Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath wants to enter the media space by building a new version of social media. At the NDTV World Summit, he said, "With media we do have aspirations but I don't think it's covering the news kind of media." He hopes to create homegrown Indian platforms.
New Delhi:
Stock trading app Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath is interested in entering the media space, but not in the way traditional media works. The entrepreneur, who also runs the popular podcast 'WTF Is', in a conversation with NDTV Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal shared his vision of what it would be like if he finally decided to take the plunge into the media business.
To a question about whether he wants to build beyond where they are at in order to go to the next level with a media business, Kamath accepted they are definitely interested in it.
"With media we do have aspirations but I don't think it's covering the news kind of media. I think the aspiration is to build social media, a new version of it, and we've been experimenting with different apps," the Zerodha co-founder said at the NDTV World Summit.
He said there is a strong reason behind the wish to enter the media space and cited the example of neighbouring China to illustrate his point.
"Like China, I grew up in a world which was getting more globalised. Today's world seems to get more fragmented with every passing month. Like China has its own version of everything: social media, e-commerce, quick commerce, all of that. I wouldn't be surprised if more of the world goes in that direction and at some point in time India might have its own social media," Kamath said.
"India might have its own version of everything American. We're trying to build something with that world in mind, but hopefully also something that can travel outside of India and not just be restricted to it," he said.
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It is not an easy task. A small attempt at making a homegrown social media platform came in the form of the 'Koo' app which briefly operated before it shut down in July 2024. At its peak, Koo had reached about 21 lakh daily active users and 1 crore monthly active users, with popular faces, especially from the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, joining the platform.
Kamath had co-founded Zerodha in August 2010 with the goal of breaking all barriers that traders and investors faced in India in terms of cost, support and technology. They named the company Zerodha, a combination of zero and "rodha", the Sanskrit word for barrier.
Today, its disruptive pricing models and in-house technology made it the biggest stock broker in India with over 1.8 crore clients placing billions of orders every year.