Koo Development Centre in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: India's multi-lingual social media platform – Koo – has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Telangana Government to open a Development Centre in Hyderabad.

As part of this MoU, the state government will work jointly with Koo on the use of Telugu to increase reach among non-English speakers in the state. The collaboration will also promote the rich legacy and heritage of Telugu as a language, in addition to the unique culture of Telangana.

IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said the government strongly believes that social media was an important mechanism for advancing the government's effectiveness. "By collaborating with Koo, we are hopeful that our efforts to connect and engage with citizens for disseminating information and services of Telangana Government will be augmented further," he said.

With Hyderabad being an IT hub, with access to a robust technology ecosystem and a large pool of IT talent, Koo envisioned its presence in the region to grow in a significant manner.

"As an independent and inclusive platform which empowers users to express in 10 languages, Koo boasts of a sizable community of users from the region," Co-founder and CEO of KOO Aprameya Radhakrishna said.

He said language-based social media was the need of the hour, especially in a multi-lingual country like India. Being neutral and independent, Koo is the platform-of-choice for Indians. "We are truly honoured and privileged to collaborate with the Government of Telangana to further our cause of empowering voices with digital freedom of expression," he added.

Officials said that the development centre will tap into local talent and promote synergies with stakeholders in the state. The development centre in Hyderabad will be a key enabler in this mission.

The platform's speciality includes a translation feature which enables real-time translation of a post across the slew of languages, while retaining the sentiment and context of the original text, officials said.