Facebook Dating Aims for No-Cost Model to Compete With Tinder
Meta’s Facebook Dating, launched in 2019, has reported significant growth in North America over the past year – with a 20% increase in its user base and a 24% increase in daily conversations among young adults. This seems to come primarily from Facebook Dating’s focus on a free, unlimited features in contrast to the paid models of major competitors like Tinder and Bumble, positioning itself as an alternative for users experiencing dating app fatigue.
Shabnum Gulati, a product manager who oversees most of the front-and-centre features of Facebook Dating, stated in an interview about the service that Meta are “trying too offer as many features as (they) can that are competitive with other apps for free”. Facebook Dating’s strategy to remain strong alongside the competition is to simply remove paywalls entirely
Facebook Dating’s appeal lies in its no-cost model, which includes features like feed filtering for different kinds of profiles and the ability to revisit profiles you’ve stumbled across in previous browsing sessions — features commonly locked behind paywalls in other dating apps, or not implemented at all.
Alongside this are features like Matchmaker, which lets you invite friends to be your personal matchmaker for dates, and the ability to link your Instagram profile into your dating profile. Gulati directly mentioned that the matchmaker feature helps to invote more people into the platform, which is likely made easier due to users having easy access to their Facebook friends lists.
Meta’s work on generative AI also shows promise for the platfrm’s future, with AI already being available as a way to generate profile bios. Although still in the early stages, Meta have clearly been putting a lot of work into their AI research and development, and Facebook Dating is likely to benefit from the results just as much as their other platforms.