What is so different about Facebook’s new Dating?
Bloomberg) Facebook Inc.'s new dating feature has resulted in at least one significant match: the first marriage of users' Facebook and Instagram profiles.
The social media giant announced on Thursday that it will launch its nascent dating service in the United States, a feature that has been tested in 19 other countries since its debut in May 2018.
Users can combine elements of their Facebook and Instagram accounts to create a separate dating profile, which is the most notable way Facebook has ever combined the two entities in terms of product. Facebook Dating will be available within Facebook's main app, but users will be able to import photos from their Instagram profiles into their dating profile, and by the end of the year, they will also be able to publish their Instagram Stories to their dating profile.
Facebook daters can also use their Instagram followers to match with another Facebook Dating user from their Instagram network through a feature called "Secret Crush." Users will not be matched with one of their Facebook friends simply by listing them as a "secret crush" — an attempt to avoid embarrassing or awkward connections. They can, however, match with a friend if both parties add one another. The secret crush list was previously restricted to a user's Facebook friends, but it has now been expanded to include Instagram contacts as well.
While the two services have always shared behind-the-scenes resources and data, including information gathered for targeted advertising, Facebook and Instagram have historically operated independently. These lines began to blur in early 2018, when Facebook executives demanded that Instagram help spur growth through product changes that would drive more users away from Instagram and toward Facebook's core app. Facebook pushed Instagram to find more ways to link users back to their Facebook profiles, for example, while reducing its efforts to increase Instagram usage from within the Facebook app.
Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger eventually left Facebook last year after a disagreement with CEO Mark Zuckerberg over Instagram's autonomy. Since then, several Instagram teams have been restructured to report to Facebook, employees have been given Facebook email addresses in place of Instagram email addresses, and Facebook is working behind the scenes to connect the two apps' messaging services.
Despite the changes, Instagram has always felt distinct from Facebook's core app. Users are frequently unaware that Facebook also owns and operates Instagram. Facebook dating will most likely be a minor feature within the larger Facebook service, but the symbolism of combining the products on a consumer level is noteworthy, especially given the other changes taking place behind the scenes at Facebook.
Facebook launched dating in May 2018, just months after the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, with the idea that the social network's mission of bringing people closer together should include romantic relationships. The company declined to say how many people use the feature, but it has been expanded to 20 countries in the last 16 months, including Brazil, Mexico, and Vietnam. The service is completely free.
"Right now, it's a really feel-good mission, just connecting people," Nathan Sharp, the product executive in charge of Facebook's dating efforts, said. "There are no plans for advertisements or subscriptions."
Match Group Inc., which owns the currently most popular dating site, Tinder, may find Facebook's efforts to be significant competition. With its new service, Facebook could potentially compete with rivals by leveraging its extensive web of human connections and relationship data, as well as its massive financial resources.
Following Facebook's announcement, Match shares fell as much as 7%. This year, they are still up 91 percent. Such gains prompted an untimely upgrade from SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, which wrote in a note published earlier that day that Match was experiencing "sustained momentum" in the third quarter and has "further room to grow." Facebook's stock increased by 2%.
Sharp claims that Facebook has given the dating feature and its privacy implications a lot of thought—an effort that Facebook wants to highlight given the company's repeated privacy blunders. According to Sharp, data from a user's dating profile, for example, will not be used for targeted advertising. He added that if you use Facebook dating, your Facebook friends will not be notified or matched with you.(Unless you've been paired with your "secret crush.")