The social site is testing a messaging feature associated with dating sites
Facebook has long been out in front of the social technology game, virtually inventing features like the friend feed, the timeline and memorial pages. But experts say its latest proposed strategy appears to be following the playbook of an unlikely innovator: dating websites.
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For $1, users can now send a message to a nonfriend — that is, to another user not on their friend list. Unveiling the service for U.S. users this week, Facebook said the new fee was intended less as a way of generating revenue — and more as a means of protecting user privacy. However, analysts say the company appears to be cherry-picking premium features that have been successful on dating sites and note that other companies are already using Facebook for dating. Match.com helps Facebook users mine their social networks for potential partners, while Datable.com links Facebookers who have similar interests. “I think a Facebook dating service is definitely a possibility,” says personal branding consultant Nick Gilham.
Premium services offered for a price on dating sites — such as access to photos and messages — make sense for Facebook, Gilham say. The $1 billion a year online dating business has successfully mined millions of users for revenue by nickel-and-diming them for features, he says, while Facebook has so far had a hard time doing the same. One way Facebook might clear this hurdle, Gilham says, would be to let like-minded singletons opt into a dating service for a fee and — by harnessing the vast amount of information people share —recommend potential pairings based on interests. (A spokeswoman for Facebook declined to comment.)
Will you pay to send a message on Facebook?
Facebook has begun testing a system for users to send messages to people outside their immediate circle of social contacts for a payment of $1, as the company continues to find new ways to capitalize on its popularity. The WSJ's Yun-Hee Kim has the story.
What’s more, Facebook members are so accustomed to being able to browse the pages of people they may not know terribly well, experts say, that they might balk at being charged for the privilege. And while some professional networking sites like LinkedIn already charge to send messages and access profiles out of a person’s social network, they’ve sewn up the market for professional networking. Hunting for jobs is less acceptable on Facebook, says social media analyst Jennifer P. Brown. “If a candidate somehow found me on Facebook and sent me a note, it would be an immediate turn-off,” she says.
That said, mixing the worlds of social networking and dating could also present ethical challenges. Facebook is more synonymous with divorce than love and marriage, according to several recent studies. More than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook, according to one U.K. survey by Divorce Online, a U.K-based legal services firm. And over 80% of U.S. divorce attorneys report a rise in the number of cases using social networking, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. The reason? Some married Facebook members are already using the site for dating.
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