It could work tied to some other service although it’s not clear to me what that would be at the moment. Newspapers used to run personal ads, and Craigslist eve

It could work tied to some other service although it’s not clear to me what that would be at the moment. Newspapers used to run personal ads, and Craigslist even ran them for free. It wouldn’t surprise me if they actually benefitted from people matching, because you’d be predisposed to buy or at least respond to classified ads for other purposes in the future. Facebook tried and I think still has a dating feature. I’ve only ever encountered one person who was using it, and his match appeared to me and the guy’s friends to be a scammer who was likely to hit him up for money. If they had launched it before they were so widely distrusted and lost the young audience, it might have worked, and they obviously don’t need it to be profitable on its own, just to give you another incentive to visit Facebook and see ads. Yelp, Foursquare, or last.fm probably could have offered an opt-in dating feature a decade ago and done well (by the metrics of the day). Letterboxd or a Goodreads-style service could try it, but it seems more risky: I could see people no longer using the service for its original purpose once they matched, because it would feel like updating your dating profile while in a relationship.