Facebook Becoming Like Craigslist with new Local Market

Facebook has recently been testing its "Local Market," which is a more structured marketplace dedicated for buyers and sellers.

According to Tech Crunch, the new app, which is still under testing but not yet broadly distributed, turns the social media platform into a marketplace. This allows its users to post or browse through items from a broad range of categories. It has a "Buy" and "Sell" interface, and it allows users to look for item using keywords.

"We are in the very early stages of testing new ways for more people to easily discover, buy, and sell items with other people on Facebook," a spokesperson said.

Engadget reported that Facebook users can customize their Local Market page by selecting the "collections." This also allows users to filter item to categories such as "men's clothing," "everything free," etc. Users can also follow collections to easily see what they are looking for.

The Local Market app appeared in some users' Facebook iPhone app at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes it appears when a user creates a post in a local selling group.

Upon posting in the Local Market, there is a prompt that says, "Reach more people near you. When you post in Local Market, people who live near you will see your item in Local Market under Favourites."

According to Business Insider, Facebook is slowly becoming "like Craiglist" for its users in Indonesia. Facebook Product chief Chris Cox said that the social network is trying to expand its e-commerce ambitions. Besides Local Market, Facebook also launched For Sale groups earlier in 2015. It allows users to list prices and pick-up locations for the products they sell. Local Market allows users to look for various categories in their locality without browsing through certain groups.

Local Market is populated with the items from various "sale" groups from certain geographical region, which is why some categories already have plenty of items to choose from. Sale groups are increasingly becoming popular among Facebook Groups users who seek to offer neighborhoods and communities an easier ways to search, browse, buy, and sell online.