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Online Dating in the Age of Badoo

April 28th, 2011

Internet Strategy, Marketing, Social Networking

The way I see it, there are primarily three types of people using online dating sites today: the curious, the aggressive, and the desperate. 

The curious are consumed with appearing aloof.  Slightly embarrassed to have created a profile in the first place, even more ashamed to have devoted hours to picture selection and perfectly constructed sentence fragments, they marvel at the esoteric starkness of their profiles and artful allusions to Kafka and Descartes.  They don’t NEED online dating, but why scoff at such a wonderfully facile generational gift?  All of this is of course intended to mask their fervent desire to meet new people.  With this demographic, that’s just the thing: they are not concerned with the one, but with the many, and as such prefer sites like OKCupid and PlentyofFish, the distant, noncommittal cousins of eHarmony.

The actively aggressive consortium is not labeled so pejoratively.  Rather, these are people who whole-heartedly believe in the power of online dating.  Perhaps slightly older and wiser, they flirt and build rapport with a purpose.  Busy in all other realms of life, the expeditious formulae offered by heavy-hitting online facilitators like Match.com and the aforementioned eHarmony are a sensible means to being paired with someone compatible.  They understand that coming face-to-face with what had previously been a virtual conversation is just that: a first date.  The inherent rationale of the formula-prone has a great deal to do with the success of these sites.  To meet is one thing. To love is entirely another. And, of course, love comes with a premium.

The desperate come from all walks of life and website preferences, but generally have a common thread among them: a desire for a momentary fix.  They create profiles that are thinly veiled personal ads.  Some sites like AdultFriendFinder charge a fee for use, and attract the sorts of people who don’t generally want to wax philosophic about the imperialistic undertones of District 9 or meet your parents. Free sites and, of late, phone apps, range from casual to outright ridiculous and/or cutting edge, depending on your take.  Lavalife is a pioneer in the casual dating realm and has somehow retained its cool factor among its followers.  For years, Craigslist personals have offered the most brazen, cut-to-the chase venue for propositions, but real-time, geo-locating apps like the iPhone’s Grindr are nipping at its heels. The forwardness of the desperate is all at once terrifying and liberating.  These are people with nothing to lose and everything to gain, if only for a moment.

I started thinking about the multicolored world of online dating after reading an article in WiredUK about the 120 million member online hookup site Badoo, described as “the world’s largest social network that you probably haven’t yet heard of.” It runs much like Google AdWords: you don’t have to pay, but if you want to be noticed, you should.  

 “You pay to advertise yourself. If you want something to go faster, you pay. And some people pay tens of times every day to rise up.” By the end of 2009, the site had 48 million registered users — a fifth of whom, then CEO Neil Bryant said at the time, were paying to boost their profile.

Badoo is generating a lot of buzz lately as big players like Sequoia, one of the initial backers of eHarmony, has expressed investment interest. With its new iPhone app, Badoo and is looking to break into the “Anglo-Saxon” market in Britain and the U.S.

“Then we had the idea of mobile — how to meet people nearby,” Andreev [founder] says. “We understood that people could meet each other in a big town, but how much more exciting to see who’s sitting next to you in a café? Or you can just walk past a nightclub and see who you can pick up before you get in. It’s another opportunity to hook up random people for adventure. We’re talking about real life, real time. We know this girl is 500 metres from here now.” 

Even before hearing about Badoo, I had started thinking about this new online archetype of immediate gratification.  Younger generations accustomed to this lifestyle aren’t incredibly interested in character-based matching.  Instead of being certain someone is right before getting together, this generation would rather meet in person and then see what they can get out of it.  This quickly emerging demographic, a hybrid of the curious and desperate, is rapidly pulling away from fee-based, serious dating sites and trending towards the free and instantaneous.

All this, of course, makes me wonder how the eHarmony’s of the world are going to confront the changing landscape.  Will the company splinter off into sub sites?  Will the “relationship science” laboratory be cut in half, one side staffed by bespectacled scientists focused on long-term dating, the other half teeming with iPhone brandishing hippies?  Even if the aggressive types aren’t interested in hook up sites, what’s to keep them from experimenting with a service that’s free and faster?  Our moods change daily. Why not our dating site of choice, as well?

As online dating becomes decreasingly taboo, the pool of people participating is not only getting bigger; it’s becoming incredibly diverse.  So, I ask, where’s the company ready to serve all demographics, in all languages, even the Craigslisters of the world?