Facebook announces Sanskari dating feature in India

Back in May Facebook announced that that it will soon let its users create a dating profile to meet non-friends who have also opted in for its dating features. And since Facebook knows more about you than your mother or your ex-girlfriend. Facebook will match slew of your preferences to help you find the one, for you to date. Here is how Facebook dating feature might look like as published on the TechCrunch website:

1. Opt-in to a create a profile with just your first name. Your profile won’t be visible to friends, users who aren’t on the dating feature, and it won’t show up in the News Feed.
2. You’ll browse Events in your city and Groups that match your interests. You can select to “unlock” one for dating. You’ll then see the profiles of other dating users who’ve unlocked that surface.
3. You can browse through people’s profiles that show off a few of their photos plus some basic information about them. You’ll be shown people based on mutual interests and friends, plus other data Facebook has on you.
4. If you both are interested, you’ll be able to start a conversation with someone in a special inbox that’s separate from Messenger and WhatsApp. For safety, only text can be sent for now.

This works all well and good in parts of the world where dating is considered normal. In India however, things are different and Facebook knows it. To carter to Sanskari culture of Indian sub-continent, Facebook will be rolling out several additional features.

“We respect the culture and traditions of the given country, and hence it is our responsibility to adapt our services to culture, rather than trying to modernize it,” said Zuck while talking about the possible introduction of it’s dating feature for India.

“Our goal is not to imitate Tinder, we are trying to build a dating feature that is socially accepted by young and old alike. We want to help people build relationships that last longer than a couple of dates.” said a Facebook spokesperson when asked if Facebook is trying to poach Tinder in India. So here is a list of additional features on top of the aforementioned five points that would be introduced specially for India:

• You will have to submit your Adhar Card to validate your identity before you can sign-up for the dating feature on Facebook.
• Your parents will be required to approve you before your dating profile goes online. Furthermore, they will be able to ask for a second opinion from a close relative.
• If your parents do not approve of inter-caste marriages, you will be required to upload your caste certificate. You’ll only be shown people who have opted for dating feature from your caste.
• There will be a special ‘filter bride/groom by salary‘ feature alongside ‘occupation‘ filter. ‘We have taken inspiration from answers on Quora, thus we know how important these things are for dating/marriages in India’, said Facebook spokesperson while explaining the importance of ‘can/can’t cook‘ filter for women.
• There will be an option to match the Kundli.

‘We know more about your preferences than your ex-girlfriend knew about you. We have designed algorithms that can predict the probability of the relationship working out or not in long term. But that is all useless if your Kundlis do not match.’ the Facebook spokesperson explained further on Kundli feature.

• Once you select your potential match, parents of both party will have to approve on respective choices before you can interact with each other.

With Tinder is hugely unpopular among Indian parents. Seems like Facebook is focused on keeping Indian parents happy when it comes to their children’s dating life. Facebook seems to have decoded the mantra of India’s dating culture, ‘The secret to a happy relationship is when all your relatives are happy with your choice’.

P.S.: If you haven’t already figured out this is a fake post intended for humor. The sarcasm is not to be mistaken for criticism. It is the viewpoint of the author which you can disagree with. This post was not written to offend anyone. While Facebook has announced it’s dating feature, everything being said in this post about its introduction in India is fictional.

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