Indian microblogging platform Koo plans to introduce ‘WhatsApp Group like experiences’ on the platform for users with common interests this year, in addition to introducing live videos and other new product features According to CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna.
The social media company is also looking for people from various backgrounds, such as former bureaucrats, journalists, and other personalities, to form an advisory board to “handle” a few situations involving hate speech or free speech that may arise each year, he said.
“2021 was a very exciting year for us right from February when we got into the limelight and really got a boost and so much love from all parts of India,” From the top most Bollywood actors to sports stars and politicians, we have more than 5000 verified folks of eminence using the platform to communicate in local languages every single day,” he said. “We have hit 20 million downloads. Our goal is to get to 100 million downloads by December this year.”
He said the company is working on bringing in “new realms of expression” for conversations or debates through live chat rooms.
“There are different aspects of going live in a room. One of the things that we are working on is text first. It’s like a WhatsApp group like experience but in an open community,” he said. “Whatsapp groups are for known people who you can add through their phone numbers, but if you are interested in talking about a match for instance, there will be chat rooms that will enable discussions on it.”
“It will be a WhatsApp group kind of an experience. Then there will be Video lives. Those are rooms that we want to enable for some of the most important folks of India to create and have discussions with their followers,” Radhakrishna said.
“All of this is work in progress. WhatApp group like chats could be created by regular Koo users or some of the verified folks. We are targeting to launch this in the first quarter of this year. We should be able to get live videos going by April.”
Radhakrishna expects a 3-4X increase in the number of Eminence verified people on the platform. Eminence is the platform’s yellow tick verification mechanism, according to the company, that recognises and celebrates a user’s eminence, stature, achievements, abilities, and professional standing.
Attend the “INDIA FIRST TECH STARTUP CONCLAVE & AWARDS’22-Delhi Chapter,” organised by the All India Council for robotics and automation and supported by the Ministry of electronics and information technology, to get a feel for the pulses of the Indian startup ecosystem in person.
The event is set to take place on February 17th and 18th, 2022, and will be the largest tech startup event of the year. The event brings together the best entrepreneurs, innovators, venture capitalists, government department officials, business model creators, consultants, policy-makers, academia, support groups, business coaches, and business practitioners.
The Platform helps startups to ramp up their innovative ideas and show off their services and products to attract investors. The experts of the industry will address and discuss all the innovations happening around the startup environment that youth empowerment and new-age tech business ideas can grow.
Click to know more about India’s biggest tech startup event: IndiaFirst Tech Start up | AICRA
