Badoo

Since 2008, Cyber-Dating Expert has been a go-to source of online dating advice. With dating coach and two-time author Julie Spira at the helm, the team behind Cyber-Dating Experts helps singles improve their chances of finding love on the Internet and their mobile phones.

The 4th annual Cyber-Dating Expert "Top 10 Mobile Dating Apps" list compiles the best-of-the-best that mobile dating applications have to offer. In a world that's becoming increasingly smartphone-based, Spira and her team say these are the 5 best apps for tech-savvy singles:

5. POF (iOS and Android): POF is one of the largest free dating sites in the world, with over 2 million Americans logging on each day. This is their third consecutive appearance on the Cyber-Dating Expert Top 10 Mobile Dating Apps list. According to comScore, POF has captured 67% of the market share among mobile dating apps in the US, and POF reports that 80% of their members access their service via their mobile application.

4. Badoo (iOS and Android): Since its launch in 2006, Badoo has amassed over 107 million members who speak more than 41 languages in 180 countries around the world. The free dating app, which adds 100,000 new users every day, stands out from the competition by offering the added bonus of uploading video.

3. Zoosk (iOS and Android): Zoosk is one of the most popular dating sites on the web, so it's no surprise the app has also made a splash. It's proved to be especially popular with iPhone users, and is a top 10 overall grossing app in the iTunes store. This marks the fourth time in a row Zoosk has made it onto Spira's top mobile dating apps list. Zoosk keeps earning top marks because it's also a hugely popular Facebook application and is available in 25 languages in over 70 countries.

2. Let's Date (iOS): Let's Date may call itself the Instagram of dating, but its real strength lies in its connectivity to other social networking sites. Users can sign in with Facebook connect, making profile creation incredibly easy. Members can also link to their Twitter accounts for more in-depth profiles and can use the "wingman" feature to share profiles with their single friends via e-mail, SMS, or Twitter.

1. Tinder (iOS and Android): Tinder has a lot to celebrate. It has reached its one year anniversary, it is now the fastest growing location-based mobile dating app, and it is also Spira's top dating app for 2013. Tinder earned the number one spot because it's simple to use, free, and anonymous, and because it has given credibility to mobile dating in a way that no other app has. With 400 million members on board already, and approximately 4 million new matches per day, Tinder is clearly leading the mobile dating pack.

Related Article(s): The Top 10 Best Mobile Dating Apps in 2013 (Part I), The Top 10 Best Mobile Dating Apps in 2013 (Part III)

We wrapped up the 2011 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll today. It ran from October 1st, 2011 and ended today, January 30, 2012. We almost reached 1000 votes, the most we ever have had. In total we had 987 voters who answered 2 questions. The first being which paid dating site would you recommend for the "2011 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award". The second question asked which free dating site you would recommend.

The annual Single's Choice Award is our most important award we give out. This is because it is voted on by you. Collectively our visitors spend many more hours online with these dating sites compared to what it is possible for us to do. We do have our own opinions as well which is why we have the Editor's Top Pick awards. These awards are based on our own experiences as well as the comments we receive from visitors throughout the year.

For 2011 we listed the top eight dating sites for you to vote on. The three dating sites which received the most votes will get an award, Gold for first, Silver for second and Bronze for third.

The recipient of the Gold 2011 Single's Choice Award is Match.com. We also gave this dating site the Editor's Top Pick - Overall award as well. Match.com received 331 votes, which is 33.5 percent of all votes. Most other dating sites in the poll only were voted on about 8 percent of the time which makes Match.com almost 5 times more popular than most other sites.

The recipient of the Silver 2011 Single's Choice Award is eHarmony. eHarmony has won this award 4 times in a row. They had 22.5 percent of the vote which works out to 222 votes. eHarmony's match system is as popular as every with users which is also why they were the recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Match System award as well

The recipient of the Bronze 2011 Single's Choice Award is Badoo. This up an coming social dating site made great strides in popularity in only one year to be able to earn the bronze award. While they only had under half of the votes than what the winner of the silver award received, Badoo did get a respectable 95 votes, which works out to almost 10 percent of all votes.

Here are this year's standings for the Single's Choice award for all dating sites in the poll.

1. Match.com
2. eHarmony
3. Badoo
4. Zoosk
5. Chemistry
6. Date.com
7. PerfectMatch.com
8. Lavalife

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for the 2011 Single's Choice Award. Our visitors in 2012 will appreciate knowing which dating services are the most popular.

As of November 2011, Badoo had:

• 130,000,000+ current users
• Members in 180 countries
• 127,503 new users per day
• 1,411,665 photos and videos uploaded daily

Add all that together and what do you get? The biggest online dating success story of 2011.

Badoo is taking the world by storm according to TechCrunch. It's a truly global, multi-lingual phenomenon, with location-based social networking functionality that is bringing people together to chat and flirt all around the world. In fact, if Badoo was just a site for social networking, it would be the 4th largest in the world. But Badoo is so much more.

Knowing that each user's needs are different, Badoo takes on different roles in different countries. In the UK, it's primarily used for casual dating. In the Czech Republic, it's a marriage site. In Indonesia, it's a safe space for burqa-clad women to explore self-expression. The site has been used for everything from making friends to throwing parties. Thanks to that ability to be so many different things to so many different people, Badoo now brings in $100 million per year in revenue.

Their success story began in 2006 when, rather than seeing Facebook as competition, Badoo set out to fill a gap that Facebook had left in the market: helping strangers connect. Badoo then offered all of it's core functionality for free, giving users a full experience without the big price tag that comes along with many traditional dating sites. For those who want even more out of the site, paid subscriptions are available that unlock special features like the ability to see who has viewed your profile. A system of micropayments is also in place to help users improve their search rankings and become more visible.

Jessica Powell, Chief Marketing Officer of Badoo, believes that the site's success stems from its flexibility. Unlike sites that are specifically designed for dating, Badoo creates a space in which users can connect in any way they want. It's more like real life, she says, when "meeting new people" can be anything from being introduced to a friend of a friend, to saying "hi" to a stranger at a bar, to flirting, to going on a date. Badoo reflects the offline world because people want to meet real people, not pages of meaningless data.

The site's strategy of "real world meets cyberspace" seems to be working - Powell says that 50% of the conversations on Badoo now lead to an offline meetup, and at the rate Badoo is going, that number is only going to increase.

For even more information about this dating service you can read our Badoo.com review.

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.