Facebook Is Muscling In On eBay And Gumtree With Its New ‘Marketplace’ Feature
People are already trying to sell guns, buildings and dogs.
Facebook’s informal ‘buy and sell’ groups can be a convenient way to get your hands on second hand goods, but they’re often governed by confusing and nonsensical rules (looking at you ‘Gorman Clothing Fans buy and sell group’). To simplify the process of buying and selling things online, Facebook has announced a new feature called ‘Marketplace’.
The goal of Marketplace is to streamline the buying and selling process for the nearly half a billion Facebook users who visit buy and sell groups every month. All you have to do is tap a shop icon in the Facebook app and you’ll get a list of items for sale near you, along with descriptions and prices. You can also search by location, price and category.
Want to buy a lounge room, bicycle, bizarre looking coffee machine or two and a half teddy bears? Marketplace is for you!
If you want to buy something the app will facilitate direct communication between you and the seller. There are no payment mechanisms on the platform so you’ll have to work out those details yourself.
Selling an item is as easy as taking a photo, setting a price, adding a description and uploading it. In fact it’s so easy, people are already using it to sell guns, dogs and houses.
Hey @facebook, #Marketplace is off to a good start. Dogs. Guns. Sweet. pic.twitter.com/NoEpePuV96
— Josh Chace (@JOSHinHD) October 3, 2016
Marketplace is pretty clearly being pitched as a competitor to sites like eBay and Gumtree that facilitate buying and selling, but don’t have the power of a massive social network, including location data, behind them. If Facebook manages to integrate a payment structure into its app, it could end up being one of the most popular ways of buying stuff on the internet.
The new feature is rolling out across the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia over the next few days.