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Facebook Dating launches for lonely hearts looking for relationships in the UK

3 min read

If you’re looking for love, it could be worth looking no further than your own social networking page. Facebook has rolled out its free-to-use dating service for users in the UK and Europe, designed to help you consider relationships with people you’re already friends with on the platform.

Facebook Dating has made more than 1.5bn matches to date in 20 countries, including the US, Vietnam and Thailand, since it first launched in September 2018.

One feature, named Secret Crush, allows users to choose up to nine friends on Facebook or followers on Instagram (which Facebook owns) they’re secretly interested in. If one of the nine returns their affections, the pair will receive a notification letting them know they’ve matched. Otherwise, the object of their affection will remain none the wiser.

Dating profiles will be separate to your Facebook page

However, Facebook Dating won’t suggest people you’re currently friends with as potential matches or post anything notifying their followers they’ve joined or are actively using the company’s matchmaking arm. Instead, it focuses on friends of friends and people outside of someone’s immediate friend circle.

A person’s Dating profile is separate to their main account and suggested matches are generated based on user’s preferences, interests and activities on the social network, partly drawn from pages and groups they’ve interacted with. Facebook Dating is designed to be used by over 18s on smartphones, rather than on a computer desktop.

How Facebook and Instagram Stories may appear in the final Facebook Dating interface (Photo: Facebook)
You can add Facebook or Instagram Stories to appear on your Facebook Dating profile (Photo: Facebook)

Focus on long-term relationships

In a swipe at rival smartphone dating apps Tinder and Bumble, Nathan Sharp, Facebook Dating’s product manager, said last year the service wasn’t about “swiping or having to wait for someone to like you to get a first chance at reaching out”.

“If you are interested in someone, you can comment directly on their profile or tap on the Like button to let them know. If you aren’t interested, you can pass on them.”

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said in 2018 that the service’s focus was squarely on the creation of meaningful relationships and “not for hookups”.

Facebook has more than 2.7bn monthly active users worldwide, posing major competition to Match Group, which owns matchmaking giants Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge, PlentyOfFish and Match.com.

The Secret Crush list could connect Instagram users too (Photo: Facebook)
The Secret Crush list could connect Instagram users too (Photo: Facebook)

While the number of people using dating sites and apps has risen in recent years and the industry is worth an estimated $3bn, due to the fact the majority of them are free to use in an bid to encourage as many users as possible, few them are making significant amounts of money from subscriptions.

The overwhelming majority (69 per cent) of online daters are male, according to 2019 research from market researcher Statista.

Online daters also tend to be younger, with 60 per cent of all users aged between 18 and 34-years old, it found, followed by 25 per cent aged 35-44-years old.

All content in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way serves as investment advice. Investing in cryptocurrencies, commodities and stocks is very risky and can lead to capital losses.
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