Dec 24
Number 2 on Google’s Fastest Rising Searches for 2007 Badoo to Challenge Facebook?
Dec 24, `07 — Badoo, a social networking website which offers users the chance to pay to be popular while banning all advertising, is set to launch into an increasingly crowded UK market, says Mark Sweney of Guardian Unlimited.
Sweney further writes, “At the moment, Badoo is a relatively unknown web brand. However, Google recently rated it number two on its “fastest rising” list - behind the iPhone and ahead of Facebook - in its annual report based on the most popular web searches.
The fledgling company positions itself as a “natural evolution of existing social network and blogging sites”.
Badoo’s unusual business model works against the received wisdom of the primarily advertising-led efforts of established firms such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.
“We wanted to be advertising free in order to have a ‘clean’ site so our users weren’t subject to adverts which we know can be a turnoff,” said Neil Bryant, the managing director of Badoo.” More at Guardian Unlimited.