Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Introducing Facebook Shops

about.fb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 286 posts

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#231

Post by ryanwaggoner »

amelius wrote: post #191
alexmingoia wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s dystopian about it, exactly? People buying and selling online seems pretty awesome and desirable to me. Small business owners able to sell and build brands without real estate overhead, and reach customers across the entire country/world without the expense of mass marketing is wonderful in my opinion.

It sounds nice but it won't be long until FB starts charging these small businesses a large percentage per transaction.

But we already have a company gobbling up all the e-commerce demand out there and charging small businesses large fees: Amazon. Having more platforms where businesses can be found by customers is a good thing, and will provide downward pressure on fees.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#232

Post by bovermyer »

PhilipA wrote: post #223
bovermyer wrote: post #69

If Facebook Shops allows you to sell digital products like PDFs, then it very much has my attention.

What products are there currently for doing this beside Gumroad?

DriveThruRPG and its sister sites are the ones that stand out to me. But I operate in the tabletop RPG industry, which is fairly niche.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#235

Post by bitL »

Some time ago I was thinking what would it take to bring down Facebook and one of the ideas was for social platform to allow direct sales for hobbyists/small shops. They managed to patch this vulnerability now.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#236

Post by Etheryte »

oblio wrote: post #198
phreack wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always thought about what it would take for Whatsapp to lose their place as the dominant chat app and you finally nailed it. If I ever start getting ads or requests for reviews or anything remotely related to someone selling something to me, as a personal message because of automated Facebook tools, I'd get myself and everyone I know off the platform in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, for information r…

> I have always thought about what it would take for Whatsapp to lose their place as the dominant chat app and you finally nailed it. Unfortunately, that's not how these things work. I don't know of any mainstream platform that died because of ads. You have to keep in mind the fact that the average person on this site has a total different attitude to technology and its warts than most other people.

Personally I would argue that regular TV has largely died both because better alternatives have come along but also because of ads. Last time I tried watching a movie on the telly, there were nearly more ads than actual content. That alone may not have been the reason for younger generations migrating away from it, but I'm sure it played a big part.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#237

Post by sbarre »

buboard wrote: post #192
mrkramer wrote: post #98

Crucial information from Shopify: "Merchants will get control over customization and merchandising for their storefronts inside Facebook and Instagram, while managing their products, inventory, orders, and fulfillment directly from within Shopify." "Consumers will be able to easily find, browse, and buy products through a purpose-built, immersive experience in these apps they use every day. Checkout will be powered b…

FB should be merciful and buy shopify before murdering them

I think there's a place for FB Shops, mostly with "small-small" businesses, think "kiosks in the middle of the mall" or "plastic two-colour sign stapled to electrical poles" type of small, but any reasonable business that cares about it's brand and wants to maintain control over itself would still likely be attracted to a more flexible and powerful platform like Shopify..

You give up a lot of control when you use FB, they control branding, UI, UX, etc.. if you don't care about those things and you just want to sell stuff, that's probably fine..

I say this of course without knowing what the future holds for FB Shops..

Facebook is basically already the shopping mall food court and bus stop, they're just adding the stores now I guess..

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#238

Post by einpoklum »

Kiro wrote: post #203
einpoklum wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the frightening things is when you notice that, as society becomes more dystopian (e.g. more totalitarian, more extremely unequal in the division of wealth etc.), there doesn't develop the strong awareness that it _is_ dystopian. It that the sense of what's normal and acceptable degrades. At best you get this weak sense of a general malaise.

So either people are clueless sheep that don't know better or they simply don't care. The first seems pretty patronizing to me and the latter means we are in minority with our definition of dystopia.

I think neither is true. It's just that people adjust and much of their - our - norms and expectations are socially constructed. And it's difficult to imagine a society conducting itself differently when you haven't lived in it.

Re: Introducing Facebook Shops

#239

Post by einpoklum »

jedberg wrote: post #160
einpoklum wrote: post #129

I just wish we could read on HN tomorrow: "Introducing Antitrust action against Facebook (justice.gov)"

That's not likely to happen under this President unless MZ says something nasty about him. Otherwise you'll probably have to wait until the next admin at least.

This is likely to happen neither under a Biden administration nor under a Trump one.
Post reply on HN