Facebook has announced plans to launch a new dating service. “There are 200 million people on Facebook that list themselves as single, so clearly there’s something to do here,” Zuckerberg said at Facebook’s annual F8 conference on Tuesday while announcing the service.
Reuters reports that the new service is being built with an emphasis on privacy and will launch soon, in hopes of rebuilding the platform’s popularity among younger consumers. A prototype displayed on screens at the conference showed a heart shape at the top-right corner of the Facebook app; pressing on it will take people to their dating profile if they have set one up.
Potential matches will be recommended based on dating preferences, things in common and mutual friends. Facebook users have been able to reveal their relationship status on the network since it first went live in February 2004.