Facebook rolled out its new dating vertical, called Facebook Dating, in Colombia on Thursday.
Why it matters: Its potential is huge — Facebook says 200 million users identify as single on their profiles, per Recode.
The details:
- CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants the dating service to be for meaningful relationships, not hookups, and a majority of Facebook users polled said they would be interested in such a service.
- The system is centered around an algorithm-powered home screen of suggested romantic matches based on everything Facebook knows about users that other apps don’t, per TechCrunch.
- Users 18 and older will be able to create dating profiles and, once those reach a critical mass, find some matches, according to Wired.
- There won’t be any swiping to match with profiles, unlike Tinder and Bumble.
- The service doesn’t require downloading an additional application to your phone.
- Facebook restricts potential matches to people located less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away.
- The company plans to expand the service to other countries, including the U.S., in the future.
Yes, but privacy concerns still loom over Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the company will need to manipulate its data to run this service.
The bottom line: Facebook's service is currently free, but there is a potential market for subscriptions. Tinder, a subscription-based dating app that launched in 2012, will make more than $800 million in revenue in 2018, per Recode.
