Facebook wants to make it easier for its users to buy and sell items through the social network, so starting today, it’s introducing Marketplace. The new feature is designed to be similar to Craigslist, or other online second hand stores.
Already over 450 million people are buying and selling items through Facebook Groups, so the company just wants to make it even easier and faster for users to trade or exchange items. Through Marketplace, which originally showed up back in 2007, a user can see what other people are selling near them, or search for a specific item. Once found, a user can make an offer and message the seller; but that’s about as far as Facebook is willing to get involved, because the actual exchange and payment needs to be handled by the buyer and seller, not by the social network.
Selling is just as easy as buying, according to the company’s post. All a user needs to do is take a picture of the item for sale, add a few details, confirm the location and select the category where it should be listed.
Crucially, Facebook says that companies will not be able to advertise through Marketplace and that users’ activity will not be tracked for targeted ads. That’s a welcome reprieve from the company that makes most of its revenue by selling user data.
Facebook Marketplace is currently available through the regular Facebook app on iOS and Android in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. While other territories will be included in the future, only those over 18 may use the feature.
Source: Facebook
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