Facebook is Launching a Dating Service — is this the New Tinder?

Single people of the world — Facebook has its sights set on you (and your love life.) This week, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the world’s most popular social network will be launching a Facebook dating service to compete against the likes of Tinder. Here are the details…

Finding love on the new Facebook dating service

Zuckerberg’s new Facebook dating service will play the role of online matchmaker for more than 200 million of its users who list themselves as single on the site. According to Zuck, the feature will be aimed at “building real, long-term relationships, not just hookups.” Following Facebook’s surprise announcement, shares of Tinder plummeted by more than 20%.

How the dating service will work:

The optional feature, simply called ‘Facebook Dating’, will exist within the social network’s own app, and will allow people to create a dating profile that is separate from their Facebook profile — and potential matches will be recommended based on dating preferences, things in common, and mutual friends.

In your profile, you’ll be able to browse events nearby and explore groups that interest you. Citing safety reasons, Facebook wants conversations to remain text-only… so no sharing images. The dating feature will not be shown to friends and won’t appear on your timeline. Facebook will begin testing it later this year…