Badoo: The secret social network that may be too hip for you - News.com.au
Badoo is a cross between a dating site and a social network, but is better known as the web's premier "hook-up service". Picture: Badoo Source: Supplied
- Online hook-up service worth millions
- One of fastest growing social networks
IT has more than 120 million users and is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet, unless you're young, tech-savvy and lead an adventurous sex life you have probably never heard of it.
Badoo is an online "hook-up service", and is one of the fastest growing social networks in the world, but still comes with its fare share of spam and danger.
The service is a cross between Facebook check-ins and a dating site. User's set up a profile through Facebook or on their smartphone, and can purchase add-ons to make it more noticeable and higher up the list.
Set up by London-living Russian Andrey Andreev, 37, Badoo is a free service popular in Europe and South America, but is gaining traction in the English speaking world.
Wired reported in April it was the fastest-growing Facebook app, smaller only than Farmville and Cityville.
Once logged in they can search through dating profiles of people nearby. The profiles are short and simple: Just a name, a photo and one sentence.
"Anthony, 26, wants to share a bottle of wine with a girl 25-28", "Natalie, 18, wants to go to a concert with a guy 18-23".
If they like the sound of each other, the service can set up a meeting.
"Badoo mimics life," said Bart Swanson, the company's chief operational officer. "It (is) as if I went to a bar and someone was sitting next to me and suddenly we start chatting."
However some users have reported copping sex-related spam through the service as the company's 200 moderators fail to keep up with the growing hoard of users.
A Cambridge University study ranked the site the lowest of 45 reviewed for their privacy policies.
The demographic is different to most dating sites which tend to have mostly female users. Badoo is evenly split in most countries and 86 per cent of users are between 18 and 34.
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