Look out Craigslist, here comes Facebook. According to multiple reports, Facebook, the top ranked site among college students has plans to introduce a new classifieds service its called Marketplace that will put it squarely in competition with leading sites like Craigslist as well as other leading classified online services. The move to classifieds makes a lot of strategic sense for the sixth most visited web property since there will already be a "prerequisite" trust factor established among the member base unlike a stronger "fraud perception" sites like eBay and Craigslist generate among the audience. In addition to increasing its value to its membership, Facebook will look to build out the revenue generating capability of the new application by offering its users numerous opportunities to promote their offerings as well as offering their advertisers additional contextual display placements. I wouldn't be surprised by the time next year, Facebook has the number two or three online classifieds service behind only Craigslist. They did it with photos, and they certainly are well positioned to do it with classifieds.
This is a great idea for facebook. It will help their users (primarily college students) find apartments, furniture, and textbooks, among many other things. I think that this is a positive step forward for social networking.
Posted by: Rob | May 11, 2007 at 01:18 PM