Koo's flight cut short: Twitter challenger grounded by merger collapse

Koo, the Indian microblogging platform once seen as a rival to X (formerly Twitter), has shut down due to failed partnership talks and high operational costs, founder Aprameya Radhakrishna announced on LinkedIn. Launched in 2020, Koo grew to 60 million downloads and was a strong contender in India but struggled with user decline, financial troubles, and competition from Meta’s Threads. Despite raising $57 million and reaching a peak valuation of $285.5 million, Koo faced challenges like a lack of a viable revenue model and the "funding winter," which hindered its growth and sustainability efforts.