Here’s a rumor that won’t go away – Facebook has been quietly searching for a partner to take over their year and a half old classified listings application, and may relaunch as early as the end of December.
According to our sources, Facebook distributed a request-for-proposal to a number of classified sites earlier this year (the same model they are using for Facebook Music).
The obvious partner is Oodle, which began powering Walmart Classifieds earlier this year. We’ve heard thin reports that they in fact have won the contract.
Whoever powers Facebook Classifieds (or Facebook Marketplace, as they call it) has a big hill to climb. Competing with Ebay (and their Kijiji) and Craigslist isn’t trivial. The original thought was that social networks were great for classifieds because you the buyers and sellers know each other. But Facebook’s current classifieds system shows anemic listings. The Silicon Valley network, for example, had a total of ten new listings added yesterday. San Francisco had twenty. New York City – zero. And for those who’ve forgotten, Microsoft launched their own classifieds site based on MSN friends and private networks (like businesses), and it went nowhere.
Part of the problem is the limited functionality of the existing classifieds system, which allows a short listing, a picture and communication via Facebook’s messaging system. Better software may mean more listings (although the bare-bones and massive Craigslist is a clear exception to that rule). Oodle, or whoever wins the contract, may also bring lots of listings from their other networks.
If Facebook gets this right there is a potential for lucrative advertising dollars – people looking to buy stuff are easy targets.
Facebook needs to find more ways of making money and I’m glad they are looking at this avenue, yet again.
Since the social feature in Facebook is beyond viral, it’s mega-viral
, I’m sure if Facebook puts their 600 heads together, they can come up with an easy to use Ebay type knock-off. 
Or just a Craigslist knock-off. But I personally think an Ebay knock-off would be 100 times more valuable to FB’s revenue. 
I feel that this model may work out for for FB because if you really think about classified in a social media …it does make a lot of sense!
There is a lot of social interactions inside facebook and the people may like the idea of being able to buy/sell within the community where they belong.
You know what this reminds me of….?
It reminds me of when people like actors for instance, have success in the movie industry, and because of their success think they will have the same success in another industry like music. And totally foul it up!
And in part the have mild success on the name of their previous endeavors, but never really quite make it.
Hence all the other 500 pound gorillas trying to explore into other areas and failing miserably….
But yey, its worth a try if you can afford it!!!! I cant!
Except the Terminataaaaaaa
Don’t forget President Reagan and Governor Ventura!
I remember the last time my friends had a garage sale, I didn’t buy anything.
Your Social Graph + Your Crap != $$$
Random people buy random used (and new) goods, from other random people. That’s why eBay and Craigslist work very well. In order to have a successful marketplace for a community, you need a big community.
It’s not to say Facebook should not have their Marketplace. Hell, even I have 2 listings there now, but the traditional sense of a marketplace simply will not see rapid growth, that’s why the numbers on FB Marketplace are where they are right now.
At eBay we passed around a similar idea in the organization for years, and one of the key advantages to a marketplace layer being placed on top of a social network is affinity, which increase trust within tiny subsets of the larger community.
It still comes down to visibility in a BIG community, random demand and random supply, and the proper environment for classified transactions (that last factor is KEY). The current FB environment isn’t necessarily setup for that at the moment.
Either way, I hope they figure it out. And Michael, thanks for posting this at 4 AM
I totally agree, people buy goods from strangers for two reasons. Reason #1 you can easily resolve a faulty transaction (broken product etc.) without losing a friendship, Reason #2 you feel a lot less bad about haggling for price or “getting a deal” (who would want to screw a friend??).
Evan
the social graph + classifieds does NOT = $$$
Jason – we programmers have an operator for “NOT = (to)”, take a close look at my comment again.
Why not just set terms on a multi-year deal w/ the likes of Amazon? Launch on Black Friday…sure, why not.
Facebook should listen to this idea. Good one
I agree with both “Free Movies & TV Episodes Online” & “Rob Abbott”. I think the main problem for FB here is what I would call social context. I mean I go to FB to sort of chill out and see whats going on with the people that I know to interact with them and have a laugh.
I don’t go there to buy stuff. If I want to buy stuff new or old then I would go to google and search for it or posibly ebay, craigslist or some ecommerce site. Or hey get this a real physical store
Anyway I don’t think I would like it very much if get the my friends crap pushed on me when I go to FB. And it might be just me but I prefer to buy or sell from and to strangers than to and from my friends. Because if something goes wrong with the product I can just react. Whereas if I bought it from a friend now there is a whole other social agenda that I have to deal with. Can get very awkward.
dont think there is any rocket science in the classifieds section. CL proves your site can look, feel, and function like garbage and still be a leader. who came up with the name oodle? ugh.
SellLocator.com – pimp your products
I have been working in the classifieds (web) business since 2001.
We have tried the same path from the other side: adding social features on a classifieds website.
All the initiatives have been a failure. It seems that it the same for all the leaders in the same business.
For FB it is the same: marketplace and (classifieds) FB applications have no attractivity.
Nowadays, the web classifieds business is a transposed model from the paper version (except it is free) which still needs its electronic revolution. Even google failed with its google based which was supposed to the CL killer…
I am interested to see FB solution to this problem. Let’s hope they are as creative as they were for the mini-feed, etc.
BTW, oodle is not international enough to be *the* solution.
Please read: ” Even google failed with its “google base” which was supposed to the CL killer…”
Facebook is basically throwing the kitchen sink at revenue models. All signs point to desperation, a facebook phone, facebook music, charging developers for platform placement, facebook connect…these guys are trying everything, but here is the problem, and Rob Abbott said it best, your social graph is not meant to be monetized.
In order for Facebook to make money they need to face up to what they are, a yellow pages with clever branding. To build a technology company you need a few million, to build a global brand you need an investment of hundreds of million, Facebook choose the latter and they made this choice with no clear business model going forward, just a desire to sign up users with and brand the name. So 350 million dollars and 100 million users later they got their wish. Now they need to say to themselves, “we are a people directory, nothing more, nothing less, so how does a people directory make money?”
I don’t have the answer but my hunch is saying selling to MS, and this would afford Facebook the opportunity to plug into a company with the smarts to find a way.
You are right! And Rob Abbott quote is interesting.
Just remember one thing what people were saying about google at the begining “how this company will ever earn a single cent from their search engine?”
I do not believe in MS-FB merge. You cannot mix these different worlds: corporate/business vs fun/leasure.
I think that a Yahoo-Facebook would be more interesting:
)
- FB and Yahoo have great user directories.
- Yahoo has great applications wich FB is missing.
- FB has innovation which Yahoo is missing.
- Yahoo and FB technologies seem to be closer than with others. (Google is too… custom…
- Yahoo and FB mottos are closer.
Interesting take
Yahoo – FB. I wonder how possible that would be given Yahoo’s troubles. THat would definatly add a viable, bigger, 3rd player in the Google – MS competition, and would give facebook some much needed help on the ad/monetization side of things.
If they want to do classifieds they should partner with http://www.olx.com if they want a marketplace they should partner with http://www.ioffer.com . Myspace’s classified didn’t go over that well.
OLX has no gravity in the US. Still a failure over here. Don’t see them going anywhere either. Even after trying to get coverage a while back.
Could be a great vehicle for revenue BUT I don’t shop at friends garage sales nor do i want them to know what i’m getting rid of. Classifieds are a stranger to stranger sell.
The biggest challenge is that the classified ads business is getting very crowded, Ebay, Kijiji, Microsoft, Google Local ads, and bunch of 2nd tier local search engines as well as old media (newspapers). I don’t see the sense that people on a social network because they can enjoy buying and selling stuff to/from their friends.
Its sounds like the just need to market the product a little better. Make it more noticeable on their site, right now virtually no one thinks facebook is in this business. I do think they can achieve this.
What if you DONT want to know the buyer or the seller? I don’t need the guy who buys my old couch all up in my shit. End of transaction should be the END.
I think it is totally possible to build social followings based on the items you post in a classified section and looking forward to a new facebook classified system.
I think they should build their own system. IMO oodle sucks.
Craigslist and Myspace Classifieds control most of the market.
Microsoft closed their “live marketplace” and Yahoo closed most of their classified section, last year as it’s impossible to beat Craigslist. Goo luck Facebook/Oodle
It’s nothing but Oodle app on Facebook (similar to Myspace)
Totally agree with Rob Abbott. Classifieds on ebay and craigslist has worked based on strangers buying from strangers.
It makes sense for FB to start with a classifieds aggregator than to build a kijiji from scratch BUT I am not sure if a large aggregated list of classified ads is useful. I continue to find Craigslist and ebay more useful than something like Oodle as there is a system/process associated with each. The communication channel that both of them provide is absent in a random listing that I can come up on, say Oodle. I think this must be an important considering – what happens once you discover/find what you want?
Anyone who posts lots of classifieds knows Oodle is worthless. So is Kijiji. If you want results Craigslist is so far ahead, it’s not even funny. Craigslist has so much gravity that it just dwarfs everything else combined. No one has been able to dent them no matter how much cash they’ve thrown at it. I’m talkin’ bout you ebay.
Am I the only one that finds that Craigslist is full of scams? Personally I would love to know that the person I want to buy something from isn’t some random Nigerian scammer that hasn’t posted the same thing in every other city in the world.. And if by eBay classifieds you mean Kijiji, there’s nothing there! MySpace Classifieds got more listings in the Bay Area just today than Kijiji has..
i would never buy anything off craiglist
amazon all the way
RIP Craigslist!
That has to be the most ridiculous comment on this thread.
When will CraigsList redesign?
Don’t think it will be too popular…
hminaya
facebook junkie
my blog about Google SEO Tools
Classifieds and social networking are like oil and water. There is no draw, there is no demand. Most social networks have some kind of classifieds section. MySpace has a big one. Still doesn’t work. Just more evidence that Facebook is super duper desperate to try and find something that makes money. Not likely to happen down this avenue. I think their only option is to follow MySpace down the music, movie and TV pop culture route. However, they will end up being a distant number 2 player there.
Spot on comment! Only problem is that most facebook users I talk too said they would hate to have music on facebook ala MySpace. So once again Facebook is left with no clear, scalable revenue stream…facebook needs to sell now before they enter their 6th year of operations with no business model. Let the boys in Redmond worry about facebooks business model, most likely they won’t even care how much money it makes.
facebook can compete in this market they just dont need it money-wise;although it seems they’d miss out on advertising for other classified sites
> The original thought was that social networks were great for classifieds because you the buyers and sellers know each other.
Why do I find this the complete opposite of the problem classifieds were meant to solve? If I want to pawn something I go to Craigslist precisely because I can draw from a larger pool of people beyond the ones I know. It’s not like I care who gets to own my kitchen table next year. If a friend wanted it I could just give it to them or negotiate the deal in person. The same is true for ebay, though I’m guessing ebay tries to circumvent the scammer problem with a reputation system.
Interestingly, I found housing through both Facebook and Craigslist for the same short-term job. Both turned out okay, but I am convinced a coincidence like the one I got through Facebook is unlikely to happen again since I only have a few hundred “friends” and they’re mostly in one city.
I actually appreciate the minimalist design of Craigslist because I feel more comfortable being informal and frank with my comments. I think it might be better if they started charging users a few pennies for each posting though, not for the revenue, but because it might reduce the amount of noise on the listings.
I’ve been seeing a growing interest in iList among Tweeps in regards to combining classifieds and social networks. They seem receptive to the idea.
What I’ve seen most people do is either:
a. create a classified ad on Craigslist, and then link to it in their FB status (more popular)
or
b. write a FB note listing the item they have for sale; so it’s published to their friends (way less popular, but growing)
I’d re-work the status update and notes so people could identify them as a classified ad via a dropdown, which would then prompt you for pictures, a category for the listing, and relevant details.
FB then has the structured data, and the social graph. Can put those listings in their marketplace and push them out to users who might be interested.
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Craiglist forever!
pretty nutty