Twitter's Indian Rival Koo Continues To Lose Active Users As It Cuts Expenses

Boycott calls gather steam on social media only to fizzle out without significantly denting a brand's image or a firm's fortunes. WhatsApp continues to be the market leader despite a part of its userbase migrating to Telegram and Signal, while Twitter has survived in India despite facing action by authorities and competition from local rival Koo.

The microblogging site which emerged as India's answer to Twitter has now started losing monthly active users.

Koo lost more than 30 lakh active users in April 2023, as its user base continued to shrink for a third straight month.

Although members of the ruling government and celebrities ousted from Twitter turned to Koo, opposition party members and most celebrities decided to stay back.

What's causing the decline?

With the change in Twitter's leadership that was followed by restrictions on several accounts being lifted, celebrities and their followers who left for Koo have also returned.

But a fund crunch is also causing the decline in Koo's active users, as the firm has less cash to spend on bringing new users on board and retaining existing users.

Despite the efforts to reduce expenses, Koo was forced to lay off employees twice last year, as it integrated ChatGPT among its offerings.

Koo has come to this point just months after announcing that it will hire tech employees in India laid off by global firms.