My welcoming committee on Badoo. Faces and names blurred for privacy. There's a social network oozing into the U. But this network has, I'm told, 130 million users around the world, with about 6 million in the U. How did that happen? And will it play in Peoria? Here's the story, in two parts. Part 1: The high-minded theory Badoo is a social site, but it's no Facebook. But neither is Badoo, strictly speaking, a dating service, according to CEO Andrey Andreev and CMO Jessica Powell. Rather, Badoo is designed to connect you to people nearby whom you don't yet know, for whatever purpose you like. As Powell says, it's like the offline world. Badoo is also a location-based social service. It's designed to help you find people nearby who share your interests, and there's a strong smartphone app. It's pitched as great if you're looking to hang with someone in a new city you're visiting, or connect with people at an event. Powell told me that about 50 percent of the conversations on the service lead to real-world meetups, and that under 20 percent of the site's usage is around dating. These are both very interesting numbers for an online connection service. I would say my conversation with Andreev and Powell went well. I was envisioning using Badoo to connect with cool people at crowded events like the Maker Faire, or maybe at industry conferences. Then our meeting ended, and I tried the service. Part 2: The low-down reality The initial impression I got when I signed to the service: man, this is creepy. Immediately after signing on, with no photo or information in my profile, I was told that four women wanted to talk with me, one of whom was 382 miles away. I was a blank box with nothing but an age and a location. Use Badoo to find nearby people open to talking or meeting. Faces and names blurred for privacy. Actually, the entire sign-on process tells you a different story than the one the CEO and CMO told me. This is a photo-based dating site. About the only question you need to answer to get active on the service is if you want to meet a girl or a guy or both and their age. There is no concept of groups or networks of friends. Even the part where you enter in interests, to match with other users, is relatively obscure. Then there's the revenue model: the service is free, but only to a point. To be featured on the top of the site's or the app's navigation bar as a nearby contact, you have to buy credits. Other features require payment, too, and you can't do much before you bump into pay-me blocks. Otherwise, you'll feel hemmed in. A site that's similar in some ways, , feels more platonic than Badoo. And HowAboutWe has very clear dating mission. Badoo appears to be all about the hookup. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, and it's a reasonable business to be in. There is, after all, one thing that people will always want, and one way or another, pay for. Humans are needy, messy creatures, so why not build businesses that serve that reality? The challenge is that if you have a sexy product, there's very little else that can bloom underneath it. I think Badoo is successful far more so than dating sites, which are smaller because it's not prescriptive. We give you the tools to meet people, then you decide what you want to do.... I think most people go with some sort of 'romantic' hope, but along the way, they have all sorts of entertaining, flirty, and fun encounters.
