Does Badoo Own Bumble?

No. Bumble and Badoo are sibling apps, and one company, Bumble Inc., runs both. Its annual report to the SEC lists the Bumble, Bumble For Friends, Badoo, Fruitz and Official apps as the apps it operates. Neither app is described as owning the other. If you search "does Badoo still own Bumble" or "did Badoo own Bumble", the filing gives no sign that Badoo ever did.

Bumble Inc.'s annual report describes the company as operating five apps. The two dating apps most men know are Bumble and Badoo.

The same report breaks out Bumble App revenue and Badoo App and Other revenue as two separate lines. That is how siblings under one parent are reported, rather than one app sitting inside the other.

The filing describes Badoo as the older of the two dating apps and one of the pioneers of free-to-use dating products. It says Badoo remains a market leader in several countries in Europe and Latin America.

It describes Bumble as one of the first dating apps built with women at the center, where women make the first move. That is the feature most men know it for.

The filing says Bumble Holdings was formed to finance the acquisition of a majority stake in Worldwide Vision Limited, the predecessor company, by investment funds managed by Blackstone. So the corporate story is about a holding company and its predecessor, with an investment firm behind it, and not about one dating app buying another.

For a man deciding where to spend his evenings, that story matters very little. What matters is that the two apps feel different to use.

On Bumble, women make the first move in a match, so you spend your effort making a page worth choosing and answering quickly when she writes. On Badoo, the way you meet people is its own system, and it has its own subscriptions, Badoo Premium and Badoo Extra, which include Liked You and Invisible Mode.

They also reach different crowds. Badoo's strength is in parts of Europe and Latin America, so the same man can see very different results from each depending on where he lives. Pick by the city you are in, not by the company behind the logo.

Nothing in the filing says the two apps share accounts, profiles or matches. Treat them as separate apps with separate sign-ups.

That means a page you build on one does not show up on the other, and the work of getting it right is done twice. A photo that works on Bumble will usually work on Badoo, so you can reuse your best set, but each page needs its own bio.

It can make sense when you live somewhere one app is thin. A man in a smaller city, or one who travels, can find that a second app fills the gaps.

a dating coach's approach is to give each app a real effort rather than spreading yourself thin. He points out that consistency in small amounts beats a burst of effort, and that you should be on an app often enough that it counts you as active. Two apps you check lightly will do worse than one that you work properly.

Start where the women are. Look at how crowded each app feels in your area for a week, and keep the one that gives you more people you would want to meet. Put your best photos first, write a bio that gives her something to ask about, and write to each woman you like the day you match.

If that app dries up, add the second then. A company relationship between the two apps will not change your results, but your photos and your opening line will.