Facebook Is Getting Into The Dating App Game, A Threat To Other Companies

As if it didn’t have its fingers in enough or even too many pies already, Facebook just announced that it might start offering a dating app soon. There are still a lot of details that need to be revealed before the scope of the project can be appreciated, but the sheer size of Facebook makes it a threat to other dating app companies. It could beat rivals like Tinder with simple bludgeoning force.

When Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress recently, he was asked if his social media company might have gotten a little too big. Zuckerberg simply laughed at the insinuation, the New York Times reports, but no one else was. Hardly anyone is under the delusion that Facebook is not the global behemoth with its tendrils in practically every part of the world.

This is what makes its most recent announcement during the company’s latest developers conference of a possible dating app such a huge threat to other companies. Facebook is basically capitalizing on its substantial number of users to dominate the market. As Zuckerberg said in his speech, there are over 200 million people users on his social network who identify as single. That is a large pool of potential customers.

As The Verge notes, Facebook could obliterate Tinder by simply having people meet in real life. In most cases of dating apps, hitting several matches simply ends in people communicating through messages. Nothing more. The largest social network in the world intends to change this.

“Just like in real life, the more active you are in the communities around you, the more opportunities you’ll have to meet awesome people,” its promotional material says.

This basically means that Facebook intends to expand the opportunities for prospects to meet each other in real life by basically putting them in the same circle. This removes many of the barriers that prevent matches from meeting in person. Of course, this depends on whether or not Facebook can actually deliver on these features.