Does The Future Of Dating Hinge On Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the annual F8 summit in San Jose, California on May 1, 2018. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, recently sent a small shockwave through the online dating industry when he announced Facebook's plans to roll out dating features at Facebook's F8 conference back in May; shares in dating-giant Match Group immediately plummeted by 16%. Fast forward to today, 22nd June, and investors' initial (and perhaps somewhat knee-jerk) concerns that Facebook would swiftly usurp existing dating apps as the go-to app seem to have been allayed, with Match's share price since recovering. In fact, the announcement itself has generally been welcomed by all the major online dating players. So undeterred were Match Group that they decided to buy a controlling stake in Hinge earlier this week, doubling down on their strategy of acquiring competitor dating brands in spite of the announcement.