Indian microblogging and social networking app Koo on Thursday announced that the Government of Nigeria has set up an official account on the platform, looking at making deeper inroads into the African nation.
The latest development comes in the backdrop of a standoff between the Nigerian government and Twitter. Last week, the Nigerian government had said it was suspending Twitter indefinitely after removing a contentious tweet that President Muhammadu Buhari made about a secessionist movement.
Following this, Koo said the platform is available in Nigeria and is keen on adding new local languages for users in that country.
Koo co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna, in a post on Koo, said, “The official handle of the government of Nigeria is now on Koo!”
Radhakrishna also announced on Twitter, saying, “A very warm welcome to the official handle of the Government of Nigeria on @kooindia ! Spreading wings beyond India now.”
Koo has previously stated that it has already complied with India’s IT rules enforced last month and that it has shared necessary details as sought by the government on the issue.
Founded by Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, Koo was launched last year to allow users to express themselves and engage in Indian languages. It supports multiple languages, including Hindi, Telugu and Bengali, among others.
The indigenous platform has over 60 lakh users and had recently raised USD 30 million (about Rs 218 crore) in a funding round led by Tiger Global.
Koo’s popularity in India peaked amid the Indian government’s spat with Twitter and growing calls for expanding the ecosystem of homegrown digital platforms. The platform has seen massive growth in its user base over the past few months after union ministers and government departments in India endorsed the homegrown microblogging platform.