Category: Facebook Dating

Scam Victims Warn Fake Accounts Will Ruin Facebook’s Dating Site

Posted on August 17, 2018

FakebookTHE NEXT WEB – Aug 17 – Kathy Kostrub-Waters and Bryan Denny are spending some of their free time finding fake accounts on Facebook. They regularly present Facebook with their findings, and each time are disappointed to find Facebook hasn't changed their approach. Says Denny: "The reality is this isn't my job or Kathy's. So I get really tired of 'Hey, thanks for the work – keep it up.' I'm like no, damnit, it's your job to do this." Denny, a retired member of the Armed Forces, is apparently a popular target for scammers, who steal photos of his attractive mug and use them to construct fake profiles on dating sites and Facebook. He found hundreds of Facebook profiles bearing his photo and those of his son. Now consider Facebook's intention to start a dating site. Various people from groups dedicated to finding and warning others about scam profiles, speaking with Huffington Post, called that idea "madness" and "a train wreck waiting to happen."

by Rachel Kaser
See full article at The Next Web

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Match Group Is Still Undervalued

Posted on August 13, 2018

Match group website screenshot 2018SEEKING ALPHA – Aug 13 – Even after a 17% rise following the most recent quarterly results, Match remains modestly valued. The latest subscriber numbers show that Tinder is not slowing down as initially expected. Past experience strongly suggests that Facebook Dating will not impact Match Group's business in a material way. The Match growth story is driven by three key realities: societal changes, a strong, sticky brand, and fantastic business economics. Best of all, Match spends very little on advertising because people know of its products through word-of-mouth. Assuming that earnings remain static forever at $450M, the entire company would be worth $11.25B at a 4% discount rate: $450M/4% = $11.25B. With such a long growth runway, though, it would be silly to think that this is it for earnings. At a market capitalization of just $12.3B, Match is almost certainly undervalued.

by Mike Berner
See full article at Seeking Alpha

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Facebook Dating Will Offer 5 Gender Options

Posted on August 10, 2018

Facebook dating gender optionsDAILYL – Aug 10 – Facebook is testing its newly created dating feature within the organization. Users have the ability to select the one from 5 different genders, like a man, Trans man, Trans woman, woman and non-binary people.

by Lesley Kasparin
See full article at DailyL

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Facebook Dating Will Have A Feature To Help Shy People

Posted on August 8, 2018

Facebook dating conversation startersMETRO.CO.UK – Aug 7 – Facebook is preparing to launch a service called Facebook Dating, and is already undergoing internal testing. One of the features the dating service will contain is called 'Conversation Starter', which offers automated pick-up lines to people who can't think of how to start chatting to someone they fancy. Facebook unveiled plans for its dating service in May and said it's designed to create 'real, long-term relationships', rather than hook-ups. The feature will enable users to create a separate dating profile to their existing Facebook account, with the site then offering recommendations about the sorts of people it thinks users will like.

by Jasper Hamill
See full article at Metro.co.uk

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Will Facebook’s Dating Crush Match?

Posted on August 7, 2018

Facebook dating picSEEKING ALPHA – Aug 7 – On May 1st, Facebook announced that it would be entering the online dating market. Prior to this date, Match stock increased 151% since early August driven by consistent user growth and increasing monetization. With the stock now 21% from its peak, does this present a buying opportunity, or the start of a bigger decline amidst heavy competition?

Facebook May See Some Success, but Not Likely to Slow Match Growth

  • Facebook's demographics do not align with online dating.
  • Its core audience is older, which doesn't align well with the younger crowd on Tinder.
  • Users want to keep social media and dating separate.
  • Facebook has historically struggled to disrupt other industries.
  • Facebook's entry could actually further destigmatize online dating.
  • Match, and Tinder still have numerous growth drivers. Match has ~7M paid members across their platforms, which is an estimated 10% of total members. Match Group is expect to launch a new feature in 2H18 that could drive further ARPU and subscriber growth.

Facebook's Success is a Risk to Consider

  • Facebook has a huge user base and can invest significantly in the space if they choose to do so.
  • Facebook could also roll out the feature to Instagram, which has a demographic more aligned with Tinder.
  • People are already using Facebook and Instagram for dating purposes. A more explicit feature could see success.

See full article at Seeking Alpha

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Facebook Started Testing Its Dating Feature

Posted on August 6, 2018

CNET – Aug 4 – Facebook has begun internal testing for its new dating feature (Facebook doesn't plan to launch a standalone dating app). A Facebook representative confirmed testing has kicked off, saying, "We are testing Facebook Dating internally (as we regularly do with new features), but we don't have anything more to share right now." Facebook is hoping users will trust the social network with their personal information, even after the Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year, in which data from as many as 87M Facebook users was improperly shared with the political consultancy.

Facebook dating internal testing
by Abrar Al-Heeti
See full article at CNet

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Q&A With Mandy Ginsberg, CEO Of Match Group

Posted on August 3, 2018

RECODE – Aug 1 – On this episode of Recode Decode, Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg talks with Recode's Kurt Wagner about how her company became dominant in online dating. Ginsberg also talks about Facebook dating and her admiration for Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe, even as the two companies have traded lawsuits and barbed words in the press, and why it's natural for consumers of different ages to use different apps.

Q: When Facebook announced its entry into online dating, what was going through your mind? Were you surprised?
A: Yes, that actual day I was. I had just printed the script for our earning call and I threw it behind my desk, I just tossed it. It was not shocking because we've studied the single population and people were saying that they met their partners through Facebook. But it was surprising because Facebook has stayed away from online dating quite intentionally.

Q: Lets talk about Bumble. Where do you stand now?
A: I have a tremendous amount of respect for the brand and what Bumble has done and what Whitney has done. But we own a patent around swiping and unlocking communication, which we are really excited about. We never had that before. And honestly, you don't use a patent unless you feel that it's defensible because it's expensive, and it takes a long time. So anyway, we scoured, looked at all the competition. There were several competitors that were big that were infringing on the patent. And so we made a decision to go after Bumble, Tantan and some other ones too that we've actually sent letters to as well, that they've now adjusted their products or are in talks with us.

Q: What's the thinking when you are talking to a company about a potential acquisition and then you sue them?
A: Businesses and deals will come and go. This is about protecting the integrity of your work.

See full article at Recode

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Match Group CEO: Facebook Is No Threat To Us

Posted on July 20, 2018

Match group mandy ginsberg july 18FORTUNE – July 19 – Mandy Ginsberg has had an interesting first year as CEO of Match Group. She recalled the moment she learned that Facebook had entered the dating arena. She had just finished preparing remarks for an earnings call, when her phone began blowing up with the news. "The stock started dropping a dollar a minute," she recalled. "I just threw all my prepared remarks away and started over." Ginsberg feels confident that the mostly young love-seekers don't want to be dating on the same platform where their parents hang out.

by Ellen McGirt
See full article at Fortune

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Match CEO: “People Don’t Want Facebook Meddling In Their Dating Lives”

Posted on July 17, 2018

Match Group Mandy-GinsbergRECODE – July 16 – Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg is not too worried about the impact of Facebook on her business. Although she acknowledged it would be foolish to write them off as a competitor, Match's data shows that its users already employ multiple dating apps. "Tinder's our big growth engine, and Tinder tends to skew very young, so 18 to 25. Facebook does not skew that young in general. If you're a 23-year-old and you're going to be using two or three apps, definitively, we think you're going to use one of our apps, most likely Tinder," she said. 5% of Match's revenue comes from advertising, a stark contrast to Facebook's 98.5%. She pointed out that that might assuage some consumers' concerns about privacy.

by Eric Johnson
See full article at Recode

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Why Facebook’s Dating Service Will Fail

Posted on July 16, 2018

Facebook icon 2CTECH – July 13 – Former AOL and dating service Badoo executive Amit Shafrir explains why he believes the recently announced Facebook dating service stands little chance of succeeding.

  1. Single app policy
    Facebook has announced that it will incorporate its dating service into its flagship app. A separate app focused on dating would be the correct approach. Here is why:
    – Context
    Everything we do, we do within a certain context. When we browse LinkedIn we are in a work or professional context; when we browse Facebook, we are in a social context; and when we are using a dating app, we are in a fun, entertainment or optimistic context.
    – Demographics
    Millennials and members of Generation Z, who are the prime targets of any dating service do not generally use Facebook. They do use Instagram.
    – Promotion
    It would look somewhat off to have other Facebook assets promote the main Facebook app, and given the different demographics, would probably not be very effective.
    – Virality
    A great dating app should have a natural buzz to it. That is not Facebook. App store Users searching for dating apps on Apple's App Store or Google Play   would not see Facebook among their results.
  2. Monetization
    Monetization is simply not in Facebook's DNA.
  3. Thinking small
    My sense is that Facebook is not treating this opportunity with the gravitas that its potential merits. It is limiting itself to a small subset of its vast user base of over 2B, and to a subset of potential functionality.

by Amit Shafrir
See full article at CTech

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