Category: Social Dating

Woo Media Acquired By Zoosk

Posted on November 3, 2011

Woome zoosk logaPR WEB – Nov 3 - Woo Media, the live interactive video network, with web properties including WooMe.com, Shufflepeople.com, and Monsterchat.com, has announced its sale to Zoosk, the world’s largest social dating site. WooMe’s 10M users will soon be able to engage directly with Zoosk’s user base of over 100M users. In addition, all properties owned and operated by Woo Media will also be merged into Zoosk. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The full article was originally published at PR Web, but is no longer available.

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Snap Launches Mobile Web Version of AreYouInterested.com

Posted on September 21, 2011

Areyouinterested mobile MARKETWIRE – Sep 20 - SNAP Interactive, a social app developer with~50M installs across its properties, is announcing several significant mobile-related developments including the launch of a mobile Web version of its flagship AreYouInterested.com social dating app.

The full article was originally published at Marketwire, but is no longer available.

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Read the interview with Cliff Lerner, co-Founder of SNAP Interactive (September 2010)

Interview with Gloria Diez, COO of Mamboo, Social Dating Site

Posted on September 8, 2011

OPW INTERVIEW – Sep 8 – Mamba.ru is Russia’s top dating site. They’ve turned their hand to social dating with their international social dating site Mamboo. Here’s our interview with the COO, Gloria Diez. – Mark Brooks

How was Mamboo started?
We already had a sister service, Mamba.ru which is very popular in Russia since 2004. We have the only dating system in the world that keeps users 30 min online per visit. People from other countries contacted us asking for a similar service in their country. We decided it would be a good idea to create an international site.

You define it as social dating site. What is a social dating site? How is it different from an Internet dating site?
I define social dating as any kind of system that allows the members to meet up with other people in a social atmosphere. We like to provide our users with the chance to meet their other half from among the network of friends they have. To find someone who belongs to the same peer/reference group as them and has the same social values. Social aspects are very influential in real life dating so we had to repeat that online.

How do you protect privacy at Mamboo?
We understand users have to feel relaxed to meet new people. We give users options to set up their privacy. They disclose information that they are fine with. We never share our resource data with any 3rd party. 90% of our users confirm they are real people. They send us a message after we send a code to their cell phone so we know its an actual person.

How many active members do you have on Mamboo?
We have 300,000 users. We are growing fast adding 2,000 members a day.
OPW Editor Update: Mamboo is now claiming ~10,000 new members a day.

Are you advertising?
We are starting to advertise. We are also beginning to become incorporated with subscription dating sites. We want to offer a different kind of dating to their users. We have also incorporated our services as a white label provider with other kind of websites such as ICQ.

Mamboo is mostly free; tell us about what you charge for?
Mambo is a free dating site but we do offer other extra premium services such as gifts as part of our upgraded service to help grab the attention of someone who you specially like.

There are a few social dating services but there is one that you have a special interest in, in fact you share an investor, Badoo. How is Mamboo different from Badoo?
The main difference is the social aspect. Badoo is a social network for meeting new people. Mamboo is an online dating service. Mamboo mission is to spread love around the world.

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The Secret Social Network Site Hooking up Millions Nearby

Posted on September 5, 2011

Badoo logo THE TIMES – Sep 5 - Badoo is a cross between a dating site and a social network, but is better known as the web's premier "hook-up service". It is most popular in Spain, other parts of Europe and throughout South America. Whereas social networks such as Facebook revolve around existing friends, Badoo concentrates on connections to strangers. Dating sites match people through their interests, but Badoo is mainly about proximity, as its app for smartphones reveals nearby users. The service is free to join and makes money through add-ons, or "superpowers" in the site's jargon.

by Murad Ahmed
See full article at The Australian

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This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Badoo: Social Networking & Dating & Location Based Service

Posted on July 18, 2011

Badoo logo THE NEXT WEB – July 17 - For microblogging, there’s Twitter, whilst Facebook is where you keep in touch with friends. LinkedIn is best kept for business acquaintances. Google+ seems to straddle a line somewhere between Facebook and LinkedIn and it’s too early to say on which side it will eventually fall. What about SNS for people you don’t know? This is where the story of Badoo begins. Badoo was launched in London in 2006 by Russian serial entrepreneur Andrei Andreyev. His other ventures include SpyLog, Begun and Mamba. There’s a good chance you associate Badoo with dating, but this is an image the company is feverishly attempting to rid itself of. There’s two reasons. Online dating still has some negative associations. And secondly, not everyone is necessarily interested in dating – some people simply want to meet new people. You go to Badoo and connect with others in the area. It could be for drinks, dancing or a game. Today Badoo has 121M members in 180 countries, a turnover of ~$100M.

by Paul Sawers
See full article at The Next Web

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Badoo Built A Billion-pound Social Network… On Sex

Posted on May 5, 2011

Badoo logo WIRED.CO.UK – Apr 25 – – Apr 25 – Badoo is a 120M-member social network that's adding ~300K users a day. Its Facebook's fastest-growing app, with 570K new daily users, making it the 3rd biggest app, after FarmVille and CityVille. Still barely registering in Britain or the US, the free network is a mass phenomenon in Brazil (14.1M members), Mexico (9M), France (8.2M), Spain (6.5M) and Italy (6M). Andrey Andreev founded Badoo and highly profitable Russian internet businesses: Mamba, SpyLog, Begun. Badoo launched in 2006 in Spain, where Andreev was living, as a photo-sharing site. The site wasn't generating revenue, but was growing sharply. In 2008, Andreev refocused the site on meeting new people. He introduced premium services. You could pay a dollar or euro to "rise up" the search results. In 2009, the site had 48M users and 20% were paying to boost their profile. Badoo Mobile launched on the iPhone and Android and was downloaded 1.5M times in 8 months. Forbes Russia put Andreev in the top 30 successful businessmen in Russia.

by David Rowan
See full article at Wired

Mark Brooks: $2 billion! Kthud! (fell off chair). There's hope and money and prospects left in the idating industry yet. 😉

See all posts on Badoo

A New Kind Of Love Story

Posted on May 3, 2011

Mobile-dating1 AD WEEK – May 3 – Not so long ago, you’d assume that a girl alone at a bar on a Friday night, furiously thumbing her smartphone, had been stood up. Now, thanks to apps like meetMoi NOW, SinglesAroundMe, and Skout, she could just be planning her evening’s assignation. While dating sites sift and sort according to compatibility, apps pre-screen for something else: instant availability. There’s another name for the inefficiency these apps eliminate: courtship. They might dance around it, but what the apps are really offering is the ability to order up sex on demand. One of the pioneering location-based apps is Grindr. Launched in 2009, it allows gay men to locate other nearby users. It claims ~1M users. The developers of Badoo, Facebook’s fastest-growing third-party app, liken its ambiance to a club. Friend.ly makes the search for love a more convivial experience by quizzing users about friends and interests. It has ~4M monthly active users. Among the newer apps is Singlesquare, a Foursquare offshoot launched in Jan.

by Hephzibah Anderson
See full article at Ad Week

Mark Brooks: Finally, location aware apps are gaining significant traction. Facebook has driven people to be more willing to share private info. The tech is now mature. Apple has driven the smart phone into ubiquity. iDating will morph considerably now.

(Full Disclosure: Friend.ly is a former client of Courtland Brooks)

See all posts on MeetMoi                  See all posts on Badoo
See all posts on SinglesAroundMe     See all posts on Friend.ly
See all posts on Skout                      See all posts on Singlesquare
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Zoosk To Spend £2m On Advertising In The UK

Posted on April 12, 2011

Zoosk logo new MEDIA WEEK – Zoosk has appointed MediaCom to its multimillion-pound account after a three-way competitive pitch against undisclosed agencies. Activity for the brand will be mainly television-based, with Zoosk estimated to spend £2m in the UK. The activity in the UK is the first time the Zoosk brand has been seen outside the US and Canada, where the dating service has based most of its advertising until now.

by Mark Banham
See full article at Media Week

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Badoo: Global Online Dating Sensation

Posted on April 12, 2011

Badoo logo INDEPENDENT.CO.UK – Apr 12 - Badoo, the social network that replaces the supposed romance of online dating with instant hook-ups based on physical attraction, is now gaining some ground in the UK. Although the service is run from London, its current membership of 113M consists predominantly of users in Brazil, Spain, France and Italy and 300K people join daily. The site was founded in 2006 by now very rich Russian businessman, Andrey Andreev. The killer feature driving Badoo's success is location.

See full article at Independent.co.uk

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Top Facebook Applications

Posted on April 11, 2011

Appdata logo1 INSIDE FACEBOOK – Apr 11 - Phrases, as well as Badoo and other dating apps, a few Connect apps, horoscopes, Friend Buzz and a Page tool were on the list of top 20 Facebook applications by monthly active users this week. 

Top Gainers This Week
        Name                           MAU              Gain          Gain,%
1.     Phrases                     20,606,742     +1,704,743     +9%
2.     Badoo                       67,976,269     +1,582,045     +2%
3.     Diamond Dash              2,759,892     +1,187,499     +76%
4.     Book List Challenges      1,545,394     +1,065,757     +222%
5.     Frases Diarias               8,095,449     +979,888       +14%
6.     friend.ly                      2,511,080     +963,091        +62%
7.     FarmVille                    48,229,941     +942,563        +2%
8.     Yahoo!                      13,172,942     +833,616         +7%
9.     Cupid                         5,434,267     +769,007        +16%
10.    Are YOU Interested?   16,595,172     +740,478         +5%

See full article at Inside Facebook

Mark Brooks: The social dating services Badoo and Mamboo were founded by people who worked on Mamba.ru in the past. Russia's top dating site. Badoo has driven unprecedented growth in recent months. Friend.ly is another service to keep your eye on.  (Full Disclosure: My company, Courtland Brooks, advised and was retained by Friend.ly)

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch