Ethan Gaskill, a 29-year-old content creator, starts his day the same way every day: “When I wake up, most people start by checking Instagram on their phone, but I check Facebook Marketplace.”
Nearly all of the furniture in his Los Angeles home is secondhand, and Gaskill, who has more than 220,000 followers on TikTok who are intrigued by his thrifted finds, credits the shopping platform as a reliable source of hidden bargains, like a $1,000 Herman Miller light fixture and pendant he picked up for $400, a $5,000 bed by the same designer that he bought for 20 percent of the list price, and a Founders midcentury dresser worth $4,000 that Gaskill picked up for $800.
“It gives people the opportunity to bring into their home some really unusual or unique items that they wouldn't have been able to get unless they went to a flea market or an estate sale,” Gaskill said. luck.
Facebook Marketplace has not only become a trusted source of information for the secondhand market in Los Angeles, but also a real competitor to established e-commerce sites. Facebook's monthly active users (MAUs) will reach 3.07 billion by the end of 2023, up 3% year over year. Of those, up to 40% — 1.2 billion — are active users shopping on Marketplace, according to a March report from Capital One Shopping.
Meta's online second-hand goods marketplace is already challenging the industry giants. Marketplace surpassed Craigslist's monthly active users (MAUs) several years ago, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in 2018 that Marketplace had 800 million MAUs compared to Craigslist's 55 million visitors in 2017. In contrast, Amazon is expected to have 310 million monthly users in 2023, about a quarter of Marketplace's MAU, according to Tech Report. A 2022 Statista report said Marketplace is the second-most popular site for buying second-hand goods, after eBay.
“It's a growth area,” said Charles Lindsay, an associate professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo's School of Management. luck“I wouldn't be surprised if they actually overtake eBay in three or five years.”
Amazon and eBay did not respond. luckRequest for comments.
From online garage sale to e-commerce giant
Lindsay argued that the marketplace's phenomenal growth is largely due to the platform being simply easy to use and linking to sites where so many people are already members.
“It's connected to Facebook, so it's reliable,” he says. “It has an easy-to-use interface, and it's integrated with Facebook Messenger, so it's easy to interact with.”
Launched in 2016, Marketplace was originally a way to facilitate neighborhood buying and selling, with most users posting second-hand goods for a fair price, and buyers picking up the items and coordinating pickup and payment with the seller over Facebook Messenger. But Marketplace has grown into a powerful e-commerce platform, with one in three U.S. Facebook users using the platform by 2018. Marketplace has exploded during the pandemic, as reliance on e-commerce and supply chains has increased and delivery delays have made traditional shopping less convenient.
“We're seeing everyone from artisans making handmade goods to woodworkers to car dealers thrive,” said founder Deb Liu, who was then vice president of Marketplace. Modern Retail In 2021.
By that time, the marketplace had become a boon not only for thrifters but also for small businesses looking for unique sales outlets: Springfield, Missouri-based Beautiful Fight Woodworking generated $168,000 of its $266,000 in revenue in 2020 from marketplace sales alone.
To be sure, the platform is not without its significant issues, particularly as scammers and bot accounts have proliferated on the site, causing hardship for honest buyers. One South Carolina user claimed in February that he was scammed out of $18,000 after putting his 2016 Audi up for sale on Marketplace. A 2022 ThinkMonkey survey of 1,000 British people found that one in six had been scammed on the platform.
“What happens offline often spills over into the online environment, and unfortunately that includes scams,” Meta spokesman Ryan Daniels said. WiredMeta said it “works proactively to quickly identify, disable and ban scams and associated accounts.”
Gen Z's new favorite social media
Through its growth, Marketplace has gained traction with younger generations who have largely drifted away from Facebook.
“I think of it as a social media app,” said Dre Beth, a 25-year-old content creator. luck.
Baez spends six to 12 hours a day on Marketplace, “trolling” sellers by asking them to test their products via voice memo, and then uploading the conversations to TikTok for his 755,000 followers.
He sees Marketplace as not just fodder for entertainment videos, but also a true social media tool for Gen Z and millennials because it's fast-paced and highly stimulating.
“It's the ability to have multiple interactions in a short amount of time. You can go to Facebook Marketplace, search for a bike, contact seven to 10 different people and have all the conversations going at the same time,” he said.
Even on days when he can't find a bargain, Baez finds laughs on the site: Sellers have made off with selling used nail clippers, toilet brushes, plungers and even face-shaped Doritos for $10,000, he recalls.
Meta is focusing on engaged young users: While Facebook's popularity among teens has declined with the rise of TikTok, the platform now has more than 40 million daily users between the ages of 18 and 29 in the U.S. and Canada, the highest level in three years, and one in four uses Marketplace, Meta said. luck.
For Gaskill, a second-hand goods appraiser who checks Marketplace five to 10 times a day, the platform appeals to young people because it speaks to their sense of independence, thrift and a desire to protect the environment from the strains of mass production and freight.
“When you think about not only the economy but also the mindset of Gen Z, they love uniqueness and self-expression,” he said, “but they also really love finding things at affordable prices.”
Finding room for growth
But just because Meta has a growing following for its marketplace platform doesn't mean it's a profitable division for the company. luckReached for comment on how Amazon makes money through its marketplace, Lindsay suggested the company benefits from sellers' transaction fees and increased visibility into ads on its website.
“Overall, people who are more likely to use Facebook Marketplace are also more likely to log into Facebook multiple times a month,” he said, “and Facebook benefits from that by getting businesses to pay for advertising so that those ads appear in my feed and your feed.”
The European Commission alleged in December 2022 that Facebook and Marketplace had partnered to use data in ways that violated EU competition rules, according to a December 2023 SEC filing.
Marketplace is a key piece of Facebook's financial puzzle because the costs for a locally based exchange are lower, especially compared with eBay, which requires a large international infrastructure, said Sucharita Kodali, a retail industry analyst at market research firm Forrester.
“The volume of business is huge,” she said. luck. “With that volume comes a lot of necessary investment in automation, customer service, seller management, seller tools, etc.”
Facebook Marketplace doesn't need a complex system to manage local transactions, but that means it likely doesn't generate as much revenue as its e-commerce competitors. In fact, Kodali goes so far as to call Marketplace an “anti-commerce” platform because it's full of “buy nothing” groups and peer-to-peer exchanges. She took a similar stance to Lindsay, arguing that the economic benefit of the platform is that it helps improve advertising targeting to active users.
“This isn't about trying to make money off the amount of posts that appear in the Marketplace section,” she said.
Marketplace's virtual garage sale atmosphere and the platform's sense of community may not generate billions of dollars in revenue for Meta, but it's what keeps users coming back to the site.
“You never know when the next great thing is going to come along,” Gaskill said. “That's the fun. That's what makes it so addictive.”
