Koo, an Indian social media and microblogging site that has evolved to compete with Twitter, is said to have joined the list of organizations that have laid off employees.
Following Twitter’s prohibition in June 2021, the blog gained prominence in the Nigerian social media landscape. Since then, 30% of its global workforce has been laid off.
The three-year-old microblogging service blames recent layoffs on funding constraints. “We have had to make some difficult decisions in light of the pandemic and its impact on our business,” said Aprameya Radhakrishna, CEO of Koo. We are assisting our employees with finding new jobs and supporting them throughout this tough time.
“The global mood right now is more about efficiency than growth, and businesses need to work on proving unit economics,” stated a spokeswoman for a Tiger Global-backed company in answer to a question.
This layoff trend began when the microblogging site was named the world’s second-largest microblog. The app had more than 50 million downloads by November 2022. This enormous momentum has been rising at an increasing rate as a result of its efforts to become more local.
According to the source, the microblogging platform aims to assist workers who have been affected by this unexpected news by providing compensation packages, extending health coverage, and assisting them in finding new positions.
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Why fire 30% of the workers?
With the economy getting worse, many tech companies are laying off workers to save money and deal with their already difficult financial situations. Even though Koo is successful and well-known around the world, it still has a big problem that keeps it from growing.
Koo has had trouble getting money despite its achievements. There are claims that the company has raised more than $50 million since it was founded, but this amount doesn’t seem to be enough to support its plans to keep growing.
Koo is said to have been looking for more money to support its plans to grow, but it’s possible that investors have been hesitant to put money into the platform because they don’t think it will be able to monetize its user base, which has grown a lot in the last couple of months, especially with all the Twitter power shift saga.
The messaging platform had to find a different way to handle its already limited resources, and cutting employees would have been a good way to do it.
The fact that Koo fired its employees shows how hard it is for startups to get money. Even after the first round of funding, it’s hard for many businesses to get more money. This could be because investors are often reluctant to put money into companies that haven’t yet figured out how to make money.
Koo’s market can improve
Koo still has a bright future and may need to focus on its core capabilities to overcome the setback and win international renown.
During the legal disputes between the Indian government and Twitter regarding the platform’s content, a large number of Indians, including government officials, cricket players, and Hindi film personalities, flocked to Koo as a local alternative.
Localization and building communities are two of these key features that draw people from all over the world as they have with Indian users. As the number of people who use it grows, it can try new ways to make money and keep growing.
Koo has the potential to become a significant rival to well-known social media juggernauts like Twitter and Facebook, both in the Indian market and beyond, with the correct support and investment. The app has many more features than Twitter, such as free verification, the ability to create material in many languages, and multi-image profile images.
