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Canadians wanting to buy or sell physical goods in their community now have a new option as Facebook is launching its Marketplace portal north of the border.
Marketplace is essentially like a Craigslist but within Facebook’s large social networking platform. People can upload a photo and caption of what they want to sell or search for items within a certain geographical area and browse by category. Once a buyer finds the item they want to purchase in their community, or somewhere they are willing to travel to for pickup, he or she can send the seller an offer through direct message and arrange an exchange after agreeing on a price.
More than 550 million people visit buy-and-sell Facebook groups around the world, said Vivek Sharma, Facebook’s director of product management, in a statement. As a reaction to user behaviour, Marketplace launched in four countries in October 2016 and now is available in Canada on Thursday.
During the month of May, more than 18 million new items were posted for sale in Marketplace in the U.S., Facebook said in a statement.
Facebook doesn’t take a cut of the profits from connections or transactions made through Marketplace, but it also doesn’t guarantee that the item is as described. The social media giant is simply facilitating the online part of connection between two people, such as Craiglist or Kijiji, and it’s up to the users to figure out the other details.
The benefit of using Marketplace is having potential access to a larger network of people in a smaller community, plus the added security of knowing the other person is connected to a Facebook account instead of being a random username or e-mail address, as is the case on some competing services.
Of course, this doesn’t mean Marketplace is completely safe, despite the ability to somewhat research people beforehand. As with any online transaction, there is always safety concerns for buyers and sellers.
A screenshot of Facebook Marketplace
One way to help stay safe during a face-to-face transaction which originated online is to make the connection in a public place. Many local police stations offer up their parking lot or reception area for this purpose, for example, while coffee shops or grocery stores could be another option. Using cash or peer-to-peer payment methods are also suggested, as opposed to giving banking information or providing cheques.
To browse Marketplace, users can tap on the shop icon at the bottom of the Facebook app once their account receives the feature. Marketplace begins rolling out to Canadians on Thursday.
Financial Post
jomcconnell@postmedia.com
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