Facebook Downplays Payments in New Marketplace—For Now

Facebook officially launched Marketplace today to make it easier for its users to buy and sell stuff with others near them. But for the time being, Facebook is keeping the payments aspect of this project at arm's length.

Even though Facebook has Messenger in place as a person-to-person payments tool, Facebook is informing Marketplace users that payments and payment type for any deals consummated on the site are to be negotiated through the parties involved. Currently, Marketplace transactions take place only among those living in the same area, making payment arrangements easier.

Still, Facebook has plans to further develop payment acceptance through Messenger bots, a project that Messenger chief David Marcus revealed this month.Currently, Marketplace users posting items to sell do so through a license created through Facebook partner Oodle.

Facebook Messenger has more than 1 billion users, putting the service in a spot to easily support Marketplace in the future if the social media giant looks to tie the two together after the first phase of the e-commerce service.

To effectively compete against eBay or Craigslist, Facebook could look to enhance the user experience with some sort of embedded payment method.

Facebook users previously sold items to each other through the site's Groups feature, but Facebook says Marketplace makes it easier for users to take pictures of items, upload them and wait for offers.

When Square launched Square Market three years ago, it set up the e-commerce storefront for micro merchants with the ability to set pricing, monitor sales and accept Square payments through an online dashboard.