Badoo

Badoo is a dating-focused[2] social network founded by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev in 2006.[3] It is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus and London, United Kingdom,[4] with offices in Malta, Russia and the United States. It operates in 190 countries[5] and is available in 47 different languages, making it the world's most widely used dating network.[6] The app is available on iOS, Android, and the web. Badoo operates on a freemium model, whereby the core services can be used without payment.

Badoo
Type of site
Dating
Available inAlbanian, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian
Headquarters
London
,
United Kingdom
Country of originRussia
OwnerBadoo Trading Ltd.
Created byAndrey Andreev
URLbadoo.com
Alexa rank 804 (global as of 31 March 2018)
CommercialFreemium
RegistrationRequired
LaunchedNovember 2006 (2006-11)[1]
Current statusActive

History

Badoo was founded by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev and launched in Moscow in November 2006.[7] It has since ranked among the most popular dating websites.[8] In 2016 it was the most-downloaded dating app in 21 countries.[6] In 2011, Wired described Badoo as a "mass phenomenon" in Brazil, Mexico, France, Spain, and Italy.[9]

In 2007, Badoo raised $30 million in funding.[10] In January 2008, the Russian investor Finam Capital paid $30 million for a 10% stake in Badoo for expansion in Russia.[11] As of 2009, Finam now has 20% ownership of Badoo.[7]

After going viral on Facebook through popular social games and quizzes, Badoo was asked to adjust its approach.[12] According to Insidefacebook.com, during the week of January 11, 2012, Badoo was ranked 17th in growing Facebook apps.[13] The official launch of Badoo in the U.S. was on March 23, 2012, with Nick Cannon introducing the service in the United States.[14]

In April 2017, Badoo launched a newly redesigned app and brand, adopting the colour purple and an orange heart symbol as its logo, as well as the tagline "Bigger than Dating". Andreev discussed this redesign in an interview with Business Insider's James Cook in the same month.[3]

Features

Badoo has several features that enable users to meet people. When they first sign up, individuals select whether they want to meet new people to date, chat or to make new friends. Users can chat,[15] match with others, upload photos and videos, as well as share their interests and see any friends in common.

The main features include:

  • People Nearby: Users can see and contact people who live in their area, as well as those they 'Bumped Into' with this feature.[16]
  • Search: Users can also see who is on the app in a different city or another part of the world.[16]
  • Encounters: Another free feature, where users swipe right (yes) or left (no) on other users' profiles. If there is a match the two users are notified.[17]
  • Video Chat: In August 2017, Badoo launched its video chat function that allows users to connect real-time, once they've exchanged messages.[18]

Badoo has developed numerous safety features to ensure users are real and verified. Such features include the 'selfie request' button,[19] through which women can request a man they're speaking to send a 'selfie' to prove they are the same person as in the pictures.

The company has also developed a photo verification process, where users upload a photo of themselves mimicking a specific pose.[20] This photo is then verified in a minute by one of Badoo's 5,000 moderators.

Badoo is a freemium service, where the basic service is free for everyone but users have an option to pay for premium features. Such features include, ‘Rise Up’, which allows users to pay to give their profile more visibility on the site for a limited time. In late 2007, 20% of Badoo's then 22 million users were paying for heightened visibility at least once a month.[21] However, according to The Economist, by 2011 only 5% of members were paying for the premium services.[22]

Users can also pay to have their profile photo more widely visible across the site.[9] "Super Powers" enables users to see more search results, as well as who wants to meet them and which of their messages have been read.

Criticisms

In a peer-reviewed study by Cambridge University in 2009,[23] it was given the lowest score for privacy among the 45 social networking sites examined.[24] In the same report, it was given a ‘perfect score’ for verified accessibility on mobile devices.

Finnish newspaper Iltalehti reported that numerous Badoo profiles were created without people's consent, and that people have reported Badoo's actions to the police.[25]

According to Google's transparency report on the requests for search removals stemming from the "right to be forgotten" ruling, Badoo had the eighth-highest number of URLs removed from Google Search, with Facebook, YouTube, Google Groups and Twitter receiving a higher number of these requests.[26]

A CNET review by Rafe Needleman described Badoo's first impression as "creepy". He said that though the site was advertised as a way to meet local friends with shared interests, it was more like a photo-based dating site. He also said the way it matches users was "obscure".[10]

gollark: I was totally about to say that.
gollark: If redstone, analog or digital redstone?
gollark: Does Ethernet operate over redstone or modem?
gollark: Maybe HTTP soon because craziness.
gollark: Ingame, I mean.

See also

References
  1. "Badoo FAQ". Badoo. Archived from the original on 2015-01-07. Retrieved November 15, 2006.
  2. "Badabing Badaboom – Badoo Hits 150 Million Users, Boosted By Mobile". TechCrunch. AOL.
  3. "The reclusive CEO of dating app Badoo on his app's redesign, Bumble, and why he won't IPO any time soon". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-10-18.
  4. Badoo – Terms of Use Accessed August 2009.
  5. Toglia, Michelle (2016-03-25). "Here's How Dating App Badoo's Photo Verification Will Wipe Out Catfishing". Bustle.
  6. "The Dating Game". BBC News. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  7. "Project Portfolio – Badoo". Finam Capital. 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-02-28. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
  8. "Top 15 Most Popular Dating Websites". eBizMBA. September 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  9. Rowan, David. "How Badoo built a billion-pound social network... on sex". Wired. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  10. Needleman, Rafe (February 23, 2012). "Badoo: Social experiment or hookup site?". CNET. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  11. Butcher, Mike (21 January 2008). "UK's Badoo pulls $30m for Russian launch, ahead of a home push". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
  12. "Huge Facebook App Loses 75% Uniques After Facebook Threatens It". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  13. Calderon Inés, Sara January 11, 2012. “Spotify, Yahoo, Bing, Badoo and more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook apps by DAU.” http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/01/11/spotify-yahoo-bing-badoo-and-more-on-this-week%E2%80%99s-top-20-growing-facebook-apps-by-dau/
  14. "Social Network Badoo Officially Launches in U.S. With Nick Cannon [PICS]". Mashable. 23 March 2012.
  15. Frommer, Dan. "The Biggest Startup You've Never Heard Of Is About To Hit 108 Million Members". Business Insider. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  16. "New look". team.badoo.com. Retrieved 2017-10-18.
  17. Frommer, Dan. "The Biggest Startup You've Never Heard Of Is About To Hit 108 Million Members".
  18. "Video dating app Badoo could help you to filter out misleading singles". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2017-10-18.
  19. "This dating app has a genius way of preventing catfishing". Cosmopolitan. 2016-07-11. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  20. Taub, Alexander. "Badoo's Selfie Verification Is A Unique Way Of Solving The Catfishing Problem". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  21. Sweney, Mark (24 December 2007). "Elevator Pitch: Why Badoo wants to be the next word in social networking". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 March 2008.
  22. "A nightclub on your smartphone". The Economist. 19 September 2011. Archived from the original on 21 September 2011.
  23. Bonneau, Joseph; Preibusch, Sören (2009), "The Privacy Jungle: On the Market for Privacy in Social Networks" (PDF), WEIS '09: Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security.
  24. Social networks ‘failing users’ The Daily Telegraph 21 Jul 2009.
  25. "Treffipalvelu varastaa profiilitiedot: Varo tätä sovellusta Facebookissa". Iltalehti (in Finnish). 21 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-25.
  26. "European privacy requests for search removals". Transparency Report. Google. 17 October 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
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