Facebook launched its very own peer-to-peer selling platform in October last year. Marketplace, as it is known, is already being called a “Craigslist-Killer”. Whether it will kill Craigslist or not is yet to be seen, but what is clear is that Facebook is not leaving any stone unturned to make Marketplace a hit. With the basics already in place, Facebook is now looking to expand to more countries and also add more categories to its existing offering.
Deb Liu, the in-charge of Marketplace at Facebook, has said that the plan is to not only expand the size, but also the scope of Marketplace. It is quite evident too. When Marketplace first started, it was a marketplace where people could post the items they want to sell, while buyers could find sellers in their local area and buy the items they need. You could browse by categories like household items, electronics, furniture, and so on. You could then contact the seller. Negotiating and coordinating is then up to both the parties. There was no payment portal. So, the transactions had to be executed outside the Marketplace. Not only this, the Marketplace was only available to users based in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. In short, there were a lot of opportunities for Facebook to improve upon its Marketplace design.
Over the months, Facebook has introduced many new categories. These include Jobs, Daily Deals, Tickets, Shops, and so on. There will be more and more filters for each of the categories too. For its US base, Marketplace recently experimented by pulling deals from eBay. Though the company was only testing waters, Facebook looks keen on forging more strategic collaborations with personal listing aggregators. The information about products sold by businesses will be directly pulled from their pages.
Both offline and online deals can be made on the Marketplace now. But, all the e-commerce transactions are made via Facebook only.
How will Facebook monetize from this venture has not been publicly discussed yet. It has started with ads on Marketplace. But, it is only a matter of time before the big revenue sources of listing fee and transaction fee might also be introduced. However, these cards are not on the table yet. Facebook is still working on making the users comfortable with its new platform and make them happy to trade there.
According to Deb Liu, Facebook is taking more of an organic approach in expanding its Marketplace. Changes are being implemented based on user feedback – their likes, dislikes, and their suggestions.
Facebook is a master of user engagement. People are addicted to the social network. With Marketplace, it is giving its users one more reason to not go out of its platform. It is creating another opportunity for its users to engage with it. If Facebook gets the formula right, Marketplace will explode the personal selling space.
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