Developer(s) Palringo Limited Development status Active | Initial release 2006 | |
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Stable release iOS: 7.2 25 March 2015; 23 months ago (2015-03-25);
Android: 3.0 24 October 2014; 2 years ago (2014-10-24) Operating system Type Social networking chat platform | ||
Palringo Group Messenger is a community-oriented messaging and gaming app for Windows, OS X, iOS and Android. The platform allows users to form and join large groups based on common interests, send instant messages and drop images and voice recordings into conversations. Launched in 2006, Palringo has 45 million installed users worldwide and offers a range of games along with more than 350,000 groups, some of which have up to 2,000 members. Headquartered in London, Palringo has offices in Newcastle, Ipswich, Gothenburg and Helsinki.
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As of March, 2015 the company had revenues of $14 million in 2014, up 100% from $7 million in 2013.
The company has also been recognised by The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 2015, the measurement of the UK's fastest growing tech companies where it was placed 7th out of 100 companies. Palringo has also been shortlisted in the Innovation Of A Business Model and Social & Entertainment categories of the prestigious 2015 Meffys awards.
History
Palringo was founded in Newcastle in 2006 by 21-year-old engineering student, Martin Rosinski, who developed it as a communications tool for his father's engineering company to help engineers resolve problems in the field. When problems were detected it enabled affected parties to communicate with each other. In August 2006, Northstar Ventures got involved and a seed of £650,000 was raised to help build a user base.
In 2010, Palringo launched an enterprise version of the app, offering companies private group communication networks, with notable clients including Smartlogic and 3M.
Expansion
In August 2012, Palringo began a shift away from the B2B market towards the consumer community, where users were forming groups with particular interests, with a specific focus on games. The business model entails selling virtual products such as rich media sticker packs, Bots and functional utilities.
In May 2014, Palringo acquired Swedish games developer Free Lunch Design (FLD), who previously worked with Disney, Paramount and Marvel, with a view to integrating Palringo's instant messaging technology into community-orientated games. In September 2014, the company reiterated its strategy on combining games and instant messaging by focusing on adding gaming capabilities on top of an already existing messaging platform.
In May 2015, Palringo continued to expand by acquiring Finnish chat games developer Tribe Studios, best known for its patented Dramagame technology, which it uses to develop multiplayer role-playing games.
Charity
In 2013, the company launched a charitable initiative aimed at their users in the Gulf region during the month of Ramadan, which enabled users to donate Palringo credits through a special charity Bot. They raised over US $230,000 for Charity Right and Islamic Relief.
In 2014, they ran the campaign again but this time opened it up their entire user base by adding Child's Play, a charity aimed at providing video game entertainment to sick children in hospital.
More recently, during Ramadan in 2015, Palringo raised more than $300,000 from its gaming community to be split between Action Against Hunger and Islamic Relief Worldwide.