Facebook Takes On Tinder By Adding A New Facebook Dating Service
I mean, half the people on Facebook are already trying to slide into your DM’s, so…
On the tail end of the other changes reported today about Facebook’s “hate speech” plugin, and the upcoming “up vote/down vote” options being pilot tested, now Facebook has come up with the brilliant idea to chase what Tinder has: hookups.
The Verge shares that Facebook will become “a major competitor of Match Group, which owns and operates mobile dating app Tinder and popular dating platform OkCupid. Match Group’s stock plummeted by more than 17 percent as soon as the news was announced.”
Though King Zuck (Mark Zuckerberg) has shared that this is to build “relationships” not just hookups, it will be within the main Facebook app and will be optional and opt-in only. “We have designed this with privacy and safety in mind from the beginning. Your friends aren’t going to see your profile, and you’re only going to be suggested to people who are not your friends.”
The Verge shares that the platform will look similar to Tinder and Bumble, but will add full-page photos, and will integrate events and groups you’re part of. HOLD THAT THOUGHT: I’m uncomfortable with that. Say, you have a bad date with someone. Real stalker-type person. If they can see what events you are linked to, don’t you think they’ll show up there and try to get in a “second date?” It’s unclear what parts of the platform will be opt-in right now, but hopefully, it won’t be so accessible to keep you safe.
They note, you can open your profile to other attendees of events as well, which just sounds like a whole bucket of “That seems like a bad plan.” Then again, I’m not really open to the idea of “online dating.”
At the very end note, I’ll leave you with a line that my co-writer said out loud: “Well, this will make it a heck of a lot easier for people to cheat on their spouses, won’t it?”
Thoughts?
