Viola.AI — Our Response to Facebook Dating
“I’m excited to hear the news this morning that Facebook just unveiled the plan to launch a dating service. It makes sense, as there are over 200 million users registered as singles on the platform, and there are huge opportunities for matches and connections to happen! I’m also happy to hear that they share the same goal as us at Lunch Actually Group, which is to create long-term relationships, and not focused just on hookups.
To me, I don’t see Facebook’s entrance into the market as competition because although we are in the same industry, Lunch Actually Group’s key feature is actually ‘verification’ and our value-added coaching and consultancy services. For Lunch Actually, we do the verification face-to-face, and even with our online dating and dating apps, we still employ the human touch to approve and verify the singles’ profiles. The value-added services in the form of our coaching and consultancy products which help singles to be better daters to maximize their dating success.
We have also always believed in innovation and disrupting ourselves, as shown our 14 years of entrepreneurial journey of coming up with other (sometimes seemingly competing) dating products.
Currently, with our latest product Viola.AI where we are currently building the MVP, we take away that ‘middle man’ through our REL-Registry built on the blockchain that does ID and Relationship verification. We are building a Global Relationship Registry to restore transparency to the love industry complemented with our evolving AI as love advisor. Blockchain also makes the data more secure as it’s decentralized and is also unhackable and immutable.
Viola.AI is also different from other dating products in the market as it has the ability to advise and give recommendations to users at different stages of their relationships (when they are in a relationship, engaged or married as well) from different merchants and service providers. We see this as the value-added component which is very important in one’s journey to have and sustain a happy, lasting relationship (beyond just meeting the Right One).
Having been in the industry for 14 years and being industry pioneer in the markets we are in, we have seen many new entrants into the market year after year. Some of them have survived, some of them of left. We always welcome new competitors because the way we see it, they help to expand “the pie” and the market. If it is just us who are going to make noise, there would be a limited market effect. As for Facebook entrance into the market, we look forward to their new product offerings and who knows, we could work together with them in the future to help more singles find love and create more happy and long lasting relationships and marriages!” — Violet Lim, CEO & Co-Founder, Viola.AI
Our statement is featured in Global Dating Insights. Read it here.
