Trust
Facebook with your data? How about with your love life?
That's what the company is hoping for.
After discussing how Facebook is going to improve its handling of users'
privacy and security, CEO
Mark Zuckerberg revealed at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference that the company is adding a
dating feature to its mobile app.
Facebook has long allowed users to reveal their relationship status on their profile page, but this new feature will go a step further.
"This is going to be for building real long-term relationships, not just hookups," Zuckerberg said. The service will require users to actively opt into it, Zuckerberg says, noting that your Facebook friends won't see your dating profile.
Once you've signed up, you'll only be suggested people who "are not your friends who have opted into dating who fit your preferences."
Shares of Match Group (MTCH), the owner of
Tinder, Match.com and OkCupid, which dominate the online dating market in the U.S., plummeted on the news, ending down 22% at $36.71. Some 27% of single smartphone owners use a dating app, eMarketer estimates. Tinder has been introducing paid services.
The new feature asks Facebook's users to trust the social network with yet more of their personal data — confidence that was severely dented after revelations that lax Facebook data policies enabled a political ad targeting firm to obtain data on 87 million users without their consent. During his F8 keynote, Zuckerberg vowed "to do more to keep people safe."
Facebook says it will utilize dating preferences, things in common and mutual friends for matching people together, showing the profiles of those who have opened themselves to dating only to other members who are using the feature.
Those who are in the same group or attending the same event will be able to see other members in those groups or events who have opened themselves to dating. People who match will be able to chat in a private messaging section that will be separate from the regular Messenger app.
Facebook did not give a timetable for when the Dating feature would launch but promised to provide more information when it begins testing the service "later this year."