Facebook Is Not Giving Up On Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace was launched over 6 months ago, but never really became very popular. Yet, Facebook is not giving up, and is rolling out a new more colourful design for the feature.

It’s hard to say whether Marketplace is a success or not. Facebook doesn’t share numbers on how many users have actually tried the feature, never mind people who have sold or bought something. But before Facebook launched Marketplace last fall, the company had mentioned there are over 450 million people using “Buy & Sell” groups every month. It is likely that those people would have migrated to Marketplace.

When Marketplace launched, 450M people were already using “Buy & Sell” groups every month

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Nonetheless, it isn’t especially popular. No one really talks about it. So, maybe looking for some buzz, Facebook decided to roll out a redesign. The most notable update is the one-tap access to categories via the new colourful buttons. Facebook believes that one tap (instead of two) will help boost discovery, as most users come to Marketplace already knowing what they are looking for.

The new design also allows for easy filtering by location, category, and price. And speaking of which, Marketplace now counts over 27 categories, re-grouped into 9 main themes: Home, Entertainment, Clothing & Accessories, Family, Electronics, Hobbies, Vehicles & Bicycles and Classifieds.