Facebook Marketplace

Facebook is unveiling the Facebook Marketplace according to various news outlets. The service went live on Friday according to them, but I see no mention of it when logged into Facebook. The Facebook help area does have a whole section on Marketplace, but none of the links to the marketplace work. This could really be a great service that would help people, and it would eliminate the need for Nexus Trade. So we’ll see what happens and I’ll have to decide how to proceed.

And to Donna Bogatin of ZDNet: you are wrong to think that Facebook is attacking Craigslist’s market. Facebook would be seeking to serve a niche that is currently going unserved, that being the college market. College students already use Facebook every day so they would be able to easily list their items for sale with a simple system. Sure there have been Facebook groups seeking to enable people to list items, but they were messy and unscalable. A Facebook Marketplace serves the Facebook users and will enrich the experience because it won’t take much effort for people already using the site to list their items for sale. I applaud Facebook, even if it does render Nexus Trade moot.

Check out Drew Meyers nice hands-on look at Facebook Marketplace. When I am able to use it I will check it out and write up something more detailed about it.

Sources: MSNBC, New York Times, Drew Meyers, Donna Bogatin’s ZDNet opinion piece