UPI is the biggest innovation in internet history from India.
Our 85% of users are paying through UPI.
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Kuku FM has just crossed 800k active paid subscriptions.
Just for context, we were at 257k active paid users on 1st Jan 2022. This rocketship is on 🔥🚀🚀🚀
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Google is the most evil company for businesses. Our Indian startup system is completely controlled by them.
Google delisted us in 2019 for 25 days without pre-notifying us. Worst days ever. Just imagine the atmosphere where the team is working daily in the office and there is no app on Play Store.
Now they have delisted us again. We are now faced with no option but to accept their terms. This will completely destroy our business and make Kuku FM unfordable for the majority of the country, but when have a monopoly cared about anything beyond itself.
It feels like we will never be able to operate safely if our ecosystem is controlled by them. We need the Indian govt to step in and save the start-up ecosystem.
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Kuku FM has just crossed 1.5 Mn active paid subscriptions.
Just for context, we were at 257k active paid subscriptions on 1st Jan 2022. This rocketship is on 🔥🚀🚀🚀
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Kuku FM has just crossed 1Mn active paid subs. 27x in 12 months! We're now India's biggest audio subscription platform.
From 'India mein log pay nahi karte' to here it's been an amazing journey. 🔥🚀
On the way to becoming the go-to destination for aspirational Young India.
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Kuku FM has just crossed 2 Mn active paid subscriptions.
First million in 18 months, second million in less than 4 months.
To the moon 🚀
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Kuku FM now has 500,000+ active paid subscribers.
HALF A MILLION !!
We have already crossed some big music players in terms of paid subscriptions 🚀
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Excited to announce that Kuku FM has raised $22Mn in Series B1. Today we are the largest audio subscription platform in India with 1.7Mn+ active paid subscriptions - aiming to grow it to 10Mn by 2023.
Thank you to everyone who believed in Kuku FM's vision.
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From 1K new paid subscribers in Jan'21 to 102K new additions in Dec'21 alone. We grew from nowhere to 250K+ active subscribers in 2021.
Let that sink in.. Today is 10th and we have already crossed first 6 months of 2021 combined. Slowly at first and then all at once 🚀
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Let me say it real loud… We have just crossed 100K active paid users on Kuku FM.
Audio is the most natural form of content consumption. Eventually, It will supersede all the other content formats. This is just the beginning.
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It's been an incredible year at Kuku FM!
We've seen tremendous growth, going from 257k to 2.3 Mn active paid subscriptions in 2022, a 9x increase in the last 12 months.
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Just finished The Beginning of Infinity book. This book is so mind-blowing, I will say one of the best books I have ever read. I highly recommend everyone to read this book.
Got this from the @naval recommendation list.
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Just crossed 200k active paid users on Kuku FM.
At Jan end we were at 1k paid users. Just imagine this crazy growth journey.
@KukuFMOfficial team you're the best! 😍
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This is the standard of my competitor founders. Playing completely dirty games! They still think they can beat the competition through fake PR and paid tweeter trends 🤦♂️
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Excited to announce that Kuku FM has raised $25Mn in Series C as we embark on the next phase of our supersonic journey to become the world's largest audio content platform. We are grateful to @IFC_org, @FundamentumVC and Vertex for believing in us.
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We have completed 7 years today. Crazy journey! Still day 1. I am praying to get even more strength to face bigger challenges going forward 🙏🏻 very greatful to have such awesome patterns and great team all along 🥰
Happy birthday, Kuku! 🚀🚀
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15 Months back Ajay Sahu made his first internet payment to get Kuku FM premium. At this moment we knew there was something special to what we were building @KukuFMOfficial.
Today Kuku FM is India’s biggest non-music audio platform with 600k+ active paid subscribers.
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Today is Kuku FM's Birthday 🎉🥳
4 years ago today, we released our first version of the app.
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Netflix didn't get the India market yet. Even Kuku FM will cross Netflix in the next two quarters.
Disney+ Hotstar ➡️45 million subscribers
Amazon Prime video➡️ 19 million subscribers
Netflix ➡️ 4.5-5 million subscribers
These figures are for India.👆
Why do you think Netflix is lagging behind, even after drastically reducing its subscription price?
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Have met multiple founders and VCs in the last week, we are living in the most exciting times in the history of the Indian startup ecosystem.
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“Retirement” occurs when you stop sacrificing today for an imagined tomorrow. You can retire when your passive income exceeds your burn rate, or when you can make a living doing what you love. - @naval
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This is so unfair. Google is using a divide-and-rule strategy here. They are talking to some companies to settle for less Google tax. They have already done a secret deal with Spotify where Spotify is not paying any Google tax. Many big companies still do not comply with Google tax guidelines but have not been delisted.
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Sometimes your market surprises you. When we started monetization in Jan we thought we will touch 200 daily paid users by Sept. We crossed it yesterday 🚀
India is not poor anymore If you provide the right value to your users millions are ready to pay you today.
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One odd thing I observed when I was in the USA last year is that the smarter a person is, the more they speak and share their thoughts openly. In India, you’ll find smart people generally speak very less. They also don’t write much. In the USA, almost every smart person also writes and shares it openly. Even one of friends in USA also mentioned that you are unstoppable if you are smart, have good communication and speak more.
I don’t think this is about being introvert or extrovert. This is more about our society and culture. In our society, speaking too much is considered bad. People gossip or criticize if someone talks too much, and you take it as a signal and follow it.
The bad part about this is that smart/successful people are sharing less and it’s stopping knowledge sharing in India. I really wish that all the smart/successful people in India do speak more, write more, and share more.
Btw exceptions are on both sides.
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We are incredibly honoured to be on the #ForbesUnder30 2020 list.
All of this is because and for the incredible team we have at
Kuku FM. Working day and night to make this world a better place.
Thank you to all that have made this work possible!
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Always try to be undervalued.
Whenever people try to overvalue you, kill it consciously.
Undervalued = freedom + surprise + edge
Overvalued = expectation + pressure + fragile
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I can feel the frustration. Last year we were also removed from the play store without any notice. It was mental torture for 20 days till we get our app back. This is scary if they are removing our top companies just like that. Not good for our ecosystem.
Google is acting like the judge, jury & executioner, says @Paytm CEO @vijayshekhar after his company's apps are removed from the PlayStore. He says the #IPL game which @Google calls "gambling" is a straightforward cash back concept. @MeghaVishwanath @ShereenBhan #Exclusive
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Kuku FM Twitter account got hacked. We are figuring it out with Twitter. For any customer issues please reach out to info@kukufm.com
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Last month we added 30K new paid users on Kuku FM. That's 50% growth from Sept. This month is looking even more exciting.
Happy Dhanteras 🎉
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super!! I will request @AshwiniVaishnaw to keep both parties in the discussion. It would be great if we could present our side of the story. Looking forward to further progress on this matter.
Govt calls Google, apps delisted from Play Store for meeting next week to resolve dispute: Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to PTI
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me after every market crash
nitter.app/wasattempt_/status/153…
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India mein kaun content ke liye paise dega? Indian users only want free stuff. Iski market hi nahin hai.
If I had believed all of this in 2018 when I started Kuku FM then we wouldn't exist today. Stories have no boundaries & so do we. With GenAI we are going beyond audio & India to tell stories across multiple formats-videos, comics, anime and a lot more. Stay tuned.
Our Co-founder & CEO @lcbisu shared his thoughts with @AyantiBera on the future of storytelling, entertainment & GenAI at Kuku FM as we look towards building a large content ecosystem beyond audio for our amazing users & our fantastic community of creators.
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Curiosity is overhyped. Asking questions endlessly without taking any action is just waste of time and energy
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The only place where you need discipline is where there is abundance. In scarcity, nature disciplines you.
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Link for @naval's recommendation - mostrecommendedbooks.com/nav…
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Work hard, build something awesome and get these unexpected epic moments.. Nothing matches this feeling for a team
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This headline is so misleading. Either Google is pushing this narrative or news houses are not checking the facts.
First, most of the companies are not back in the Play Store yet.
Second, if some of them are back, they don't have any payment system for revenue on their app. Their business is zero. It's the same as delisted.
The short term solution we need is our status quo as before delisting the apps so that we can run our business as usual.
@Rajeev_GoI @AshwiniVaishnaw
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If the potential downside is limited, trust your instincts and move forward. Doing is often faster than constantly thinking and analyzing.
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Podcasts made it so easy to walk with the smartest people on the earth and pick their minds from anywhere anytime.
Direct practical knowledge transfer from doers.
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Generating wealth for yourself and for the people who come along with you is most satisfying.
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Spoke with this person. He manages a team of 30 people and the business of servicing fire safety installations. He himself is Kuku user and was like sab log din bhar field par rehte hai, Kuku hoga to sath sath kuch learnings bhi ho jayegi.
Respect 🙏🙏
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Easiest way to start a conversation with founders, just say something about their product. Pighal jate hai 😉
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Kuku FM app rating has increased from 4.2 to 4.5 stars in the last 50 days.
Listen to your customers and continuously push the boundaries to provide them with what they are looking for.
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There is only one thing that can make your life better — knowledge.
Everything we have today from pencils to cars to rockets is because of the right knowledge. We can remove all the poverty, diseases, and wars if we have access to proper knowledge.
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1 Million minutes listened on Kuku FM daily. Excited for the journey to make it 10x -> 100x -->1000x 🤟
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Very clear explanation of the situation. Watch the video till the end.
#NDTVExclusive | "Government talking to Google is comforting but we would also like to have a seat at the table": Anupam Mittal, founder, shaadi.com to Gargi Rawat (@GargiRawat) after Google removed Matrimony apps From Play Store over fee dispute
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When celebrities recommend your platform 🙏
Does she like to read? If not, I would recommend getting her started with audiobooks - vernacular.
@KukuFMOfficial is a good start.
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The biggest culprit for a sustainable business is performance marketing on google and fb. They have optimized their ad pricing such that you can barely survive on it. And it’s so easy to start and addictive that founders rarely spend time exploring other growth channels.
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We here at Kuku FM are dedicated to making life-changing knowledge accessible to every Indian. Happy 4th Birthday, Kuku FM! A long way to go 🚀
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haha.. let's make it compulsory, first you will talk about Bangalore infra then only you can talk about UPI
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When will we invent the next product that will beat the success of UPI? UPI has set the bar too high 🚀
7.8 billion Financial digital transactions were done in December 2022 with a value of more than Rs 10 trillion. This translates to more than 2900 financial transactions per second! This is 1.5 times that in China and an incredible 20 times of financial transactions in the US
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If you are from a middle class and still haven’t achieved what you want, stay away from people who talk about peace and happiness by direct means. Instead you should -
- work super hard day & night
- work for your own mental growth. learn every day something new
- focus on health. Left weights and increase your strength. It will go a long way with you.
- don’t settle with small wins. Ask for more difficulties and challenges. You will be become more stronger after each new challenges.
- run behind money. It will solve most of your problems
- status and ego are not bad things. Use them to grow yourself.
- break the social expectations. This is the hardest. You have to sacrifice a lot of things.
- silence is weakness. Learn to speak and say whatever you want to say. Society teach you opposite.
Happiness and peace is the outcome of your own growth. If you try to get them directly by rest or meditation or travel or food or alcohol, you are already weak you will become more weaker.
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India is too big to understand in one thesis. We have our own taste and our culture. You need deep user understanding to serve them well. Even monetizing them is also very different.
75% of our users are from Tier-II cities. So many unique insights and a long way from here 🚀
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Any physical movement will help you to think more clearly. My all the best ideas came during random slow walking.
For most of us the purpose of the exercise should be to think more clearly than aiming for fitness. It is more fun and fitness will be a byproduct.
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Thanks, @AshwiniVaishnaw and @Rajeev_GoI for your valuable time to understand the concerns of Indian startups and for your super quick response.
This is a short term fix. We want to ensure app developers have freedom of choice in choosing payment gateways and gateway charges rather than being forced. Today It's transaction charges are arbitrary, selective & a blatant misuse of monopoly which will crush the local start up ecosystem.
We need a fair game for long term viability of apps for a thriving digital economy. We will keep fighting for this.
Delisted apps to be restored.
Google and app developers will work in close co-operation with each other.
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95% of Kuku FM users are Android users. We were focusing more on the Android app. Now we will start improving our iOS app also as the user base is also increasing with time.
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Our mind very quickly makes any negative thing as the primary thing. A lot of times even negative things are not related to our main task, it distracts equally. We get scared and put all the energy there.
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We all are so busy in day to day tasks and struggle daily to move things. Even many times we miss the momentum in things in a shorter time horizon. See our user growth since we started 🚀
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We are into most followed indian ott on instagram..🔥
Netflix - 12 M
Prime videos - 5.4 M
Kuku TV - 5 M🔥
Jio hotstar - 2.9 M
Sony LIV - 1.4 M
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Looks like the new name of the original Graphy product.
Anyway, GetFrontRow is much ahead in this game already.
Introducing Unacademy Icons.
A subscription where you can learn new skills from the very best, from the Icons.
Our 1st Iconic Course is with the legendary @sachin_rt where he will teach the fundamentals of the game in his first ever Cricket Course.
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Every company is a media company.
Everyone is a content creator.
If you or your company is not investing in content, you are already losing the race.
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We have India’s biggest audio library!
We’ve just added 21,000 more shows to our Kuku FM library with Hubhopper.
This will take audio experience to the next level for our 3 Mn+ paid subscribers and millions of other users
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I want to visit ISRO campus in Bangalore someday. Who can invite me or connect me with the right person? Please DM 🙏
Thanks and love in advance ❤️
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Everything has a core part, rest is noise. Priorities accordingly. Focus on care part, say no to everything else.
People who can't understand the core part, can't say "No" to things. Everything is important for them.
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Our apps (Kuku TV, Kuku FM and Guru) are currently down. Our team is working hard to bring them back live. They will be live very soon.
Thank you for your patience 🙏
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What a timing! Internet monopoly is obvious globally. It is not a fair game anymore. Everyone is fighting their battle.
India can set an example here.
@Rajeev_GoI @AshwiniVaishnaw
EU fines Apple €1.8 billion in Spotify streaming case bbc.in/3Tl738o
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The war is already won 🫢 You are a bit late. Btw the moat is still content. And that is function of scale.
India’s content platform wars are just getting started.
AI kills content costs and time-to-liquidity. Social media brings early distribution. UPI Autopay unlocks early monetization.
The moat is no longer content. In early days, it will be ability to use AI effectively and eventually it will be retention.
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Biggest social service is building something that can solve a problem. And if that solution can scale to masses, you are a star.
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We daily get so many requests to expand in other languages on email/WhatsApp/Twitter. Very grateful to see such high demand from other regions.
Soon you will be able to listen to Kuku FM in your own language. Thanks for your patience 🙏
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No one was thinking to become better parents in India a decade ago. Today people are even paying for such content. Everyone here is aspiring to grow and learn, across age groups and economic groups. India 🚀🚀
The Curious Parent has crossed 🎉half a million 🥳listens on @kukufmofficial. One of the reasons I wanted to do this in Hindi was because of the lack of content in our mother tongue.
A reviews thread.. .
From parents who have been hitting children..
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Day by day, I feel that whatever we have learned in the last 15-20 years in the name of startup culture is complete bullshit. It is much better to stay closer to traditional business practices than to follow modern startup trends.
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Time to read one more time nitter.app/lcbisu/status/15304424…
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These are RSS feed podcasts only. Looks like a side effect of our team's hard work. We have 65,637 podcasts (non-English) at this moment on Kuku FM and it’s increasing exponentially.
#AbhiPictureBakiHai
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Read it! This is how we got our first 100K paid users on Kuku FM. A lot of hard work and bold decisions. Kudos to @KukuFMOfficial team!
Soon our team will share how to get your first 1M paid users 😋
As we have now touched 125k subscribers from 10 months of launch, I reflected upon how were we as a team able to navigate to this milestone, a thread🧵
We are hiring, do reach out! @lcbisu @vinod2292 @vkgyl2432 @kunaljijoshi @p12sachinks @AnkitSara
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