Dr Datos take on the Facebook Graph for online daters?
There was a recent article on Mashable on how Facebook Graph could disrupt the future of online dating. Facebook Online Dating
The article in mashable is interesting as it could have potential implications to all the dating sites currently out there. Match.com could potentially have a run for its money, if FB did have its ways. However, the flat figures for the online dating industry in the recent years compared to the rosey years of a few years back may suggest a different approach is needed and FB has the answers. Whatever FB has in mind could seriously affect the way the online industry operates and could be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on how one looks at it.
The online dating industry exploded onto the scene over 10 years ago and has been growing ever since. At that time, the stigma associated with the business of online dating was relegated to geeks, losers or men wearing anoraks. However, today it has a much more social acceptance and figures of one in five marriages occur online are routinely circulated in the news. Could FB fill the remaining gap that is still holding back four fifths of the online singles population? It would be a significant change indeed for FB and something they would need to seriously consider. Maybe they want to become the next Yahoo in the online world but they want to do this in the social world they have created all by themselves. Could they be making the same mistake as Yahoo and leave a competitor like Google to come into it’s wake and disrupt the social business altogether? We just have to wait and see.
What is happening for sure, is that the world of online has changed from what it was a few years back, its much more user centric, dynamic, behaviorally driven and extremely fluid. A mistake could leave you in the dust like Zynga which has had a string of stings (no pun intended) since it floated. The lifetime of a new online company may be very short indeed. In my opinion, we will be witness to the fastest round of instant millionaires as well as the quickest path to riches and rags.
I hate Facebook. I log in maybe once a year.