China's Alibaba invests $215m in US messaging app Tango

The investment is part of a $280 million Series D funding round for Tango. Existing investors include Access Industries, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Jerry Yang, a co-founder of Yahoo. Michael Zeisser from Alibaba will join the company's board of directors, according to a statement.

Founded by Uri Raz and Eric Setton in 2009, Tango started as a free mobile video and voice call application similar to Apple's Facetime and Microsoft's Skype.

It soon broadened its content platform, providing more than 30 games, as well as launching social networking features that allow uses to send, comment or like photos. App users have grown to 200 million.

"The opportunity for Tango goes well beyond just providing a messaging app for free communications. We see an even bigger opportunity - one where people can have access to free communication, social networking features and enjoyable content - all within a single platform," Tango said in the statement.

Alibaba is buying into Tango's future just weeks after social media Facebook said it plans to acquire mobile chat app WhatsApp - which has more than 450 million monthly active users - for $19 billion. Alibaba's domestic rival Tencent owns messaging app WeChat, which had 355 million at the end of last year.

Alibaba is preparing its public listing in the US, the e-commerce giant announced last week. The offering could reportedly be worth up to $15 billion.

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