31–40 of 67 posts
I thought FB marketplace had peaked already, especially for furniture. 18 months ago you could find stuff on there fairly easily, now it's full of "must go" or "Free" items that are "message me for pricelist" when you click through. It ends up being a real slog to find anything.
Genuine q, what makes FB marketplace good, and how did it blow up over Ebay / Craigslist? Is it a combination of having the platform with the most people as well as being the most likely platform to have people who are situated near you?
In some countries, eBay or craigslist was never a thing. In NZ we have our local version of eBay but the success fees have gotten so ridiculously high that FB marketplace is slowly becoming the only option.
They have cornered the market in auto and housing (including rentals) but are losing out on general goods. I know a lot of people who don’t even bother looking at TradeMe anymore to buy, let alone sell.
I can’t remember when I last logged into my TradeMe account.
I have accepted that i'm one of those now left behind. Books & internet forums is where I will catch up. even if I miss out, am I really missing out.
I thought FB marketplace had peaked already, especially for furniture. 18 months ago you could find stuff on there fairly easily, now it's full of "must go" or "Free" items that are "message me for pricelist" when you click through. It ends up being a real slog to find anything.
> Facebook’s influence remains strong globally, but younger users are logging in less.
Not here in south east Asia where FB remains dominant. Indeed having any kind of social life without a FB account would be difficult.
My FB account exists almost solely for marketplace, which has almost total market dominance for local classifieds where I live in Australia. Recently they’ve stopped letting you send messages to sellers via the website on your phone and insist that you use the app instead. It’s probably one of the few hooks they have left to try and get people on to the platform.
I don't use it but my wife has sold loads of stuff that we no longer need. In that sense it's fantastic, it's made local selling very easy, but I really wish it was almost anyone but FB.
Genuine q, what makes FB marketplace good, and how did it blow up over Ebay / Craigslist? Is it a combination of having the platform with the most people as well as being the most likely platform to have people who are situated near you?
My wife sells a lot of our old stuff on marketplace. It's quick and simple to do, and there is a huge market. It's all small stuff that no one will pay shipping for, but if you are local and can pop round it's absolutely fine. Things like kids toys, books, mostly low value stuff. We've got rid of knackered old furniture for free on there because it meant someone else would take it away.
It has the advantage of market size. A lot of people are still on FB for things other than marketplace, so it's an obvious place to look when you want to buy something second hand. It's also easy to share your listings on FB.
My FB account exists almost solely for marketplace, which has almost total market dominance for local classifieds where I live in Australia. Recently they’ve stopped letting you send messages to sellers via the website on your phone and insist that you use the app instead. It’s probably one of the few hooks they have left to try and get people on to the platform.
Early on, I suspect that Craigslist attracted a lot of sketchiness with all the free stuff, anonymous sexual hookups personals ads, and prostitution.
I wonder whether they could've survived as just a non-sketchy classified ads place for household items and roommates/apartments. Which, at the time (at least in Boston) managed to coexist with the sketchy side of the site.
Lately, selling household items and computer gear onto Craigslist seems to come down to the rare random event that anyone is looking at it.
I live in the city, within walking distance of multiple universities, but, if an item is worth shipping, it'll now sell on eBay, but sit unsold for months on Craigslist.
I also now put on the curb things that in the past I would've been able to sell easily on Craigslist.
I suspect that the local used item sales have moved to Facebook Marketplace, plus students just buying new things delivered from an app (Amazon? Target?), when in the past they would've shopped new more.
I've managed to be free of Facebook all these years, and I don't want to start now.