Even though we just reached an incredible milestone of 150 million users worldwide, the fun doesn’t stop there! Badoo still has a lot to show the world and more fun things coming up for our users.

Today we’re really excited to show you some great testimonials that capture what an amazing event the Badoo Project was. Over three days 1000 New Yorkers got the ultimate profile picture taken by four of the hippest photographers around, and 26 of them were chosen to be the faces of Badoo for a campaign that is currently covering building walls, taxi tops and other locations all over NYC.

Maryam, Jimmy, Saucey and Teresa are four of the 26 users who now can see their picture plastered across the Big Apple.

Here’s Maryam’s testimonial:

You can find Jimmy’s, Saucey’s and Teresa’s videos here.

Even by our crazy standards, the last couple of months have been really huge for us here at Badoo. We held our fabulous US launch, showcased our new advertising campaign, and of course, announced our new COO Ben Ling. And the good news doesn’t stop there!

Today, we’re really excited to announce that Badoo has now surpassed 150 million registered users around the world.

This is a significant milestone for us, as we look to fulfil our mission – making it easy, fast and fun to meet new people – on a worldwide scale.

And of course, for our loyal Badooers, who tell us their stories from all corners of the globe, it means there are more and more people to chat to, connect with and socialize with.

Here are some other facts and figures about how Badoo is growing:

- More than 60% growth year on year (Source: comScore)

- More than 35 million active users per month worldwide (Source: comScore)

- Our more established regions of Southern Europe and Latin America continue to show strong growth

- Newer markets such as the US, UK, Germany and Russia are growing fast, and are now in Badoo’s top ten markets worldwide

- Badoo now adds more than 125,000 new users every day

- Mobile usage has grown by 100% since November 2011 – and, more people in the US now sign up for Badoo via mobile than on web

- Badoo is now used in 40 different languages in 180 countries. Can you say “international?”

And of course, as our users grow, so does the company. We are hiring across a range of positions and offices, so spread the word!

Thank you to all of our loyal users, and welcome to the new ones! Here’s to more great times at Badoo – cheers!

Today is a really exciting day for Badoo, as we are taking the covers off our first-ever advertising campaign, starring 26 lucky people from our recent “Badoo Project” event in New York. The ad campaign officially launches today, and will run all over New York, as well as online, throughout May.

The theme? Well, just like on Badoo, everyone starring in our ads wants to meet new people, and they all want something different out of the experience. So we’re showcasing that in a fun way, as well as highlighting everyone’s individual style!

We picked a great mix of outdoor ads (think painted billboards, taxi-tops and underground cars), as well as some pretty funny videos that represent the people and personalities on Badoo.

For our 26 finalists, it’s like starring in the ultimate online profile picture!

Check out one of the ads below, and if you’re in New York, look out for them on a billboard near you!

Last week Badoo’s CMO Jessica Powell talked to Bloomberg Businessweek about the future of Google+, mobile, and our successful Freemium business model.

But towards the end, conversation turned towards MUCH more serious matters. When asked why someone would choose to work for Badoo rather than Google, Jessica, who is a Xoogler (that’s an ex-Googler to those not well-versed with the search giant’s whimsical terminology) said it’s exciting to work at a smaller company like Badoo, where everything moves very quickly and employees are able to work across a wide range of areas. She conceded that the food at Google is great.

Now while we agree with Jessica about why Badoo’s so exciting, we’d also like to suggest that Badoo food is none too shabby:

• A sunny kitchen with a direct view of the London Eye

• Huge fridges stuffed full of fresh snacks, yoghurt, fruit salad, organic chocolate, etc.

• All the Coca Cola and Red Bull you can drink (and almost certainly more than you SHOULD drink)

• An all-singing, all-dancing coffee machine that should by rights be wearing a “Barista” shirt

• Pastries every morning and cookies in the afternoon

• Kitchen shelf bursting with snacks in all shapes and sizes: some are healthy, some definitely not

• And on Fridays, we all get together for some lovely free beer (or wine, or cider…)!

Thank goodness for the discounted gym membership.

If you fancy joining us, check out the latest job opportunities at Badoo here!

Drumroll please! We’ve been keeping you updated about all the fun from our recent event in New York, The Badoo Project. And now we can reveal the 26 lucky people who were selected from the Project to star in our New York ad campaign, set to launch at the end of this month. Yes, these 26 get the ultimate online profile picture – their own billboard or taxi-top for all of NYC to see!

We have always celebrated Badoo as a diverse place where you can express yourself, and our newest billboard stars bring that to life with their own style and swagger!

Here are a few facts about our winner’s group:

• We have 14 guys and 12 girls, ranging in age from 18 to 30.

• They hail from all corners of New York and New Jersey: Manhattan, The Bronx, Harlem, and everywhere inbetween.

• Their interests are pretty varied and include 90′s Hip-Hop, getting into trouble (of course…), gypsy jazz shows, playing the ukulele, X-Men, Wu-Tang Clan, museum hopping, and of course fashion…

While twenty four of our finalists were selected by judges, we have you all to thank for crowning the final two “People’s Choice” winners, after your votes put them in top spot! Teresa Hui from Brooklyn (who even made her own video to encourage votes!) and Jason Tez from New Jersey both garnered thousands of votes apiece from voting on our public gallery.

Here’s the full roll call of the 26 winners. Check them out on our winner’s gallery!:
Alex Bavolar (Harlem), Andrew Daum Chung (Manhattan), Chris Sdescartes (Brooklyn), Jonathan Adlelaide (Harlem), Jude Kazar (Manhattan’s Lower East Side), Karmin Battle (Brooklyn), Laura Lane (Brooklyn), Richard Jordan (Brooklyn), Sakiko Ann Boggs (Brooklyn), Saulriishearrow (Saucey) Alonzia (Manhattan), Scott Kay (Manhattan), Sierra (Manhattan), Tope Alabi (Harlem), Teresa Hui (Brooklyn), Jacira Araujo (Manhattan), Quinn Fuller (Brooklyn), Jason Tez (New Jersey), Jongo Zeizel (Manhattan), Jerry Davis (Brooklyn), Lynnese Page (Harlem), Ludget Delcy (Brooklyn), Saglara Lidzheeva (Brooklyn), Maryam Basir (Jersey City), Jimmy Gonzales (Manhattan), Heather Schwalb (Manhattan), and Sean Cunningham.

Hopefully your favorite made the cut. If you’re in New York, look out for these faces on a billboard near you at the end of April!

Wow Badooers! Looking back at all the photographs and videos from the Badoo Project in New York City is really amazing: so many faces, so many great shots.

Over three days in March, 1000 New Yorkers got their profile picture taken by four professional photographers. Here’s a recap video of this amazing experience–is Badoo, as one of our participants calls it, a “secret society”? You be the judge!

So Badooers, hope you voted for your favorite. Voting is now closed, but the final 26 will be announced next week, so stay tuned for some big announcements!

You Badooers are a diverse lot – from rockers to rollers to the boy (or girl) next door – and the things you use our site for are equally varied. Regardless of all your differences, what we take huge pride in is providing a user experience on Badoo that is universally and consistently smooth, fast, reliable – and, at its core, free!

As a result, we’ve often been approached by others in the industry, who want to know how we do what we do and whether we can help them to improve their own sites and user experiences.

We have a white label service that’s designed to do just that: provide other sites with the Badoo experience. Our partners include clubnx.com, gentemessenger.com and club.onirc.com

We’re pleased to announce that our latest addition – and our first in the US – is Hot or Not. The core driver of traffic to Hot or Not’s site – a photo rating game – has similarities to Badoo’s Encounters game. So we thought we could build on the Hot or Not game and add additional features to make the site even better for Hot or Not users. This is similar to the white label services we provide to other sites – and Hot or Not continues to run as a separate site, powered by Badoo’s technology.

If you’re not already a Hot or Not user, why not try it out? The site has just been relaunched with a whole bunch of new features – it’s faster, fancier, and now has a much bigger pool of guys and girls all wanting to meet up!

And never fear, we’ll also be launching new features on Badoo over the coming months, as we continue to find new and cool ways to help you meet new people. It’s time to start socialising again!

Those of you that have visited London and travelled on public transport at rush-hour, will understand why we felt compelled to launch our latest PR campaign. Even the happiest Londoners morph in to angry, aggressive and antisocial creatures when they get on a bus or train to work!

We wondered, why not use that time to network and socialise with fellow commuters, rather than staring stonily at the ground?

So, we conducted a survey into commuters’ attitudes up and down the UK – where are commuters the friendliest and do we really want to love or hate our fellow passengers?

Unsurprisingly, Londoner travellers (48%) were the most likely to avoid contact with other commuters. But once you looked beyond the Capital, the survey’s results were actually quite heartening:

• (56%) of Brits admit they regularly smile at strangers on route to work and nearly half (44%) have struck up a conversation with fellow passengers

• In fact, a third (33%) of Brits confess they’ve swapped numbers, become friends or met up with someone they’ve met on their commute

• Cardiff takes the crown as the UK’s Friendliest Commuter Capital where over half (55%) of commuters admit they are actively friendly to other travellers by exchanging smiles and initiating conversation, compared to the UK average of 49%

Yet – as those of us who commute through London already know – there’s still work to be done. More than one third (34%) of people we talked to said they would like to change the attitude of those who are rude and aggressive and 28% want more friendly commuters.

So Badooers – let’s show everyone how it’s done! Why not use your journey to work to meet new people and make new friends? (And if you do strike up a new friendship on your way to work – be sure to send us a note and tell us about it!)

Greetings from NYC! The mammoth and epic Badoo Project is finally over, marking Badoo’s official launch in the States, and we’re really excited about what’s next for Badoo in the U.S. over the coming months. Over three days, our super-talented four photographers gave more than 1,000 people an amazing profile picture and brought New Yorkers together to have fun, socialize and meet new people. And that’s what Badoo is all about!

We wanted to share some pictures and thoughts from our final day at the event, and most importantly, get you involved in the next stage of the Badoo Project.

We’re opening up public voting for all the people that had their profile picture taken, and two lucky winners will get their pictures shown on billboards and taxi-tops around New York during May, along with 22 other finalists chosen by our panel of judges.

Yes Badooers – this is your chance to make someone famous!

To vote for your favorite picture from the Badoo Project, visit our Gallery and share your favorites with others. Voting is open now and runs until the 31st of March. So get to it! We want to see those votes…

And before we sign off from New York, here are a few of our favorite things from The Badoo Project. Enjoy!