Facebook Dating
It seems that Facebook’s promised foray into online dating is proceeding quite well as it rolled out its Facebook Dating service in Colombia in September followed by Canada and Thailand in November. Although the company is remaining coy about user numbers I think it is quite right that the likes of Match.com – which owns OKCupid, PlentyofFish and controls Tinder – to be worried given Facebook’s MASSIVE installed user base.
Clearly, Facebook has a lot of trust issues at the moment, but I think that users will ultimately overlook this in the hope that Facebook can help them.
Many people have their lives on Facebook, so potential users may see it as being a less-dodgy alternative than things like Tinder. Incumbents should be very afraid in my opinion.
Chetwood receives a full UK banking licence
The second thing I wanted to talk about today was a new bank called Chetwood which got a full UK banking licence from the Bank of England. It has joined other disruptor digital banks like Monzo, Revolut and N26 in promising to provide jaded UK customers with more innovative products, but I think that the most interesting thing here is that the company sounds quite open about selling its platform to others.
It sounds to me like this bank could perhaps become the new Ocado of banking!
