If you haven’t already heard, Facebook has just reintroduced Marketplace to their platform. What is Marketplace? Think of it as the Craigslist or OLX of Facebook, but it’s also much more than that.
As the name suggests, the Marketplace is a place where you can buy and sell items, services, etc., just like a classifieds page. People can tag their listings, Facebook’s algorithms will intelligently rank them and buyers can view a filtered feed based on their location and preferences.
Selling things is also very easy, you simply take a photo of whatever it is you’re selling, add a description and price and you’re good to go. Buyers can ask you questions, bid on the items for sale and so on, all from within the Facebook app.
At this stage, I think it goes without saying that Facebook will use whatever information they collect to build a further improved version of your profile on their database and sell that information to advertisers.
While I am, at some level, strongly opposed to this free flow of personal information, I have to admit that I find the argument for Facebook’s Marketplace to be rather compelling. I’ve used OLX and Quikr in the past, and eBay before that and the experience on those sites was a bit nerve-wracking at times.
Classifieds like OLX and Quikr are great, but I’m wary of selling or buying anything on those sites without actually meeting the seller and seeing the product for myself. I’ve never dared to have anything shipped from somewhere else because there’s no guarantee that it’ll end up reaching me. The same goes for selling something on those sites.
eBay has more security of course. The eBay guarantee program and the like make for a more secure shopping experience, but again, selling to someone without any feedback and vice versa does bring in an element of doubt.
I’m not saying that Facebook doesn’t have fake accounts and the like, but a community-fed-and-vetted classifieds experience seems far safer than current options. Trust is a major factor in any transaction, but when you see someone with 200 friends trying to sell something, I expect one would be more amenable to the transaction.
The smartest thing that Facebook is doing here is integrating it into the app as a tab. Why wouldn’t you just tap on it from time to time when you’re sick of staring at your Newsfeed? I expect that Marketplace deals will also soon start popping up in your Newsfeed.
There are downsides to Marketplace, however. The major one is that just like other classifieds, you’re on your own on this. Facebook will not take responsibility for a seller or buyer’s actions on the platform, nor will it offer you a secure payment option.
Facebook’s Marketplace does sound like a great idea, on paper anyway. I, for one, hope that it turns out exactly as expected.
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