New Delhi, February 12: Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar on Friday began using India's micro-blogging platform 'Koo', joining several ministers who already created their accounts on it.

Making the announcement through his Twitter handle, Javadekar said, “I am now on #Koo also, the #MakeInIndia micro-blogging platform. Follow me @prakashjavadekar on #KooApp.” Koo App: IT Ministry And Other Govt Organisations Move to Homegrown Micro-Blogging Platform After Twitter Fails to Respond to Government's Notice.

Prakash Javadekar Joins Koo

The application was launched 10 months ago but in the last few weeks it saw a massive surge in user base as Union ministers and government departments have endorsed the homegrown microblogging platform amid a spat with Twitter.

Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Tuesday tweeted that he was on Koo and asked people to connect with him. The information technology ministry used Koo to broadcast its stand on Twitter's non-compliance with its order to take down allegedly inflammatory content by some farmer protesters, while ministers urged people to switch platforms.

These developments have led to a surge in the user base of the Indian rival. Koo, which has startling similarities with Twitter, now has over three million users, Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawataka had told PTI on Thursday.

Koo has a yellow bird as its logo in contrast to the blue bird of Twitter. "We had two million users with about 1.5 million active users. Now, we have now crossed the 3 million-mark," Bidawataka had told PTI.

Twitter has 17.5 million users and is ardently used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet ministers to communicate with the public.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)