Announcing the launch of Marketplace, Mary Ku, director of product management at Facebook, indicated the function opens with photos of items that people in a specific location have listed for sale. “To find something specific, search at the top and filter your results by location, category, or price.”
According to Ku, the social network has been used for buying and selling in recent years. “This activity started in Facebook Groups and has grown substantially. More than 450 million people visit buy and sell groups each month – from families in a local neighbourhood to collectors around the world.”
The new service is rolling out to users over 18-years-old in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States for iPhone and Android. Facebook indicated it will expand Marketplace to additional countries and make the function available on the desktop version of Facebook in the coming months.
Ku said in an
announcement that Facebook will continue to build new options and features.
The need to do so may have come sooner than the company thought as Marketplace was reportedly flooded with items that violate
Facebook’s commerce policy and community standards.
USA TODAY reported that some of the platform’s users have shared screenshots of sellers offering hedgehogs, dogs, property, and marijuana.
According to USA TODAY, Ku apologised for the occurrence in an emailed statement, noting that a technical issue prevented the company from identifying posts that violated its policies.
“As a result, certain posts with content that violated our policies were made visible to people visiting Marketplace,” Ku’s statement is said to have read. “We are working to fix the problem and will be closely monitoring our systems to ensure we are properly identifying and removing violations before giving more people access to Marketplace.”