General News

While Badoo.com is not a common name in the U.S., it’s fast becoming one of the most popular dating sites in the world. This week, the company announced that its user base has surpassed 100 million in 180 countries, mostly due to its hybrid business model, combining traditional online dating with social networking.

The company has also recently launched a Facebook app, which has gained 25 million users.

Users of Badoo.com can set up a profile and search for matches like traditional online dating, but the site seems to be more focused on “real-time” interactions, including chatting, flirting, and meeting as many new people as possible. They also offer geo-location dating. When you use the Badoo app on your mobile phone, you can meet others in your immediate area right away, rather than scheduling and planning a date.

"The biggest shift is from "marital dating" to "social dating" or "casual dating," says Bart Swanson, Badoo COO. "Online dating is no longer all about meeting a future spouse. It's about meeting lots of people in a short time, at short notice, in an easy, fun, relaxed manner."

While the site is popular in many European, Latin American and African countries, their U.S. presence remains virtually unknown.

“In the English-speaking world, we’re the biggest thing you’ve never heard of,” Badoo COO Bart Swanson tells Thinq.co.uk. “But that is now starting to change.”

According to Badoo, their user base is expected to reach 200 million by 2012. They are inviting U.S. users to try the site on their home page, hoping to tap into the saturated online dating market here. With the growing popularity of mobile dating apps, they just might succeed.

A new Guinness World Records title for speed dating was set on February 8th, 2011 in Chicago. 414 daters participated in an event organized by HurryDate.com. Official Guinness World Records guidelines for speed dating state that each participant has to participate in at least 20 speed dates for a minimum of three minutes each. No intermissions are allowed and participants cannot date the same person twice. Log books must also be kept by participants and the event must be hosted by an established dating agency.

The previous record for speed dating was 313 daters set in New Jersey on January 29th of last year.

Related Story: HurryDate Seeks Guinness Record for Speed Dating

For more on the story you can check out the press release. To find out more about this speed dating service, please read our HurryDate.com review.

Global Personals had a good January this year. Revenues for the online dating company were up by 30 percent when compared to January in 2010. It also marked the highest level of earnings ever recorded for Global Personals in a given month.

This revenue increase is due to higher subscription sales. On average Global Personals saw their dating sites (Singles365.com, DatingAgency.com, etc.) bring in 45 percent more registered members when compared to the same time last year.

Janaury also broke another record for Global Personals. They "smashed" their previous record for number of members online at the same time.

To find out about a dating site owned by Global Personals please check out our Singles365.com review.

Earlier this month Zoosk released some financial numbers. Revenue for 2010 was more than $90 million. This is a 250 percent increase over 2009 with $20 million in revenue. Revenue growth for 2010 was primarily from premium subscriptions.

Zoosk has also expanded globally and now offers a pay service in more than 60 countries. They also added support for 5 more languages bringing the total to 25.

As far as US traffic to the Zoosk website is concerned, according to comScore's US Personals category Zoosk ranked number one in November 2010 and number two in December 2010. They also rank in the top ten for other countries as well like Spain, Italy and France. Part of their expansion is due to an increase TV presence. Zoosk now has TV advertising campaigns not only in the US but in Canada and the United Kingdom as well.

Zoosk's Facebook Fan Page is also one of the largest for a dating site. They currently have over 2.7 million fans which is up from 2.25 million in October of 2010 (see Story).

For more on the story you can check out the press release. To find out about this dating site, please read our review of Zoosk.

When you hear the word "breakup," what runs through your mind?

Heartache? Depression? Crying? Two weeks spent in pajamas eating nothing but Ben & Jerry's?

That probably sounds familiar to most of you, but the findings of a new study indicate that we might need to rethink our approach to breaking up. The study, called "Rejection Hurts: The Effect of Being Dumped on Subsequent Mating Efforts," suggests that the "damsel in distress" ideal is alive and well in modern culture. Researchers Christine Stanik, Robert Kurzban, and Phoebe Ellsworth tested their hypothesis that discovering that a potential date was rejected by their last partner would have a negative effect on a person's desire to pursue a relationship with them, and found that their results supported the hypothesis.

Exploring further, Stanik, Kurzban, and Ellsworth tested the effects of a potential date having rejected their last partner on the mind of a prospective new partner. This scenario, in contrast to the first experiment, produced interesting differences between men and women. Women who rejected their last partners were rated lower by men, while men who rejected their last partners were rated higher by women.

The study was conducted by asking 198 participants (102 women, 96 men) to log on to a fictional online dating site and rank the fake profiles based on how much they'd like to date the people featured in them. Most of the information contained in the profiles was unimportant (like "Blue is my favorite color" and "If I had to eat only one food for the rest of my life, it would be pistachio ice cream"), but one piece of information was crucial: "My last relationship ended because..." Every profile contained one of three possible answers:

• No response.
• I dumped my last partner.
• I was dumped by my last partner.

The results, as explained already, showed a difference of opinion between men and women. "The sex difference is that women found a man more attractive after learning he had dumped his last partner," says Stanik, "however, men found a woman less attractive after finding out the same information." Refusing to answer the question also lost a person points.

What explains this difference of opinion?

Stanik, who earned her Ph.D in 2009 from the University of Michigan, speculates that "a man's willingness to end an ongoing relationship in hopes of finding someone better might be interpreted by women as a sign of status." In other words, a man who has the guts to initiate a breakup might appear strong-willed, decisive, confidant, and courageous - all qualities that are very attractive. These men might also appear to have higher standards than other men, and therefore the women they subsequently date receive an ego-boost from being involved with them.

Traditional gender roles might also be at play in this scenario. Men are not expected to discuss being dumped by a girlfriend, and therefore doing so is perceived as a sign of weakness, whereas, in the words of Stanik, "a man taking a dominant role in his romantic relationships may be seen as more consistent with traditional gender roles." A dominant woman flies in the face of traditional gender ideals, and therefore faces more resistance than a dominant man. Women who initiate breakups might also been seen as picky, uptight, or demanding.

In 2011, are we really that old fashioned? Maybe. Or maybe, according to psychiatrist Christos Ballas, the reason men gravitate towards jilted women is might simpler: "It's not that she seems more aggressive, which is the way the scientists make it sound. It's, 'My chances are better with the girl who doesn't dump guys.'"

Chemisty's free communication weekend for February starts today, Friday Feb. 11th and runs all day Saturday and Sunday. This means singles can not only join Chemistry and take their personality test for free but they can communicate with their matches as well. No credit card is required.

Since this weekend is just before Valentine's Day and probably the busiest period for dating sites you can expect a lot of single men and women to be using this dating service.

The last free communication weekend was held in January (see Story). For more information on this popular dating site for singles who are serious about finding a long-term relationship, please read our review of Chemistry.