Thoughts on the Facebook MarketPlace

[minivanman]

A few weeks ago Facebook changed up Market Place (Seems really slow to post things now). Today Facebook changed the entire look of Facebook (Not a fan of the new look but I have no say-so in it)...... are they getting ready to start charging for Market Place? If so, they are going to mess up my easy ways that I sell things. lol I hope not but it's not the end of the world if they do. I'll move to 5miles and OfferUp. I don't get on FB except to sell things.

 

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[LordGanon]

Actually, the oligopolists all made a move to make more profit from their market positions.

There's no free commercial placement on ebay anymore (of course, there has always been the provisional fee, which is hefty with at least 9%). You'll have to set up shop (and the price tag is unbelievable, 50€ smallest package).

Facebook will charge for the market place. And this applies to all groups which sell things. All of them. Even local buy/sell.

Amazon went massively down with affiliate payments (I think they cut them by 50% in most product categories), which somehow is f*cked up, because they made a lot of money during shutdown.

Shopify will probably become the solution for a lot of people. But...you'll have to pay to Facebook or Google to drive traffic. That's the way things are.

And they all have their own payment system in place. Time to look for alternatives. Or create them.

 

[minivanman]

Actually, the oligopolists all made a move to make more profit from their market positions.

There's no free commercial placement on ebay anymore (of course, there has always been the provisional fee, which is hefty with at least 9%). You'll have to set up shop (and the price tag is unbelievable, 50€ smallest package).

Facebook will charge for the market place. And this applies to all groups which sell things. All of them. Even local buy/sell.

Amazon went massively down with affiliate payments (I think they cut them by 50% in most product categories), which somehow is f*cked up, because they made a lot of money during shutdown.

Shopify will probably become the solution for a lot of people. But...you'll have to pay to Facebook or Google to drive traffic. That's the way things are.

And they all have their own payment system in place. Time to look for alternatives. Or create them.

I have a website that now brings in probably 1/2 of my sales but Market Place was so convenient. I guess I can always shut it all down and make Youtube videos if it doesn't go how I want it to go. I just hate editing though.....

 

[Kid]

How they will deal with chargebacks?

or is it that you'll have to pay to "list" ad and user won't pay on FB.

 

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[minivanman]

How they will deal with chargebacks?

or is it that you'll have to pay to "list" ad and user won't pay on FB.

Right now, the way they have it, there are no charge backs. Once you pay with Facebook, it's a done deal.

 

[Hadrian]

oligopolists

Brilliant!

 

[LordGanon]

Brilliant!

How?

 

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[Hadrian]

Was it a play on the Apple monopoly debate thread? Where it doesn’t fit the specific definition but in reality it mostly is... we call this a cartel in Ireland but Oligopolists is a terrific term!

 

[LordGanon]

Was it a play on the Apple monopoly debate thread? Where it doesn’t fit the specific definition but in reality it mostly is... we call this a cartel in Ireland but Oligopolists is a terrific term!

We call it a cartel, too, but when we call it a cartel, it kinda implies something criminal. We even have a special law enforcement agency for that.

It really IS a question we gotta ask ourselves, very soon. Amazon and ebay share such a large percentage of all eCommerce that you can't really talk about a free market anymore. I know of a few people, for example, who got kicked off ebay for political reasons. Courts always argue "It's private companies, they can do business with whomever they want to or not". But if private companies become the de facto market, this argument can't hold up anymore.

 

[Kid]

free market anymore

Free doesn't mean evenly distributed.

 

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[LordGanon]

Free doesn't mean evenly distributed.

Sorry. Can't be that private companies basically decide who can do business and who can do not, especially not for political reasons. Not in a democracy. Not that I endorse democracy, but while we call the given system that and everybody hypes it like cut bread, it should at least play by its own rules.

 

[Kid]

Sorry. Can't be that private companies basically decide who can do business and who can do not, especially not for political reasons. Not in a democracy. Not that I endorse democracy, but while we call the given system that and everybody hypes it like cut bread, it should at least play by its own rules.

This is funny topic, b/c i have first hand experience, in what democracy and business means.

I'll give you a scenario that fails your sense of justice.

Lets say you have business. A small one - 10% of a diverse market.
Now lets say the remaining 90% of your competitors vote for banning you from the market.
Some governor sings a bill,bill goes into law, and according that law you're out.

You might try to sue the gov, but lets say that judge doesn't buy your version.
And you're gone. Nothing you can do.

Now you basically said that majority should have right to decide what anyone else should do.

Make your conclusion.

 

[LordGanon]

This is funny topic, b/c i have first hand experience, in what democracy and business means.

I'll give you a scenario that fails your sense of justice.

Lets say you have business. A small one - 10% of a diverse market.
Now lets say the remaining 90% of your competitors vote for banning you from the market.
Some governor sings a bill,bill goes into law, and according that law you're out.

You might try to sue the gov, but lets say that judge doesn't buy your version.
And you're gone. Nothing you can do.

Now you basically said that majority should have right to decide what anyone else should do.

Make your conclusion.

It seems to me that you misinterpreted what I was aiming at on purpose. But, seeing that the problem in communication could also have been me, I'll answer.

Exactly for the scenario you're describing I deem democracy an idiotic and flawed system in many ways.

The problem is that by allowing or hindering market entrance based on political views, you're effectively keeping people from economically sustaining themselves, and thereby indirectly threaten them with starvation, should they stick to their ideology.

Every functioning democracy has laws in place that aim to prevent a scenario like this, so everybody is able to freely express his opinion and vote as he or she wants to.

 

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[Kid]

Thanks for reply Ganon.

The problem is that by allowing or hindering market entrance based on political views, you're effectively keeping people from economically sustaining themselves, and thereby indirectly threaten them with starvation, should they stick to their ideology.

There is one assumption that is made in this statement.
This assumption is that people cannot sustain themselves outside of the monopoly/oligopoly.
And its wrong assumption.

Apple, Facebook and others don't have monopoly on "business".
They have monopoly on premium app store, social apps/pages etc.
I wish you well so i hope that you'll get that there are more opportunities
than being inside monopoly's market or having to adhere to their political ideology.