Social media giant Facebook is extending the ‘social’ side of things into the lucrative world of online and mobile dating, the company has revealed at its F8 developers conference.
“There are 200 million people on Facebook who list themselves as single,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the company’s annual F8 developer conference. “So clearly there’s something to do here.”
Pledging to be all about “long term relationships, not hook ups”, the company is looking to move into the space later this year – and most industry insiders say that it is aimed at taking on the likes of Match, eHarmony and OKCupid, rather than Tinder.
This being the case, it will be a service aimed not at the core ‘young’ audience traditionally associated with the social site, but aimed more at the 35s and over – a demographic which is one of the few that is growing for the social media company.
“People already use Facebook to meet new people, and we want to make that experience better,” said Zuckerberg. “People will be able to create a dating profile that is separate from their Facebook profile — and potential matches will be recommended based on dating preferences, things in common, and mutual friends. They’ll have the option to discover others with similar interests through their Groups or Events. However, what people do within the dating feature will not be shown to their friends. We’ll share more information when this begins testing later this year.”
The service will be an opt-in add on for users and will be centred around conversation and sharing – just like ‘real world dating’, apparently.
The move has already seen several dating companies share price slashed and it will be interesting to see what impact adding this ‘adult’ service to social media has on the mainstream dating world.
