Facebook Dating came into a crowded dating market where consumers are jaded and cynical about dating apps. At the same time, consumers are generally skeptical about Facebook. But Facebook Dating offered something other dating services couldn’t swipe away: meeting through mutual interests.

When it comes to dating, a crush is as real as it gets. Until now, there was no online dating site or app with a feature that would allow two people to connect through their crush status.

The idea was to make online dating feel less like online dating and more like the real world. Just like the way we develop crushes in the real word, we let people connect with their romantic crushes online.

Enter Secret Crush. By allowing users to mark someone within your social network as a crush, people would at last have the chance to connect romantically with their crushes IF the crush was reciprocated. The functionality would not reveal the crush until there was a sure connection, avoiding the awkwardness in case there was no romantic connection on both sides.

The results made Hinge cringe.

Facebook Dating has driven incremental value to the Facebook App. What started out as a small bet that launched in Colombia quickly expanded into 52 countries worldwide.

Internally, Dating was the only emerging bet to receive scaled funding.

Dating became a lift to overall US FB Android and iOS mobile users, driven by Facebook Dating users. Adding incremental sessions and time spent on the app.

Outside of the app, the out-of-home work broke through and drove directional awareness lifts.

Users flocked to Facebook Dating to connect. Prior to launching in Europe in October 2020, more than 1.5 billion matches have been made on the platform in the 20 countries where Dating was available. Facebook Dating is now available in 52 countries globally.

First, we launched our brand campaign in tight coordination with the team tasked to launch the app. “Where like meets love” was not only our tagline, it is the consumer insight by which the product itself was built. “Where like meets love” aligned all stakeholders both internally and externally in moving the product vision forward.

But we didn’t stop there. Internally, we turned an idea into an innovation. We had the unique opportunity to collaborate with the product team to influence the creative experience. Creating a feature called Secret Crush. Secret Crush matched people with who they were secretly crushing on, on Facebook. We created, designed, animated, and branded the feature.

Then we created a suite of integrated social assets. From online videos, to a website, gifs, social posts, and more.

The results made Hinge cringe.

Facebook Dating has driven incremental value to the Facebook App. What started out as a small bet that launched in Colombia quickly expanded into 52 countries worldwide.

Internally, Dating was the only emerging bet to receive scaled funding.

Dating became a lift to overall US FB Android and iOS mobile users, driven by Facebook Dating users. Adding incremental sessions and time spent on the app.

Outside of the app, the out-of-home work broke through and drove directional awareness lifts.

Users flocked to Facebook Dating to connect. Prior to launching in Europe in October 2020, more than 1.5 billion matches have been made on the platform in the 20 countries where Dating was available. Facebook Dating is now available in 52 countries globally.