Tango is a third-party,

cross platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...

messaging

application software Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

for

smartphones A smartphone is a Mobile device, portable computer device that combines Mobile phone, mobile telephone and Mobile computing, computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities ...

developed by TangoME, Inc. in 2009. The app is free and began as one of the first providers of video calls, texting, photo sharing, and games on a 3G network. As of 2018, Tango has more than 400 million registered users. It was rated by

PCMag ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

as "the simplest mobile chat application out there, with a good range of support." In 2017, Tango entered the live-streaming space, and has become a B2C platform for Live Video Broadcasts, combining high-quality video streaming, a live messaging chat and a digital economy.

History

Tango, based in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is th ...

, was founded in September 2009 by Uri Raz and Eric Setton. Raz currently serves as its CEO. The California-based company has offices in Saint Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Kyiv, and Minsk, with a total of over 250 employees and 33 patents. The founders raised venture capital from a range of investors such as

Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in enterprise, consumer and disruptive technologies. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth ...

and

Len Blavatnik Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik, russian: Леонид Валентинович Блаватник, Leonid Valentinovich Blavatnik (born June 14, 1957) is a Ukraine-born American-British business magnate and philanthropist. As of March 202 ...

. In July 2013 the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the Tango chat app and stole 1.5 terabytes of user data. A financing round in March 2014 brought in $280 million from

Alibaba Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Films * ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a French film directed by Ferdinand Zecca * ''Ali Baba'' (1940 film ...

, Yahoo co-founder

Jerry Yang Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (born November 6, 1968) is a Taiwanese-American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. As of February 2022, Yang has a net wor ...

and other investors. As of March 2014, Tango employed just over 160 employees in offices in Beijing, China and Austin, Texas, in addition to its Mountain View headquarters. As of 2016, Tango closed its Beijing office. On August 24, 2015, Tango stopped being compatible with PCs and smartphones which use the Windows Phone operating system. In February 2017, Tango added integration with GIF platform

Gfycat Gfycat ( ) is a user-generated short video hosting company founded by Richard Rabbat, Dan McEleney, and Jeff Harris. History Founded in 2013 in Edmonton, Canada, Gfycat was among the first web services to offer video encoding of GIFs. It was in ...

, allowing users to search and send GIFs.

References

External links

* {{Computer-mediated communication Android (operating system) software Cross-platform software IOS software Social networking services Videotelephony VoIP companies of the United States VoIP services VoIP software Windows Phone software Companies based in Palo Alto, California 2009 establishments in California