For Alyssa Landguth, a 30-year-old from Washington State, Facebook used to be for practical things—buying furniture on Marketplace or chatting in her favorite Star Trek group. But after her divorce last summer, one particular feature has pulled her back to the platform: Facebook Dating. She calls it her go-to dating service, finding it ‘cheaper than Christian Mingle and with more matches.’
Launched in 2019, Facebook Dating has become an unexpected success story for Meta. This free service allows users to create a dating profile, swipe through potential matches, and connect with other singles directly within the app. With over 21 million daily users, it has quietly surpassed even leading dating apps like Hinge, which has approximately 15 million users.
‘At its core, Facebook offers real people,’ explained Tom Alison, head of Facebook, in a recent interview. ‘You can see who they are, how you’re connected, and if you share mutual friends or interests, we make it easy to find common ground.’ This growth highlights Facebook’s ongoing transformation. While its traditional social feed might not be as popular with younger generations as Instagram or TikTok, services like Marketplace and Dating are proving crucial for keeping the veteran social network relevant.
‘When you look at how Gen Z uses Facebook, they’re not engaging with the main feed,’ noted Mike Proulx, a research director at Forrester VP. ‘What brings them back is Marketplace, Messenger, and now, Dating.’
Despite being used by only a fraction of Facebook’s 3 billion users, the dating feature has seen significant growth while many other dating apps struggle. The company reports that conversations among users under 30 increased by 7 percent year-over-year. Alison himself was surprised, recalling how he questioned his team about the service’s performance after reading about a slump in the dating app industry. ‘I asked, ‘Are we declining?’’ he recounted. ‘They responded, ‘No, Tom, we’re growing.’’
Alison revealed that the idea for Facebook Dating originated years ago from employees who noticed millions were already using the platform to find romantic partners. This mirrors the genesis of other successful Facebook products like Marketplace and Groups, which were built around popular, albeit unintended, user behaviors.
Ultimately, Facebook Dating illustrates Meta’s strategy of evolving ‘social networking’ into two distinct areas: algorithmic content from apps like Instagram Reels, often created by professionals, and more personal, localized services such as Marketplace, Groups, and Dating. These services cater to different user needs, ensuring Facebook’s continued adaptability in the digital landscape.
Facebook Dating is utilized by a portion of the app’s 3 billion users. (Credit: Meta) But it has seen growth even as other dating apps face challenges. (Credit: Meta)
While primarily popular with the over-30 demographic, Facebook Dating boasts approximately 1.8 million users in their 20s in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of new young adult profiles created monthly. The company doesn’t actively market the service, but it recently added a convenient Dating tab to the bottom of some users’ Facebook apps.
Martin Springer, 68, from Olympia, Wash., has used Facebook Dating for about a year and considers it his sole dating platform. Despite encountering scammers, a common issue across many apps, he’s made it a daily routine to check for new matches. ‘Many people are looking for money, drugs, or a sugar daddy,’ Springer acknowledged. ‘But some, like me, are genuinely looking for love.’
Alison attributes much of Facebook Dating’s success to its free and user-friendly nature. Unlike subscription-based apps like Hinge, Facebook generates revenue through general app advertising, allowing it to offer new features to all users, not just paying subscribers.
Among its latest innovations is artificial intelligence. Last month, Facebook unveiled an AI dating assistant designed to help users articulate their romantic preferences. This assistant then leverages AI to search for compatible individuals on Facebook. Another new AI matchmaker, ‘Meet Cute,’ offers users one curated match per week, aiming to combat ‘swiping fatigue’ and improve its recommendations over time as it learns from user interactions.
For those preferring a human touch, Facebook Dating introduced a feature last year allowing users to invite friends to act as matchmakers. These friends can then take on the task of swiping for suitable partners.
However, Ms. Landguth’s experience with this feature has been less than ideal. She entrusted her sister with matchmaking duties, only to find: ‘My sister is my matchmaker but unlike A.I., has never performed the job.’