Matchmaker
"Your Love Story Begins with a Swipe!"
Introduction
From offline to online dating, dating app has become a trend to find your true
love in real life. The dating app market has become more mature in recent years, and it is estimated that one-third of the French are dating app users
(Bagot, 2023). Many of our friends, maybe including ourselves, decide to pursuit our love through a “swipe”, but not many of us notices the marketing strategy behind the dating app. Let’s “swipe” our blog to get to know about the dating apps!
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Dating apps have become popular since 2009 when Grindr was founded for the LGBT community (Schermele, 2022). Its success proved the idea for the development of other location-based dating apps. Later in 2012, the leading dating app, Tinder, was also founded (Iqbar, 2023). It introduced the concept of swiping to "like" or to "pass" on the users, making the process more intuitive and fun. The dating app market then started to flourish, and different apps with unique features appeared and expanded in mid-2010. Dating apps have become the trend in the 2020s because of the pandemic. More and more people stepped into the market as face-to-face meeting was prohibited (Rothmann & Robison, 2020). According to Brandwatch, more than 2 million of people mentioning dating app online, associated with “social media’, “online dating”, “first date”, and “friend-zone”, indicating that dating app has become a trend to meet new people and be in a relationship.
"Start Your First Swipe in Badoo!"
So...Which dating app we will be talking about?
Among all the dating app, Badoo is one of the most popular dating apps with more than 400 million users worldwide (Curry, 2023). In 2006, Badoo was established in Russia as a dating website. Badoo has continuously evolved and transformed into a dating app later. With the success in Russia, Badoo decided to expand its business across Europe, North America, and South America.
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Natural Purcase of Badoo
The nature of the purchase is simple. Badoo, and other dating apps like Tinder and Bumble all launched “freemium“ plan for the users. Users can download the app and register for free, and the users can decide whether to pay to be a member and to unlock the hidden features, matches, etc.
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How does Badoo draw the public attention?
From having different color characters in Badoo’s logo to only adopting pink and purple, Badoo revolves its brand logo to show the brand identity. The pink logo symbolizes love, connection, and relationships to make the users leave an impression easily. Other than the logo, Badoo also utilizes the tagline, "Date Honestly," reflecting its commitment to promoting genuine interactions and transparency.
Brand Identity
To strengthen the identity of the brand, all the offline advertisements utilize the signature pink and purple to ally with the logo color. Pink and purple can also be found in the broadcasted/online advertisements.
What is the secret of Badoo?
In the competitive dating app marketing, Badoo stands out by introducing features such as ‘bumped into’ where the notification will be sent to the users that are in close proximity, the users can then review the profile and decide if they want to connect. Livestream and video chat are also available for the users. Meanwhile, women can also request a man to send a selfie to prove it’s the same person as the photo uploaded in the app.
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The key characteristic of Badoo is the high commitment to safety. Users are required to verify themselves and will have a blue tick after verification to make sure the users exist. The ‘selfie request” function is only available to female users, to make sure that women users are not scammed and are connected with a real user.
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In addition, Badoo is innovative. The distinctive features connect users in an innovative way such as by distance and swiping. It also allows users to encounter new people easily when the user is in a new place. Moreover, the users can also have an interactive conversation by using video chats to get to know each other more.
"Start Your First Swipe in Badoo!"
So... what do people think of Badoo?
One of the highlights of Badoo is how internationalized it is. It provides services to more than 190 countries, offering a large and diverse user base, hence boosting the chances of being matched. Badoo offers chances for people to meet new people through a safe and innovative channel as its value.
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As a result, the conversation with Badoo is relatively positive. According to Bradnwatch, 38% of the discussion of Badoo is “joyful” and the majority holds a positive attitude towards Badoo.
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To surive in the competitive environment, Badoo puts a lot of effort to formulate the marketing strategies.
In the next article, we will go deep into the customers’ perception --- How do the users ACTUALLY think of the Badoo, and how can Badoo improves. Stay tuned!
Reference
Bagot (2023, February 14). What is the environmental impact of the most used dating applications in France?. https://greenspector.com/en/what-is-the-environmental-impact-of-the-most-used-dating-applications-in-france/
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Curry (2023, May 2). Dating App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023). https://www.businessofapps.com/data/dating-app-market/
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Iqbal (2023, August 1). Tinder Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)?. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tinder-statistics/#:~:text=The%20app%20was%20founded%20in,designed%20the%20match%2Dmaking%20algorithm.
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Schermele (2022, November 16). Over a decade after founding Grindr, Joel Simkhai wants a do-over. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-life-and-style/decade-founding-grindr-joel-simkhai-wants-rcna56083
"Your Love Story Begins with a Swipe!"
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The key characteristic of Badoo is the high commitment to safety. Users are required to verify themselves and will have a blue tick after verification to make sure the users exist. The ‘selfie request” function is only available to female users, to make sure that women users are not scammed and are connected with a real user.
In addition, Badoo is innovative. The distinctive features connect users in an innovative way such as by distance and swiping. It also allows users to encounter new people easily when the user is in a new place. Moreover, the users can also have an interactive conversation by using video chats to get to know each other more.