Bengaluru: Kuku has announced its global expansion, taking its audio and video OTT services to new international markets including the United States, Indonesia, Philippines, and South Korea. With this move, Kuku aims to bring India’s vast storytelling heritage to global audiences, in alignment with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s WAVES 2025 vision to “Create in India, Create for the World.”
With over 100,000 hours of audio content and hundreds of microdramas streaming in eight Indian languages, Kuku has built one of the country’s most diverse and expansive libraries of content. Since the launch of its video OTT vertical, Kuku TV, in September 2024, the platform has emerged as India’s largest microdrama OTT player. It currently boasts over 5 million active paying users, and is ambitiously targeting to surpass Netflix’s paying subscriber base in India by next year.
Vinod Kumar Meena, COO and Co-Founder of Kuku, said, “India is such a hotbed of stories around culture, tradition, science, spirituality, fiction and more. So why has India not emerged as a soft power in storytelling? If you look at South Korea then KDramas and Kpop have become such an important part of their economy.
Given we are the largest entertainment industry in the world, stories and storytelling should be our soft power and our biggest cultural export. There is immense potential in this to not only become a major contributor to our creative economy but also help create new jobs, opportunities and talent in the industry. We have hundreds of thousands of titles in our library which we want to take to the world this year.”
Kuku’s global rollout strategy is designed to resonate with local audiences while sharing India’s narrative richness. In the United States, the focus will be on reaching the Indian diaspora, especially Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu-speaking communities seeking a cultural connection through stories. In Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia, Kuku aims to leverage existing regional interest in Indian content—from Bollywood to daily soaps—to tap into a fast-growing, smartphone-first population.
“For us, it’s more than just scaling; it’s about bringing a piece of home to Indians living abroad. We want them to hear familiar voices and stories, no matter how far they are from their roots,” added Meena.
In South Korea, Kuku intends to engage with a tech-savvy, storytelling-savvy audience, looking to draw parallels between Indian narratives and the emotional depth of K-Dramas that are already well-loved globally.
