And the title "city that never sleeps" goes to ...

BY NELSON ALCANTARA, ETN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | AUG 03, 2011

New York may be referred to as "the city that never sleeps" but it ranked 32nd in a recent study that revealed the world’s “most 24-hour cities.”

The first global ranking of the world's "most 24-hour" - or most nocturnal - cities, comes from analyzing 120 million online chats and flirts made over two months on Badoo (http://www.badoo.com), the “world's largest social network for meeting new people,” with 122 million users across 180 countries.

According to the Badoo research on the world's most round-the-clock metropolises, no city in the world sleeps less than Cairo, the strife-torn capital of Egypt, thereby bagging the title the "world's most 24-hour" city. “But New York ranks a humiliating 32nd, behind London (17th), Paris (18th), Rome (27th) and an embarrassingly long list of other cities,” Badoo said in a statement.

The networking site also claims that “Malaga is named Europe's most 24-hour city, and fourth globally. Madrid (6th globally) is Europe's most 24-hour capital and London its sixth. Spanish cities comprise six of the world's 10 most nocturnal cities.”

It also says online chatting and flirting in Cairo peak at 00.45 am, 75 minutes later than in London and three hours later than New York.

"New Yorkers are climbing into bed at around the time that Cairo residents are preparing to go out," says Lloyd Price, Badoo's marketing director. "This will confirm the fears of those who say that New York has grown sterile and sleepy.”

Badoo's rankings are based on its own "Nocturnal Index" for each city. This combines measurement of peak times for chatting and flirting with a "Night/Day Ratio," comparing online activity levels by night and day.

According to Badoo, London and Cairo, like most cities in Badoo's world top 20, register more online activity at night than by day. New York doesn't. “

Badoo adds: “So, has the time come for New York to rebrand? From "the Big Apple" to "the Big Sleep"? Or, "New York, the city that barely wakes"? No, it doesn't quite have the same ring.”

Badoo's 10 Most 24-hour Cities

1. Cairo (Egypt)

2. Montevideo (Uruguay)

3. Beirut (Lebanon)

4. Malaga (Spain)

5. Zaragoza (Spain)

6. Madrid (Spain)

7. Barcelona (Spain)

8. Valencia (Spain)

9. Seville (Spain)

10. Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Whether the study is merely a publicity stunt to generate traffic for Badoo is unknown at the moment, as an independent study is yet to be conducted to verify the validity of the said research.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/24397/and-title-city-never-sleeps-goes

Bangkok would have been at the top of that list when I first came here.