Shares of Match Group, the online dating empire that owns Match.com and Tinder, were plunging in trading on Tuesday after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant would launch its own dating service.
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Set to begin testing later this year, Facebook’s service will match users to other users outside their group of “friends” on the site based on common interests, dating preferences and mutual contacts, TechCrunch reported. The service will be opt-in only and will not be visible to a user’s current friends.
Match Group’s stock fell more than 15% on the news. Prior to Tuesday’s trading session, the company’s shares had been up more than 45% so far this year. Shares of IAC, the parent company of Match Group led by billionaire investor Barry Diller, were also down more than 10%.
“This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships, not just hookups,” Zuckerberg said at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | %Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTCH | MATCH GROUP INC. | 38.93 | -8.19 | -17.38% |
| IAC | IAC/INTERACTIVECORP | 142.44 | -19.70 | -12.15% |
| FB | FACEBOOK INC. | 172.37 | +0.37 | +0.22% |
Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users, according to its latest earnings report. The company has recently drawn scrutiny for its data privacy practices after multiple news outlets reported a data breach that affected up to 87 million users.
