Andrey Andreev

Andrey Andreev
Born 3 February 1974
Residence London, England
Nationality British
Occupation Entrepreneur
Known for Badoo, SpyLog, Begun, Mamba
Net worth $1.54 billion

Andrey Andreev[1] (born on 3 February 1974[2]) is a British entrepreneur who founded the social discovery and dating network Badoo, as well as other internet businesses: SpyLog, Begun and Mamba.

Family and personal life

In a 2017 interview with The Times, Andrey discussed an early interest in communication technology. According to Andreev, at ten years old he built a radio out of electronic hardware he found around his family home, which he successfully used to chat to a friend a block away.[3]

Before dropping out to start his first company, he studied management at the local university, while working as a partner in an advertising and public relations company.[4]

In the mid-90s, his family moved to Spain; Andreev himself relocated in 1995, but went back and forth between Spain and Russia.

Andreev has been based in central London since 2005 and lists cooking as one of his greatest passions. The sweet onion soup 'Andreï Style' at two-Michelin-starred L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Covent Garden, London is named after him.[4]

Career

Virus

In 1995 Andreev started his first business in Russia - an online store that sold computers and computer accessories via Internet. He sold Virus in 1997 for an undisclosed amount.[5]

SpyLog

In 1999, Andreev founded SpyLog, a web-tracking business which helped webmasters track visits to their sites, as well as track users' habits on the web. Although there were already existing services from Rambler and Mail.ru, SpyLog grew quickly.

Begun

In 2002, Andreev started contextual advertising firm Begun, often described as an earlier version of Google AdWords. A majority share of the company was purchased by Russian investment firm FINAM in 2004. Google tried to purchase Begun for $140 million in 2008.

Mamba

Mamba was founded in 2004. Today it is the most popular dating site in Russia, with roughly 8 million users (or 13% of Russia’s Internet population) using its service. A majority share was sold in 2006 to FINAM and Mail.ru.

Badoo

Andreev launched Badoo in 2006, with the product quickly spreading in popularity throughout Europe and into Latin America. Today it is the largest social network in the world for meeting new people, with over 360 million registered users,[6] generating over $150 million per year and operating in 190 countries.[7] In an article in 2011, Wired described Badoo as a 'mass phenomenon' in Brazil, Mexico, France, Spain and Italy.[8]

Andreev has spoken of his unique management style and the company culture at Badoo. In an interview in October 2017, he told Shortlist magazine that his philosophy in work is ‘to make people happy’, before discussing the food, perks and parties that are provided for Badoo’s staff. The company has since been named one of the Top 20 UK companies to work in, by Glassdoor.[9]

Badoo has main offices in Central London and Moscow and employs a staff of around 500.[10]

Bumble

In 2014, Andreev connected with previous Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe. After he persuaded her to move back into the dating space, together they built Bumble, the women-focused dating app. Speaking to The Guardian, Wolfe named Andreev as her biggest mentor in business.[11] she also admits that Andreev "took the chance on her when no one else would,” and that “without him, the bumble journey wouldn’t have been possible.”[12]

Net worth

In 2018, Andreev was named on Forbes' global list of billionaires for the first time.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Levinsky, Alexander (12 November 2010). "Billion for the introduction As one of the most mysterious businessmen in the West, Russia has created a mega-project Badoo". Forbes (Russia) (in Russian). Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  2. ↑ Андреев Андрей (Оганджанянц Андрей Вагнерович). Биографическая справка Archived 3 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine.(in Russian)
  3. ↑ Machell, Ben (2017-10-21). "Meet Andrey Andreev, the man behind Badoo, the world's biggest dating app". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  4. 1 2 How Badoo built a billion-pound social network... on sex by David Rowan, Wired Magazine, 6 April 11. Accessed April 2011
  5. ↑ Au-Yeung, Angel. "The Russian Billionaire Cupid Behind The Biggest Dating App In The World". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
  6. ↑ "Discover Badoo". team.badoo.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  7. ↑ "The Dating Game". BBC News. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  8. ↑ Rowan, David. "How Badoo built a billion-pound social network... on sex". Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  9. ↑ "These are the best companies to work for in the UK". The Independent. 2017-10-18. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  10. ↑ Cooke, Barry. 13 June 2012. "Start Me Up – Andrey Andreev, The Man Behind Badoo."
  11. ↑ Featherstone, Emma (2017-07-07). "Whitney Wolfe: 'I'm worried we're alienating the good guys'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  12. ↑ "The Russian Billionaire Cupid Behind The Biggest Dating App In The World". forbes.com. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  13. ↑ "World's Richest Tech Billionaires". forbes.com. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.