Tango.me Raises $280M And No, They Don’t Own The .COM

I have written a lot about the incredible surge in successful startups building their brands on TLDs like .CO, .ME, and .IO and yesterday another .ME startup, Tango.me, made big moves raising a whopping $280 million dollars. So what is Tango? Like WhatsApp it’s a messaging app and its growth number are pretty phenomenal.

tango-app

Tango currently has over 200 million registered users with 70 million active monthly users. These numbers are about double what they were last year which is why investors are so excited about what they are doing.

The most interesting detail of this current round of funding is who leads it, Alibaba, the Chinese eCommerce giant. Yes, it looks like there might have been a bit of jealousy when Facebook acquired WhatsApp and with $230M of the $280M raise coming from Alibaba it is clear they are ready to tango, with Facebook that is.

Let’s face it one of these companies is probably going to end-up acquiring the other, right? Or will Snapchat just buy them all? Either way the battle of the messaging apps is well underway.

Tango is another great example of how an incredibly successful startup can start, build and grow all on a .ME domain name. I love .COM as much as the next and when it comes to investing in domains I think that is where you should put your money. However it is more clear now than ever than ever that startups have more options than ever and as we are seeing more and more, .COM isn’t always the right answer.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton