Explained: Koo enters Nigeria after country bans Twitter; app looks beyond India

He also posted a screenshot of the Koo page of the Government of Nigeria.

Nigeria had suspended the use of Twitter in the country after the social media giant deleted a post by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari for “violation of the company's abusive behaviour policy.”

The Nigerian authorities hit back with the ban citing Twitter’s "persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence."

Nigeria's Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed pointed out that "the sovereignty” of the country was more important than resolving the issue with Twitter. Another bone of contention was the Nigerian government’s demand for official registration of Twitter and other social media platforms. "Twitter must be licensed in Nigeria," Mohammed said.

Soon after the development, Koo co-founder and CEO Radhakrishna tweeted, "Koo is available in Nigeria. We're thinking of enabling the local languages there too. What say," he tweeted, also sharing a screenshot of the languages spoken in Nigeria.

He said Koo is also available in other countries like Mynamar, Nambia, Nepal, Senegal, Rwanda, Philippines, Peru, Paraguay, etc.

Koo was launched last year, and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the microblogging site in one of his Mann Ki Baat episodes.

As tweeted by Radhakrishna, the Indian microblogging site is "ready to spread its wings." Koo is now looking to expand in Nigeria first, to fill the social media void created by the indefinite suspension of Twitter.

In the past, it has spoken about social media platforms needing to be enablers and not judges of content. The Koo co-founder told ET Now over the phone that they started the microblogging site in India with the aim to give a voice to the non-English population of the country. “There are many countries whose populations would like to express themselves in local languages and nations where existing options for microblogging do not operate as per the domestic laws. Koo will fill that gap."

Koo has over 60 lakh users, up from 30 lakh in February, as per reports.

The platform recently raised around $30 million in Series B funding round by marquee investors, with US-based Tiger Global in the lead. It saw Koo’s valuation jump nearly five-fold to $100 million.

This has come in the backdrop of Twitter India’s latest clash with the Indian government over the country’s new rules for social media platforms.

Koo, on the other hand, has complied with the new IT rules without any fuss.

India’s ‘aatmanirbhar’ app also seems to have the support of the Indian government and the leaders of the ruling BJP. Besides, Koo offers the option to post contents in Hindi and other regional languages such as Marathi, Tamil and Kannada.

In a statement, Koo said the fresh round of funding would be mainly utilised to strengthen engineering, product and community efforts across all Indian languages. Radhakrishna said they have aggressive plans to grow into one of the world’s largest social media platforms in the next few years.