13 ms·

Facebook is launching a dating feature

393 points by mendelk 8y ago

ahallock 8y ago
Disregarding all the recent privacy issues, I think FB is poised to become the best dating site out there. The personal data it's been collecting for all these years--the likes, shares, comments, events, groups, etc.--could be used to create fine-grained matches.
- llccbb 8y ago
  What does this mean for "opposites attract" and "my better half"? Many substantial, long-term, fulfilling relationships are mutual partnerships where each person grows and as a couple find things that are "theirs" while filling critical roles for each other. Fine-grained matches might not be that great. What will one have to learn from a relationship? What new interests will be developed? I know that FB's sociologists and ML experts have been considering these aspects more than I, but I fear the continued segregation and viewpoint-reinforcement that FB and algorithmic association sites subtly (or invisibly) are forcing upon society.
  - s73v3r_ 8y ago
    One would hope that they've come up with a couple different algorithms, to find matches that fit those different scenarios. "Here's some people who compliment you well. Here are some people that are different. Here's someone who's basically you."
  - zerostar07 8y ago
    i dont believe they will be optimizing against "who X matches exactly with Y", but against what matches ended up successful.
- throwawaymaroon 8y ago
  this is preposterously stupid.
chollida1 8y ago
from what my friends who work for dating sites tell me, they basically are flickr for nude photos. So we can't trust Facebook with our data but they want to store our nude photos. That's some professional level doubling down for you:) On a serious note, RIP Match.com/IAC. They are getting blown up in the past 30 minutes. Facebook should treat carefully, when you can just walk in and start owning an entire category, that starts to get government attention for no other reason that the failed companies complain....loudly. I don't think FB wants more government attention at this point. I always assumed that someone like Linked In, or even, Bloomberg would start a dating app.
- unclebucknasty 8y ago
  >that starts to get government attention I appreciate your optimism.
- mynameisvlad 8y ago
  > I always assumed that someone like Linked In, or even, Bloomberg would start a dating app. Why? I can tangentially see LinkedIn, but both LI and Bloomberg are very much professionally-oriented; a dating app would just lower their value in the eyes of professionals.
- ovao 8y ago
  > So we can't trust Facebook with our data but they want to store our nude photos. Unless they can monetize on your nude photos, Facebook doesn't want to store them.
  - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    FB can lobby for strict revenge porn laws that punish platforms and then sell (limited) API access to the porn platforms so they can flag images they get as possible revenge porn.
- CGamesPlay 8y ago
  > they basically are flickr for nude photos. I have never encountered a nude photo (or sent one) on any of the dating apps I've used (Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel, League).
wehadfun 8y ago
This is a great way for facebook to get more information about their users.
askafriend 8y ago
Cue the cynics on HN, but I think this is a very natural step for FB to take and I think the product will do very very well. Even if you're on a separate dating service like Tinder, you look up your matches on FB anyway as a sanity test. FB already plays a large role in dating and the signaling involved. It just makes sense for FB to own the process from start to finish when they have the ability to do it better than any existing dating app today. FYI: Shares of Match Group (they are a public holdings company for many of the popular dating sites out there) plunged after FB announced this.
- thrillgore 8y ago
  It's the most stable and safest direction to go in, when you know you've reached your peak in features and user-generated data.
- meow_mix 8y ago
  look up matches on fb? dude that's creepy
  - always_good 8y ago
    You generally prefer the other person not knowing you "cared" that much, but it's a simple vetting trick. Fear of everything you do in private being creepy is just a self-limiting belief. Digging for bikini pics isn't part of the process here.
  - magic_beans 8y ago
    As a woman, it's a basic safety protocol to at least check that a man doesn't appear obviously crazy before going out with him.
    - kingkongjaffa 8y ago
      Same goes for men too...
      - magic_beans 8y ago
tjoff 8y ago
I get a feeling this will be pretty bad for people that don't already (or start to) use facebook regularly. And I'd hate to create yet another facebook account for this. So, yeah, as shitty as the dating scene is I'd prefer a 3rd party so that I can attempt at compartmentalize my accounts.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- 0xfaded 8y ago
  It’s already bad enough excluding oneself from messenger.
  - jokh 8y ago
    It's pretty much impossible to not use Messenger these days. I stopped using Facebook, but I can't just quit Messenger unfortunately.
    - j79 8y ago
      But it's not impossible. I've never used Messenger.
      - havetocharge 8y ago
        I'm not even quite sure what Messenger is.
      - jokh 8y ago
        Depends on how old you are and where you live. As a college student in North America, everyone uses Messenger, nothing else. How would leaving Messenger work without shrinking your social circle to 0? In other countries, like where my family lives for example, no one uses Messenger or has heard of it — everyone is on Whatsapp. So depends on your demographics.
        8y ago
vthallam 8y ago
A way to get young people to use FB more? I know they literally know who's best for a user based on the ton of data we feed, but I'm wondering the privacy conscious folks would be hesitant to create a dating profile on FB.
- tempodox 8y ago
  > ...they literally know who's best for a user... That's what I'm genuinely wondering about: Putting all the privacy issues aside, will some machine learning algorithm really be capable of predicting “functioning chemistry” between people?
  - Digit-Al 8y ago
    > will some machine learning algorithm really be capable of predicting “functioning chemistry” between people? Unlikely, but that's not really the point. Current dating sites can't predict "chemistry" either. What people are suggesting Facebook will be able to do better is work out who you are "compatible" with, it's then up to you to decide if there is any chemistry or not.
  - scj 8y ago
    I interpreted the comment as: "Facebook would have a better chance of predicting it than competitors given their information." Remember, you don't need to outrun a bear, just the other people around you.
- usrusr 8y ago
  Would people who avoid facebook because of privacy concerns use any dating sites at all? I guess there must be some who recently #deletedfacebook, but somehow I perceive that more as a fashion statement than as actual privacy concerns. What will certainly give facebook a hard time in that market is the rule of isolation that people with moderate privacy concerns instinctively apply: you can't avoid creating a data trail if you want to do online dating, you can't avoid creating a data trail if you want to do friend feed social media, but if you can keep those data trails from merging you will gladly do whatever it takes. It's the same thing that killed google+: if I have a choice between a friend feed site that also has all my web search history and a friend feed site that doesn't, it's absolutely clear which one is the lesser evil. For similar reasons I would not want to use a social network or a search engine operated by my desktop OS supplier (quitting this argument right here, before I convince myself to defect to iphone - guess I'm a bit inconsequential after all)
galfarragem 8y ago
Great tactical move. FB will get: - another income source from the same data. (ads and dating) - even more information about their users and in a justifiable way. Users want them to make good matches. - another costumer lock-in. It will be even more difficult to quit FB.
- AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  Your second point is spot on. Users can't complain about FB collecting too much data. "You want to find true love, right? Well, we need better data about you to make it happen..." But on your third point, I see an escape: Get married. Then you're free to leave FB.
  - galfarragem 8y ago
    I would say that older generations are already locked-in, locking-in younger generations is the problem.
    - noobermin 8y ago
      s/problem\./problem that probably need not be solved./
  - tzahola 8y ago
    “Get married to escape vendor lock-in” Out of the frying pan, straight into the fire!
- duderific 8y ago
  It's pretty surprising they didn't do this a long, long time ago.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
thisisit 8y ago
Most dating apps have some kind of integration with Facebook and/or Instagram this seems like a no-brainer. I have seen apps use FB data about liked movies, shows, places etc to generate matches. So, this should work very well. Though that leaves a question - What next for apps relying heavily on FB data?
camillomiller 8y ago
As a fierce Facebook critic, I admit that Facebook itself is a company with amazing teams and outstandingly built services. Too bad it's also the company with the worst possible track record on privacy, who championed scientifically engineered attention grabbing as a tech tool. I would sincerely like to see a paid for version of Facebook. I would easily fork out as much as I fork out for Netflix for a service that would offer me the same functions without all the profiling, with more granular control on shaping the user experience (i.e. I would rearrange my FB dashboard to focus on groups, events and messaging, while having the newsfeed as a secondary page).
- ghazak 8y ago
  Even if they don’t profile you directly, how do you feel about the fact that your non-paying friends would still be profiled?
- djflutt3rshy 8y ago
  Sure, but would you be willing to pay $25/year? That's about how much Facebook's ARPU (average revenue per user) is in the US right now.
  - K2L8M11N2 8y ago
    That's only $2 a month, very reasonable.
  - mehrdadn 8y ago
    They could provide it as an option and let those who want to pay pay, and those who don't not?
  - rokhayakebe 8y ago
    I would easily fork out as much as I fork out for Netflix So 4 times as much.
    - cbhl 8y ago
      So I can have me and my four friends? Realistically, as the early adopter, I'd have to pay for myself and my 731 facebook friends, since none of them would want to pay for it. So, like, closer to $18k a year.
brad0 8y ago
Facebook knows us better than anyone else [1] However, this means that Facebook may know better than anyone who I would be best to date. I'm excited to see where this goes, and a little terrified. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/science/facebook-knows-you-better-than-anyone-else.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/science/facebook-knows-yo...
dpeck 8y ago
Facebook has always been a dating website, this is just making it more visible/defined for the less aware.
Brushfire 8y ago
This is a big deal. And not just because it will obviously cause big problems for existing dating sites, but instead because the longer-term prospects of this strategy are the beginning of an amazon-like vertical strategy for facebook. Instead of being an "infrastructure" layer like they have touted to be in the past, they are now getting into verticals. So anyone building a consumer focused business that relies on a graph should be pretty paranoid about what the future may hold, just as anyone in the retail/ecommerce world is already scared of amazon. Especially if you're using facebook auth or facebook ads to drive your business: because it tells them whether you're worth coming after or not. Think of the forces at play here: - (1) Facebook already has an enormous, aggressive, and well funded team ready to pounce on new consumer apps that are up and coming. See Snapchat features, and the dozens of other apps that have gotten to the first tier of success only to be out gunned by facebook. - (2) The rapidly shrinking facebook API landscape (and related platforms), due to the Cambridge analytics stuff and other concerns. API access is shrinking, not growing, with many platforms (like WhatsApp) with no plans to ever even have one. - (3) The prevalence of facebook ads as a "first place" to learn and iterate on your business. If you think they are ignoring the rapidly scaling consumer businesses, you're wrong. - (4) And now finally, their willingness to go into verticals instead of stay at the infrastructure level. They have the perfect storm to come after any consumer business with network effects at the core of its functionality.
- bpicolo 8y ago
  > they are now getting into verticals This is far from their first `vertical`. Events, groups, marketplace... Eventbrite/whatever is still here, meetup is still here, and craigslist is still here too.
  - Brushfire 8y ago
    Sure. But are any of those businesses really doing well these days? For the longest time facebook told businesses that advertised heavily on their platform that they had no intention of getting deep into verticals, that instead those businesses should build on top of the facebook "infrastructure". And for a while it was relatively true; now all the gloves are off. If you're growing and profitable, and working with consumers, facebook will be coming for you.
Jhsto 8y ago
I think it has been covered before that Facebook already has a hunch if two people seem to be interested in each other -- groups, events, messages they share, times they have visited each other profiles, and reaction counts proportional to posts after the friendship was started. I think the fact that they also announced incognito mode today suggests that this dating feature could be passive. Like, if you browse Facebook normally and you are both using this feature, and Facebook sees you are both stalking each other rather much, it could break the ice for you. This is probably the better the more oblivious you are and I can see the value in this. It will also be interesting to see how this feature will be rolled out. While there can be a mutual attraction between two people, I can see it being a challenge to programmatically figure out whether there exist any other reasons why the relationship could not work, e.g. logistics, and how well is Facebook able to identify such possible problems before initiating the icebreaker.
- Operyl 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure they've stated that they won't be showing friends to each other as "matches" though.
propman 8y ago
Darn it, I'll have to reactivate Facebook. Almost every dating site requires a Facebook login for authentication too, they will be hit hard depending on how well Facebook makes this. I'm very cynical about Facebook, but just like their blue collar job listings, this has serious potential if done right.
breakpointalpha 8y ago
Good move for Facebook. Bad move for users.
notyourday 8y ago
It is going to suck to be any company in IAC portfolio that's not dating.
thatgerhard 8y ago
This is pretty much cardboard.. We need an open system for vr.
tomkin 8y ago
Facebook is AOL. We didn't like AOL for _reasons_. Can we just keep finding those reasons valid, please?
mzs 8y ago
I am glad I am married and in my forties so that I missed all this. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/01/606588504/americans-are-a-lonely-lot-and-young-people-bear-the-heaviest-burden https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/01/6065885...
- always_good 8y ago
  On the other hand digital dating makes it easy to meet quite a volume of people. When I feel like it, I can meet a different woman every other night. I wouldn't even know how to do that without it. The more women I can meet, the less I'm dependent on luck.
  - ggg9990 8y ago
    If I had met a new woman every night, I have no idea how I would have chosen her specifically. And I really have no idea how she would have chosen me if she had met a new man every night.
    - always_good 8y ago
      I don't understand what you're saying. If I'm talking to multiple women at a time, there's pretty much one that rises above the rest in terms of chemistry: We laugh more, she seemed particularly interested in me, she's cuter than others, we talked for hours, we had sexual chemistry. Some combo of the above. Over time I choose to spend more time with her, it turns into a relationship, I stop talking to others. Same for women. This is how dating works. Since women are the ones approached, they already are picking from a line of suitors in general (compared to men) yet long term relationships are still forged. How?
      - iClaudiusX 8y ago
        I think he's saying you're overfitting for first-date success, which may not be indicative of a fulfilling long term relationship.
heifetz 8y ago
makes sense, wondering why it took so long to roll out this feature, isn't this one of the original uses that Zuck had in mind when he created Facebook?
zerostar07 8y ago
I cant wait for the facebook breakups feature next year. More seriously, it is interesting how much power facebook has in setting social norms and this will give it significantly more. They will be able to export american dating habits worldwide.
- pssflops 8y ago
  It already exists and you can 'take a break' from seeing other users' posts in your feed for up to 30 days, initially.
s_kilk 8y ago
This seems to be restricted to users who are not marked as married or in a relationship, which excludes a whole swathe of people who are poly or variously non-monogamous. Pretty disappointing, given this restriction isn't there on other dating services.
- Digit-Al 8y ago
  Wouldn't people who are poly or non-monogamous be less likely to have a relationship status of 'married' or 'in a relationship'? They did explicitly state that they want to promote 'relationships' not 'hook-ups' so I guess that is the easiest way to achieve that. Maybe they'll add new relationship status descriptions if people complain.
  - s_kilk 8y ago
    Not really, there are plenty of poly folk who are married, and polyamory isn't restricted to hookups.
  - antris 8y ago
    > Wouldn't people who are poly or non-monogamous be less likely to have a relationship status of 'married' or 'in a relationship'? Quite the opposite, the more people you are seeing romantically, the more likely you are married to at least one of them.
- ggg9990 8y ago
  Then... use those other services? Why does Facebook need to cover every possible dating scenario?
forkLding 8y ago
Created a similar app like this a while back which was dating between friends and events, it had some traction but will face issues like seeing similar people etc. Link: http://lucid.fyi http://lucid.fyi
downandout 8y ago
The elephant in the room here is that this was announced at F8 - a conference for platform developers - yet this platform application was developed internally and is one that, because of the neutering of the API, no outside developer could have built. They essentially said “hey developers, look at this neat thing we built that you can’t!”. I’m curious what the point of F8 actually is at this stage. The platform has become so restricted that social apps can’t be built anymore. Facebook should just acknowledge that outside developers have outlived their usefulness now that they have helped the service attract 2 billion users, and scrap the conference.
- rusty_pete 8y ago
  Agree completely. F8 is all smoke and mirrors. I got fooled last year when they announced Camera AR Studio. Was all excited but never granted access or 'accepted' despite having 8 years development experience in agencies. Surely their target market if there was one. The recent breaking instagram API update without warning was a big enough FU to developers to confirm this.
- fjsolwmv 8y ago
  F8 is like I/O, a way for corporate advertise.
- aylmao 8y ago
  Same with WWDC, I/O, or Build. Big tech's vertical integration always hits 3rd parties.
- aviv 8y ago
  When I wear my tinfoil hat it becomes clear that Cambridge Analytica was a manufactured crisis to give Facebook the public permission and mission to purge developers off its platform, which has been its plan for a while now.
  - KhanMahGretsch 8y ago
    Never let a crisis go to waste.
  - 8y ago
intrasight 8y ago
I thought that the purpose of FB from day one was to announce your availability
eigen-vector 8y ago
If anything, Facebook is late in launching this. I'm curious why they didn't buy Tinder and get into the game earlier. Maybe they did and figured they'd much rather build it in-house than spend a fortune buying Tinder or something simiar—like they did with Snap.
- saimiam 8y ago
  > late in launching Dating is an unsolvable problem. You can't be late to it. There will be people being born looking to find SOs so long as the human race exists. Even if Match captures 100% of the market this year, next year, another batch of kids will enter the "I'm getting older and everyone I know is settling down" panic.
megaman22 8y ago
All the other dating sites just import your profile pictures and all your personal information from Facebook anyway, so... Kind of surprising it took this long.
sudouser 8y ago
hi I is from Russia, me can get you girls, tall, dark, you name it. $50 for 30 minutes. /s
- sctb 8y ago
  Could you please stop posting unsubstantively here? We've asked before and eventually we ban accounts that won't start posting according to the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - sudouser 8y ago
    Okay, sorry
simonsarris 8y ago
Zuckerberg's original intention was to create a dating website for colleges. It was obvious to eyeball this intent from the pre-wall days. Your page looked like this: I am a: [man] Interested in: [women] Relationship status: [single] Fave quotes, fave music, about me. Then, all that got put on hold as FB was built out in every way except that (including adding the Wall, and then the News Feed). They must have realized that FB could be something much larger than a dating network, that would get used indefinitely by its customers, without pigeonholing their primary use case. I'm surprised it took this long to pull the trigger on this feature, though.
- yeukhon 8y ago
  This!
- JetSpiegel 8y ago
  Which only makes The Social Network an even better film.
- jehlakj 8y ago
  I think by labeling themselves as a dating app on the side wouldn’t have garnered as many users if they had done so much earlier. They wanted to be the social networking platform for as long as they possibly can. Well, with the recent backlashes and incidents, they probably think they have just about reached the peak number of users. I say it’s a well thought out timing and execution.
  - AndrewUnmuted 8y ago
    Very well thought out timing, indeed. They’re cynically using sex to reel younger users, and those grossed out by the Cambridge Analytica news, back into their network.
    - cube00 8y ago
      But he promised it was only for meaningful relationships
- 8y ago
reaperducer 8y ago
It's like Tinder. But with the potential to influence the ads you eventually see on your cable box and web browser. What could possibly go wrong?
onetimemanytime 8y ago
They see the writing in the wall that tracking will be regulated and with that a nice chunk of revenue is gone. So they try to make up for it, one vertical at a time.
matte_black 8y ago
I’m long MTCH and FB. I’m not worried, here’s why: Despite what people think, Tinder (owned by MTCH) is not that dependent on Facebook, people can sign up through alternative means, and will probably continue to do so as their audience starts to bring in younger users over time. Facebook is better off buying Tinder outright than attempting to roll its own platform. Sorry, as much as I believe in Facebook, some of their in house projects never seem to pan out the way people think, though they do get announced with a lot of fanfare. I see a good entry point for new investors in MTCH in the coming days. I will be increasing my position.
- adventured 8y ago
  > Tinder which is owned by MTCH, increased it’s revenue by 8 billion in a relatively short period of time That data isn't correct. Match has annual revenue of $1.33 billion. From Q4 2016 to Q4 2017, their revenue increased by $212 million, from $1.118 billion. In their most recent reported quarter, they did $379m in revenue. Match did $803m in revenue for fiscal 2013 for contrast. Their growth has been modest and consistent over time.
  - matte_black 8y ago
    Ah you’re right, it was market cap, not revenue. Eitherway, I’m still optimistic and wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook bought out Tinder at some point.
- dannyw 8y ago
  By alternative means, you mean Facebook Account Kit...
- noobermin 8y ago
  I was of your attitude but the moment I saw a comment on HN explaining their position and how they're not worried I am now reconsidering my bet.
mrnobody_67 8y ago
Makes sense. Birth rates declining. People getting married later, and having fewer kids. Western Countries facing declining population in next 25 years. Existential threat to their growth at all costs model.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
mike-cardwell 8y ago
As somebody who doesn't use Facebook, it's going to be damned annoying if everyone disappears off the existing dating apps and into the Facebook ecosystem. It's becoming an evolutionary disadvantage to be off Facebook.
- ikeyany 8y ago
  As is Facebook's intention.
- elsonrodriguez 8y ago
  > It's becoming an evolutionary disadvantage to be off Facebook. This is the most chilling thing I've read in a while.
  - bigphishy 8y ago
    The only evolutionary disadvantage is your attitude. Time spent thumbing through selfies on a dating app on a 2.5" by 5" screen, is less effective ( from a sexually reproductive standpoint ) than going up and introducing yourself to members of the opposite sex. But then again, we can throw any biological theories of evolution out the windows, because you're more than likely using contraceptives at any rate.
    - batiudrami 8y ago
      except that with a facebook account you can do both
    - toxik 8y ago
      Honestly though who goes up to women and asks their number in this day and age? I'm sure it happens but these kinds of interactions have moved into the phone.
      - rxhernandez 8y ago
        Are you really serious? People who leave their homes on weekends and enjoy a nightlife? I mean, what do you think happens at clubs and bars; do you think they've emptied out because of dating apps?
shadowtree 8y ago
I wonder if they will enforce the various legal age limits for consensual intercourse. FB sign up limit is 13 years, no?
- e12e 8y ago
  Could get legally interesting for people from the US flirting with Europeans on-line.
- ponderatul 8y ago
  If they enforce it the same way porn websites enforce age restrictions(average age of first porn video use is 11 years)... then it's another case of looking a way at the harm they do while they praise the benefits.
partycoder 8y ago
I hope it is better than Facebook jobs. They are mostly $10/hr jobs.
pcthrowaway 8y ago
I may as well throw in my suggestion for this feature, since I'm sure there are facebook employees here somewhere: Finder. Like, Facebook meets Tinder.. but for finding companionship.
- always_good 8y ago
  What do you mean by companionship? And what does FB meets Tinder actually entail?
nicodjimenez 8y ago
You really have to admire Zuck for his leadership. He might be a cyborg, but he's a damn good one.
didip 8y ago
Dating service for FB is too obvious of a feature, I am surprised they just start doing it now. A social network is an obvious place for people to meet new people. I think this is a really good idea for FB.
notadoc 8y ago
Makes sense for Facebook to get into, considering people have been unofficially using it as a dating service since its inception, and officially using it indirectly through third party apps. Will Tinder/Match etc make it possible to signup for their services without Facebook?
tin7in 8y ago
Facebook deprecated just 4 weeks ago certain permissions from Facebook Login including relationship status, relationship details, about me, education history, work history. Tinder and Bumble for example relied heavily on those permissions in order to quickly fill the user profile with data. https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/04/04/facebook-api-platform-product-changes/ https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/04/04/faceboo...
- noobermin 8y ago
  ...is this grounds for monopolistic suits?
  - John_KZ 8y ago
    I wish they finally get burned by it. But probably not.
rotub 8y ago
This is going to make Facebook look cheap and gross if not executed well. It will at the very least mean more fake accounts being created.
- j79 8y ago
  Hey, you gotta impress investors somehow!
joewee 8y ago
I’m not a huge Facebook fan these days, but I think this is an example of market expansion that really makes sense. Instead of trying to find more creative ways to advertise to users, identify new services you can sell directly to users based off of all of the data you’ve collected on them.
kelvin0 8y ago
Pivot?
crispinb 8y ago
If I used online dating services, I'd be thrilled at this initiative: a lure for the catastrophically stupid, hopefully keeping them off whatever competitor I'd use.
crystaln 8y ago
I can understand why they exclude Facebook friends. However I feel many of my dating prospects are already Facebook friends who I have largely neglected, so this feature would be a significant deterrent to me using the service. There must be some compromise here. Meeting someone briefly and adding them as a friend should not exclude them from my dating pool! That would seem to hurt everyone involved - Facebook, me and the other person.
EGreg 8y ago
While I applaud Facebook finally focusing on facilitating real world interactions, I am concerned with them getting more central control over people’s lives. Why hasn’t anyone else built an open source competitor to Facebook, like Wordpress for social networks? I started a company 7 years ago and put a lot of effort to build such a platform. Now we recently launched 1.0 . I really thought someone would beat us to it. But somehow we are the first complete platform to market? Now we plan to make it easier to install, build a community, build a social activity browser, and build out apps for communities. Feedback welcome: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1O_gmPneI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1O_gmPneI
- always_good 8y ago
  People have tried. Have you looked around? It's just that building one is the easy part, and the Wordpress model (social network in the box) isn't a solution. It's just an impl detail. And people don't move away from the service their friends and fam are on just because someone had yet another crack at building a social network from scratch. It doesn't solve much beyond "isn't Facebook" which just isn't very compelling branding to most people. So yes, many people beat you to market. But notice how you don't even know what or who they are. Nor does anybody else except some HN readers because they don't have any real traction.
  - EGreg 8y ago
    If you don’t know who they are, how do you know they had a viable product?
trumped 8y ago
Good... that's all I used Facebook for anyways... They might as well rename it to FuckBlock
harshgupta 8y ago
One of the core advantages I see here is trust. It would be so much more effective to match with someone who is connected to you by shared people/interest, rather than just a photo card.
fma 8y ago
Cambridge Analytica is going to love to get their hands on the questionnaire you'd fill out for your dating profile.
danschumann 8y ago
So now all the data they have about me browsing the internet can be used to find a woman who has a complimentary meta data set? Hopefully she's pretty too.
psion 8y ago
The concern I have is that your dating profile will be hidden from people on your friends list. It's a bit unsettling that someone can start a dating profile hidden from an SO. And equally unsettling if FB blocked people who list a relationship status if they are polyamorus.
- e12e 8y ago
  This way they can at least show relevant ads to your significant other before they're aware of an imminent break-up. Be that for Kleenex or Colt.
- thirdsun 8y ago
  Here's another perspective: As a Tinder user I definitely wouldn't use a Facebook dating service if my profile was open and accessable to all of my facebook friends. I value my privacy in this regard and don't want to showcase a dating profile among friends. And it's really not Facebook's duty to decide who should be able to date.
bluetwo 8y ago
Based on the number of stories I have heard about people hooking up with their high school sweethearts via FB, it seemed to already be a dating app.
sandGorgon 8y ago
I have a thought that this is the consequence of GDPR. Just like Google's NBU (Next Billion Users) division which focuses on the Indian subcontinent, I think we will see a lot of Europe centric initiatives from the large companies... primarily to service a vacuum that will be created because of the GDPR. Dating is a very contentious issue in Europe and USA because of the GDPR,FOSTA,etc. I don't see anyone other than huge conglomerates being able to muster the legal resources to win here.
- e12e 8y ago
  I don't know - I think plain, focused dating sites are one of the few businesses I could see getting away with "all the data because statistical modelling and research" - under the opt-in clauses of the GDPR. Fb (and other incumbents) are at an advantage, because they have a window to a/b test illegal profiles and algorithms against gdpr compliant ones, though.
unixhero 8y ago
Antitrust much? Why couldn't Tinder go-ahead and sue them for anti-competitive behavior and get the FTC with them.
e12e 8y ago
> Users can launch text-only private messages, separate from Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Now what's that about? You can keep your history of initial messages in your messenger history after you're married/in a relationship? Is this some poor idea of following Google in self-fracturing messenger apps into incompatible silos?
noobermin 8y ago
Is no one going to point out that Facebook is still in the center of a public panic over privacy? Are you sure the public is going to want FB of all entities to host and run a dating service? I don't get how everyone is so bullish here. I think if anything Mark should have waited a couple of months. Not trying to be needlessly negative, I'm just surprised by the reaction here.
- zerostar07 8y ago
  it's not at all clear by the data that the public is freaking out. news sites do.
sjg007 8y ago
Is this the moment Facebook jumps the shark?
otempomores 8y ago
Facebook has detected that you and your significant other both suffer from ads and invites you to participate in a program to breed the perfect advertisement customer.
zerostar07 8y ago
One big advantage that facebook will leverage is that they don't WANT you to keep coming back for more dating. They 'll have you on the platform anyway, so they might as well give you the best quality matches from the get-go (plus they do have some of the best AI, so dating might even stop existing as a thing in a few years)
- corrigible 8y ago
  > they do have some of the best AI, so dating might even stop existing as a thing in a few years Could you expound on your reasoning behind this?
  - zerostar07 8y ago
    good AI will find the best match first -> people switch profiles to "married" -> average dating activity drops by a large %
    - corrigible 8y ago
      I think it is a little ambitious to think that dating will disappear because FB announced a feature :)
      - zerostar07 8y ago
        "Dating" is predominantly an american phenomenon, but facebook has a ton of different cultures in it. There are cultures that frown upon this "trial-and-error" human algorithm.
finchisko 8y ago
The question here is, what will be the ground left for startups? There are already sectors, where barrier to join so high practically nobody new can join (cars, banking, chip productions...). Do we really want web to become property of few?
y04nn 8y ago
Can someone explain me my it has not been done (AFAIK) by someone else? Facebook holds all the data needed and deep style of life analytics can be performed on it to find the most suitable match. I had the idea to make an app that exploits the data, but does Facebook API access restricted this kind of usage? Why Tinder, woking on a random principle is working so well?
- ShorsHammer 8y ago
  Dating websites are incentivised to not help you find your perfect match and long-term partner. Perhaps FB will be different, but I doubt it, especially if there is monetisation involved. It's one of the few industries where doing a good job means far less revenue and customers.
  - y04nn 8y ago
    Good remark, I didn't thought about that.
- kowdermeister 8y ago
  > Why Tinder, woking on a random principle is working so well? It's not random. Location, FB friends, swipe stats on both sides, paid, not paid info all contributes to the queue you see.
  - y04nn 8y ago
    I understand, but what I mean, is that they do not do some data processing/machine learning on your profile to present you the best suitable match as other dating website would do, it's only proximity based and maybe with some basic stats.
alphadevx 8y ago
The greatest minds in our industry are focused on solving two main (apparent) problems: 1. How to we get people to click on more ads? 2. How do we get more people laid? Somehow I find this depressing, all that wasted talent.
tuananh 8y ago
no one is going to call it "facehook"?
wscott 8y ago
headline: "Facebook doubles down on creepy"
wyck 8y ago
You mean Facebook is launching a dating service for divorced moms?

393 points by mendelk 8y ago

Disregarding all the recent privacy issues, I think FB is poised to become the best dating site out there. The personal data it's been collecting for all these years--the likes, shares, comments, events, groups, etc.--could be used to create fine-grained matches.

llccbb 8y ago
What does this mean for "opposites attract" and "my better half"? Many substantial, long-term, fulfilling relationships are mutual partnerships where each person grows and as a couple find things that are "theirs" while filling critical roles for each other. Fine-grained matches might not be that great. What will one have to learn from a relationship? What new interests will be developed? I know that FB's sociologists and ML experts have been considering these aspects more than I, but I fear the continued segregation and viewpoint-reinforcement that FB and algorithmic association sites subtly (or invisibly) are forcing upon society.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  One would hope that they've come up with a couple different algorithms, to find matches that fit those different scenarios. "Here's some people who compliment you well. Here are some people that are different. Here's someone who's basically you."
- zerostar07 8y ago
  i dont believe they will be optimizing against "who X matches exactly with Y", but against what matches ended up successful.
throwawaymaroon 8y ago
this is preposterously stupid.

chollida1 8y ago

from what my friends who work for dating sites tell me, they basically are flickr for nude photos. So we can't trust Facebook with our data but they want to store our nude photos. That's some professional level doubling down for you:) On a serious note, RIP Match.com/IAC. They are getting blown up in the past 30 minutes. Facebook should treat carefully, when you can just walk in and start owning an entire category, that starts to get government attention for no other reason that the failed companies complain....loudly. I don't think FB wants more government attention at this point. I always assumed that someone like Linked In, or even, Bloomberg would start a dating app.

unclebucknasty 8y ago
>that starts to get government attention I appreciate your optimism.
mynameisvlad 8y ago
> I always assumed that someone like Linked In, or even, Bloomberg would start a dating app. Why? I can tangentially see LinkedIn, but both LI and Bloomberg are very much professionally-oriented; a dating app would just lower their value in the eyes of professionals.
ovao 8y ago
> So we can't trust Facebook with our data but they want to store our nude photos. Unless they can monetize on your nude photos, Facebook doesn't want to store them.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  FB can lobby for strict revenge porn laws that punish platforms and then sell (limited) API access to the porn platforms so they can flag images they get as possible revenge porn.
CGamesPlay 8y ago
> they basically are flickr for nude photos. I have never encountered a nude photo (or sent one) on any of the dating apps I've used (Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel, League).

wehadfun 8y ago

This is a great way for facebook to get more information about their users.

askafriend 8y ago

Cue the cynics on HN, but I think this is a very natural step for FB to take and I think the product will do very very well. Even if you're on a separate dating service like Tinder, you look up your matches on FB anyway as a sanity test. FB already plays a large role in dating and the signaling involved. It just makes sense for FB to own the process from start to finish when they have the ability to do it better than any existing dating app today. FYI: Shares of Match Group (they are a public holdings company for many of the popular dating sites out there) plunged after FB announced this.

thrillgore 8y ago
It's the most stable and safest direction to go in, when you know you've reached your peak in features and user-generated data.
meow_mix 8y ago
look up matches on fb? dude that's creepy
- always_good 8y ago
  You generally prefer the other person not knowing you "cared" that much, but it's a simple vetting trick. Fear of everything you do in private being creepy is just a self-limiting belief. Digging for bikini pics isn't part of the process here.
- magic_beans 8y ago
  As a woman, it's a basic safety protocol to at least check that a man doesn't appear obviously crazy before going out with him.
  - kingkongjaffa 8y ago
    Same goes for men too...
    - magic_beans 8y ago

tjoff 8y ago

I get a feeling this will be pretty bad for people that don't already (or start to) use facebook regularly. And I'd hate to create yet another facebook account for this. So, yeah, as shitty as the dating scene is I'd prefer a 3rd party so that I can attempt at compartmentalize my accounts.

deleted 8y ago
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0xfaded 8y ago
It’s already bad enough excluding oneself from messenger.
- jokh 8y ago
  It's pretty much impossible to not use Messenger these days. I stopped using Facebook, but I can't just quit Messenger unfortunately.
  - j79 8y ago
    But it's not impossible. I've never used Messenger.
    - havetocharge 8y ago
      I'm not even quite sure what Messenger is.
    - jokh 8y ago
      Depends on how old you are and where you live. As a college student in North America, everyone uses Messenger, nothing else. How would leaving Messenger work without shrinking your social circle to 0? In other countries, like where my family lives for example, no one uses Messenger or has heard of it — everyone is on Whatsapp. So depends on your demographics.
      - 8y ago

vthallam 8y ago

A way to get young people to use FB more? I know they literally know who's best for a user based on the ton of data we feed, but I'm wondering the privacy conscious folks would be hesitant to create a dating profile on FB.

tempodox 8y ago
> ...they literally know who's best for a user... That's what I'm genuinely wondering about: Putting all the privacy issues aside, will some machine learning algorithm really be capable of predicting “functioning chemistry” between people?
- Digit-Al 8y ago
  > will some machine learning algorithm really be capable of predicting “functioning chemistry” between people? Unlikely, but that's not really the point. Current dating sites can't predict "chemistry" either. What people are suggesting Facebook will be able to do better is work out who you are "compatible" with, it's then up to you to decide if there is any chemistry or not.
- scj 8y ago
  I interpreted the comment as: "Facebook would have a better chance of predicting it than competitors given their information." Remember, you don't need to outrun a bear, just the other people around you.
usrusr 8y ago
Would people who avoid facebook because of privacy concerns use any dating sites at all? I guess there must be some who recently #deletedfacebook, but somehow I perceive that more as a fashion statement than as actual privacy concerns. What will certainly give facebook a hard time in that market is the rule of isolation that people with moderate privacy concerns instinctively apply: you can't avoid creating a data trail if you want to do online dating, you can't avoid creating a data trail if you want to do friend feed social media, but if you can keep those data trails from merging you will gladly do whatever it takes. It's the same thing that killed google+: if I have a choice between a friend feed site that also has all my web search history and a friend feed site that doesn't, it's absolutely clear which one is the lesser evil. For similar reasons I would not want to use a social network or a search engine operated by my desktop OS supplier (quitting this argument right here, before I convince myself to defect to iphone - guess I'm a bit inconsequential after all)

galfarragem 8y ago

Great tactical move. FB will get: - another income source from the same data. (ads and dating) - even more information about their users and in a justifiable way. Users want them to make good matches. - another costumer lock-in. It will be even more difficult to quit FB.

AnimalMuppet 8y ago
Your second point is spot on. Users can't complain about FB collecting too much data. "You want to find true love, right? Well, we need better data about you to make it happen..." But on your third point, I see an escape: Get married. Then you're free to leave FB.
- galfarragem 8y ago
  I would say that older generations are already locked-in, locking-in younger generations is the problem.
  - noobermin 8y ago
    s/problem\./problem that probably need not be solved./
- tzahola 8y ago
  “Get married to escape vendor lock-in” Out of the frying pan, straight into the fire!
duderific 8y ago
It's pretty surprising they didn't do this a long, long time ago.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

thisisit 8y ago

Most dating apps have some kind of integration with Facebook and/or Instagram this seems like a no-brainer. I have seen apps use FB data about liked movies, shows, places etc to generate matches. So, this should work very well. Though that leaves a question - What next for apps relying heavily on FB data?

camillomiller 8y ago

As a fierce Facebook critic, I admit that Facebook itself is a company with amazing teams and outstandingly built services. Too bad it's also the company with the worst possible track record on privacy, who championed scientifically engineered attention grabbing as a tech tool. I would sincerely like to see a paid for version of Facebook. I would easily fork out as much as I fork out for Netflix for a service that would offer me the same functions without all the profiling, with more granular control on shaping the user experience (i.e. I would rearrange my FB dashboard to focus on groups, events and messaging, while having the newsfeed as a secondary page).

ghazak 8y ago
Even if they don’t profile you directly, how do you feel about the fact that your non-paying friends would still be profiled?
djflutt3rshy 8y ago
Sure, but would you be willing to pay $25/year? That's about how much Facebook's ARPU (average revenue per user) is in the US right now.
- K2L8M11N2 8y ago
  That's only $2 a month, very reasonable.
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  They could provide it as an option and let those who want to pay pay, and those who don't not?
- rokhayakebe 8y ago
  I would easily fork out as much as I fork out for Netflix So 4 times as much.
  - cbhl 8y ago
    So I can have me and my four friends? Realistically, as the early adopter, I'd have to pay for myself and my 731 facebook friends, since none of them would want to pay for it. So, like, closer to $18k a year.

brad0 8y ago

Facebook knows us better than anyone else [1] However, this means that Facebook may know better than anyone who I would be best to date. I'm excited to see where this goes, and a little terrified. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/science/facebook-knows-you-better-than-anyone-else.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/science/facebook-knows-yo...

dpeck 8y ago

Facebook has always been a dating website, this is just making it more visible/defined for the less aware.

Brushfire 8y ago

This is a big deal. And not just because it will obviously cause big problems for existing dating sites, but instead because the longer-term prospects of this strategy are the beginning of an amazon-like vertical strategy for facebook. Instead of being an "infrastructure" layer like they have touted to be in the past, they are now getting into verticals. So anyone building a consumer focused business that relies on a graph should be pretty paranoid about what the future may hold, just as anyone in the retail/ecommerce world is already scared of amazon. Especially if you're using facebook auth or facebook ads to drive your business: because it tells them whether you're worth coming after or not. Think of the forces at play here: - (1) Facebook already has an enormous, aggressive, and well funded team ready to pounce on new consumer apps that are up and coming. See Snapchat features, and the dozens of other apps that have gotten to the first tier of success only to be out gunned by facebook. - (2) The rapidly shrinking facebook API landscape (and related platforms), due to the Cambridge analytics stuff and other concerns. API access is shrinking, not growing, with many platforms (like WhatsApp) with no plans to ever even have one. - (3) The prevalence of facebook ads as a "first place" to learn and iterate on your business. If you think they are ignoring the rapidly scaling consumer businesses, you're wrong. - (4) And now finally, their willingness to go into verticals instead of stay at the infrastructure level. They have the perfect storm to come after any consumer business with network effects at the core of its functionality.

bpicolo 8y ago
> they are now getting into verticals This is far from their first `vertical`. Events, groups, marketplace... Eventbrite/whatever is still here, meetup is still here, and craigslist is still here too.
- Brushfire 8y ago
  Sure. But are any of those businesses really doing well these days? For the longest time facebook told businesses that advertised heavily on their platform that they had no intention of getting deep into verticals, that instead those businesses should build on top of the facebook "infrastructure". And for a while it was relatively true; now all the gloves are off. If you're growing and profitable, and working with consumers, facebook will be coming for you.

Jhsto 8y ago

I think it has been covered before that Facebook already has a hunch if two people seem to be interested in each other -- groups, events, messages they share, times they have visited each other profiles, and reaction counts proportional to posts after the friendship was started. I think the fact that they also announced incognito mode today suggests that this dating feature could be passive. Like, if you browse Facebook normally and you are both using this feature, and Facebook sees you are both stalking each other rather much, it could break the ice for you. This is probably the better the more oblivious you are and I can see the value in this. It will also be interesting to see how this feature will be rolled out. While there can be a mutual attraction between two people, I can see it being a challenge to programmatically figure out whether there exist any other reasons why the relationship could not work, e.g. logistics, and how well is Facebook able to identify such possible problems before initiating the icebreaker.

Operyl 8y ago
I'm pretty sure they've stated that they won't be showing friends to each other as "matches" though.

propman 8y ago

Darn it, I'll have to reactivate Facebook. Almost every dating site requires a Facebook login for authentication too, they will be hit hard depending on how well Facebook makes this. I'm very cynical about Facebook, but just like their blue collar job listings, this has serious potential if done right.

breakpointalpha 8y ago

Good move for Facebook. Bad move for users.

notyourday 8y ago

It is going to suck to be any company in IAC portfolio that's not dating.

thatgerhard 8y ago

This is pretty much cardboard.. We need an open system for vr.

tomkin 8y ago

Facebook is AOL. We didn't like AOL for _reasons_. Can we just keep finding those reasons valid, please?

mzs 8y ago

I am glad I am married and in my forties so that I missed all this. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/01/606588504/americans-are-a-lonely-lot-and-young-people-bear-the-heaviest-burden https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/01/6065885...

always_good 8y ago
On the other hand digital dating makes it easy to meet quite a volume of people. When I feel like it, I can meet a different woman every other night. I wouldn't even know how to do that without it. The more women I can meet, the less I'm dependent on luck.
- ggg9990 8y ago
  If I had met a new woman every night, I have no idea how I would have chosen her specifically. And I really have no idea how she would have chosen me if she had met a new man every night.
  - always_good 8y ago
    I don't understand what you're saying. If I'm talking to multiple women at a time, there's pretty much one that rises above the rest in terms of chemistry: We laugh more, she seemed particularly interested in me, she's cuter than others, we talked for hours, we had sexual chemistry. Some combo of the above. Over time I choose to spend more time with her, it turns into a relationship, I stop talking to others. Same for women. This is how dating works. Since women are the ones approached, they already are picking from a line of suitors in general (compared to men) yet long term relationships are still forged. How?
    - iClaudiusX 8y ago
      I think he's saying you're overfitting for first-date success, which may not be indicative of a fulfilling long term relationship.

heifetz 8y ago

makes sense, wondering why it took so long to roll out this feature, isn't this one of the original uses that Zuck had in mind when he created Facebook?

zerostar07 8y ago

I cant wait for the facebook breakups feature next year. More seriously, it is interesting how much power facebook has in setting social norms and this will give it significantly more. They will be able to export american dating habits worldwide.

pssflops 8y ago
It already exists and you can 'take a break' from seeing other users' posts in your feed for up to 30 days, initially.

s_kilk 8y ago

This seems to be restricted to users who are not marked as married or in a relationship, which excludes a whole swathe of people who are poly or variously non-monogamous. Pretty disappointing, given this restriction isn't there on other dating services.

Digit-Al 8y ago
Wouldn't people who are poly or non-monogamous be less likely to have a relationship status of 'married' or 'in a relationship'? They did explicitly state that they want to promote 'relationships' not 'hook-ups' so I guess that is the easiest way to achieve that. Maybe they'll add new relationship status descriptions if people complain.
- s_kilk 8y ago
  Not really, there are plenty of poly folk who are married, and polyamory isn't restricted to hookups.
- antris 8y ago
  > Wouldn't people who are poly or non-monogamous be less likely to have a relationship status of 'married' or 'in a relationship'? Quite the opposite, the more people you are seeing romantically, the more likely you are married to at least one of them.
ggg9990 8y ago
Then... use those other services? Why does Facebook need to cover every possible dating scenario?

forkLding 8y ago

Created a similar app like this a while back which was dating between friends and events, it had some traction but will face issues like seeing similar people etc. Link: http://lucid.fyi http://lucid.fyi

downandout 8y ago

The elephant in the room here is that this was announced at F8 - a conference for platform developers - yet this platform application was developed internally and is one that, because of the neutering of the API, no outside developer could have built. They essentially said “hey developers, look at this neat thing we built that you can’t!”. I’m curious what the point of F8 actually is at this stage. The platform has become so restricted that social apps can’t be built anymore. Facebook should just acknowledge that outside developers have outlived their usefulness now that they have helped the service attract 2 billion users, and scrap the conference.

rusty_pete 8y ago
Agree completely. F8 is all smoke and mirrors. I got fooled last year when they announced Camera AR Studio. Was all excited but never granted access or 'accepted' despite having 8 years development experience in agencies. Surely their target market if there was one. The recent breaking instagram API update without warning was a big enough FU to developers to confirm this.
fjsolwmv 8y ago
F8 is like I/O, a way for corporate advertise.
aylmao 8y ago
Same with WWDC, I/O, or Build. Big tech's vertical integration always hits 3rd parties.
aviv 8y ago
When I wear my tinfoil hat it becomes clear that Cambridge Analytica was a manufactured crisis to give Facebook the public permission and mission to purge developers off its platform, which has been its plan for a while now.
- KhanMahGretsch 8y ago
  Never let a crisis go to waste.
- 8y ago

intrasight 8y ago

I thought that the purpose of FB from day one was to announce your availability

eigen-vector 8y ago

If anything, Facebook is late in launching this. I'm curious why they didn't buy Tinder and get into the game earlier. Maybe they did and figured they'd much rather build it in-house than spend a fortune buying Tinder or something simiar—like they did with Snap.

saimiam 8y ago
> late in launching Dating is an unsolvable problem. You can't be late to it. There will be people being born looking to find SOs so long as the human race exists. Even if Match captures 100% of the market this year, next year, another batch of kids will enter the "I'm getting older and everyone I know is settling down" panic.

megaman22 8y ago

All the other dating sites just import your profile pictures and all your personal information from Facebook anyway, so... Kind of surprising it took this long.

sudouser 8y ago

hi I is from Russia, me can get you girls, tall, dark, you name it. $50 for 30 minutes. /s

sctb 8y ago
Could you please stop posting unsubstantively here? We've asked before and eventually we ban accounts that won't start posting according to the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- sudouser 8y ago
  Okay, sorry

simonsarris 8y ago

Zuckerberg's original intention was to create a dating website for colleges. It was obvious to eyeball this intent from the pre-wall days. Your page looked like this: I am a: [man] Interested in: [women] Relationship status: [single] Fave quotes, fave music, about me. Then, all that got put on hold as FB was built out in every way except that (including adding the Wall, and then the News Feed). They must have realized that FB could be something much larger than a dating network, that would get used indefinitely by its customers, without pigeonholing their primary use case. I'm surprised it took this long to pull the trigger on this feature, though.

yeukhon 8y ago
This!
JetSpiegel 8y ago
Which only makes The Social Network an even better film.
jehlakj 8y ago
I think by labeling themselves as a dating app on the side wouldn’t have garnered as many users if they had done so much earlier. They wanted to be the social networking platform for as long as they possibly can. Well, with the recent backlashes and incidents, they probably think they have just about reached the peak number of users. I say it’s a well thought out timing and execution.
- AndrewUnmuted 8y ago
  Very well thought out timing, indeed. They’re cynically using sex to reel younger users, and those grossed out by the Cambridge Analytica news, back into their network.
  - cube00 8y ago
    But he promised it was only for meaningful relationships
8y ago

reaperducer 8y ago

It's like Tinder. But with the potential to influence the ads you eventually see on your cable box and web browser. What could possibly go wrong?

onetimemanytime 8y ago

They see the writing in the wall that tracking will be regulated and with that a nice chunk of revenue is gone. So they try to make up for it, one vertical at a time.

matte_black 8y ago

I’m long MTCH and FB. I’m not worried, here’s why: Despite what people think, Tinder (owned by MTCH) is not that dependent on Facebook, people can sign up through alternative means, and will probably continue to do so as their audience starts to bring in younger users over time. Facebook is better off buying Tinder outright than attempting to roll its own platform. Sorry, as much as I believe in Facebook, some of their in house projects never seem to pan out the way people think, though they do get announced with a lot of fanfare. I see a good entry point for new investors in MTCH in the coming days. I will be increasing my position.

adventured 8y ago
> Tinder which is owned by MTCH, increased it’s revenue by 8 billion in a relatively short period of time That data isn't correct. Match has annual revenue of $1.33 billion. From Q4 2016 to Q4 2017, their revenue increased by $212 million, from $1.118 billion. In their most recent reported quarter, they did $379m in revenue. Match did $803m in revenue for fiscal 2013 for contrast. Their growth has been modest and consistent over time.
- matte_black 8y ago
  Ah you’re right, it was market cap, not revenue. Eitherway, I’m still optimistic and wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook bought out Tinder at some point.
dannyw 8y ago
By alternative means, you mean Facebook Account Kit...
noobermin 8y ago
I was of your attitude but the moment I saw a comment on HN explaining their position and how they're not worried I am now reconsidering my bet.

mrnobody_67 8y ago

Makes sense. Birth rates declining. People getting married later, and having fewer kids. Western Countries facing declining population in next 25 years. Existential threat to their growth at all costs model.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

mike-cardwell 8y ago

As somebody who doesn't use Facebook, it's going to be damned annoying if everyone disappears off the existing dating apps and into the Facebook ecosystem. It's becoming an evolutionary disadvantage to be off Facebook.

ikeyany 8y ago
As is Facebook's intention.
elsonrodriguez 8y ago
> It's becoming an evolutionary disadvantage to be off Facebook. This is the most chilling thing I've read in a while.
- bigphishy 8y ago
  The only evolutionary disadvantage is your attitude. Time spent thumbing through selfies on a dating app on a 2.5" by 5" screen, is less effective ( from a sexually reproductive standpoint ) than going up and introducing yourself to members of the opposite sex. But then again, we can throw any biological theories of evolution out the windows, because you're more than likely using contraceptives at any rate.
  - batiudrami 8y ago
    except that with a facebook account you can do both
  - toxik 8y ago
    Honestly though who goes up to women and asks their number in this day and age? I'm sure it happens but these kinds of interactions have moved into the phone.
    - rxhernandez 8y ago
      Are you really serious? People who leave their homes on weekends and enjoy a nightlife? I mean, what do you think happens at clubs and bars; do you think they've emptied out because of dating apps?

shadowtree 8y ago

I wonder if they will enforce the various legal age limits for consensual intercourse. FB sign up limit is 13 years, no?

e12e 8y ago
Could get legally interesting for people from the US flirting with Europeans on-line.
ponderatul 8y ago
If they enforce it the same way porn websites enforce age restrictions(average age of first porn video use is 11 years)... then it's another case of looking a way at the harm they do while they praise the benefits.

partycoder 8y ago

I hope it is better than Facebook jobs. They are mostly $10/hr jobs.

pcthrowaway 8y ago

I may as well throw in my suggestion for this feature, since I'm sure there are facebook employees here somewhere: Finder. Like, Facebook meets Tinder.. but for finding companionship.

always_good 8y ago
What do you mean by companionship? And what does FB meets Tinder actually entail?

nicodjimenez 8y ago

You really have to admire Zuck for his leadership. He might be a cyborg, but he's a damn good one.

didip 8y ago

Dating service for FB is too obvious of a feature, I am surprised they just start doing it now. A social network is an obvious place for people to meet new people. I think this is a really good idea for FB.

notadoc 8y ago

Makes sense for Facebook to get into, considering people have been unofficially using it as a dating service since its inception, and officially using it indirectly through third party apps. Will Tinder/Match etc make it possible to signup for their services without Facebook?

tin7in 8y ago

Facebook deprecated just 4 weeks ago certain permissions from Facebook Login including relationship status, relationship details, about me, education history, work history. Tinder and Bumble for example relied heavily on those permissions in order to quickly fill the user profile with data. https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/04/04/facebook-api-platform-product-changes/ https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/04/04/faceboo...

noobermin 8y ago
...is this grounds for monopolistic suits?
- John_KZ 8y ago
  I wish they finally get burned by it. But probably not.

rotub 8y ago

This is going to make Facebook look cheap and gross if not executed well. It will at the very least mean more fake accounts being created.

j79 8y ago
Hey, you gotta impress investors somehow!

joewee 8y ago

I’m not a huge Facebook fan these days, but I think this is an example of market expansion that really makes sense. Instead of trying to find more creative ways to advertise to users, identify new services you can sell directly to users based off of all of the data you’ve collected on them.

kelvin0 8y ago

Pivot?

crispinb 8y ago

If I used online dating services, I'd be thrilled at this initiative: a lure for the catastrophically stupid, hopefully keeping them off whatever competitor I'd use.

crystaln 8y ago

I can understand why they exclude Facebook friends. However I feel many of my dating prospects are already Facebook friends who I have largely neglected, so this feature would be a significant deterrent to me using the service. There must be some compromise here. Meeting someone briefly and adding them as a friend should not exclude them from my dating pool! That would seem to hurt everyone involved - Facebook, me and the other person.

EGreg 8y ago

While I applaud Facebook finally focusing on facilitating real world interactions, I am concerned with them getting more central control over people’s lives. Why hasn’t anyone else built an open source competitor to Facebook, like Wordpress for social networks? I started a company 7 years ago and put a lot of effort to build such a platform. Now we recently launched 1.0 . I really thought someone would beat us to it. But somehow we are the first complete platform to market? Now we plan to make it easier to install, build a community, build a social activity browser, and build out apps for communities. Feedback welcome: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1O_gmPneI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1O_gmPneI

always_good 8y ago
People have tried. Have you looked around? It's just that building one is the easy part, and the Wordpress model (social network in the box) isn't a solution. It's just an impl detail. And people don't move away from the service their friends and fam are on just because someone had yet another crack at building a social network from scratch. It doesn't solve much beyond "isn't Facebook" which just isn't very compelling branding to most people. So yes, many people beat you to market. But notice how you don't even know what or who they are. Nor does anybody else except some HN readers because they don't have any real traction.
- EGreg 8y ago
  If you don’t know who they are, how do you know they had a viable product?

trumped 8y ago

Good... that's all I used Facebook for anyways... They might as well rename it to FuckBlock

harshgupta 8y ago

One of the core advantages I see here is trust. It would be so much more effective to match with someone who is connected to you by shared people/interest, rather than just a photo card.

fma 8y ago

Cambridge Analytica is going to love to get their hands on the questionnaire you'd fill out for your dating profile.

danschumann 8y ago

So now all the data they have about me browsing the internet can be used to find a woman who has a complimentary meta data set? Hopefully she's pretty too.

psion 8y ago

The concern I have is that your dating profile will be hidden from people on your friends list. It's a bit unsettling that someone can start a dating profile hidden from an SO. And equally unsettling if FB blocked people who list a relationship status if they are polyamorus.

e12e 8y ago
This way they can at least show relevant ads to your significant other before they're aware of an imminent break-up. Be that for Kleenex or Colt.
thirdsun 8y ago
Here's another perspective: As a Tinder user I definitely wouldn't use a Facebook dating service if my profile was open and accessable to all of my facebook friends. I value my privacy in this regard and don't want to showcase a dating profile among friends. And it's really not Facebook's duty to decide who should be able to date.

bluetwo 8y ago

Based on the number of stories I have heard about people hooking up with their high school sweethearts via FB, it seemed to already be a dating app.

sandGorgon 8y ago

I have a thought that this is the consequence of GDPR. Just like Google's NBU (Next Billion Users) division which focuses on the Indian subcontinent, I think we will see a lot of Europe centric initiatives from the large companies... primarily to service a vacuum that will be created because of the GDPR. Dating is a very contentious issue in Europe and USA because of the GDPR,FOSTA,etc. I don't see anyone other than huge conglomerates being able to muster the legal resources to win here.

e12e 8y ago
I don't know - I think plain, focused dating sites are one of the few businesses I could see getting away with "all the data because statistical modelling and research" - under the opt-in clauses of the GDPR. Fb (and other incumbents) are at an advantage, because they have a window to a/b test illegal profiles and algorithms against gdpr compliant ones, though.

unixhero 8y ago

Antitrust much? Why couldn't Tinder go-ahead and sue them for anti-competitive behavior and get the FTC with them.

e12e 8y ago

> Users can launch text-only private messages, separate from Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Now what's that about? You can keep your history of initial messages in your messenger history after you're married/in a relationship? Is this some poor idea of following Google in self-fracturing messenger apps into incompatible silos?

noobermin 8y ago

Is no one going to point out that Facebook is still in the center of a public panic over privacy? Are you sure the public is going to want FB of all entities to host and run a dating service? I don't get how everyone is so bullish here. I think if anything Mark should have waited a couple of months. Not trying to be needlessly negative, I'm just surprised by the reaction here.

zerostar07 8y ago
it's not at all clear by the data that the public is freaking out. news sites do.

sjg007 8y ago

Is this the moment Facebook jumps the shark?

otempomores 8y ago

Facebook has detected that you and your significant other both suffer from ads and invites you to participate in a program to breed the perfect advertisement customer.

zerostar07 8y ago

One big advantage that facebook will leverage is that they don't WANT you to keep coming back for more dating. They 'll have you on the platform anyway, so they might as well give you the best quality matches from the get-go (plus they do have some of the best AI, so dating might even stop existing as a thing in a few years)

corrigible 8y ago
> they do have some of the best AI, so dating might even stop existing as a thing in a few years Could you expound on your reasoning behind this?
- zerostar07 8y ago
  good AI will find the best match first -> people switch profiles to "married" -> average dating activity drops by a large %
  - corrigible 8y ago
    I think it is a little ambitious to think that dating will disappear because FB announced a feature :)
    - zerostar07 8y ago
      "Dating" is predominantly an american phenomenon, but facebook has a ton of different cultures in it. There are cultures that frown upon this "trial-and-error" human algorithm.

finchisko 8y ago

The question here is, what will be the ground left for startups? There are already sectors, where barrier to join so high practically nobody new can join (cars, banking, chip productions...). Do we really want web to become property of few?

y04nn 8y ago

Can someone explain me my it has not been done (AFAIK) by someone else? Facebook holds all the data needed and deep style of life analytics can be performed on it to find the most suitable match. I had the idea to make an app that exploits the data, but does Facebook API access restricted this kind of usage? Why Tinder, woking on a random principle is working so well?

ShorsHammer 8y ago
Dating websites are incentivised to not help you find your perfect match and long-term partner. Perhaps FB will be different, but I doubt it, especially if there is monetisation involved. It's one of the few industries where doing a good job means far less revenue and customers.
- y04nn 8y ago
  Good remark, I didn't thought about that.
kowdermeister 8y ago
> Why Tinder, woking on a random principle is working so well? It's not random. Location, FB friends, swipe stats on both sides, paid, not paid info all contributes to the queue you see.
- y04nn 8y ago
  I understand, but what I mean, is that they do not do some data processing/machine learning on your profile to present you the best suitable match as other dating website would do, it's only proximity based and maybe with some basic stats.

alphadevx 8y ago

The greatest minds in our industry are focused on solving two main (apparent) problems: 1. How to we get people to click on more ads? 2. How do we get more people laid? Somehow I find this depressing, all that wasted talent.

tuananh 8y ago

no one is going to call it "facehook"?

wscott 8y ago

headline: "Facebook doubles down on creepy"

wyck 8y ago

You mean Facebook is launching a dating service for divorced moms?