Tech Layoffs: Koo fires 30% of its staff, months after offering to hire those hit by job cuts

Social media platform Koo, which has emerged as India's homegrown answer to Twitter, was in the news earlier for offering to hire professionals laid off by global tech firms. But now the micro-blogging platforms has itself succumbed to the need for job cuts to save costs, and has laid off 30 per cent of its staff.

Backed by Tiger Global, the Indian startup has trimmed its workforce of 260 people by firing 15 employees in the past few months.

Fund crunch driving job cuts

• Koo's decision comes after a funding freeze that has been affecting Indian startups for a year now.

• So far, the country's new-age digital startups have sacked more than 20,000 people, with edtech platforms hit worst.

• Koo's global counterpart Twitter has been sacking people from time to time, after laying off more than 50 per cent of its workforce since Elon Musk took over as CEO.

Losing traction rapidly

• Koo had been founded as a local alternative to Twitter, when the microblogging giant led by Jack Dorsey was facing scrutiny by the Indian government.

• For FY22, Koo had posted a five-fold rise in its losses to Rs 197 crore, as its revenue was restricted to less than Rs 5 crore.

• Although the app clocked 60 million downloads in three years, its monthly active users dropped from 9.4 million to 4.1 million between July 2022 and January 2023.

• The losses come despite Koo becoming one of the first few Indian businesses to adopt ChatGPT.