Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Facebook’s dating app bets we’ll trust them again”.
Facebook’S F8 Developer Conference started off on a somber note this year.. Over the past two months, Facebook has been shaken by the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, which ultimately saw Mark Zuckerberg called before congress to defend Facebook’s data collection practices.. At the same time, critics are raising hard questions about Facebook’s impact on society, with some calling it a breeding ground for misinformation and hate. Zuckerberg started F8. With a speech that addressed those questions head on.
Now, I know that it hasn’t been easy being a developer. These last couple of months – and that’s probably an understatement, but what I can assure you is that we’re hard at work making sure that people don’t misuse this platform. So you can all keep building things that people love. In the midst of that crisis of trust. Facebook is rolling out one of its most socially ambitious project. In years, a dating app.
We’re announcing a new set of features coming soon around dating. ( audience cheers ). Now this is gon na be for building real long-term relationships, not just hookups., Where most dating apps focus on matching specific people. Facebook’S system focuses on common events and groups, giving you something to do on your first date. Facebook also promises not to match you with people who are already your friend an awkward situation, that’s unavoidable on most dating apps., And I know a lot of you are gon Na have questions about this, so I wan na be clear that we’ve designed this with privacy and safety in mind from the beginning., Your friends, aren’t gon na see your profile. You’re. Only gon na be suggested people who are not your friends who have opted into dating who fit your preferences. Although I can’t promise that you’re gon na get a mate., It’s a really ambitious project, potentially opening up a whole new side of Facebook, but it also takes a lot of trust.. The new app is entirely opt-in and Facebook says it’s built it with privacy in mind, but it’s hard not to worry that some dating profile pic won’t find its way back onto your Facebook wall or some old Facebook post won’t somehow make it on to the app.. Do we really trust Facebook to handle this right? At the same time, there are already a lot of dating apps, including ones like Tinder, that use Facebook’s social graph to connect people..
If you want an app that knows your Facebook friends but isn’t ran by Facebook, you have a lot of options. So how much real advantage does Facebook really have here? Facebook clearly thinks users will trust them here and you can see why. The company’s had a lot of bad headlines, but people aren’t leaving Facebook and they’re making more money than ever.. At the most recent quarterly earnings.
Facebook reported adding a half a million regular users everyday.. So by the numbers it looks like Zuckerberg’s apology, tour is working., But if Facebook’s bond with users is starting to turn, sour you’d expect it to hurt projects like this. The most.. It’S really hard to launch a new app even for a company as powerful as Facebook. Past developer conferences are littered with good ideas that just never took off.. It’S too early to say, if Facebook’s dating app will be one of those failures, but if it is, it might be because after so many bad scandals and bad excuses, users decided they just didn’t wan na risk it..
The thing is, it would’ve been really easy for Facebook to delay this announcement, pushing it closer to launch or outside the F8 cycle entirely, but Facebook didn’t do that.. They bet that the hangover from Cambridge Analytica just wouldn’t be a problem, and they made that bet with dating one of the most private and sensitive things we do as people.. Now we’re gon na find out if they bet right.
Thanks for watching., Would you trust, Facebook’s new, dating app? Let us know in the comments and we just launched a new Verge Science – YouTube channel. We’Re gon na. Do some really awesome stuff there so go subscribe.
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