Tatango is a

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

based company offering text message marketing (SMS/MMS) services. Tatango is a privately held corporation based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

with investments from the Seattle Alliance of Angels.

History

Derek Johnson developed the service, originally named NetworkText, during his time at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

's Bauer College of Business. Initially, it was started as a way for his fraternity ( Delta Upsilon) to communicate. Initially operating as NetworkText, Tatango allowed groups and organizations to send text messages to their members, with 30-40 character advertisements included at the bottom of each message. The service was free for groups and organizations in collaboration with

4INFO 4INFO Inc. is an American targeted advertising corporation. The company was owned by Nielsen Holdings. It was acquired by Cadent in 2020. History 4Info was founded in 2004 by Pankaj Shah and Zaw Thet. It originally focused on text-based Mobile ...

. This was later changed on July 26, 2008, and the company started charging a monthly fee to use the service. Johnson left college and moved to Bellingham, WA, where he founded NetworkText with Matt Pelo. Pelo left the company later that year. In 2008, the company was renamed Tatango, and offices were established. Tatango moved from being a

limited-liability company A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

to a

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

late in 2008. In October that same year, Tatango launched a voice messaging service which has since been discontinued. Tatango acquired HungryThumb in 2012, followed by Broadtexter the following year. In 2016 Tatango launched the U.S. Short Code Directory. In 2022, Kevin Fitzgerald became the CEO, and Derek Johnson became Chief Innovation Officer.

Highlights

* In 2009, Tatango's CEO was included in Business Week's "Best Young Entrepreneurs" list.

Press

* Tatango has been mentioned in media outlets such as ''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

'', '' Cnet'', ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

,'' and ''

LifeHacker ''Lifehacker'' is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on 31 January 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is owned by Ziff Davis. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including Microsoft Windows, M ...

''. * Former Tatango CEO, Derek Johnson, has been featured in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

''. * Mentioned in the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

article "Killer app of the 2012 election".

References

External links

* {{Official website Mobile telecommunication services