BERLIN: The “Facebook”-logo on the sidelines of a press preview of the so-called “Facebook Innovation Hub” in Berlin. Facebook yesterday launched a new online “Marketplace” allowing members of the huge social network to buy and sell with each other. —AFP

NEW YORK: Facebook says some 450 million people use its site - mainly the "Groups" feature - to buy and sell stuff locally, anything from cars to baby clothes to furniture. Now, the company is launching a separate "marketplace" section that seeks to make it easier to do this.

The last time Facebook tried its hand at such a marketplace was nine years ago, and it didn't really go anywhere. Like Facebook itself at the time, it was a desktop computer-only product. The latest effort, or course, works on mobile devices, so it's easier to snap a photo of the item you are selling and upload it on the site. Facebook Inc said yesterday the most popular items people currently buy and sell on the service include furniture, cars and clothes. Facebook said the new program formalizes what some members have already been doing in Facebook Groups for years.

"Facebook is where people connect, and in recent years more people have been using Facebook to connect in another way: buying and selling with each other," said product manager Mary Ku in a blog post.

"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 neighborhood to collectors around the world." The new feature helps facilitate this with "a convenient destination to discover, buy and sell items with people in your community," Ku said. Marketplace will display photos of items for sale based on proximity, and users can adjust their location and search for specific items or categories such as clothing, household items or electronics. The new feature will be rolling out to over-18 users in the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand in the coming days on the Facebook app for iPhone and Android, with additional countries and a desktop version in the coming months.

Messenger chat app

Facebook is also launching a "lite" version of it Messenger chat app. It is aimed at emerging markets, where many people use older phones that don't have enough room to store or ability to run the full-featured application due to slower internet speeds or other issues.

"Messenger Lite" will be available on Android devices in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela beginning on Monday. The company did not say when it would be available in other countries or whether it is also coming to Apple devices (although Android is far more popular in emerging markets than even older iPhones).

There is already a "Facebook Lite" available for people whose phones are too old or simple to run the full-fledged Facebook. Messenger Lite is a similarly slimmed-down version of Messenger. It will let people send text, photos and links but won't do video calls, for example.

The move comes as the social media giant moves to force users to adopt Messenger if they want to send each other direct messages, instead of the main Facebook site or app. It is working: more than 1 billion people use Messenger each month. For a while, there was a loophole - you could log in to Facebook's mobile website to access messages. But Facebook is ending this option, too, so Messenger will be people's only option.

David Marcus, head of messaging products at Facebook Inc, said in an interview that Messenger's goal is to be a "product for everyone, not only people who can afford a higher-end device and more expensive data plan."

He called the web-based messaging experience on Facebook a "remnant of the past" and added that he "can't think of any other mobile messaging service that has a web version."

Facebook, he said, decided on the five initial countries to launch Messenger Lite in because there are a lot of Messenger users in these countries on older devices. WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Facebook but operated as a separate entity, is also popular in emerging markets. Marcus said people use the apps for different reasons and they are not in direct competition. WhatsApp also has more than 1 billion users, and many people use both services. - AP