Friday, June 22, 2018

Does The Future Of Dating Hinge On FB? - Blog #5, Chelsey McGinnis

Does The Future Of Dating Hinge On FB? (Forbes)

FB is making a move on the world of online dating (pun intended).  How does it effect digital marketing?  Well, in a good world, it shouldn't --> but it probably will.

It seems like something involving Facebook and data is in the news every few hours, let alone days.

Of course, as a multi-billion dollar industry, it was only time before FB ventured into these unchartered waters. FB is still in recovery from the "rough patch" surrounding its data scandal and users have been quickly shifting away from the platform.  However, since millennials spend approximately 10 hours a week on dating apps, this could be the perfect solution to return younger users to FB - as well as appeal to older demographics (who don't like Tinder).

While this is a fun advancement and probably very convenient for single FB users looking for love, of course it brings the question of DATA into light.

Just earlier this week, FB also had admit to yet another data issue when information was accidentally leaked to developers through analytics reports.  Even without mishaps, its frightening to think what FB will gain to know about its users via a dating platform.  While a user's experience with Facebook is extremely personal already, online dating has the potential to expand that to unimagined heights.

Can we trust FB to manage this information about us? And, what will happen to both FB and its users if highly personal content, communications, and data is ever "accidentally" shared?  While users already experience a highly personalized marketing experience through Facebook, gaining even more highly sensitive and personal information would be a hard thing "to ignore" in the lens of marketing.

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