Where Is Badoo Most Popular?

Badoo is strongest in parts of Europe and Latin America. Bumble Inc.'s annual report to the SEC says Badoo remains a market leader in several countries in those two regions. The report does not give a country list in the pages we read, and we found no published count of members by country, so we will not name countries or give a ranking. For a man deciding whether to use it, what matters more is whether enough women near you are active to give you matches and messages, and you can check that in three days.

The same report lists Badoo as the older of the company's two dating apps and as one of the pioneers of free-to-use dating. It sits beside Bumble, Bumble For Friends, Fruitz and Official as one of the apps Bumble Inc. operates.

Read that carefully. "Market leader in several countries" describes the company's position in those places, not the number of women near you. A man in a large Latin American or European city may find it busy, and a man in a different country may find it quiet.

a dating coach's rule for every app is that the same one can be busy in one city and thin in the next. His point is that results depend on whether the women on an app are really looking to date. Good game on an app full of inactive pages works worse than ordinary game on an app where people want to meet.

That is also why forum answers contradict each other. A man in one city says Badoo is everywhere, and a man in another says nobody is on it, and both are right about where they live.

For a man choosing an app, popular means three things near you.

• Enough women are active that you can run through new names for a week.
• Their photos are recent and their details are filled in.
• They answer when you write.

A huge member count in a country you do not live in tells you none of that.

1. Install the app and finish your page, with your best photos and verification, before you vote on anyone.
2. Set a distance you would really travel for a weeknight drink, and an age range you would take out.
3. Spend ten minutes a day in Encounters and Discover for three days, and write down how many of the women look active and recent.
4. Look at the green, red and grey dots. A green dot means online now and red means within the last few hours. A lot of grey suggests a quiet pool.

If most women look alive, run the full two-week test. If most look abandoned, you have your answer and have paid nothing.

In a big city you can keep the distance short and still see plenty of women. In a small one the pool runs out fast, and Badoo itself suggests relaxing your age and distance filters to see more people.

Stretching the filters is reasonable when your town is small. Do it one step at a time, though. coach likes first dates close to home, because a short trip makes the evening easy to plan and easy to extend if it goes well. A woman an hour away is a hard date to arrange, however good the chat.

A man in a place where Tinder, Hinge and Bumble dominate will often say Badoo is dead. He is describing his friends. Open one of those apps beside Badoo and compare the first twenty women each shows you. The comparison is more reliable than any country ranking, because it measures the pool you will actually be talking to.

Because popularity depends on place, a man who moves or travels may find the app behaves differently in a new city. Treat each city as its own test. Do not assume a good result at home carries over, or a bad one.

A quiet Badoo is not a verdict on you. coach advises running more than one app and letting your results decide, since a man who fails on one and does well on another has learned which pool suits him.

Run the two-week count on Badoo: women liked, matches, conversations, dates. Then run it on a second app. Keep the one that gives you real conversations and plans.