TikTok has an internal matchmaking service for employees to introduce their colleagues to friends and family members, it has been revealed.
The channel, called Meet Cute, sits on the workplace tool used by thousands of TikTok employees around the world for document hosting, video conferencing. It also helps people find a potential romantic partner from among their colleagues.
On the platform, which was first reported by Forbes, employees can advertise their family, friends or acquaintances to colleagues, with a feed of posts that show information that typical dating apps would show, such as height and weight. The service also allows employees to comment on the posts and evaluate the people who come up on the feed.
In the Meet Cute introduction, it notes: “The company is not responsible for mediating disputes.”
The platform, which sits in the company intranet forum called ByteMoments, is used mostly by employees based in China, but staff across the world use ByteMoments to do their daily jobs.
A spokesperson for ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, said the Meet Cute function was designed to be used in mainland China, suggesting it was not intended to be used by employees overseas.
“We consider cultural differences when building internal apps like ByteMoments,” they said. “The Meet Cute function was specifically designed as an optional offering for mainland China employees only and we have made the channel market-specific.”
The channel has a note that warns employees to not post the personal information of staff and a reminder that it is for introducing individuals outside of the company to ByteDance employees.
ByteDance has not been shy about its attempts to be a matchmaker for employees. There have been previous internal matchmaking services, one titled the 175 Project. According to the Chinese language news outlet Tech Planet, other tech platforms such as Alibaba, Meituan and Huawei provide dating forums or matchmaking services to their employees.
TikTok employees who spoke to Forbes said the company’s attempt to facilitate matchmaking felt like an “encroachment on personal boundaries”.
