Facebook is to offer a free classified ad listings service as an add-on to its popular social networking destination, according to the NY Times.
The report states that the new service, Facebook Marketplace, is aimed at giving users another reason to visit the site as opposed to being a new income stream.
Facebook Marketplace combines the privacy features of Facebook to allow private listings. Users can choose to show listings only to their designated friends or to their broader networks based on high school, college, company or geographic region.
It’s a logical add-on for Facebook. MySpace has offered classified services since inception and Friendster recently announced their intention to launch a similar service. The closed network structure of Facebook creates a higher level of trust amongst users than MySpace, with its more wild west approach of open friend lists. Giving Facebook users the ability to sell only to their closed networks also provides a security layer that you don’t get with services such as Craiglist.
The new service goes live Friday. Classified listings will be grouped in four categories: housing; jobs; for sale and other.
Previous TechCrunch coverage of Facebook here.
One word: finally!
Let’s see if this can make craigslist feel any pinch. MySpace classifieds is pretty much shitty. Obviously facebook is much more serious about it than MySpace ever was. I’ve high hopes for it.
strange…in all my internet days i have never heard anybody mention anything about myspace classifieds.
but speaking of craigslist, i am lovin http://www.listpic.com, nice and quick for finding the good stuff.
There are about 15 companies currently pitching the University of Washington for ‘college only’ classifieds to sell textbooks, find houses etc. etc. Over 30,000 UW students use facebook.
Interesting to see how these niche startups react…probable reaction:
“Oh Crap.”
I see Facebook classified sellers not getting top dollar for one blaring reason: You always give friends “friendly” deals.
An instant hit - they should have done this a long time ago
Another classified site just breaks up the mass needed to make it valuable to the buyer…defrag it already.
Well, I have to say ‘oh crap!’ Chegg.com has been around for a little while doing college classifieds. The only thing we can say at this point is that friends don’t want friends to know what they’re selling. Main reason being that friends ask for it for free or a great deal. Classifieds on myspace didn’t work either so it will be interesting to see if facebook users care about it.
A great idea! With the pre-validated user base on Facebook, a huge chunck of identity fraud is already eliminated. Facebook is worth a fortune not because of the services that it provides, but because of us — the college students who uses it endlessly.
Good thoughts Osman, I wouldn’t want all my friends to find out I’m selling my Madonna collection or whatever, but I guess for things like housing and etc, it helps to have some what of a pre-qualified profile to deal with. Would love to hear more about Chegg.
College students are cash strapped so buying and selling with cash will never catch on.
But switching for free…that makes a lot of sense.
Switch a textbook for some new cds or switch some dvds for next semesters textbook. All for free so enough adoption on a single campus and stuff is delivered by hand skipping the only cost, postage.
Now that would be a sweet addition to Facebook!
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Michael - Does anybody have word on how this relates to the Oodle deal? Is this a separate offering?
@ Jay - please feel free to drop me an email at osman [at] chegg.com and we can connect.
facebook losing focus….no one can beat craigslist ..period
This is a good move by Facebook - better late that never. But for it to work I think you need a lot of friends in your network. Also it gives one a chance to give away things for free to friends.
Why would I list anything on f’book when edgeio.com gives me better access to a larger base of potential buyers who are more willing (or better able) to pay mkt?
My view: f’book should partner with edgeio and cut to the chase….
Well this will certainly put an end to collegemedium.com which was a crappy site to begin with.
- yeah Maybe Edgeio should have pitched at them! lol
- but for real; This might work, or might be like myspace. ..
I don’t think anyone cares at this point whether this is going to work or not, not even facebook. Its just the process of fattening up the cow for the ultimate kill/ultimate sale. They might get a few 100,000 items in the start and make some search revenue and other associated revenue but in the end, its not their core.
Facebook is getting in the myspace arena. You will find tons of naked women on there now since they have opened up and I am not sure if that is a good thing. Soon you will be getting messages everyday from users asking to be added like I get a dozen messages on myspace. If they are doing this because other social networks have it, I am really disappointed. They need to be paying attention to their core and not worry about a marketplace. I guess its time for a downtrend now as I feel this will hurt their valuation more in the long run than the short run.
I’m convinced the trend in this space if FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS - the fact that Facebook focuses not just on specific user segments, but on specific geographic locations, privacy, etc., they’ll eventually become more valuable than any social media property on the web today.
Will there be an update to this post stating the the backend that Facebook will be using for the board is powered by edgeio ?
There are a bunch of smaller Verticlans (http://www.verticlans.com) sites set up on my campus. I know a few dorms that have some, some sports teams, and smaller departments. Same idea, but not limited to one pre-exisitng real-world network.
We saw this coming, and planned accordingly — No worries… =)
Emmanuel
CollegeMedium.com
We understand that Emmanuel. I am glad you have planned to shut down the business even before the threat (facebook) came out. Looking at the site, that was always the best option =)
“…no one can beat craigslist ..period”
Isn’t the goal of Craigslist to provide a service with social resposibility in mind?
i.e., Craigslist is not competing. They do claim to be communists after all.
Although there are too many classified sites these days I think they probably success because of it’s closed network nature.
Lizi
http://www.copendablog.com
To Brad: I find it funny that people like you can sit back and disparage other people who take risks and develop something tangible. I ask you Brad, what contributions have you made to the web other than polluting it with ridiculous blog responses?
Btw, here are some opinions about collegemedium posted right here in the techcrunch forum.
http://forums.techcrunch.com/f.....…
Hmmm…so this is going to work (bringing you absolute top dollar) because of the huge exposure you’re sure to get…from allowing the monster-sized market of 3-50 of your “friends” to know about whatever it is you’re selling…as opposed to sites–and yes; newspapers, too; with many 1,000’s of people will see your ad…hmmm…
George and Emmanuel: I am just offering feedback on your site and if that is polluting the blogosphere then so be it. I have offered that feedback before to you guys but nothing was done. The site if off all alexa, compete rankings. Seems like the users are jumping ship!!
Have any of you guys seen http://www.uber.com. It’s a combination of MySpace/FaceBook, Flickr, and YouTube. Pretty interesting…
To Steve M.:
Most people will probably sell the biggest seller - textbooks and other common college supplies to their broader overall college and geographical network not to their 3-50 friends
My college network has 47000 people respectively - enough people to sell to id think
If this pans out for Facebook, so much for Walamu (http://www.walamu.com). We are really hoping to get the traction we need next school year. However, since we are still only open to one college, we feel that we could still keep it focused there and accommodate to needs of those college students that Facebook might not necessarily be able to do. To be honest, we’ve actually tried to stay out of the limelight and off TC this entire time because we didn’t want to be another company that gets their five minutes of fame and then disappears. Organic growth is what we’ve been after. However, we’re not done yet.
Nonetheless, we’ll see how this pans out. If anything, we’ve certainly learned a lot. Everyone knows the college classifieds space isn’t some brilliant original idea…however, it’s certainly a space that hasn’t been dominated (up until Facebook classifieds). It’s been interesting to see the various strategies that have taken place by various companies (Chegg and CollegeMedium included) to win this space though.
Emmanuel;
Seriously - with Facebook entering the market, what reasonable chance do you have to compete? What can you do to get kids to leave facebook and use your site?
Although I have yet to find a free site that matches craigslist in size and market penetration, Facebook could have something to give Craig Newmark some heartburn. Then again, as mentioned, Newmark probably doesn’t even care.
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