Sep 23, 2018

Go deeper: The details of Facebook's launch into the datingsphere

Marisa Fernandez

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images.

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.

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Axios

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The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,800 people and infected over 82,000 others in some 50 countries and territories. As Denmark and Estonia reported their first cases Thursday, Scott Morrison, prime minister of Australia — which has 23 confirmed infections — told a news conference, "The risk of a global pandemic is very much upon us."

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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in 2012. Photo: John Gress/Corbis via Getty Images

Six people died in a shooting at the Molson Coors Brewing Company in Milwaukee Molson Coors on Wednesday, including the 51-year-old gunman, Mayor Tom Barrett told reporters at an evening press conference with local police.

Details: All of the victims worked at the brewery complex, as did the shooter who died of "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police confirmed in a statement late Wednesday.

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