Facebook to Launch Online Dating Site?
What would happen if Facebook were to launch an online dating site?
Before we get into that, let’s look at some Facebook statistics:
- - 500 million users
- Average person has 130 friends
- 50% of those are active on any given day
- Average user creates 90 pieces of content per month
- 700 BILLION minutes are spent on Facebook every month
- There are 900 million “objects” that people interact with (pages, groups, community pages)
These are stats that any online dating site out there would kill to have. With the amount of daily user participation in Facebook, the number of connections and users entire lives laid out in plain view on their website, it’s a no-brainer on Facebooks part to start up an online dating service. The amount of user data that Facebook could use to create a highly effective online dating matchmaking algorithm is staggering. On almost all of the online dating sites, you are forced to enter personal information about yourself. Usually, it’s only one or two snippets of text…and whose to say whether or not the user is putting on airs and pretending to be someone they are not? On the online dating sites, everybody is putting their best foot forward in the high hopes of attracting a partner. With Facebook however, you can see an almost real time snapshot of who and what someone is about based on their profile and based on their friends profiles.
If you were a single female and found a guy through the Facebook dating service and his last update was:
“God, I got so wasted at the company party last week…I think that stripper had a thing for me”
Red flag, anyone?
Is Facebook poised to strike a death blow to the major online dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony? They are certainly in a position to do so given the amount of user information at their disposal. As with anything in life, execution is key. Major online dating sites are old pros at this. They spend millions every year on market research and continually improving their matchmaking algorithms. If Facebook were to have any chance at taking market share away from the big online dating sites they would have to approach it with an angle of taking online dating to the next step:
Giving users a true and honest glimpse into someone’s life and allowing you to accurately gauge them far more effectively than any online dating site has been able to do.
After all, wouldn’t you want to know about your potential date’s “entertainment fetishes” prior to investing time, money and emotion into someone that may prove to be an entirely different person than they made themselves out to be in their online dating profile?
Related posts:
- Pro Tip: Create a Facebook or Linkedin or Myspace Page to Increase Your Chances of Success in an Online Dating Site
- It’s Complicated: When (And When Not) to Update your Relationship Status on Facebook
- Australian Online Dating Site Red Hot Pie Charged with Fraud
- 10 types of women you can expect to meet in an online dating site
- When Winking at Someone on an Online Dating Site Just Isn’t Enough
August 5th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Hmm, nice overview but I do not think they will risk the fame they are having now with networking.
August 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
This is a tough one from many angles. I have a friend who met someone on facebook and travelled from the west coast to the east coast to meet. They turned out 10 years older than their facebook picture and 3 hours late at the airport to greet them. Not too cool and a wasted trip and money.
From a guy’s point of view there might be a bit of trepidation sharing with everyone that he’s using facebook as an online dating service. We’ll see. Thanks for the write up.
August 5th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
I agree with you Phil on your last point. While it has become socially acceptable to use an online dating site in this day and age, I have run into people who view still online dating sites with contempt or even mockery.
“Why would I need to stoop down to an online dating site to find someone to date?”
is the usual response that I get. Turns out more often than not, those people don’t have a Facebook profile, they aren’t into using Twitter and rarely if ever check their emails.
In regards to your first point, I think Facebook should come up with some sort of verification system that goes above and beyond “picture approval” that you see on most online dating sites out there.
I personally am a bit “sketch” on guys I meet on online dating sites who don’t have a Facebook or Myspace profile. I want to see a glimpse into their personal lives….see if I can tell anything about them from what their friends are writing and what they are writing about themselves. Online dating profiles to me seem a bit “canned” at times….everyone seems picture perfect with their best foot forward (and that’s how it should be).
Call me a sadist, but I want to see a glimpse of my potential date at his worst. A good friend of mine who is a strong businessman gave me some really great advice when it comes time to interview someone for a job:
“You already know the good things about the person you are interviewing. It’s all laid out in their resume and they are coming off like a shining star in the interview. It’s what you don’t know about them that could hurt you. You want to see this person at their worst or under duress in order to accurately gauge their performance on the job.”
He makes a good point. When things are going smooth, everyone is all gumdrops and sunshine. It’s when the little road bumps come along that we truly can see what kind of person we are dealing with.
The same in business as the same in online dating. Your online dating profile is your resume. Let’s try and wade through some of the bullshit and see just who we are dealing with here.