Facebook launching a dating feature, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during the keynote address at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference Tuesday.
“This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships, not just hook-ups,” Zuckerberg said.
The opt-in feature will match users specifically with people they aren’t already friends with. Facebook users can build a dating profile, which friends won’t be able to see.
Shares of the online dating company Match plunged 22 percent on the news. Its parent company IAC sank nearly 18 percent.
The F8 conference, often an opportunity to announce new developer tools or hardware, comes amid a broader discussion of policy and privacy for the company.
Facebook for months has been dealing with the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica data leak and questions of user privacy, a firestorm set off by reports that an app developer mishandled sensitive user information.
But Zuckerberg said during his address that the company will “keep building, even while we focus on keeping people safe.”
