Ten years ago, Facebook Marketplace was created because people were already using Facebook Groups to connect with others by buying and selling stuff. At the time, there was some industry skepticism about whether a marketplace made sense on our platform. But the reason Marketplace works is the same reason any product works on Facebook: Facebook allows real people to see each other, connect, and exchange — whether that’s sharing a funny video or buying the perfect vintage piece from someone in your community.
Now, Marketplace is a go-to destination for buying and selling vehicles, home decor, fashion, electronics, and so much more — from local finds to items shipped right to your door. One in three young adults on Facebook in the US uses Facebook Marketplace daily. Every month, there are 430 million items and 44 million vehicles listed on Facebook Marketplace globally. And we’re exploring the ability for small businesses to list on Marketplace.
Seller, A New App From Facebook
As we celebrate Facebook Marketplace’s 10th anniversary, we’re exploring a new way to make the experience of selling better, especially for people who sell on Marketplace the most.
Seller is a Facebook app that puts everything a seller needs in one place: AI-powered listing creation, a unified inbox, inventory management, and performance insights. It’s connected to the same Facebook network — your buyers and community are still right where they are. What changes is your workflow. If you’re listing thirty items a week, it gets a lot simpler.
Purpose-Built Apps
We recently started to explore other purpose-built apps for the people who specifically do one thing the most on Facebook. In May we started testing Forum, a new app for Facebook Groups. Fully synced with your groups, it introduces features like Group Ask for tapping into firsthand experience and Admin AI to help admins manage and grow their communities. In June, we announced that Facebook Creator Studio is coming back reimagined as an app that shows creators exactly what to do next to succeed on Facebook.
Underlying our new apps is a belief that we can leverage AI to remove friction and empower the people who are making things happen on Facebook. If you’re listing on Marketplace, AI will help you write the description, suggest a price, and tag it in about 30 seconds. If you’re using Groups to crowdsource info, AI will help you find all the relevant past posts. AI can help you find the right person on Facebook Dating without having to swipe once. Creators on Facebook can leverage Creator Assistant, an AI tool to help brainstorm content ideas, understand your performance in plain language, and get personalized guidance based on your audience. And everyone on Facebook is getting better and more relevant recommendations across Feed, Video, Search, and more.
Facebook Verified
As AI makes it easier to create, find and do more on Facebook, one thing stays irreplaceable: real connections between real people. So it’s more important than ever to provide a way of knowing the person on the other side is real.
Starting Monday, we’re launching Facebook Verified, a free badge that shows there’s a real person behind the profile who has completed a selfie verification and whose account meets our trust and safety standards. If you’re buying from someone on Marketplace or considering meeting someone from Facebook Dating or from a local Group, Facebook Verification provides credibility and peace of mind that the person is real before you engage.
Immersive Video
Beyond evolving the tools for people who do things on Facebook, we’re also thinking about the experience for people who come to be entertained and connect with authentic creators. People are showing us they want more immersive, visual, video-forward experiences, and video is where conversations are happening, communities are forming, and even commerce is starting to take place.
So later this year, we’ll begin testing a reimagined experience that puts a subset of people who we think want more video on Facebook into full-screen video the moment they open the app. People will have the option to opt out and go back to a Feed-first experience if they choose, and Classic Feed will always be available as the second tab in the app, just one click away. We’ll start this test internationally in video-heavy countries and explore bringing it to the US next year.
Twenty years in, we’re always improving what Facebook looks and feels like — as people’s needs evolve, Facebook does too. The pattern that informs our products is always the same: people show us what they want through how they use the app. We listen, we learn, we experiment, and we evolve.
Put simply, the best things about Facebook come from real people. Our job is to keep making it easier for people to do what they want on Facebook — sell, create, watch, organize, connect, fall in love, find a couch. If you spend time on Facebook, that time should make your life off Facebook better. If we’re not making it easier to connect with one another, we’re not doing our job.