社交媒体咄咄逼人，这家约会网站何去何从？

5月初的一天，IAC在曼哈顿由弗兰克·盖瑞设计的公司总部，首席执行官乔伊·莱文跟创始人兼总裁巴里·迪勒，还有其他一些人在会议室里开会。一群人在听取战略计划例行汇报，偶然间提到一些关于广告支持业务。迪勒突然像想起了什么。“提醒我了！”他说。“昨晚谢丽尔给我打电话跟我说，他们要做约会业务，明天就宣布。”

他说的“谢丽尔”当然就是Facebook首席运营官谢丽尔·桑德伯格。而且Facebook确实打算宣布进军在线约会市场，事实上就在同一时刻，Facebook首席执行官马克·扎克伯格正在年度开发者大会F8上宣布该消息。莱文转向房间里的大屏幕，上面实时显示IAC和2015年剥离出去的Match集团股价，两家公司都在跌。“我的手机屏幕一直收到短信，闪个不停，每收到一条短信股价就跌去5%。”莱文回忆说。当天收盘时，Match集团股价暴跌22%，而IAC下跌近18%。

之后，莱文向新来的竞争者发布了一份声明（IAC持有Match集团81%股份）：“来啊，水还热着呢。”他还冷幽默了一把，说Facebook的产品“可能有助于改善美俄关系。”媒体显然很吃这套，纷纷引用，但毫无疑问，Facebook进入的消息对Match和整个在线约会行业绝非笑话。

在线约会行业最近消息不断，热闹程度堪比糟糕的在线约会，Facebook宣布的消息只是最新一颗重磅炸弹。仅在过去几个月，市值120亿美元的Match集团对穷追不舍的竞争对手Bumble提起了诉讼，指控其专利侵权及窃取商业机密，Match集团旗下拥有Match.com、OkCupid、Tinder和Plenty of Fish等。Bumble则回复了一封尖刻的信，并提出反诉。这也让两家明争暗斗许久公司矛盾白热化：Bumble创始人惠特尼·沃尔夫·赫德是Tinder联合创始人之一，被迫离开后提出诉讼最终和解，几个月后创立了竞争对手。经历过种种闹腾之后再看Facebook，至少进入市场时表现很专业，还礼貌地打了电话通知。

扎克伯格的声明标志着行业迎来重大转折点，或许对市场领先者Match集团影响尤其大。近年来，利用技术连接世界各地的单身人士的市场一直蓬勃发展，却并未发挥真正的潜力。全球有6亿单身网民，到2020年预计将增加到7亿人，目前业内最大的Match集团估计也仅占10％市场。所以人们可以尽管质疑Facebook是否能让人放心分享感情生活，但毫无疑问，巨头进入市场后将加速普及网络约会，吸引更多用户使用。

虽说大潮来了水涨船高，但行业也可能重新洗牌。如果Match集团仍想保住市场第一的宝座，就得拼命守住地盘。

不过守地盘的任务并不在莱文身上，还是落在1月出任首席执行官的曼迪·金斯伯格肩上，她加入公司已12年，前任格雷格·布拉特曾担任法律总顾问，后来担任IAC首席执行官，后来业务拆分时进入Match集团。金斯伯格现年48岁，自称是“实操型运营官”，非常适合这份工作。她在公司一路升迁，前不久担任公司北美业务首席执行官。她的工作包括帮助Match集团应付Facebook和Bumble之类对手带来的竞争压力，也要控制好目前最火热的Tinder应用。Tinder是2012年上线的滑动交友软件，旋即风靡全世界。与此同时，她还负责推动公司创新，利用人工智能、机器学习等工具探索该行业最核心的业务：即精确预测陌生人之间的匹配程度。

但凡认识金斯伯格的人都表示，她很适合这份工作。2006年她就加入公司，非常了解行业。虽然已婚而且有两个女儿，但她对Match的工作尽职尽责。“我们的工作不只是铺好桌子提供服务。”她表示，“我真心相信我们会深刻影响人们的生活。”聊到我自己的感情生活时，我说刚跟相处五年的男朋友分手，她是唯一一个听到这消息很高兴的人。“太棒了！”她说。我刚要惊讶，她赶紧接着说：“真的挺棒的。我的意思是你可以认识很多有趣的人，很好啊。”

One day in early May, IAC CEO Joey Levin sat in a conference room at the company’s Frank Gehry–designed headquarters in Manhattan, along with Barry Diller, IAC’s founder and chairman, and a few others. The group was listening to one of their colleagues present a routine strategic plan when the executive happened to mention something about an ad-supported business. Suddenly Diller sprang to life. “That reminds me!” he said. “Sheryl called me last night to let me know they’re getting into the dating business, and they’re going to announce it tomorrow.”

“Sheryl” is, of course, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, and Facebook was indeed poised to reveal plans to enter the online dating space—in fact, CEO Mark Zuckerberg was at that very moment making the announcement at F8, the company’s annual developers conference. Levin turned to the huge screen in the room that displays the tickers of IAC and Match Group, the online dating conglomerate it spun off in 2015, where shares of both companies were already dropping. “My phone starts lighting up with texts, and each time I’m getting a text, the stock drops another 5%,” Levin recalls. All told, Match Group stock plunged 22% that day; IAC, almost 18%.

Later, Levin issued a statement addressing his company’s new competitor (IAC owns 81% of Match Group): “Come on in. The water’s warm,” he said, deadpanning that Facebook’s product “could be great for U.S.-Russia relationships.” The media ate up the jab, but there’s no denying that the news was anything but a joke to Match and the rest of the online dating industry.

The Facebook reveal is just the latest bombshell in a business that’s in the midst of more drama than a bad online date. In the past few months alone, Match Group, the $12 billion parent of Match.com, OkCupid, Tinder, and Plenty of Fish, among many others, filed a lawsuit against its white-hot startup challenger, Bumble, for patent infringement and stealing trade secrets. Bumble published an acerbic letter in response and filed its own countersuit. This is on top of the already fraught history between the two companies: Bumble’s founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, was a Tinder cofounder who sued for sexual harassment after being forced out, won a settlement, and a few months later started the competitor. After all of this fracas, the Facebook news was, at least, professional, complete with courtesy call.