Facebook Launches Local Classified Ads Service

[mandy]

Facebook is considering the launch of a local classifieds service, a source told Mashable. Under the proposed system, it would be free to list items in your own network, and cost a few dollars to post to each additional network. The following survey was sent to certain Facebook users (screenshot below):

Imagine you log onto facebook one day and find a new classifieds feature, where you can connect with other users to buy/sell goods and services in your local area...

full article: http://mashable.com/2007/04/18/facebook-classifieds/

[amy]

MySpace's free classifieds have been a dud.  I don't think Facebook's will do any better.

[mandy]

More:

Facebook, the social networking Web site, is adding free classified ad listings, putting it into competition with dozens of established companies like Craigslist and many newspapers.

Facebook, which has 22 million active users, more than half of them in high school or college, hopes that the new feature will offer yet another reason for users to return to its site regularly, instead of going elsewhere to conduct their Internet business...

Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is calling the new service Marketplace and plans to introduce it on Friday. It will allow users to create classified listings in four categories: housing; jobs; for sale, where users can list things like concert tickets and used bikes; and "other," a catch-all that could include things like solicitations for rides home for the holidays...

full article: http://news.com.com/Facebook+to+offer+fr...ag=newsmap

[mandy]

A related article:

Both Friendster and Facebook added free classifieds services on their sites this week, following in the footsteps of MySpace, which paired with SimplyHired last June to serve up job listings to the high school and college crowd.

On Facebook, “people were posting messages that looked a lot like classifieds,” said Oodle CEO Craig Donato. The company announced its partnership with the student-centric social networking site Monday, allowing members to post their own listings for things like tickets, jobs and "stuff," as well as search classifieds from across the Web...

Oodle already provides a "campus network" of hundreds of colleges and universities with undergrad-friendly classifieds aggregated from elsewhere online, along with tools to post their own listings. The company also powers online classifieds for sites like Washington Post Company’s Express site, The San Diego Union-Tribune’s SignOnSanDiego.com, and Local.com.

One of the original social networking sites, Friendster, unveiled a classifieds area yesterday, pairing with listings provider OLX (Online Exchange). The system lets users post listings in standard categories like jobs, real estate and personals, as well as not-so-standard ones like community and resumes. Users can also search listings according to geography...

full article: http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625836

[mandy]

A review:

Facebook's new "Marketplace" classifieds feature launched quietly this weekend, giving the social networking site's members the ability to post Craigslist-like ads and make them visible to their friends and "networks" (which, if you aren't familiar with Facebook, are based around regions, high schools and colleges, and companies). I gave it a quick run-through to test it out; here's what I found.

When you click on Marketplace, which is accessible by a link in the left sidebar (along with other Facebook staples like photos, groups, and notes) you are directed to the Marketplace homepage for your primary network, with tabs where you can navigate to the corresponding pages for your other networks if you're in more than one. In the image below, you can see the CNET network is the one displayed; I also have access to listings from my former university's network and to the NYC network. The interface is more or less just like the rest of Facebook--blue and white, without much clutter...

full article: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9718779...l?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

[mandy]

A related article:

Facebook may seek to position itself as Craigslist, only better, but Facebook’s ultimate strategic and tactical positioning, as well as its profit motives, belie the notion.

Craigslist has not changed on the outside, and it has not changed inside. It is the purity of Craiglsist’s simplicity and its purpose that makes it seemingly irresistible, and therefore unbeatable in its niche.

Can Facebook say the same? Hardly. Facebook began with a purity of purpose, but those days are long gone. As the Facebook multi billion dollar acquisition rumors grow, it strays farther and farther from the core differentiator that fueled its initial traction.

Facebook stood for something, once...

full article: http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=1338

and another one:

Another thing, people think there is all this money to be made in online classifieds. Depending on who you talk to and how they gauge it, newsprint as a whole has lost anywhere from 5-15% of their classified business over the last 5 years to online outlets, and a lot of people point to CraigsList. But there are some contradictory trends in that assumption and that figure.

Classifieds were already under pressure before CraigsList, from sites like Monster, HotJobs, etc. More importantly, what people often miss is that much of the value that has been lost in print revenue wasn’t really there to begin with, it’s actually new revenue and new business that has been created since the web came into wide spread use. Classifieds are a natural on line commodity - a free commodity.

CraigsList did maybe $20-25 million in 2006, according to Forbes. So here you have the leader, the big guy, who flat out states that they are -not- competing and purposefully devaluing the ad - and they only did $20-25 million. When you factor in Oodle, Edgeio, Backpage, and all these other large outlets, it puts the whole Facebook move into perspective...

full article: http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=1378

[mandy]

A related article from ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo's CSE Strategies blog:

So here's a quick equation:
24MM immensely active, passionate and connected members + a direct channel + 100% revenue take potential = the ultimate marketplace

I will even go to an extreme and say that Facebook just established itself as a new retail channel.  Think about it:

    * Facebook is growing at 3% per month, adding 100,000 new users daily
    * passed eBay in pageviews at 40 billion per month and is the 6th most trafficked site
    * 50% of college females call Facebook is their #1 most important Web site
    * the fastest growing segment on Facebook is over age 25

All this opportunity, and you can keep 100% of your revenues?  This is a no-brainer...

full article: http://www.csestrategies.com/cse/2007/05...he_mo.html

[Kristijntje]

Update:

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...

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...

full article: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/22/fac...this-year/