🛒  Facebook is the new eBay

Where do you go if you need an old-timey popcorn maker, a set of eight dining chairs, and a baby grand piano?

Facebook Marketplace, of course. (And yes, those were the first results for a Boston-based search.)

We all know that Facebook has fallen from grace. Once atop the social media hierarchy as the place to be, it’s become a relic of the past where estranged relatives post annually for your birthday.

The numbers back it up: Teen usership of Facebook dropped from 71% in 2014 to 33% in 2023, according to a Pew Research Center survey. In its place, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat reign supreme.

But Facebook has one feature that keeps young users from deleting their accounts: Marketplace, which Gen Zers are using regularly to shop, per The New York Times.

• Facebook Marketplace, which launched in 2016, has 1B+ monthly active users and ~40% of Facebook’s 3B+ users shop on Marketplace.
• An estimated 491m users log into Facebook just to use Marketplace.
• In 2022, the number of Marketplace users increased 3.6% YoY.

Now, Marketplace ranks just behind eBay as the second most popular site for secondhand shopping in the US.

That checks out

Some prefer Marketplace to good ol’ Craigslist because of the familiarity of the social platform and its perceived trustworthiness — buyers can chat with sellers via Messenger and view their profiles and ratings to gather more information.

(Though there are definitely still scammers; Meta has some tips for avoiding them.)

Plus, young shoppers love buying secondhand. It’s cost-effective — an important factor when you’re young and inflation is up — and it’s more sustainable than buying new, something Gen Z also values.

Not to mention, that generation is increasingly shopping directly through social media: According to a 2023 study, 68% of Gen Z consumers search for products on social media, and 22% complete those purchases — the highest rate across all generations.

Among social commerce options, Facebook comes out on top: Over 51% of all social media shoppers made their most recent purchase on Marketplace.

Now we’re about to add to that stat — gotta go make an offer on that popcorn machine.

37: Percent of people who lie “frequently” when applying for a job, according to a 2023 ResumeLab survey of 1.9k+ workers. A slightly lower percentage — 33% — admitted to lying “once or twice.” Job seekers often lie about their education, but they’re not the only fibbers in the process — another study found that 40% of hiring managers also lie to applicants, often about responsibilities or growth opportunities, per Fast Company.

900m: Monthly active Telegram users as of March 2024. Despite the fact that only ~25% of Americans are aware Telegram exists, the messaging platform that emphasizes privacy has seen steady growth since its 2013 debut, largely in India, South America, and Russia, per Chartr.

8.5: Number of times stunt driver Logan Holladay rolled a modified Jeep Grand Cherokee for the upcoming action-comedy The Fall Guy, breaking a Guinness World Record previously achieved by Adam Kirley, who rolled an Aston Martin 7x while filming Casino Royale (2006). The stunt is called a “cannon roll” and involves detonating a device under the vehicle to propel the car into several rolls. (You can watch Holladay do it in this video.)

4,240: Number of book titles flagged for censorship across US schools and libraries in 2023, a 65% YoY increase, per data from the American Library Association. Of those books, ~47% were by or about LGBTQ+ people or people of color. The ALA will release the top 10 most challenged book titles for Right to Read Day on April 8.