Facebook announce their dating service

It’s finally happened. Facebook is going to use all that lovely data it collects about you and will offer a dating service in an attempt to get a slice of the very lucrative dating app market.

Announced at their F8 (fate, anyone?) conference today, Facebook will be launching the new dating platform at some point in the future. There was no firm date mentioned, other than ‘soon’, but you have to believe that this is something that will have been in the works for a very long time now.

It makes absolute perfect sense. The social media juggernaut knows everything about you; what you like, what you don’t like, how you interact, when you interact… Everything.

They already have a mighty impressive algorithm for matching content, so why not put it to good use to bring people together, romantically?

In comparison, the competition only have the small amount of data that you hand over at sign up, and let’s be honest, it’s rarely the truth. People inherently massage the truth on dating profiles. It’s human nature. We want to sound better than we really are in attempt to find the best mate possible.

Problem is, from shaky foundations, come poor relationships. And this is where Facebook’s offering might actually work. Yes, most people are guilty of trying to make their life sound better on social media, but the data collected is over a much longer period of time, which allows for a much better base line of information. We also know that the mighty blue F has been using AI to profile our images for facial recognition, so it stands to reason that with a little bit of machine learning, the platform could pair up couples based not only likes and beliefs, but also on looks – something the other platforms are still a long way from.

Mark Zuckerberg estimates (who are we kidding, knows) there to be about 200 million single people on Facebook right now, which is a much bigger starting point than Tinder’s estimated 50 million users. That’s another plus point for those looking for love, the pool is much bigger to go fishing in.

Let’s not forget, relationship status is the much quoted reason that Facebook was not only launched, but the very reason it became successful. People wanted to know who was available without all the usual questions, so in a way, this a beautiful full circle for the platform.

Details of how the new service will work are still scarce, but one thing Mark was quick to point out, while still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, is that this will require users to opt-in.

What do you think? Is Facebook dating the next big thing? Instead of suggested friends, will you be looking for suggested partners?