30 crore from the investors, which will be more than enough to take back the control of single-digit stakes from the Chinese company.
Koo is adding more servers to meet the demand
As thousands of new accounts are popping up on Koo app, the current server cluster is unable to manage the load. Thus, there have been periodic server outages. Koo is quickly adding servers to match the demand.
https://twitter.com/aprameya/status/1359602545782476803?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAprameya in a tweet said, “We have got more love than we expected. Our systems are facing more load than ever. Thank you for placing your trust in us. Our team is working on overdrive to fix it. We request your patience and support through this time.”
Face-off between the Indian government and Twitter
In recent times, the Indian government and Twitter have locked horns Twitter’s inaction against accounts that were inciting violence and spreading misinformation. MeiTy had sent several orders to block accounts that tried to paint a picture as if PM Modi is planning genocide. After Twitter denied to take action against some accounts associated with press, leaders and journalists, government departments started to move to Koo and urged people to join the platform. The support for the app from government officials resulted in a spike that no one had anticipated.
OpIndia’s interview with Koo’s Aprameya
Recently, OpIndia’s Rahul Roushan discussed with Koo’s Aprameya where they talked about the future plans, policies, freedom of expression and political atmosphere on social media apps. You can read more about the discussion here.