Facebook takes on Tinder with new Dating app
Facebook announced plans to release Dating, its new Tinder competitor, at the recent F8 conference. Match Group’s shares immediately took a hit.
Thea Sokolowski
Thea Sokolowski holds an MBA from Oxford University’s Said Business School and has been uncovering insights in the social and media space for nearly 10 years.
Key Takeaway
At its annual F8 conference Facebook shared that it plans to use its data to help you find a date. Incumbents in the online dating world like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge depend on Facebook’s data to power their own platforms. Will this mean restricted access for those companies? Or will they simply be Amazon-ed out of the industry? According to the drop in stock value for Match Group moments after the announcement, they should be scrambling.
Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference kicked off May 1st in Silicon Valley, as the world presumably held its breath to see what next steps the social giant would announce. Sentiments around increased focus on data privacy were interspersed throughout, beginning not-so-subtly with an apology from CEO Mark Zuckerberg over recent scandals, before he launched into the brand’s exciting updates.
After the predicted announcement of Oculus, their first foray into VR; a Messenger app redesign; and new AR camera effects, the team surprised some viewers with announcements like “Clear History” capabilities allowing users to wipe their browser data, and perhaps most unexpectedly, the launch of Facebook Dating.
Brands like Snapchat, Twitter and the usual social competitors have been watching Facebook closely for a while. (suite…)