Messaging app maker Tango is to cut 20 per cent of its global team, and said it will take more steps to “tighten operations and reduce costs” to “preserve a strong balance sheet as a strategic asset to invest in new growth opportunities as they emerge”.

Last week, Tango said it was refocusing its flagship Tango app back on mobile messaging, while splitting off social networking features into a new app called Fiesta.

In a blog post, CEO Eric Setton said Tango, with 350 million registered users, is well on its way to achieving its goal of connecting people and now needs to focus on creating a sustainable business.

Setton took over as CEO a few weeks ago, transitioning from CTO, and said “I’ve taken a hard look at everything we do at Tango in order to set up the company for long-term success” adding that he has made “tough but necessary decisions to restructure the team”.

“A recent review of our operations and finances made it clear to me that we need to align better our expenses with our revenue. To that end, we are reducing headcount in our Mountain View headquarters,” he said.

“All told, the actions we’re taking should leave Tango well-positioned to take advantage of the substantial opportunity ahead of us in both mobile messaging and social networking,” said Setton.

According to TechCrunch, 48.5 million of the 350 million registered users were active each month as of October 2015.

Tango has stiff competition in the messaging market from the likes of Facebook’s Messenger app, WhatsApp, WeChat and Line, with their monthly active users far exceeding Tango’s.

In November last year, Tango shut down an in-app commerce feature called Tango Shop, and laid off around 9 per cent of its employees.