New Delhi: Microblogging platform; ‘Koo’ has now laid off 260 of its employees or around 30% of its total workforce. At the same time, according to Bloomberg’s report on the matter, the company has actually made this major reduction in its workforce due to the difficulty in fundraising and financial loss.
On the matter, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg that, right now the global sentiments are more focused on efficiency than growth. As per the report, Ku will offer a compensation package to the laid-off employees. Apart from this, along with increasing the health benefit, it will also help them a lot in searching for a new job.
‘Koo App’ is seen as a desi version of Twitter
Koo was founded three years ago i.e. in 2020 and got good recognition as the desi version of Twitter. Koo App won the Government of India’s Self-Reliant App Innovation Challenge in August 2020. Currently, Koo has more than 60 million app downloads.
The co-founder once expressed his grief over the layoffs of Twitter
It is also interesting that, when Elon Musk laid off a large number of Twitter employees, Koo App co-founder Mayank Bidawatka expressed his grief over this and also expressed his desire to hire the fired employees from Twitter. In this regard, Mayank Bidawatka said in a tweet that micro-blogging is about the power of the people. No suppression.” At the same time, only about 1500 employees are left in Twitter.
On the other hand, a Koo app spokesperson said, “We recently raised $10 million in January 2023 and are well capitalized. We are not looking at raising funds at the moment. We are making a lot of progress with the proceeds and will try to raise funds as per the requirement in the future.
Like most startups, Koo App also recruited a set number of employees keeping in mind the sudden boom. We were also impacted by the current market conditions and the external reality of the global slowdown. Some of the world’s most profitable companies have also lost thousands of jobs. We are a young startup and we have a long road ahead. Currently, the global sentiment is more focused on efficiency than growth and businesses need to work towards proving unit economics.
Till this phase passes, it is necessary for all types of businesses to adopt an efficient and conservative approach. As a result, we let go of 30 percent of our workforce with redundant roles during the year and have supported them through compensation packages, increased health benefits, and outplacement services.
Within just three years of launching, the Koo app has garnered over 60 million downloads and is the second-largest microblog available in the world with over 20 global languages. Koo App started its monetization experiments in September 2022 and within 6 months we have one of the highest ARPU per DAU among Indian social media companies and direct global competitors. With over 100 brands advertising on the platform, we will continue to experiment with monetization to build a sustainable business.
As history has proven, better times will come again for all of us collectively. We are most positive about what we are building for the world and what the Koo app means for India as it enters the world of social media.”
