
Introducing Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Your Local Community - jpdlla
http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/10/introducing-marketplace-buy-and-sell-with-your-local-community/
======
vlucas
Good for Facebook.

My wife has been buying and selling things on individual Facebook groups for
years before this official marketplace.

Selling on Facebook is hands down a vastly better experience than selling
things on Craigslist in every way - especially if you live in a market that is
too small for a designated Craigslist area.

Our real world experience:

1) Hyperlocal - Our city of 40k-50k is 40 miles from the nearest Craigslist
area (OKC). Facebook groups and now the marketplace ensures we don't have to
drive 30 minutes or more to meet someone. Most people buy things that are
either very close to them (i.e. already in the same city), or are more willing
to drive to where you are.

2) Related to (1) - Since it is more local (we usually meet at a Walgreens or
supermarket parking lot that is only a few blocks away), we can easily sell
more items that are lower in value (like kids clothing, etc.). This is
something that just isn't worth the hassle on Craigslist.

3) Way fewer scammers and spammers since you have to use your real name.

4) You know who you are meeting and what they look like (again - real name,
single account requirement).

5) Built-in messaging allows you an easier way to communicate meeting details
privately without having to give your phone number or email address.

6) You can easily block and report people who are problematic and they will
never see your posts or be able to buy your stuff or message you again.

In short, Facebook has allowed us to sell a lot of things on a much more
regular basis than Craigslist ever would, with much less hassle and
spam/scammers.

~~~
bluedino
_3) Way fewer scammers and spammers since you have to use your real name.

4) You know who you are meeting and what they look like (again - real name,
single account requirement).

5) Built-in messaging_

This also means someone can harrass the crap out of you for whatever reason
they want regarding the item.

~~~
vlucas
... which is why I also included (6), which you conveniently left off your
blockquote.

Ending harassment on Facebook is as easy as blocking them. Done.

~~~
pkamb
But they seem to show your full name and public Facebook picture, which opens
you up to all kinds of potential real-world harassment that doesn't exist on
the (if you're smart) fully anonymous Craigslist. Such as showing up to your
workplace to demand their money back, or finding your contact information via
a Google search.

------
cheeze
I'm happy they are introducing it, but IMO the execution has been quite poor.
Some random complaints as someone who uses it:

They added a tab to the facebook app that you can't remove. It's
inconveniently placed between two tabs that most people _do_ care about
(newsfeed and notifications). Furthermore, I randomly get a red number over
the marketplace, similar to the number shown for notifications. This is very
frustrating to me and it never seems to go away. I've mistaken this little
notification bubble for a legitimate notification multiple times, when it was
actually just a new post in the marketplace that I don't care about.

The 'newsfeed' of marketplace is littered with complete crap. 50+% of it is
fake shoes, fake purses, used womens clothing, and people looking to trade
their piece of garbage cars for another one (sorry, I don't want to trade for
your civic that is worth <1k)

Selling something was a pretty poor experience for me. I got a ton of messages
from people who had no interest in what I was selling, and instead spammed me
like crazy with stuff I didn't care about at all. For me this was more
excusable on a platform like craigslist because it is easy enough to filter
email, but there is no real way to filter FB messages. Now I have personal
messages and spammers mixed together.

Overall I'm happy to see this become a thing, but IMO execution has been poor.
Well, annoying at the least, but I assume that is their goal. Much better than
the terrible interface of the buy/sell groups, especially with how broken
Facebooks group search is (I often can't find posts that were posted within
the past month or so in a group. I'm searching correct terms, they just aren't
indexed.)

I am part of a bunch of secondary beer market groups (raffles and straight up
sales) on Facebook, and it's a pretty terrible platform, but it has the user
base :(

------
eknight15
Marketplace has been around since 2007, I'm surprised it's taken this long to
"introduce": [http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2008/12/facebook-chooses-
oodle-t...](http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2008/12/facebook-chooses-oodle-to-
power-its-marketplace-application/)

~~~
vlucas
The old marketplace sucked. The real buying/selling was happening on
individual Facebook groups.

Search Groups in the "Buy & Sell" category and you will see what I mean:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/?discover_category_id=477274...](https://www.facebook.com/groups/?discover_category_id=477274375817181)

------
gnicholas
I used to buy/sell on Craigslist a lot but now use NextDoor (neighborhood-
based, address-verified social network). I never had any safety issues with
CL, but ND definitely feels safer/friendlier. Most of the people I meet are
local housewives getting rid of stuff. There tends to be less haggling, and
because it's neighborhood/town based, you don't have to drive as far to meet
(huge plus). I think the reason that people behave better (e.g., don't
lowball) is because they know they'll see you in discussion forums on the
network, and it's not worth pissing someone off and getting a bad reputation.

I'll try out FB's new feature, but ND sets the bar pretty high.

~~~
tshannon
Yeah but what I don't like about next door is that by default you're sharing
your entire profile with your closest 16+ neighborhoods. That means your
actual verified address, what you're selling, and anything else you put on
nextdoor.

Why do these sites keep making privacy settings open to all by default?

~~~
gnicholas
That is the default, but you can also opt not to show your address, and to
hide all but your name from anyone outside your neighborhood. It's definitely
smart not to show the address — but even still it's wise to censor yourself
(don't say "seeking housesitter for 10/1 to 10/14) because people can just
google you and see where you live from public records. HN folks probably
realize this, but many people on ND do not...

Also note that you can post to just your neighborhood, or to yours and a few
close by. You don't have to share with all (and frequently, I don't).

------
pbnjay
I sold my old motorcycle in 2009 using FB Marketplace. Half the inquiries I
got were from scammers, even then... Have they improved anything in that
regard? I especially don't want people spamming my Facebook messages now that
they're more intrusive.

~~~
honkhonkpants
Almost all of the inquiries on Craigslist are scams no matter what you are
selling. I sold a motorcycle recently and the scams were plenty. I usually
just ignore every call, text, and email in the first half hour because they
are all from robots.

~~~
dawnerd
When I used craigslist before moving, I made sure contact was only made over
email. It's a lot easier to use a temp email that a temp phone number.

It's funny how many people would email this: "Interested, pls txt 555-5555"

I ended up switching to Close5 and had a lot more luck with that - even near
the end where I was just giving stuff away. For some reason people on
craigslist were still way too picky about free stuff, one guy even asking if I
would pay for it to be delivered.

With all of these services, I've found the biggest problem to be with people
not knowing how to read. If you say firm price and pick up only, they'll still
try to get you to deliver and go down in price.

~~~
honkhonkpants
I also see the opposite: I get texts asking me to email someone. If I email
them I get some variant of a 419 scam. With the motorcycle it was "I'm on a
secret mission in Afghanistan but I want to buy your motorcycle for my brother
who lives in Chicago."

------
toomanybeersies
I've had marketplace on my phone for the past few months. I guess New Zealand
was the test market for it.

Personally, I don't use it. Facebook provides no protection for either buyer
or seller, which is something that Ebay (or Trademe [0] in the case of NZ)
offer. I'm constantly seeing people on the local buy/sell/exchange groups
complaining about buying stolen phones, or people failing to send items, or
various other things.

It's not difficult to make a fake account. Although it does say how long the
person has been a Facebook member on the listings.

I just looked on my phone, and the first thing I see for sale is synthetic
marijuana. This doesn't bode well.

The user experience is pretty poor too. For a test, I wanted to see if I could
find a couch. The closest I could filter to was Furniture. I then searched for
Couch, which then removed the filter, so I added the filter back on. Instead
of seeing a bunch of couches, half the things for sale were tables and beds.

I'm not a fan of the image-only listings either. I'd prefer to see a title
with an image when searching. A price would be useful too. Instead I get a
bunch of crappy cellphone pictures of peoples old shit.

Then there's the issue for me that you aren't allowed to buy and sell firearms
through Facebook, despite the fact that it's perfectly legal in New Zealand,
and Trademe allows you to do it.

I can say that I will stick to using Trademe.

[0]: [http://www.trademe.co.nz/](http://www.trademe.co.nz/)

~~~
santiagogo
I also had it in Chile since a couple of months back and it worked very well
for me. Had an Android phone which I won at a raffle and managed to sell it in
2 days after I listed it at discounted price.

------
muse900
I don't know if its just me, judging by the ad's that facebook shows me 70% of
them are not legit. Fake clothes, fake watches, scam companies etc. How can I
trust a service that will be not regulated at all, I mean its a nice idea,
although I'd be very careful on what am looking in there. (At least ebay is a
bit more regulated I'd say)

~~~
cableshaft
I'm part of a local Facebook community for trading and selling board games.
You basically meet in a parking lot during the day and make the
trade/purchase, and it's pretty hard to fake the components/packaging of a
board game. Possible missing components is the biggest worry, since they're
not likely to wait around as you count each component.

Also a lot of these people can be vouched for since someone tends to have
dealt with each other at some point.

I've only made a couple of trades through it so far, but it seems to work
well.

~~~
sharemywin
I think they would do better by allowing groups to convert their group into a
marketplace and add marketplace features to groups.

~~~
lmm
I think they've done that. Certainly I've started seeing a buy/sell tab in
some groups.

------
ade2
I think a lot of the success from facebook buy/sell groups is that the items
will actually show up in people's newsfeeds once they have joined a
regional/topic group for trading. This probably raises awareness of second
hand items available in general. If the marketplace is going to be a separate
part of facebook, It might not be as engaging.

~~~
aembleton
I'm sure they'll add it to the newsfeed.

------
deedubaya
I live in a geographically isolated area which is small enough to not get it's
own Criagslist area, but big enough that there is a lot of 2nd hand selling
and buying. This almost exclusively happens through a FB group. It seems like
this is a good natural move for FB.

~~~
go_go_
Purely personal experience, but I find individual buying and selling happens
more (or is at least more important) in smaller communities.

------
eatbitseveryday
More services means more data for them to exploit. Weak on privacy guarantees
= whatever services they offer are heavily mined for your data.

When it comes to sales, craigslist is useful because it allows you to remain
anonymous. With FB, I seem to be exposing exactly who I am, where I live, what
I have for sale. In places with high crime rates, this opens me up to becoming
a victim, as perps can search this information, see my name (maybe search
online for more details), etc. Craigslist has even worked with police
departments to set up safe areas[0] for people to exchange items. Will FB
prioritize these important aspects?

I just recently saw an advertisement for their rural internet initiative,
launching 3kW large-wingspan aircraft over remote areas to transmit network
signals[1]. On the surface it is a useful goal - to connect more people - but
ultimately, FB wants to increase its membership, and enrich its supply of data
collected by people. Do we really prioritize having people send likes on FB
from their shantytowns[2] instead of helping them improve their own villages
-- food, sanity[3], customs, etc.?

From [2]:

> Mr. Kohli, 17, said he spends about four hours a day on the Internet and
> uses an Express Wi-Fi plan to supplement his Airtel data plan.

> Facebook has no desire to enter directly into the Internet service business.

> An important cog in the system is the merchant in each village that sells
> the service. Facebook and AirJaldi decided that there should be just one
> authorized seller per village to give that person a strong incentive to sell
> as many subscriptions as possible.

[0] [http://www.npr.org/2015/03/27/395586863/police-
departments-o...](http://www.npr.org/2015/03/27/395586863/police-departments-
open-up-safe-lots-for-craigslist-transactions)

[1]
[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-31/facebook-t...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-31/facebook-
to-start-africa-satellite-this-week-to-find-rural-users)

[2] [http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/facebook-strives-
to...](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/facebook-strives-to-bring-
cheap-wi-fi-to-rural-india-2/)

[3]
[http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_madiath_better_toilets_better_l...](http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_madiath_better_toilets_better_life)

~~~
softawre
If you are a seller of something, there is some upside to knowing who the
buyer is. Seems less likely you'll just get held up at gunpoint if you have a
link to their FB profile you could hand the police.

~~~
eatbitseveryday
> link to their FB profile you could hand the police

Is this useful to police, when profiles can be forged?

Personally, when I sell something I don't want people to learn who I am. I'd
rather just sell it and remain anonymous. There is more concern about the
legality of a good from the buyer's perspective, not the seller.

~~~
runeb
Then you'll simply use Craigslist or a different platform for those items.
There are tons more selling scenarios in my view where the non-anonymity is a
comfort, not a hinderance.

------
subpixel
Semi-related: just last night I learned from a waitress that there is a
thriving underground food marketplace on Facebook. Basically, if you live in a
city with a large ethnic population, and you search in native languages, you
can find housewives and hustlers selling lots of delicious looking things,
sometimes offering delivery.

I wonder what effect the marketplace will have on black market biryani.

~~~
ismail
What city are you in?

------
ideonexus
I was debating with a friend recently whether offerup.com or letgo.com would
win this snap-and-post marketplace battle. I guess fb just rendered that
discussion obsolete.

~~~
matthuggins
Why do you think it's obsolete?

~~~
ideonexus
I just can't see either of these sites remaining relevant when fb takes over
the market. I use both offerup and letgo, and each one works well in some
geographies but not others. For example, lots of people post things to offerup
in the DC area, but not to letgo. At the same time, I find lots of stuff on
letgo in the Pennsylvania area. FB is going to use their network to overtake
all geographies.

------
ideonexus
Possibly a stupid question, but is there a way to access this without
installing the app? I can't find any way to access it through a browser.

~~~
Chirael
Not a stupid question at all. I refuse to install the app on my phone for both
privacy and productivity (distraction) reasons.

~~~
newscracker
I use Facebook from the browser on a computer for better privacy (block ads,
tracking cookies) and for a much better experience. There are many things that
any browser enables by virtue of just being a browser that the app does not
support (just two examples for now - copying a permalink to a post or comment
in order to refer to it elsewhere, and Find in Page to look for specific text
on the page). Additionally, the what Facebook displays and how it displays
things vary a lot when comparing a desktop browser interface and the app.

------
scrumper
Neztdoor is just starting to try to monetize their network now. Would not be
hugely surprised if Facebook ended up buying it.

~~~
dfsegoat
Nextdoor right (sic)? That is a pretty astute observation... I could totally
see that happening considering how Nextdoor users have their physical
addresses verified, etc.

~~~
webwanderings
I would hate for Facebook to buy Nextdoor out. But I think Facebook knows how
deep the Nextdoor has gotten itself into their market.

------
bjacobel
Facebook's come under a lot of heat for refusing to moderate the buying and
selling of firearms in Groups, often in violation of local laws[1]. Hopefully
their moderation standards will be higher on Marketplace.

[1]: [https://medium.com/@monteiro/this-article-first-appeared-
in-...](https://medium.com/@monteiro/this-article-first-appeared-in-boing-
boing-86c8e7b17e62#.s8hs0xkdr)

~~~
Washuu
That is a terrible article with lots of emotional writing and nothing cited to
support their claims. Selling firearms locally that does not cross state
borders or to prohibited individuals is generally legal.

~~~
tomschlick
Yup, so long as you are following the local/state laws there is nothing wrong
with using Facebook (IMO) to facilitate the meet up. No different than placing
an ad in the newspaper to sell a gun and meeting the buyer somewhere.

------
PostOnce
I wonder how long until they start charging a commission, or a listing fee, or
whatever.

------
1474295912
I am co-moderator of a Donate your unused stuff group on FB. The amount of
spam users get is unbelievable, and we've to weed out responses like every few
hours. But the most disturbing fact is the harassment the women get on the
group. As soon as some woman posts something, she's almost guaranteed to get
nasty messages with disturbing content. And these are from verified users
who've active FB profiles.

Unless FB weeds out the spammers and the harassing, this is just another way
to make quick bucks for FB.

------
tyfon
I wonder how they will compete with local sites. In Sweden most people I know
use blocket.se and in Norway they use finn.no and I guess most
countries/locales have their own sites like this.

------
alpb
Off-topic: Am I the only one to notice newsroom.fb.com uses WordPress?

------
erikb
Now they finally have some kind of business model! Congrats FB!

------
edpichler
The challenge here, for Facebook team, is to make this tool great at the same
time it does not disturb users. I wouldn't like too see photos of old stuff
being sell on my timeline.

Usually, when a software evolve trying to do everything, at the end it does do
nothing well. Let's see what'll happen here.

~~~
edpichler
I would like to understand the down votes, did I say something wrong?

------
pmontra
Somewhat reminiscent of this Line / Instagram combo
[https://www.techinasia.com/line-instagram-ecommerce-
thailand](https://www.techinasia.com/line-instagram-ecommerce-thailand) all
together in a single app.

------
franze
so basically a shpock (SHop in your POCKet)
[http://www.shpock.com](http://www.shpock.com) clone - around since 2012,
hugely successful in german speaking markets (10M+ Downloads).

looks pretty much the same, fb is blue-ish, shpock green-ish. Comparison pic:
[https://scontent-
vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/14524544_101547...](https://scontent-
vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/14524544_10154740306447867_3976155801283276031_o.jpg)

~~~
iplaw
So basically a * clone, where * is any prior app/service/website that
facilitates the sale of items with pictures?

~~~
franze
and the same functionality and user flow

------
ddorian43
Everything that keeps ~public information after a login-form MUST die!

~~~
Kiro
How is this public information?

~~~
ddorian43
By "~public" I mean stuff that isn't hidden selectively (like you need to be
friends to read the feed). So they're just hidden behind a simple-login so
facebook has all the data and you can't use a search-engine to search all
sites. And everything on facebook is behind a login.

~~~
Kiro
If I post something on FB Marketplace I don't want it to be searchable outside
of FB.

------
dgudkov
That's where ads would become way more relevant.

------
jprince
...and there goes OfferUp. My wife loves that app.

------
hcrisp
How does it compare to Varage Sale?

[https://www.varagesale.com/](https://www.varagesale.com/)

~~~
3pt14159
I don't know why you're downvoted - this is a direct competitor to Varagesale,
and it will probably half their odds of success.

------
ch4s3
Didn't they try this a few years ago?

------
M_Grey
I can't Imagine a platform I'd trust less than anything related to facebook.

~~~
M_Grey
I've counted at least a dozen votes on this comment, from serious negative
numbers, to positive, to zero and back to negative. I'm not bothered by that.
What puzzles me though... is that for all of that sentiment apparently no one
had anything to actually say in reply.

Bizarre.

------
devsatish
Facebook has Marketplace concept since many years.. But this feature looks
like competition for apps like Close5 and LetGo. Which have been very popular
recently.

------
maxaf
How's this better than Craigslist?

~~~
pkamb
It's been touched in the last decade.

~~~
rubidium
that really doesn't answer the question

------
Nursie
Erm... Gumtree?

It sounds a lot like that, only tied to facebook, which makes it worse.

------
fiatjaf
Stop using Facebook now or you'll regret later.

~~~
M_Grey
I think plenty of people are figuring out that there's reason to regret using
it now, never mind later.

------
tdkl
Another case of "showing every shit available in an closed walled app" copying
the Chinese social apps formula.

I can understand why Chinese apps did what they did, because of the isolation
from the international services and being more accessible via mobile devices
to the majority. But Facebook is an attack on the Internet.

#fuckfacebook

------
justinzollars
Looks cool!

------
wut42
Sounds like Munity is launching SwapMeet! cool!

------
sharemywin
this is kind of like "letgo". but if they don't commit to it, it will go know
where.

