Russians Invest $30 Million in Social Networking Site Badoo

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1. 113.com
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 7:23 am

   Social networking services outside US getting attention starting 2008…

2. bart
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 7:34 am

   little typo: you put $30mil in your title, but $300mil in your body… which is it? heh

3. Bokon Too Koonet
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am

   $30M investment, $300M valuation

4. Gregg
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 7:55 am

   It’s not a typo. “Russian investor Finam has put $30m into UK-based social network Badoo for a 10% stake.”

5. Wastewater
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 7:58 am

   whether its 300 or 30 author should make clearer statements.

6. Technicle
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 8:10 am

   a more valid query point is, why the sentence of

   Instead, Badoo derives its main revenue from offering users the chance to pay to be popular.

   appeared twice…

7. WebSideVentures
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am

   Pay to be popular? Do people really need attention that badly?

8. mike bartlett
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 10:19 am

   i think this site is FULL of fake profiles. i just did a search now and was suprised to find:

   1) Same profile pictures appearing on people with different names. And I’m not talking glamour shots here, actually normal people head and shoulders. These two lovely ladies are almost identical, except for their weight:
   http://096504732.badoo.com/?r=Z_99&p=90
   http://096546328.badoo.com/?r=QyZ4&p=37

   There are *lots* like that if you look closely. May be good idea to screenshot a few before they start changing them.

   2) Many of the little descriptions seem templated.
   “The one thing I would like to say is I love going outdoors and camping. Everything smells so fresh! Drop me a line sometime.”
   “The one thing I would like to say is I’m shy at first, but once you get to know me, I’m a really fun person to be around. Message me if you wanna talk :)”
   “The one thing I would like to say is I love going out and having fun! I especially like having people around while going out. Emails are appreciated :D”

   This basically looks like a tactic from them to make it look like there are more users than there really are.

9. mike bartlett
   

   January 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am

   No, seriously, there is something fishy going on here. Spend a few hours, I’m quite sure I could find hundreds of these. There are no links off to 3rd party websites, so it’s certainly not spam - all I can imagine is that these guys are creating fake profiles.

   Some more examples:

   Morgan and Christian
   http://096379080.badoo.com/?r=QyZ16&p=153
   http://096412061.badoo.com/?r=QyZ14&p=139

   Kara and Susan
   http://096472810.badoo.com/?r=QyZ13&p=122
   http://096472716.badoo.com/?r=QyZ13&p=124

   Melissa and Britney
   http://096379007.badoo.com/?r=QyZ16&p=159
   http://096379054.badoo.com/?r=QyZ16&p=158

10. mike bartlett
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 11:37 am

    are we censoring our comments now on techcrunch?

    i made two comments relating to the fact that many of the profile listings look fake as display pictures appear numerous times for people with different names and there seems to be a very templated description being used across most of the profiles. and when i say fake, i don’t for one minute believe that every profile on the internet is real - but these looked particularly suspicious as in badoo-generated to make the network look fuller.

    leave the office, get home and both comments are removed.

    what gives?

11. bart
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    my bad, must have missed the word ‘valuation’ when i read it. :p

12. Andy
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    $300million valuation - for what? Finam will have to wait a while to get their $10m back - unless of course AOL, Google or the Dark Side give them an exit.

13. deforge
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    mike bartlett, youre not being paranoid.
    we’re just all out to get you.

14. Zuggu
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    Badoo is some sort of Facebook for poor people in Latin America

15. Guille
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    http://www.khaces.com

16. mathew johnson
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 1:19 pm

    obvious use case:

    pretty girl profile convinces her male friends to pay badoo to make her more popular.

17. Jeff the Great
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    you guys have obviously missed the point: that hot blonde in the picture!

18. Jeff the Great
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 2:23 pm

    seriously though, look at the profiles on Badoo. Mostly all women, many in model type poses or even in swimwear.

    Looks like an adult spam site to me.

    seriously though again, someone find out who that blonde is!

19. Badoo
    

    January 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Badoo Comment

    Badoo is aware that an incident has recently occurred where multiple fake profiles have been placed on the website. This is a common tactic used by outside parties to draw members of social networks to their alternative websites for commercial benefit. These parties have no connection with Badoo. As members of TechCrunch have noticed – these profiles usually feature an attractive photo which tends to grab people’s attention. One particular company has been attempting to use Badoo in this way during the past 48 hours.

    Authenticity is key to Badoo; the website would never create fake profiles in an attempt to increase the user base.

    We appreciate that this is annoying for our members and we’re doing all we can to resolve the problem. As well as antispam software we have a unit of moderators who work 24/7 to delete inappropriate profiles of this nature. Our developers are constantly developing new software to help eliminate this issue.

20. David
    

    January 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 pm

    I’m colombian and user of badoo , I’ll explain you all how badoo works apparently you just know about your english speaking world.

    First of all Badoo is not a facebook for poor people in latin america, that title belongs to Hi5. I see Badoo as a more dating focused service even if they don’t mention it anywere, this is how the site is mostly used, and let me tell you something it’s great at it!!! free, elegant interface, and plenty of people from your country (obviously if you are in latin america or latin europe). The site is not created with the aim of provide an extremely complex way of interaction as facebook does, but it does provide you some excellents and easy tools that allow you to meet the next girl you probably will add as a friend in facebook.

    This is how it works: you go to search ,add some basic criteria and click search. The page shows you the girls that recently have used the ‘bring my profile to the top of the list’ option (you need to paid to use this option in some countries) , this basically means that they ARE interested in being found!, you check some girls pics and left them a comment or send them a message through the online instant messaging service, and done, just wait for them to reply and you may find a date for your next weekend.

21. colombo
    

    February 2nd, 2008 at 4:33 am

    femme de russie ou ukraine