Zuckerberg to Introduce Online Dating in Facebook
During the social network’s F8 developer conference, Facebook owner, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that his company is gearing to take social networking to another level by introducing dating feature on its Facebook platform. While FB can be considered as a dating platform at present as well, however, the company wants to introduce a dedicated dating feature to make get users into a long-term relationship.
(Mark Zuckerberg at the Social Network’s F8 Developer Conference)
According to Zuckerberg, the purpose of introducing dating app is to help bring people together for long-lasting relationships instead of just random hookups. The soon-to-be rolling dating app is designed keeping the safety and privacy of mind from the beginning as this aspect is significantly important especially in case of dating applications.
When launched, a user will be able to use the dating feature by tapping the heart icon which is going to be located in the upper right corner of the users’ Facebook profile. In the dating profile of a user, only his/her first name, that too only to the people on the dating service. This means that a user’s Facebook friends will not be able to see his/her dating activity.
The dating app will allow the user to see potential matches, nearby events that match his/her personal interests. Tapping on an event will unlock it and allow the user see other dating app users interested for the event and start chatting with them.
Moreover, the messages will be exchanged in the messaging feature of the dating app and not in the FB Messenger or WhatsApp.
Challenging Match, Tinder, and OkCupid?
With the announcement of dating feature for Facebook, it will be interesting to see how other dating apps such as Tinder, Match, OkCupid etc. respond to the Facebook’s move. Although Match Group is a leading dating application at present, however, with a user-base of over 2 Billion, Facebook should not find much trouble surpassing Match Group.
The effect of the announcement was noticeable as Match Group’s (MTCH) sold off sharply and was down to 19% in trading. The major owner of Match, IAC/InterActiveCorp (IAC), was down to 12%.
Well, only time will tell as to how Facebook’s dating app shapes up the future of online dating and its fellow competitors.
