The Globe and Mail

BADOO: The largest social network for meeting new people locally in the world

Founder: Andrey Andreev, in 2006

No. of employees: 200 in London and Moscow, and hundreds of moderators all over the world working 24 hours a day to verify photos

No. on the network: 135 million users - big data base you can tap into

How it works: It's all about meeting, chatting, flirting and dating new people. It's what Lloyd Price, Badoo's director of marketing, calls "the opposite of Facebook"

$$$: Credit system allows users to promote their profiles, premium subscriptions and advertising

Secret to success? "The key is a good experience," says Mr. Price, "but it's our flexibility that has distinguished us"

Website: http://badoo.com

TAGGED: Enables people to meet for everything from flirting, dating and serious relationships to meeting new friends

Founders: Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith, in 2004

How it works: Free service that allows members to easily browse and meet new people through advance matching algorithms, social games and more

Target market: 80 per cent of members are 21 to 54 years old; it's split equally among men and women

Where it's used: More than 200 countries

Success rate: Tagged has more than 100 million members and makes about three million new friend connections a day

$$$: Virtual currency, subscriptions and advertising

Outlook: Excellent. Tagged recorded its fourth consecutive profitable year in 2011

Website: http://www.tagged.com/

ELECTRIC COURAGE: Mobile app that helps you meet and connect with people in your location

Founders: Holly Smith, JP Leroux, Shahed Al-Haque and Duncan Bays, in 2011

How it works: Pull out your phone, check into the bar, post a flirt to the wall and receive push notifications from interested parties

$$$: It's a free app, but the company is looking to integrate a "buy a drink" feature into the app, as well as advertising

What makes it different: "We're not profile-based, so you don't put up a bunch of information," says Ms. Smith. "The benefit is that you can see the person. Our role is to connect two people and let you talk from there"

Success rate: No data available but 2,000 downloads since launch

Website: http://www.electriccourage.com/

MOONIT: Social discovery app that lets users flirt and find friendship based on astrological signs

Founders: Dana Kanze and Mason Sexton launched the alpha version in 2009 at Techcrunch and then launched a full version in 2010

How it works: User creates a profile, checks out other users, requests to connect, accepts, receives compatibility chart

Number of users: 1.3 million

Target demographic: Ages 13 to 24 looking to connect with people outside of their social network

$$$: Rolling out premium subscriptions, including $1.99 feature spots

Success rate: 70 per cent relationship compatibility based on birthday algorithm

Why it's unique: "There's a huge market opportunity and we aren't able to satisfy it quickly enough... resource constraints are the biggest challenge," says Ms. Kanze

Website: http://moonit.com/

TINGLE: Location-based app that allows you to flirt via text and make phone calls to another user while protecting real-world contact info

Founder: Ian Bell launched the company in 2010

How it works: Uses a background process to track location and passes matches through a filter. If there's a match, users will be sent push notifications. "We get that spontaneity without specifically telling people where they are...It also allows women to send messages back and forth without having to reveal their number," says Mr. Bell

No. of people on the network: Tens of thousands

$$$: Selling Karma, which are credits in Tingle's economic system that act as rewards and protect against spammers, fake profile creators and over-users

Website: https://www.tingle.com/

MEETMOI: Location-based app that has "stripped down dating to what's most essential – the introduction"

Tagline: The mobile matchmaker. Always looking for you

Founders: Andrew Weinreich and Jeremy Levy, in 2007

How it works: When a match is nearby, MeetMoi sends an alert to your phone and, if you like what you see, you can choose to connect with that person in real time

No. of employees: 10

No. of users: Millions

$$$: Monthly subscription model

Outlook: Strong, given the strength of the mobile market

Website: http://www.meetmoi.com