Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg
announced on Tuesday that the world’s largest social network will soon
include a new dating feature vowing to make privacy protection its top
priority in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Zuckerberg
unveiled the plans as he addressed Facebook’s annual developers
conference in San Jose, California emphasizing that the focus would be
on helping people find long-term partners. “This is going to be for
building real, long-term relationships, not just hook-ups”.
He
said in presenting the new feature, noting that one in three marriages
in the United States start online and that some 200 million Facebook
users identify as being single. Under the new feature, users will be
able to create a separate “dating” profile not visible to their network
of friends, with potential matches recommended based on dating
preferences, points in common, and mutual acquaintances.
Zuckerberg
did not specify whether the feature would be free of charge, in line
with Facebook’s core offer but the announcement was enough to send
shares in the online dating giant Match.com tumbling by 17 percent. The
33-year-old CEO also said the dating offer was built from the ground-up
with privacy and safety in mind, as he underscored the firm’s commitment
to boosting privacy protections.
Facebook announces plan to launch dating service
Wednesday, 2 May 2018
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