|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Facebook users who are looking for a love relationship with a non-friend may not need to leave the app to find it. The social media has announced a dating feature that helps users find and build “real, long-term relationships” within the platform.
The dating feature service may come free for users, putting it in prime position to challenge established platforms like Tinder, which has been rolling out premium, paid features. Match Group, the owners of Tinder and OkCupid saw stock drop by more than 17 percent as soon as Facebook made its announcement.
Facebook could have also been positioning itself for the dating market long before now, given that it allows users to broadcast whether they are single or in a relationship.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, who made the disclosure at the annual F8 developer conference, explained that with the feature, people can opt in to create a dating profile on Facebook.
The profile created will not be visible to friends and users who are not on the dating feature; neither will it show up in the News Feed.
“We have designed this with privacy and safety in mind from the beginning. Your friends are not going to see your profile, and you are going to be suggested to people who are not your friends,” Zuckerberg said.
To also help keep a user’s Facebook profile separate from the dating feature, the latter will only use the first name of the user.
The feature also come with a dedicated inbox that does not allow the user send pictures or links, only text-based messages are allowed for first time chats.
Users are matched for with potential dates using a unique algorithm that employs “dating preferences, things in common and mutual friends.” Shared Groups and Events will also be used in finding romantic interests. For instance, if a user is attending a conference, they will be able to “unlock” their profile, so that potential matches who have said they are going to the same conference can see it.
