Facebook can become a marketplace for buying and selling goods a la Quikr and Olx. It must be quickly clarified that this ‘Marketplace’ feature on Facebook is already available in some 25 countries across the world. Including the US, the UK, many countries in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and even in Thailand, in Asia. The social media website has just started a trial run of this feature in Mumbai from November 16 and once Facebook is satisfied that it is working perfectly well, it will be spread pan-India.
The idea behind Facebook’s Marketplace is to leverage on creating a more involved community that it already is. The Facebook page will have a tab for this separately and once you click on it, you will be taken to the page where products on sale would be displayed. There will be a geographical limitation in terms of the radius within which the listings will be included on your device’s Facebook page.
There will be no fee associated with this feature either for the buyers or sellers and Facebook expects largely second-hand goods. The actual transaction will also happen offline. If you are keen to sell something you have replaced with a new one, you just have to post it with an image and a brief description. Those desirous of buying it will get in touch with you and you can take it over from there.
Though there will be no restrictions on what type of products can be sold through this channel, there will be the machine learning technology in use to ensure no banned substance like guns or drugs are offered for sale through this platform.
It is still early days and it is not sure how successful Facebook is in developing this Marketplace, particularly when viewed in the context of dedicated and well entrenched online sellers like Quikr and Olx in India.