Tango: Empowering creators to succeed through live streaming
About Tango
Tango allows creators to engage with viewers and fans around the world and earn a sustainable income through live streaming. The platform connects creators with fans and empowers them to monetize their content through a virtual digital economy, including in-app gifts and subscriptions.
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Contact usTango used Google Cloud to boost its scalability and availability, with BigQuery's advanced data platform supporting audience expansion and content monetization, and enabling creators to flourish.
Google Cloud results
- Helps creators grow and monetize their audiences using a data platform built with BigQuery and Looker
- Ensures a seamless livestreaming experience with increased availability and automatic scalability on Google Kubernetes Engine
- Speeds up the release of new features with data-based A/B testing on Google Cloud
- Reduces time spent on manual tasks, such as content moderation, with real-time insights
Pairs millions of creators and viewers worldwide
An artist is painting a picture in real time. A fitness coach is leading an online exercise class. A programmer is teaching how to code. Welcome to the creator economy, where people can entertain, teach, and engage millions of people from their living rooms — all while turning their passions into profit. Tango helps these creators share their skills, expand their audience, and monetize their talents.
Tango is a leading social media platform, connecting creators and their followers through live mobile video engagement. What started out as a messenger app, one of the first to provide video calls back in 2009, eventually evolved into a fully-fledged live streaming solution. For creators around the world, Tango is solving the challenge of getting the right content to the right audience at the right time. That's where Google Cloud comes in.
Harnessing data insights with Google Cloud
Tango's move to the cloud was closely linked with its pivot towards live streaming. "We used to have an on-premises setup, but started feeling its restrictions when we began focusing on streaming," explains Vasyl Strutynskyi, Vice President of Research and Development, Tango. "We couldn't scale automatically with our growing user base and peaks in traffic, and needed to manage everything manually, which was time-consuming and prone to errors."
"We selected Google Cloud because we really wanted to work with a company that lives and breathes data. Google Cloud combines managed infrastructure services with intuitive data solutions, which opened up lots of technological opportunities that would help Tango grow."
—Shay Rozenbaum, Vice President of Infrastructure, TangoShay Rozenbaum, Vice President of Infrastructure, Tango, adds: "We selected Google Cloud because we really wanted to work with a company that lives and breathes data. Google Cloud combines managed infrastructure services with intuitive data solutions, which opened up lots of technological opportunities that would help Tango grow."
Ensuring streaming excellence with improved scalability and availability
First, Tango introduced Google Kubernetes Engine to move from its monolithic on-premises setup to a more scalable, microservices-based solution in the cloud. Today, Tango's platform scales automatically with the user volume, providing a more reliable and responsive system for creators and viewers. Thanks to increased availability, Tango has also been able to minimize downtime and ensure a seamless livestreaming experience for its users.
"95% of our services run on Google Kubernetes Engine now, which has really bolstered the scalability and availability of our platform," says Rozenbaum. "We understand that if we want to grow fast to the point of being the world's leading company in the field, we need to improve stability."
Pairing creators with their ideal viewers
After solving the scalability challenge, the Tango team leveraged Google Cloud products to roll out a new data platform. It streams data via Pub/Sub to BigQuery, Tango's data lake, and aggregates it to create a data warehouse. The team uses Looker for analytics and business intelligence, turning its data into insights that power smarter business decisions.
These data insights play a crucial role in helping creators find an audience, and to capitalize on these connections with monetization opportunities. For example, Tango used its new data platform and its A/B testing capabilities to quickly create new features, such as "New for You," which recommends users content based on their profile and behavior.
It's a win-win for viewers, who see more of the content they like, and content creators, who can grow their audience organically: "The better we understand our users, the more we can recommend the best content for them," says Rozenbaum. "With our new Google Cloud-based data platform, we enable creators to better monetize their channels by reaching the right audience with the right content at the right time."
Creating instant impact with real-time data insights
Timing is another essential factor for Tango. After all, live streaming is — by its very nature — a real-time form of user-generated content delivery, and data insights become less useful the further they lag behind. That's why the Tango team is now working on the next iteration of its data platform, which will enable real-time analytics to help creators better connect with various segments of their audience.
"Imagine you're a content creator with two distinct audiences, maybe you teach physics by day and play the piano by night," explains Strutynskyi. "With real-time recommendations, we can notify the right segment of your audience at the right time, the exact moment you start streaming."
But real-time insights have many other benefits, too: they will improve content moderation by flagging inappropriate content immediately, and will help the team to better monitor the platform's behavior in general.
Delivering social media content around the world
Tango isn't just a livestreaming platform, it's also a social media and entertainment app with all its usual features: people can post text, photos, or videos, and like or comment on each other's content. For the delivery of that content, Tango uses Cloud CDN, which enhances the user experience with reduced load times and high availability even when traffic surges due to viral posts or trending topics. "Cloud CDN is faster and more reliable than our previous content delivery solution," says Strutynskyi. "It enables us to deliver our social media content and features quickly to users around the world."
"Cloud CDN is faster and more reliable than our previous content delivery solution. It enables us to deliver our social media features and content quickly to users around the world."
—Vasyl Strutynskyi, Vice President of Research and Development, TangoMeanwhile, Tango is working closely with the Google Cloud team to leverage its cloud resources as efficiently as possible. "We want to use almost everything the Google Cloud data ecosystem has to offer, but we want to use it in a smart way," explains Rozenbaum.
Shaping a creator economy that runs on data
Looking ahead, there are many more projects in the pipeline: besides introducing real-time data insights, the Tango team is working on implementing Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech to make its videos more accessible across speech and language barriers.
"We want to be the number one livestreaming platform in the world, and that requires the right technology foundation. Whether we have a new idea and want to bring it to market quickly, or whether we want to scale up in a new country tomorrow: Google Cloud provides the stability, scalability, and agility Tango needs to succeed."
—Vasyl Strutynskyi, Vice President of Research and Development, TangoFor Rozenbaum, the possibilities are endless, and Tango is working closely with the Google Cloud team to find the right solution for each new use case: "We're constantly exploring new tools, features, and ways to do things to ensure scalability and success," he says. "The Google Cloud team is really proactive when it comes to helping us find the best solutions and to use each Google Cloud product in the most effective and efficient way possible."
Strutynskyi adds: "We want to be the number one livestreaming platform in the world, and that requires the right technology foundation. Whether we have a new idea and want to bring it to market quickly, or whether we want to scale up in a new country tomorrow, Google Cloud provides the stability, scalability, and agility Tango needs to succeed."
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
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About Tango
Tango allows creators to engage with viewers and fans around the world and earn a sustainable income through live streaming. The platform connects creators with fans and empowers them to monetize their content through a virtual digital economy, including in-app gifts and subscriptions.