from Hacker News

Facebook Marketplace is keeping young people on the platform

by owendarko on 3/9/25, 11:56 AM with 62 comments

• by mxxx on 3/11/25, 7:53 AM

  My FB account exists almost solely for marketplace, which has almost total market dominance for local classifieds where I live in Australia. Recently they’ve stopped letting you send messages to sellers via the website on your phone and insist that you use the app instead. It’s probably one of the few hooks they have left to try and get people on to the platform.

• by dzonga on 3/11/25, 8:31 AM

  I hate FB and Meta properties so much. and they have captured so much of the web. every little thing - requires login. if you don't have an account - you can't see shit.

  I have accepted that i'm one of those now left behind. Books & internet forums is where I will catch up. even if I miss out, am I really missing out.

• by spacechild1 on 3/11/25, 7:10 AM

  I'm from Austria and until recently I didn't even know that FB Marketplace was a thing. Never used it in my life. We have a great local website (https://willhaben.at) that everyone uses. I guess it's the Austrian version of Craigslist.

• by sampton on 3/11/25, 6:50 AM

  Thousands of engineers grinding leetcode so they can work on a Craigslist clone.

• by _puk on 3/11/25, 7:27 AM

  I thought FB marketplace had peaked already, especially for furniture.

  18 months ago you could find stuff on there fairly easily, now it's full of "must go" or "Free" items that are "message me for pricelist" when you click through. It ends up being a real slog to find anything.

• by neilv on 3/11/25, 9:16 AM

  > A key advantage is trust; users' Facebook profiles make transactions feel safer than on anonymous platforms like Craigslist, according to Seock.

  Early on, I suspect that Craigslist attracted a lot of sketchiness with all the free stuff, anonymous sexual hookups personals ads, and prostitution.

  I wonder whether they could've survived as just a non-sketchy classified ads place for household items and roommates/apartments. Which, at the time (at least in Boston) managed to coexist with the sketchy side of the site.

  Lately, selling household items and computer gear onto Craigslist seems to come down to the rare random event that anyone is looking at it.

  I live in the city, within walking distance of multiple universities, but, if an item is worth shipping, it'll now sell on eBay, but sit unsold for months on Craigslist.

  I also now put on the curb things that in the past I would've been able to sell easily on Craigslist.

  I suspect that the local used item sales have moved to Facebook Marketplace, plus students just buying new things delivered from an app (Amazon? Target?), when in the past they would've shopped new more.

  I've managed to be free of Facebook all these years, and I don't want to start now.

• by Daub on 3/11/25, 9:04 AM

  From TFA...

  > Facebook’s influence remains strong globally, but younger users are logging in less.

  Not here in south east Asia where FB remains dominant. Indeed having any kind of social life without a FB account would be difficult.

• by mmmlinux on 3/11/25, 6:05 PM

  To me the reason people use FB market is because of the lack of friction. you already have an account and probably already have the app. just snap a picture tell it what it is and how much and you're done. don't have to sign up for anything, or wait for confirmation emails. (I think this also tends to be the case for their dating services)

  They also from what I can see do more aggressive searching on the content of images. I was once looking for a slot machine. and it found me a listing that did not mention a slot machine in the title or description (I think they were both blank somehow actually) but there was one in the picture.

  It also does a lot more suggesting than craigslist or ebay for example. Not just reminding you of things you already saw. but thats FB being able to scrape all your data and know everything you want of course.

• by gloosx on 3/11/25, 8:23 AM

  >Unlike eBay or Etsy, Marketplace doesn’t charge listing fees

  >While Facebook doesn’t charge listing fees

  >Marketplace isn’t a major direct revenue source

  >It’s one of the least monetized parts of Facebook

  Yet.

• by Freedom2 on 3/11/25, 6:57 AM

  Genuine q, what makes FB marketplace good, and how did it blow up over Ebay / Craigslist? Is it a combination of having the platform with the most people as well as being the most likely platform to have people who are situated near you?

• by stevage on 3/11/25, 8:26 AM

  And yet it is so underdeveloped. I'm in a few second hand board groups where every listing is like 20 different games at different prices. They have to put a price, so some people put 0, some put $30 and some put $999,999.

  I hate buying stuff on marketplace, it's so feature poor.

• by DeathArrow on 3/11/25, 9:10 AM

  I thought people use sites like Craigslist for local sales. At least in my country most people use a local website, they use Facebook Marketplace a lot less.

• by ErigmolCt on 3/11/25, 7:05 AM

  But I wonder how long it'll stay fee-free. Meta isn't known for leaving money on the table forever

• by nipponese on 3/11/25, 7:28 AM

  Whatever you do, definitely don't try looking for drugs or escorts on FB Marketplace. :)

• by csydas on 3/11/25, 7:48 AM

  > Marketplace isn’t a major direct revenue source, but it keeps users engaged.

  > “It’s one of the least monetized parts of Facebook,” said Enberg. “But it brings in engagement, which advertisers value.”

  > Meta relies on ads for over 97% of its $164.5 billion revenue in 2024.

  Facebook's spin in the article was delusional as expected for a big tech business, but I'm surprised they let this little nugget of truth slip out, and somehow managed to not learn anything from the fact that a huge demographic engages _more_ with the part of the site that gets the least monetization focus.

• by guelo on 3/11/25, 6:37 AM

  I hate that Facebook has taken so much of craigslist's market. I can't stand Facebook but as a seller or a buyer you have to go where the network is. Marketplace is still in the outcompete stage so it feels friendly and convenient but eventually when they kill craigslist they'll start turning the enshitification knobs back up.

• by diegolas on 3/11/25, 12:52 PM

  i always find it funny how ppl shit on facebook as if any other social media site was orders of magnitude better. facebook is as shitty as you make it to be. follow shit reel creators and it will be shit. get into shit awful groups and it will be shit.