Facebook’s latest product launch appears to be a modest step into a classified advertising market currently fought over by eBay, Craigslist and more nascent startups such as LetGo and OfferUp – the latter recently valued at $1.2bn.
But with the official launch of Facebook Marketplace, through which users can list items for sale or search the area near them for things they want, the company could be attempting to use its gargantuan audience of 1.71 billion monthly users to upend the local sales market completely.