Continuing its storied tradition of attempting to duplicate the success of other websites and apps, Facebook is trying to once again beat Craigslist at its own game.
Today, Facebook officially launched Marketplace. Marketplace is essentially a location-based digital garage sale, where users can list items they want to get rid of an interact with potential buyers.
If you’ve ever used a community-based buy-sell-trade page on Facebook, you get the idea here. It’s clear from Facebook’s interest that there were enough deals being made on Facebook that a dedicated tool for buying and selling was needed, but this isn’t the first time Facebook has tried to make itself a default Craigslist replacement.
Facebook Marketplace in 2008
The company originally launched Marketplace almost a decade ago, touting the ability to list everything from “books and DVDs” to pets. That feature later folded and was somewhat revived when Facebook added the ability to list sale items on Group pages. Now, Facebook—which often seems to forget it’s a social network—is relaunching Marketplace again, but how long will it last this time?