MSE News: Facebook takes on eBay and Gumtree with online marketplace for app users

Legacy_user

Facebook is launching it's own free-to-use classified ads platform for buying and selling goods locally...

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'Facebook takes on eBay and Gumtree with its own online marketplace for app users'

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theonlywayisup

I'd rather read about the latest Brexit talks. This isn't news. It isn't even a viable proposition. Do MSE staff actually understand how Ebay/Gumtree and Facebook work?

RFW

I saw this and it looks terrible, the layout and content are quite poor. However it did get me to look at something I wouldn't normally look at so if you're selling then it could be useful.

I think I read somewhere that Ebay mobile sales now account for 50% of sales on the site. It will only be a matter of time before Facebook has commercial sellers on there so make the most of it if you can sell on it.

londondealer

Good news hope eBay get a bloody nose.

mrcol1000

Its okay if you live local to the item. Also it being free, Facebook will want as little effort to do with it as possible. Wait for the horror stories and Facebook washing their hands because they do not want to spend any money on a service they get little income from. People will then be cautious about buying on it.

Sellers cry about how much protection Ebay gives buyers, but if people do not feel confident buying on a website then there will be no need for any sellers.

ballisticbrian

Damp squibb

soolin

londondealer wrote: »

Good news hope eBay get a bloody nose.

It is unlikely that a local free ads type selling app could make any difference to an international platform like eBay. Gumtree (an eBay owned company) are already out there and seem to be almost dying off under the weight of scammers and Facebook selling pages whilst good for certain items seem to attract a huge percentage of scammers and time wasters already.

I think viewing this as any sort of eBay alternative is going to cause problems, we already get enough threads on here from people conned on gumtree and Facebook as they were trying to use it as a distance selling platform like eBay. I think as a good solid face to face local selling site for larger or delicate items it will have a place, but not for the millions of small transactions that go through eBay every day.

ballisticbrian

You can see, it's got Soolin really excited.

Brooker_Dave

I got an email off ebay, free local sales, must list local pickup to get it.

I don't know what local sales are, maybe trying to fend off FB?

RFW

soolin wrote: »

I think viewing this as any sort of eBay alternative is going to cause problems, we already get enough threads on here from people conned on gumtree and Facebook as they were trying to use it as a distance selling platform like eBay. I think as a good solid face to face local selling site for larger or delicate items it will have a place, but not for the millions of small transactions that go through eBay every day.

I agree. Facebook have been worried about people spending less time on it. They've been trying various things to increase it. As far as I can tell they see selling as extending local communities and thus expanding networking. They've got no interest in policing anything they're relying on real people's accounts resulting in honest transactions.
Sounds good in theory, in practice it may be quite different.
I can't see it as any competition for Ebay, if anything it's more likely to get people hooked on selling and push them towards Ebay. It's the kind of thing Ebay bought Gumtree for.

soolin

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

I got an email off ebay, free local sales, must list local pickup to get it.

I don't know what local sales are, maybe trying to fend off FB?

There was an eBay thing launched either late 2015 or earlier this year to encourage local sales , but it was a load of rubbish. It was basically just the local bargain finder but would only pick up collection only items- the issue was that eBay still required PayPal as an option.

I rarely ever list collection only items on eBay, mine all go via Facebook selling pages. I do still occasionally give Gumtree a try, but don't even get scammers anymore, I get nothing at all.