

The technology of billing at Badoo - dmitri1981
http://techblog.badoo.com/blog/2014/01/20/The-technology-of-billing-at-Badoo/

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thu
If Badoo reads HN: it would be great if you had "The technology of filtering
fake accounts". Simply running a Google Image search on uploaded pictures
would rule out a lot of fake accounts.

~~~
mkevac
I suppose they have a awful lot of images. Google would not be happy.

~~~
thu
Maybe. Although it was mostly an example, I guess quite a few users do the
search themselves, possibly for the same pictures over and over again.

Some accounts also use exactly the same pictures; I guess that recognizing
those cases without resorting to a third party solution would be possible too.

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easy_rider
People obviously still have a romanticized image of dating sites. Having
worked for 2 years at an adult dating/advertisement company, let me wake you
people up. Badoo's billing struck me as ingenious, but still a sham, like 95%
of the online dating world. However, my line of work was in adult-dating so
that's a whole different ballgame of faking and scamming. They hired me for
doing "billing" . I was like "ok" yeah I have experience with implementing
payment modules and such in e-commerce, been doing that forever... Like to
these people, it was magic. And what they considered "billing" was basically
acquisition or conversion through on-page shams and tricks. It had little to
do with connecting API's:

A lot of fine print and cross-selling, up-selling. The same biller allowed to
use different descriptors on the creditcard statement to reduce
chargebacks.... API's in (adult)dating, like anything else seem to have come
back from time in Marty McFly's Delorean.

Still, the majority of dating sites are just a sham. Most of them copies (or..
"white labels" as they like to call them). Don't you guys know "Twoo.com" ? iz
like exactly the same as Badoo..

Actually, on-site scammers - they usually give you a phone number from the
Philippines - are great because they provide the only "real" (as in human)
interaction with the users.

Still Badoo relies heavily on fake profiles and automated actions. I myself
have been implementing such "angel" features in an adult-dating platform.
Morally abject, didn't really like it except I took it on to learn NodeJS and
hopefully get something out of the equity deal and use my money for something
good.

Badoo (and any other of such) basically pleads with you when you're not a
subscriber: They start mailing you profile visits ("someone is checking you
out") or you get random "likes you" from cute 18-19 y old girls.
Intermediately you get spammed with what we call the "special offers".
Discount ledgers or "sign up before dd/mm and get x% off" e-mails. Yes you're
a real popular guy at Badoo if you don't have any cash. You will even get some
replies on your messages if you don't pay.

Become a subscriber and bamboozle, all the mailings stop, interaction
basically dies down. Now you're such unpopular wow?? such amaze.. how did that
happen. Now that they've made billing convenient for you, you start doing
micro payments for popularity.

Alright, enough of this... I put $100 in this site, and not giving me any ROI.
I get better ROI at the titty bar.... better unsubscribe... Oh wow, why did I
do that, seems like all the girls are checking me out just now that I stopped
billing. wtf??? seriously :P

The only real real dating site I've encountered in this age, is OkCupid! And
i'm pretty darn sure that they also juice up their listings (as far as
activity goes). although they do not need it as much, and I've actually had
some real interactions on OkCupid!

So who's getting laid? It's basically a threesome between the sites, PSP's and
Creditcard company's. They all hang out at some trusted mansion on Cyprus and
have sweet phone-sex with their bank in Zurich.

