Alyssa Landguth, a 30-year-old from Washington, wasn’t really using Facebook for its original purpose. Like many, she mostly browsed Facebook Marketplace for deals or engaged with niche communities like her favorite Star Trek group.
However, a recent divorce led her to a less obvious Facebook feature: Facebook Dating. Now, it’s her go-to and only dating platform, offering ‘more matches’ and being ‘cheaper than Christian Mingle,’ as she puts it.
Launched in 2019, Facebook Dating has unexpectedly become a huge success for the tech giant. This free-to-use service allows singles to create profiles, swipe, and connect, now boasting over 21 million daily users. This figure impressively surpasses major players like Hinge, which currently has about 15 million users in the U.S.
According to Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, the service’s strength lies in its foundation of authentic user profiles. ‘You can see who they are, how you’re connected, and if you have mutual friends, we highlight shared interests,’ he explained in a recent interview.
This boom in Facebook Dating’s usage reflects a broader transformation within Facebook. While its traditional news feed has seen declining engagement compared to newer platforms like Instagram and TikTok, features like Marketplace (for buying/selling goods) and Dating demonstrate Facebook’s ability to adapt and stay relevant.
Mike Proulx, a research director at Forrester VP, confirms this trend, noting that Gen Z primarily uses Facebook for Marketplace, Messenger, and Dating, rather than the core social feed.
Despite being a niche feature within Facebook’s massive 3 billion-user base, Facebook Dating has thrived while many competitors falter. The company reports a 7% year-over-year increase in conversations among users under 30. Tom Alison himself was surprised, recalling a moment he questioned his team about the industry’s downturn, only to be told, ‘No, Tom, we’re growing.’
Alison revealed that the dating service originated from an internal pitch years ago, recognizing that many users were already using Facebook in informal ways to find partners. This mirrors the development of Marketplace and Groups, where Facebook formalized existing user behaviors into dedicated features.
The success of Facebook Dating, according to Alison, illustrates Meta’s (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) strategy of dividing social networking into two main categories: algorithm-driven content from professional creators (like Instagram Reels) and more personal, local services such as Marketplace, Groups, and Dating.
Images depict the Facebook Dating service in use. Though Facebook Dating caters to a smaller segment of the app’s massive 3 billion users, its growth trajectory stands in stark contrast to the challenges faced by many other dating platforms. (Credit: Meta)
While primarily popular among the over-30 demographic, Facebook Dating still attracts a significant younger audience, with approximately 1.8 million users in their 20s in the U.S. and hundreds of thousands of new young adult profiles monthly. The company doesn’t actively market the service, relying instead on organic growth and the recent addition of a prominent Dating tab within the Facebook app.
Martin Springer, 68, from Olympia, Washington, has used Facebook Dating exclusively for a year. Despite encountering numerous scammers, a common issue across the platform, he finds himself returning daily for his routine swipes.
Springer noted, ‘Many are looking for money, or drugs, or a sugar daddy. But some, like me, are genuinely seeking love.’
Alison attributes Facebook Dating’s success to its free, accessible nature. Unlike subscription-based apps like Hinge, Facebook generates revenue through overall app engagement and advertising. This model frees Facebook Dating to develop new features for all users, rather than gating them behind paywalls.
Among its latest innovations is artificial intelligence. Last month, Facebook unveiled an A.I. dating assistant that allows users to articulate their romantic preferences, which the assistant then uses to find compatible matches on the platform.
They also rolled out ‘Meet Cute,’ an A.I. matchmaker designed to combat ‘swiping fatigue’ by offering one curated match per week. The system is expected to improve its matching accuracy as it learns more about individual users.
Alternatively, for those wary of A.I., Facebook Dating introduced a feature allowing users to deputize friends as matchmakers, entrusting them with the swiping process based on their insights into compatibility.
Alyssa Landguth, however, found this human touch less effective: she granted access to her sister, who ‘has never performed the job’ as actively as Landguth had hoped.