KOLKATA:Twitter's Indian substitute social media platform Koo is expanding its operations in Nigeria by adding local languages, besides leveraging the 'talk to type' feature on its application. The move comes after the microblogging site Twitter was banned in the African country.
“Now the platform is available in Nigeria. We're thinking of enabling the local languages there too. What say?,” co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna asked Saturday.
The federal government of Nigeria suspended the operations of Twitter indefinitely in the country on 4 June. Notably, the ban was announced two days after the microblogging site deleted an "abusive" tweet made by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, and suspended his account for 12 hours.
As per a PTI report, Koo’s Radhakrishna said the platform is keen on making inroads into the Nigerian market. Now, the country has an opportunity for microblogging sites, he added. Koo will abide by the local laws of each country that it operates in, he mentioned.
Koo was founded in March 2020 as a micro-blogging platform in Indian languages. It also rolled out the 'talk to type' feature in March, so anyperson may share their thoughts easily with minimal keyboard interface, in a targeted drive to tap regional markets.
The platform started getting attention at the beginning of this year amid the Twitter-Indian government standoff.
Endorsed by government officials, Koo has verified handles of MeitY, MyGov, Digital India, India Post, National Informatics Centre (NIC), National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Common Services Center, UMANG app, Digi Locker, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to name a few.
Twitter has been constantly in conflict with the Indian government especially now, over the compliance of the new IT rules. The government on Saturday issued 'one last notice' to Twitter Inc asking it to immediately comply with the new IT rules, failing which it could face stern action and lose exemption from liability under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000.
It is will be interesting for not only Nigerian but also Indian social media users to see how Koo fares, as a replacement brand for the banned Twitter in Nigeria.
In similar fashion, when TikTok, the Chinese application was banned in India, another Indian application Chingari was able to leverage itself with some level of success in India. Even Chingari enjoyed apparent Indian government approval.
If Koo succeeds in Nigeria, it will bolster its confidence to compete with Twitter in India with renewed vigor. And in the eventuality of an Indian ban on Twitter over the current noncompliance of the new IT rules, even seek to become the preferred alternative choice over Indian social media.
As per reports, Koo has already complied with the new rules and shared the necessary information with the government.
