Meta is launching a new Facebook Marketplace app called Seller

Ten years ago, when Meta noticed that millions of Facebook users were buying and selling items on its platform, it launched a section of the app called Facebook Marketplace for them to do so.

Since then, Marketplace has become one of the most popular parts of Facebook, where people go for what is essentially the Internet’s largest garage sale for clothes, furniture and used cars. On Friday, Meta capitalized on that popularity by launching Seller, a standalone app for Marketplace sellers.

The move was part of Meta’s strategy to innovate on its original social network. In May, the Silicon Valley company released an app called Forums for people who use Facebook Groups, another core part of Facebook, as it seeks to nurture Facebook’s most popular communities beyond its messaging.

Tom Alison, head of Facebook, said the Marketplace app will be to sellers what video editing tools are to content creators.

“I see these as things that complement the core app and cater to more intensive user communities,” he said in an interview. “That’s the idea behind a lot of what we’re doing or trying this year. It’s very early — it’s experimental.”

Facebook, which Mark Zuckerberg founded in his Harvard dorm room in 2004, has faced questions about its relevance in recent years as other social media apps like Instagram have gained popularity. While Meta has shifted its focus to artificial intelligence, the company still earns almost all of its revenue from advertising on Facebook and Instagram. That money also funds its AI investments, which could reach up to $145 billion this year.

Facebook Marketplace was a hit that got people — especially younger users — interested in Facebook. A third of young adults who use Facebook every day also use Marketplace, Mr. Alison said. More than 430 million items, including 44 million vehicles, are listed on Marketplace globally each month.

Last year, Meta laid out a plan for a new set of apps to cater to Facebook’s “power users”, who Mr Alison described as “people who get things done”. In addition to traditional content creators, they include Marketplace sellers and users who run their own Facebook groups.

Users can log into the Seller using their Facebook accounts, which will sync their old listings of items that are for sale. From there, people can navigate between their inbox, a dashboard with data on old records, and a tool to create new ones.

The vendor is free and will also be available in web browsers for users who download the app. Meta earns Marketplace money from in-app ads and does not take a cut of revenue.

The retailer also includes new AI features such as AI photo scanning to auto-populate listings. The goal of AI features is to make selling things less difficult without replacing the human element, Mr. Alison said, which is why many people go to Marketplace.

“What makes the product most interesting is that you meet someone on the other side,” he added.

Meta also introduced a “human verification” feature for Facebook on Friday, which allows users to upload video selfies to verify they’re real people. The free feature gives users who verify themselves a gray badge next to their profile name, so users can trust they’re talking to a real person and not a bot.

Some Facebook Marketplace users who have made a living from the platform said they were excited to try sellers.

“All my business comes from Facebook,” said Claire Whittaker, 53, who was a waitress in San Francisco when she sold her first ceramic succulent bowl on Marketplace in the summer of 2022. That sale turned into a full-time business selling plants and bowls that she does almost exclusively on Marketplace from her apartment.

“The marketplace has changed a lot since then — it’s gotten better,” Ms. Whittaker said, adding that the feature she’d most like to see in the new Marketplace app is customer service. “If it makes my job easier, I’ll try.