Bhupendra Patel launches Gujarati version of Indian micro-blogging site Koo

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel Wednesday launched the Gujarati version of Indian multilingual micro-blogging site 'Koo', which enables people to share content and connect with others using their mother tongue.

The made-in-India micro-blogging site aims to provide tools to the people to connect and express their opinion in their language, its co-founder Mayank Bidawatka told PTI here after the launch event in the capital Gandhinagar.

"We started because a lot of the social platforms that Indians use are predominantly in English. Ninety per cent of our country does not speak English, and these users are now coming online. When a lot of these users who have come online speak some native Indian languages, they are looking for content in that Indian language," Bidawatka said.

The Koo platform provides tools whereby such users, now coming online in a large number, can speak, write, record an audio or a video in his or her own native language and submit it, he said.

"People who want to connect with you in their language will find you on the app and will start following you," he said.

The chief minister, who has been active on Koo for over a month now, said Gujarati must assume a prominent position on social media platforms.

The people of Gujarat should be encouraged to freely express, share thoughts and hold conversations online in their native language, he was quoted a release issued by the micro-blogging app.

With the Gujarati launch, Koo is now available in 10 languages, others being Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Punjabi, Bengali and English. Going forward, the platform will expand to 22 Indian languages, Bidawatka said.

"Several politicians and celebrities are on Koo. We have almost 5,000 accounts of eminence, these are accounts with a tick mark, verified handles," he said.

The tool makes it easy for the creators of the content in languages other than English to share and connect. "We have created the platform which enables you to express yourselves in Hindi and meet other people who speak Hindi, and we do this across 10 different languages," he said.

Recently, the Twitter rival app crossed the milestone of 20 million downloads since its launch in March 2020, and is expected to reach 100 million downloads in the next one year, said Bidawatka.

The platform's translation feature enables the real-time translation of a post across the slew of Indian languages, to enhance reach and garner greater traction for a user, it said.