The company said that its matchmaking service, Dating, is finally launching in the United States on Thursday, more than a year after the company first announced the feature. If that sounds unusually slow for the company that once famously had the motto "move fast and break things," you're right.
The U. The feature allows anyone with a Facebook account who is 18 or older to set up a dating profile from within the Facebook mobile app.
Facebook's decision to move into the dating space may strike some as brazen or tone deaf. For more than a year, the social media company has come under fire for its data privacy practices, most notably with the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook is now asking users to trust it with one of the most intimate activities they do online: search for love. Dating pulls over a first name and age from a Facebook account. But beyond that, the company says that the two profiles are largely separate.
For example, individuals can opt-in to share photos posted on Facebook or Instagram to their Dating profile, or add Instagram followers to Dating's Secret Crush feature, which allows for indicating crushes among Facebook friends -- and as of Thursday, Instagram followers -- to see if the feelings are mutual. Dating creates new competition in the already-crowded dating app marketplace in which companies, such as Bumble and IAC-owned Tinder and Hinge, vie to help people find connections.
