I’m just back from the whirlwind that was Dublin Tech Summit – which you can catch up on in the latest episode of Tech Yurt with myself and Jon. You’ll also hear me jabbering on about how great Web Summit was back in the day and I remember listening in to the founder of Tinder discussing how his dating app was used for “short-term relationships”. Facebook Dating is about to become a reality and Mark Zuckerberg believes this new service from Facebook is going to be more meaningful.
What is Facebook Dating?
Well, Facebook dating is exactly what the name suggests. At their recent F8 conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced the next effort from the social media giant to connect people. Facebook dating kind of makes sense. The platform has a huge number of groups we all know people that creep around Facebook like a CIA agent in what has lovingly become known as ‘Facebook Stalking’. Whether you’re looking for your friend’s friend or that person you matched with on Tinder, Facebook’s wealth of profiles puts them in a unique position for matchmaking.
Zuckerberg highlighted how one in three marriages in the US now start online and that people in the street often thank him for Facebook helping them to start families. He laid it on pretty thick!
There are 200 million people on Facebook that list themselves as single, so clearly there’s something to do here – Zuckerberg
Why Facebook Dating Will Work
I guarantee you, this isn’t a stupid experiment from Facebook that’ll be gone in twelve months. Just think back to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook handles a crazy amount of data on everyone so you can be sure they’ll be as effective as the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival at pairing potential lovers.
The financial world definitely doesn’t think this is a stunt. The arse fell out of Match.com’s share priceafter the announcement indicating there’s real competition a brewin’.
Also, when he announced the idea, Zuckerberg said he was aiming this feature at meaningful connections between potential couples, clearly setting Facebook dating aside from Tinder’s more casual elements.
Obviously predicting the lines being drawn between creepy amounts of data and privacy issues Facebook has experienced lately, Zuckerberg was quick to point out this new ‘Facebook dating’ feature would be designed with privacy in mind. The platform also announced Clear History which will help people delete data various websites collect on their browsing history, suggesting everything that’s happened might just be leaning in the favour of our privacy.
Facebook Dating doesn’t have a launch date yet but expects the new and improved ‘poke’ feature to be coming really soon.
