Facebook Dating: the big question no one is asking
The name alone has people freaking out. So why are they doing it?
Less than 24 hours after the news that 419 million phone numbers of Facebook users were found hosted as an online database, the company announced that its dating service has launched in the United States after trial rollouts in 19 other countries. Reactions ranged from dry newsroom “worries” about privacy to the more candid “Oh God … AHHHHHHHHHHH.”
As a marketing and communications strategist, I have to wonder if the launch date was moved up to knock the 419 million phone numbers out of the news. Even if it wasn’t, I still have a burning question about Facebook Dating that I haven’t seen answered: Why?
The very name “Facebook Dating” seems like a brand blunder, putting two things together that most people very much want to keep separate. News reports and pundits focus on the company’s inability to keep its users’ data private — the 419 million phone numbers just yesterday. More people probably just find it unnerving that their favorite destination for family updates, food photos, pets and inflammatory arguments about politics now harbors a service for others looking for love, or looking to score. Isn’t that bad enough on Facebook already?
Having worked with companies on brand and product names for more than a decade, I have to wonder why Facebook didn’t spin off dating as a separate app, one not bearing their flagship name. When they spun off Messenger, media relations people were clear that the new app was called Messenger, not “Facebook Messenger.” In the case of Instagram, I pointed out last week that Facebook goes out of their way to keep Instagram so separate from Facebook’s brand that half of Americans didn’t know Facebook owns Instagram.
Hinge, a dating app that at first required a Facebook login to seek matches among Facebookers’ friends, backed off on the requirement last year despite the huge hit it surely made to the number of matches Hinge could offer. Isn’t there a lesson there? At the very least, prompting date-seekers to use a Facebook account for dating seems likely to scare off a market of always-on consumers who’ve consciously chosen to stay away.
To be fair, Facebook’s announcement promises that Facebook Dating will be kept separate from day-to-day Facebook. Users must set up a separate dating profile, and connections to their existing Facebook friends are all opt-in on both ends, keeping platonic friends from one-sidedly trying to take it to the next level. There’s an option to let friends or family track you on a date.
But still: Facebook bought Instagram rather than trying to reinvent it, and keeps its brand baggage away from Instagram’s. They could’ve saved the development and marketing effort for dating by buying Match Group, which has already consolidated Match, Tinder, OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, Hinge and a couple more popular apps and at $23 billion is still only valued at 1/20th Facebook’s size.
Facebook + Dating: Why?
So then, what is Facebook Dating for? The obvious guess is that merging dating with the main network will do a lot to refine ad targeting. And because no company the size of Facebook rolls out products on executive hunches (at least not since we lost Steve Jobs), it’s likely that test marketing in other countries found that for all the folks who freak out, millions more have already tapped in their Secret Crush list in hopes of getting the notification of their dreams. With 500 million potential users already signed up, we don’t all have to love it.
Still, I’ll make a prediction about Facebook Dating: They’re going to kill it eventually, just as they did the Beacon ad system and the Trending section after each failed to win over their intended adopters. Meanwhile, I’m half-seriously thinking of not following news about Facebook anymore. The near-daily stream of features that aren’t innovative, mixed with scandals that show nothing’s changed much, make me feel like I’m being trolled. If they ever roll out a filter for topics I’m tired of, I’m sure my Facebook friends will let me know.
