(HorizonPost.com) – Lark, the TikTok employees’ productivity suite developed by parent company ByteDance, is featuring a new channel on its “ByteMoments” platform called “Meet Cute,” where employees can promote family members and friends as potential romantic matches for their colleagues, Forbes reported.
The “Meet Cute” channel features posts that include a photo of the potential match advertised, along with their weight, height, and other attributes.
According to the ByteMoments platform, “Meet Cute” is designed to introduce non-employees to ByteDance colleagues. Employees are not permitted to post personal information about themselves or fellow ByteDance employees. ByteMoments boasts that the “Meet Cute” channel has generated more than 420 “moments” and over 11,500 “interactions.”
By and large, most of the users of “Meet Cute” appear to be TikTok and ByteDance employees based in China where several other tech companies, including Alibaba, Huawei, and Meituan, also provide matchmaking services or dating forums for their employees.
The difference is that Lark’s ByteMoments platform is used by ByteDance employees worldwide, including those based in the United States and elsewhere who sign onto Lark to do their jobs.
Three TikTok employees who spoke to Forbes said they feel like ByteDance’s decision to facilitate matchmaking encroaches on personal boundaries.
While most American tech companies also use some kind of internal social network, like Facebook’s Workplace, or external tools like Slack, these companies typically don’t offer features for romance on work-related platformers. This is likely due to concern that American workers may feel uncomfortable or sexually pressured in the workplace.
Professor Lik Sam Chan, who studies Chinese dating apps at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told Forbes that many Chinese companies, like those in the United States, prohibit romantic relationships between co-workers, which is likely why “Meet Cute” only permits ByteDance workers to post advertisements for family and friends.
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