\n
![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-1693797349-e1717185988365.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
Ethan Gaskill, a 29-year-old content creator, begins everyday the same way: \u201cWhen I wake up in the morning\u2014most people get on their phone and start checking Instagram\u2014I check Facebook<\/a> Marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n With his Los Angeles home furnished almost exclusively with second-hand items and a TikTok with over 220,000 followers interested in his thrifty hauls, Gaskill trusts the shopping platform to be a reliable source for hidden gems: a thousand-dollar Herman Miller light and pendant<\/a> he nabbed for $400; a $5,000 bed from the same designer he bought for 20% of the original price; and, a Founders mid-century dresser worth $4,000 that Gaskill got for $800.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives an opportunity for people to possibly bring in really rare items or just one-of-a-kind items into their home that otherwise they wouldn\u2019t have had if they couldn\u2019t make it out to a flea market or estate sale,\u201d Gaskill told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Facebook Marketplace has not only become a trusted source for LA\u2019s second-hand scene. It\u2019s made itself a real contender to go toe-to-toe with well-established e-commerce sites. Facebook has grown to 3.07 billion monthly active users<\/a> (MAUs) as of the end of 2023, a 3% year-over-year increase. Of those, up to 40%, or 1.2 billion, are active users shopping on Marketplace, according to a March report from Capital One Shopping<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meta\u2019s online second-hand market is already challenging the sector\u2019s goliaths. Marketplace eclipsed Craigslist\u2019s MAUs years ago, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying in 2018 that there were 800 million Marketplace MAUs<\/a>, compared to the 55 million visitors on Craigslist in 2017. In contrast, Amazon<\/a> had 310 million monthly users in 2023, per Tech Report<\/a>, about one-fourth of Marketplace\u2019s MAUs. Marketplace is the second most popular site for second-hand purchases behind Ebay, according to a 2022 Statista report<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a growth area,\u201d Charles Lindsey, associate professor of marketing at University at Buffalo School of Management, told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t surprise me if in three years, five years, it actually overtakes Ebay.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon and Ebay did not respond to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n Marketplace\u2019s astronomical growth is in large part because the platform is simply easy to use and already linked to a site where so many people are pre-existing members, Lindsey argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a trust factor because it\u2019s associated with Facebook,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has an easy-to-use interface. It\u2019s integrated with Facebook Messenger, so it\u2019s easy to kind of go back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n Launched in 2016, Marketplace was originally a way to facilitate sales among neighbors, with most users offering up a used item for sale at a reasonable price, and buyers picking up the item and coordinating with the seller over Facebook Messenger about collection and payment. But Marketplace grew into a formidable e-commerce platform, with one-in-three U.S. Facebook users on the platform by 2018<\/a>. Through the pandemic, Marketplace exploded thanks to increased reliance on e-commerce and supply chain and shipping delays that inconvenienced traditional shopping.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing everyone from artisans hand making goods, to wood workers to car sellers thrive,\u201d Deb Liu, founder and then-Marketplace vice president, told Modern Retail<\/em><\/a> in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n By then, Marketplace had become a boon not only for thrifty shoppers, but small businesses looking for unique sales avenues. Springfield, Missouri-based Beautiful Fight Woodworking generated $168,000 of its $266,000 revenue in 2020 exclusively through Marketplace sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n To be sure, the platform isn\u2019t without significant problems, particularly as scammers and bot accounts have proliferated the site, giving well-intentioned buyers a tough time. One South Carolina user claimed in February he was scammed out of $18,000<\/a> after putting his 2016 Audi up for sale on Marketplace. A 2022 thinkmonkey survey of 1,000 Brits<\/a> found that one in six had been scammed on the platform.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happens offline often makes its way into online environments, and that unfortunately includes scams,\u201d Ryan Daniels, a Meta spokesperson, told Wired<\/em><\/a>. Meta said it works \u201caggressively to quickly identify, disable, and ban scams and accounts associated with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Through its ascension, Marketplace has won over a generation of young people who had largely turned away from Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI look at it like it\u2019s like a social media app,\u201d Dre Vez, a 25-year-old content creator, told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Vez spends about six to 12 hours a day on Marketplace, where he makes a living \u201ctrolling\u201d sellers by asking them over voice memos to test the product, before uploading the interactions to TikTok for his 755,000 followers.<\/p>\n He finds Marketplace not just fodder for entertaining videos but also as a real social media tool for Gen Z and millennials because it\u2019s fast-paced and highly stimulating.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the ability to have several interactions in a short duration of time, where I could go on Facebook marketplace, and I could search up for a bike, and I could reach out to seven to 10 different people and have all these conversations going on at the same time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Even on days when he can\u2019t find a good deal, Vez finds some laughs on the site. Sellers have gotten away with listing used toe nail clippers, toilet brushes, plungers\u2014even a Dorito in the shape of a face going for $10,000, he recalled.<\/p>\n Meta has taken notice of its enthusiastic young users. While Facebook\u2019s popularity among teens has dwindled<\/a> in the wake of TikTok\u2019s rise, Facebook now has over 40 million daily young adult users aged 18 to 29 in the U.S. and Canada, a three-year high, with one in four using Marketplace, Meta told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n To second-hand connoisseur Gaskill, who checks Marketplace five to 10 times a day, the platform is compelling to young people because it appeals to their desire for independence, to save money<\/a>, and protect the environment<\/a> against the strains of mass production and freight.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJust given the circumstances with the economy, but also just the mindset of like Gen Z, they love uniqueness, and they love self expression,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they also really like finding things for a good price.\u201d<\/p>\n But just because Meta boasts a growing fandom for its Marketplace platform doesn\u2019t mean its a lucrative arm of the company. Meta did not respond to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s request for comment on how it makes money through Marketplace, but marketing professor Lindsey suggests the company benefits from seller transaction fees, as well as more eyes on the website\u2019s advertisements.<\/p>\n \u201cJust overall, the more likely someone uses Facebook Marketplace, probably the more likely they also log into Facebook so many times per month,\u201d he said. \u201cThen Facebook capitalizes on that by being able to have companies pay for advertising that then hits my feed, hits your feed.\u201d<\/p>\n The EU\u2019s European Commission alleged in December 2022 that Facebook and Marketplace tie together and use data in a way that infringe on the EU\u2019s competition rules, according to a December 2023 SEC filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Marketplace is, in part, an important facet of Facebook\u2019s financial puzzle because its locally based exchanges are low-expense, according to Sucharita Kodali, retail industry analyst for market research firm Forrester\u2014especially, compared to Ebay, which requires a massive international infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an enormous transaction volume,\u201d she told Fortune. \u201cWith that transaction volume comes a kind of a necessary investment in a lot of automation, customer service, seller management, seller tools, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n While Facebook Marketplace doesn\u2019t need an elaborate system to manage local transactions, it also means it\u2019s likely not making as much money as its e-commerce competition. In fact, Kodali went so far as to call Marketplace an \u201canti-commerce\u201d platform because it has so many \u201cbuy nothing\u201d groups and peer-to-peer exchanges. She took a similar stance as Lindsey, arguing the financial merit of the platform is to help better target ads for active users.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not really about, like, \u2018Let\u2019s make money off of the volume of posts that we see on the marketplace section,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Marketplace\u2019s virtual garage sale vibes and community feel of the platform may not be raking in billions of dollars for Meta, but they\u2019re exactly what keeps users coming back to the site.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never know when that next amazing thing is gonna pop up,\u201d Gaskill said. \u201cThat\u2019s the fun of it. That\u2019s kind of what keeps it addicting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nFrom online garage sale to e-commerce giant<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Gen Z\u2019s new favorite social media<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Finding room to grow<\/strong><\/h2>\n