Facebook is finally entering into the dating game.
The social media giant's CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during his annual F8 developers conference on Tuesday that Facebook will introduce a feature that aims to set up users with people they aren't currently friends with.
Users will be able to opt-in for this feature, and then build a dating profile that will only be visible to people who aren't their Facebook friends. Zuckerberg stressed that his aim is different than most dating services.
"This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships — not just hook-ups," he insisted.
(Mark Zuckerberg speaking at the F8 conference)
Following the big announcement on Tuesday, shares of both dating service Match and its parent company IAC plummeted as investors weighed the impact of Facebook entering this new market.
Facebook's dating gamble comes during a period where Zuckerberg and his team are trying to weather the #DeleteFacebook movement, which was started in response to the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal.
Zuckerberg testified before the US Congress last month about the lingering impact of the politically-motivated data theft, and promised to overhaul Facebook's security protocol.
(Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before US Congress)
"This is one of my top priorities is to get this right. One of my greatest regrets is we were slow in identifying the Russian operations in 2016," he told US representatives.
Since then, Zuckerberg has hinted that a paid subscription version of Facebook may be coming and also tipped that Reddit-style down votes for comments are also in the works.
Night News Editor
Justin has been with Digital Spy since 2010, and in that time, has covered countless major news events for DS from the US.
He has worked previously as both a reporter and sub editor for the brand, prior to taking on the position of Night News Editor in 2016.
Over more than a decade, he has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. As a US contributor to Digital Spy, Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo.
