Microblogging and social media app Koo is aiming to offer a feature that will allow users to self-verify their profiles, as opposed to rival Twitter, which requires users to go through a lengthy Twitter Verified procedure.
A verified profile on social networking sites like Twitter and Instagram, which is usually indicated by a badge or tick next to the profile name, lends legitimacy to the user because it signifies the service has authenticated the person’s identity.
Verified profiles are only available to celebrities and other influencers on Twitter, and obtaining one can be difficult and take weeks or months.
Koo is seeking to gain an advantage against Twitter with its self-verification experiment for ordinary users.
According to Koo, which is backed by Tiger Global and Accel, the procedure has been simplified by allowing customers to self-authenticate. Users link their accounts to a unique biometric number from the Indian government’s digital identity database, Aadhaar, under the new system. The verification is then activated by sending a password to a mobile phone associated with the Aadhaar number. It usually only takes a few minutes.
“Automated bots, phoney accounts, and anonymous trolling are the major banes of microblogging services,” Aprameya Radhakrishna, Koo’s co-founder and chief executive officer, told Bloomberg.
“This voluntary self-verification feature is toward making social media safer and more real,” he said.
Koo app has nearly 30 million downloads till now and is available in English and other seven languages including Kannada, Hindi and Bengali. The app is available in 10 Indian languages and a dozen more are being added as more regional users go online. The app is also available in Nigeria, a testing ground for expansion abroad.
Ramakarishna had earlier said the identification tick is something that the company is on the path of making and issuing to the public. “This will allow normal users to say I am a real person.”
He said the option will soon be available to all those users who wish to go for it.
Those self-verifying will have green ticks attached to their profiles. The Bangalore-based startup, formally known as Bombinate Technologies Pvt., has a separate yellow tick program for eminent users and cricketers, Bollywood stars and government ministers.
The green ticks will “democratize self-verification” and cut down the lengthy process, Radhakrishna said. They will improve the platform’s authenticity over time and “advertisers will prefer a social network with real people, not bots,” he said.
Later this week, in another social media first, Koo plans to release its algorithms to the public. They will give insights into how Koo users get their feed, how it recommends who to follow and how it builds hashtag trends.
