Meta is counting on Gen Z's love of a good deal to attract more young users to Facebook.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is aware that the social network he founded 20 years ago has fallen out of favor with teenagers and young adults — ironically, its original audience. To many, it's now just seen as that place where your aunt might repost "inspirational" quotes or where someone you didn't like from high school shares their wedding photos. Gen Z is far more likely to use Snapchat or TikTok instead.
But Zuck said in July that a couple of years ago Meta started focusing the app more on younger adults. And one major thing that's been getting people to use Facebook: its Marketplace feature.
Facebook Marketplace has "seen particular traction with young adults" and has been "one of the drivers of strength in young adults" for Meta, said CFO Susan Li during Meta's Q2 earnings call last month.
Marketplace is a Facebook-hosted shopping platform that allows users to buy and sell items locally and beyond. It's akin to Craigslist but without the anonymity, since you have to have a Facebook account to use it. That adds a layer of comparative security and traceability.
Max Willens, a social media analyst for Business Insider's sister company, Emarketer, said that Marketplace is a feature that's "quite attractive to Gen Z users," and its competitors can't copy it so easily.
"If Meta wants to keep drawing young people onto Facebook, it should find ways to position Facebook as a place to get stuff they want, for cheap," Willens told BI.
Whether it's an ad for a $300 used Ikea couch or a closet clean-out, Marketplace is the digital version of a cardboard "Yard Sale" sign, drawing you to a place where you can find secondhand items at a reasonable price.
Karissa Franklin, a 28-year-old New Yorker, said that she uses it two to three times a month when she wants to refresh her wardrobe or buy new furniture.
"I really only use Facebook for Marketplace," Franklin said. "You can make offers and negotiate with people, so you're always going to pay way less than retail."
The bargains can be sweet, but Marketplace isn't completely scam-proof. People can still create fake profiles and listings, but Franklin said not sending payments before seeing an item is a good rule of thumb.
Among social media users, Marketplace is the most popular social commerce platform, according to Capital One Shopping research.
In an average month, up to 1.228 billion online shoppers worldwide make a purchase from Facebook Marketplace, and 51.2% of all social media users made their latest social media purchase from it.
Gen Z's love of thrifting vintage or secondhand items makes them a particularly well-suited demographic for a product like Marketplace.
Young social media users upload hauls of items they snagged steeply discounted, if not free, from Facebook Marketplace, or post lists of keywords they use to filter for the best results, including terms like "vintage" and "MCM," referring to midcentury modern style.
Thanks in part to Marketplace, Zuckerberg is "particularly pleased with the progress that we're making with young adults on Facebook," he said in the earnings call last month.
"The numbers we are seeing, especially in the US, really go against the public narrative around who's using the app," he said. "A couple of years ago, we started focusing our apps more on 18- to 29-year-olds and it's good to see that those efforts are driving good results."
