Facebook’s buy-and-sell Marketplace could be a big headache for Carousell

Carousell CEO Quek Siu Rui (L) and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (R) / Photo credit: Carousell

Facebook quietly launched Marketplace, its consumer-to-consumer (C2C) platform for buying and selling used items, in Singapore last month.

While the social media behemoth’s entry will rustle feathers in Southeast Asia’s crowded ecommerce space, it’s Singaporean C2C portal Carousell that arguably has the most to be concerned about.

First launching in the US in 2016, Marketplace evolved from Facebook groups that users set up for trading second-hand goods. It is live in 47 countries other than Singapore, mainly in North America and Europe. Prior to arriving in the city-state, Thailand was its only other Southeast Asian market.

Facebook’s key rival

According to Applyzer, Carousell’s iPhone app is the second most downloaded free app in the shopping category for Singapore at time of writing – Alibaba’s AliExpress nabbed top spot from it on February 9 – and takes 139th place in Thailand.

It is also the 24th most downloaded free iPhone shopping app in Taiwan, 32nd in New Zealand, 43rd in Australia, and 180th in India – the four other Asia-Pacific markets where Facebook Marketplace is available.

Facebook – which is the world’s top company in terms of app downloads across both Apple’s and Google’s app stores, according to App Annie – does not have a separate app for Marketplace, making it difficult to ascertain the platform’s popularity. But its main app is among the top three in Applyzer’s free social and networking category across all six markets.

So while it may be entering the scene later than Carousell, Marketplace already boasts significant penetration across the region.

Singapore’s South Beach Tower (R) houses Facebook’s Asia-Pacific headquarters / Photo credit: Pixabay

Lawrence Cheok, senior research manager at IDC, told Tech in Asia that Facebook’s entry into C2C ecommerce “warrants strategic concerns” for Carousell.

“Facebook’s relative advantage is its broader user base in [Carousell’s] target countries. Communities of users are already actively using Facebook as a pseudo-trading platform through Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups. Such consumer activities reflect market potential and this is likely one of the reasons which prompted Facebook Marketplace’s Singapore launch,” he said.

Marketplace is unlikely to be considered a direct competitor to the region’s throng of business-to-consumer (B2C) platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba’s Lazada, and Sea’s Shopee – for now, at least.

See: Amazon launches full Prime membership in Singapore after ending free US shipping

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