Facebook Marketplace has been launched, which enables you to purchase and sell items locally. According to industry analysts, the new marketplace launched by the social media giant has seen a move to compete with rivals such as eBay, Gumtree, and Craigslist. Interestingly, the shares of Facebook traded high on Monday with its rival eBay fell down marginally by 1 percent.
Announcing the launch of the Facebook marketplace, the company disclosed that the new feature will mark its debut in the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The company is also gearing up to launch a new smartphone app which will be made available in the upcoming days including a desktop based portal for the management of marketplace.
Facebook Marketplace to compete with established rivals
With the launch of the Facebook marketplace, the company is gearing up to target directly with the currently established popular online platforms for selling purposes. Meanwhile, the community is already performing buying and selling activities via Facebook groups.
Commenting on the launch, Mary Ku, director of product management revealed that in recent years there is a huge trend of people making use of Facebook to establish connectivity with each other. Hence, the launch of a comprehensive and secured marketplace is essential to enable the community to grow at a rapid pace.
Ku disclosed that this activity was initially started in Facebook groups and has grown substantially. As of writing this, more than 450 million people regularly visit buy and sell groups across various platforms each month.
In the meantime, Facebook will not have any direct involvement in the overall payment process. The company will not charge traders for populating the marketplace with items for sale at the moment.
Working of Facebook Marketplace
You need to tap on the shop icon located at the bottom of the Facebook app to navigate the new Facebook marketplace.
You will view the list of items listed for sale. You can search at the top and filter your results by location, category or price. It is also possible to navigate according to various categories such as Household, Electronics, and Apparel. For effective search, you can make use of the built-in location tool to adjust the region you are looking in or switch to a different city altogether.
You will be able to know the complete details of the ad if you tap on the image to view details published by the seller. This includes a product description, the name and profile photo of the seller including general location. It is also possible to save items for future purpose.
You can also send direct messages to the seller to ask questions and more information about the product listed by the specific seller.
In 2007, Facebook had launched a desktop-based classifieds marketplace. Hence, this is not the first time the company is expanding into the marketplace model.
