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Badoo Case StudyFollowing my success in the Philippines, I found it incumbent upon me to experiment with Badoo and different locales. To determine if I could attract as many quality leads as I did in Cebu. Does this guarantee in person success? No. But, it is a data point that I assume has a decent correlation with in-person prospects.
Some vitals:
1. 5’10. Did not sneak another inch in.
2. If I could leave a profile option blank, I did. Religion, kids, etc. This may have worked against me to some degree, but I didn’t want to cast too narrow of a net for this experiment. I completed some of the generic questions and used pre-selected answers: “what do you like to do on the weekend? I love going for hikes!”
3. As I mentioned in my first post, I’m a 5/10. Adjustable 6. White, with dark features.
4. I used five pictures.
5. I indicated I was American in my bio. I felt like this is important because it would be mentioned in the first 30 seconds of meeting someone IRL.
6. I made the age range 18-40. For me, maybe too low and a touch too high both directions. But I feel it’s a realistic range.
7. I set the max distance 120 km from my location. While a woman traveled further to see me in the Philippines, that is not the norm.
8. I swiped right on the first 100 women after setting my location. I figured the algorithm rewards activity. This was indiscriminate, unless something really stuck out to me (bot profiles).
9. I bought premium. I had to see the quality of the likes to assess the landscape. I don’t remember if this gives you preferential placement in the algorithm. It can’t hurt. I also verified my account. That takes two seconds.
10. I went live at each location at the same time each day. 8 AM their time. The workday might vary from culture to culture, but it’s another thing I could control.
So there you have it. A fairly generic account. But enough information to convey where I’m from and also passes the sniff test of being real.
The results:
When I started this process I planned on choosing metros of comparable sizes. 10 million people versus 1 million people is pretty different. I threw that out the window. I don’t think it’s worth anyone’s time to compare sample size and extrapolate data. Just take it as it is. Some of the bigger cities have a pretty dead Badoo scene. some smaller cities have every single woman on this app. But I digress.
Let’s start off with the baseline. America. Multiple major metros in the Midwest. Where a generic white guy should do decent. Amongst his people. and?…..crickets. A lot of bots in the listings. Including AI profiles. At first glance they look really realistic, but have an uncanny valley vibe eventually. You know it when you see it. But even adjusting for that, it was dead for me. God bless the (few) women who actually tried. But almost all of them had dealbreakers for a male looking for a long-term arrangement. Children, trauma, whatever. And I did not engage with these people. this was all apparent from their profiles. I also acquired some additional data here and there. Dropping myself into Tokyo during prime hours. Got nothing.
High activity:Manila. 100+ . Many women initiated the conversation before I even matched back. I even received some “crushes” …which cost money if I do them. I don’t know if it’s the same for ladies. Speaking of ladies, a lot of ladyboys. But I found that to be the case pretty much everywhere. Towards the end of the slot, I opened it up to the entire country, and there was a deluge of more likes. Aside: If you’re attentive, you will begin to notice the average phenotype is different from region to region in the Philippines. I find myself really drawn to the girls from Negros Occidental. Can’t tell you why. But most times I was like, “oh shit,” that was her region. The Philippines has 115 million people. That particular municipality has 2.6 million.
Jakarta. 75+. Same story. But a ton of Muslim women. Including some who were very very aggressive and video calling me asking to meet. Set up? Robbery? Probably. Let a man dream.
Sub Saharan Africa cities. I got somewhat bored here, so I jumped around. multiple likes per hour. Some pretty attractive women. You want curves, that’s where you need to go. Ghana, Ivory Coast. You can feel the poverty in the photos. I also get the impression there’s not terribly much to do there in the cities. If you’re gonna make a trip, plan on exploring the country and hopping around. Some of the women used filters and creative photography. The vast majority, what you see is what you get. So there’s a realness there. By contrast, Asian women tend to really doctor themselves up in every possible way on dating apps. The body dysmorphia is apparent.
Mexico City. 40 likes in a day. this is based purely on aesthetics and presentation, but Mexico certainly feels westernized in the sense that you and I mean on this sub. No English unless you get somebody who is pretty educated. The handful who initiated conversation did so in Spanish. I’m not really into Latin women. But they come in all shapes and sizes down there. Fair number of ladyboys, and LGBTQ flags. I’m not judging either way. I was just surprised.
Almaty, Kazakhstan. tons of activity. 50+ likes in a day. Conversation initiation. language is very hit and miss. Mostly miss. I’m not an expert on geography, but the appearance of the women and men in this region is really all over the place. The city is near the Chinese border and that influence is clear. Some of the women look Chinese. Some of them look white. Some of them look middle Eastern. Some of them look like whatever mixture that you can conjure in your head. the general styling of these women was very classy. A lot of professional style photos. appears to be a beautiful country.
Low activity:I was not a hit in Colombia or Ecuador, nor some central American countries. My hypothesis is that I am their phenotype but whiter. I think the blonde and blue eyed PPBs would probably stand out. Religion and whatnot might also be important to them. I am ignorant to those cultures. So I’m speculating here. Also, most of them don’t speak English. They may (correctly) assume a language barrier and not bother with me.
Addis Ababa. This was disappointing as it’s on my shortlist. I think I will fare better in person. Big city, kind of a dead community on that app.
San Jose, Costa Rica. Very little engagement. Some white expats matched.
Bangkok. Not as much engagement as I anticipated. I know it’s cliché, but every third like was a ladyboy. And pay to play appears pretty prevalent here. Most attractive women listed “model” as their job. Dead giveaway. One particularly attractive woman messaged me hello after matching. She then sent “money?” a few mins later. Haha. Again, small sample size. I’m just one guy. But in person is probably better. The energy of Bangkok was also apparent in the photos. You can tell that’s a fun town.
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