11th Aug 2007
Buy.com launches Garage Sale for Facebook
Buy.com has launched a Facebook application to promote it classified sales service. Buy.com generally competes with ebay for both auction and classified sales but offers a flat rate comission regardless of the size of the purchase. The new application aims to connect buyer and sell inside the Facebook community. The Garage Sale application lets users display items they have for sale on their profile pages and promote that they have items for sale to friends they think might be interested.
Facebook already has a classified application called Market Place, that is installed by default for all users. The Buy.com Garage Sale will need to be installed by users to use the service but aims to differentiate from the Market Place application by providing a payment system inside of the Facebook environment. Buyers will be able to purchase immediately through the system and the seller will his proceeds minus a 5% cut from Buy.com.
Its an interesting business model but its not clear how necessary or relevant a payment system will be for Facebook based classified sales. In most cases its expected that Facebook classified sales will be local and with goods being exchanged for cash. Buy.com is probably not the last service to enter into the extremely popular Facebook platform.
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