Meta just launched a standalone app designed to make it easier to sell stuff on Facebook Marketplace, one of the social network’s features that remains popular among young people.
The new Seller app allows frequent Marketplace sellers to manage their listings, inventory, and conversations with potential buyers in one convenient spot. It also provides performance data on things like views, clicks, and sold listings.
And of course, AI is involved.
Users can use the app to upload photos of the items they are trying to sell, and Meta AI can automatically generate a listing with a suggested title, description, category, and price. The app also includes a bulk listing feature that allows sellers to post multiple items at once.
Seller is now available on the Apple App Store. Meta is also testing an Android version and is offering a web experience to people who download the app.
The new app appears to be part of Meta’s strategy to increase engagement among its most active users as it tries to expand beyond its traditional social media feeds.
“I think about these as things that complement the main app, and cater to the more high-intensity user communities,” Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, told The New York Times. “That’s the idea that underpins a lot of what we’re doing this year or trying this year. It’s very early — it’s experimental.”
Marketplace is the perfect fit for this strategy. One in three young adults who use Facebook in the U.S. visits Marketplace every day, according to Meta. Globally, users post about 430 million items and 44 million vehicles on Marketplace each month.
A blog post from Alison also highlighted Forum, its recently launched standalone app for Facebook Groups, as another example of Meta’s push toward “purpose-built apps.”
Seller was also just one of several Facebook updates Meta announced Friday.
The company is also rolling out Facebook Verified, a free badge for users who upload selfies to verify their identity.
Meta also teased that it is going to start testing a new design for a subset of users that launches a full-screen video stream as soon as they open the Facebook app, similar to TikTok.
Additionally, Meta has been looking for more ways to make more money beyond advertising. Earlier this year, the company started rolling out paid subscription plans across its apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta Head of Product Naomi Gleit said in an Instagram post at the time that more plans were on the way for Meta AI, online creators, and businesses.
Those efforts arrive as Meta continues to spend enormous amounts of money on the infrastructure needed to train and run advanced AI models. The company raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to between $125 billion and $145 billion, up from its previous projection of $115 billion to $135 billion.
Still, Meta’s core business remains targeted advertising. During the first three months of 2026, the company generated $56 billion in revenue, $55 billion coming from advertising alone.
However, that business model is now under threat. Meta is facing lawsuits alleging that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to be addictive. European Union regulators have also recently told Meta to make major changes to Facebook and Instagram that would make them less addictive.
In recent years, Meta has spent billions trying and mostly failing to diversify beyond social media, first with virtual reality and now with AI. In the meantime, it seems to be betting that its power users can help keep the company afloat.
Read the full article here
