Media firm Dailyhunt in advanced talks to acquire India’s X alternative Koo | Start Ups – Business Standard

Dailyhunt is in the advanced stages of talks to acquire social media platform Koo, according to a report by TechCrunch released on Wednesday. The deal could be finalised “within weeks” and involves a share-swap agreement.

Koo, launched in 2020, is owned by Bangalore-based Bombinate Technologies. It was co-founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka and is considered by many as India’s alternative to Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter.

In September last year, Bidawatka said that the company was looking for a strategic partner. In a LinkedIn post, he wrote, “From growing rapidly to cutting down on growth and proving unit economics, within 6 months of revenue experimentation, we took a 180-degree turn and proved that this is a real business.”

Koo has raised over $60 million from investors like Tiger Global, Accel, Mirae Asset and Blume. It currently operates in India and Brazil.

In November 2022, Koo announced that it had become the second-largest microblogging site after X. However, in subsequent years, reports suggested that the platform continues to witness a fall in monthly active users.

According to market research firm Sensor Tower, Koo’s monthly active users fell from a peak of 4.5 million in January 2021 to 1.7 million in September 2023. In April 2023, it also fired about 30 per cent of its 260 employees. At the time, it said the business needed to “work towards proving its unit economics”.

The platform is betting on supporting local languages to get a wider user base. However, most global apps like WhatsApp and Facebook already offer local Indian languages for the users.

Bengalore-based Dailyhunt was launched in 2010 and is a news aggregator application. Founded by Virendra Gupta, it is available in 14 languages. Last, it was valued at $5 billion.

Business Standard could not independently verify the development. 

First Published: Feb 28 2024 | 9:36 AM IST