Facebook launched their marketplace place service over the weekend to allow Facebook users to create classified ads. There was an interesting interview last week with Mark Zuckerberg in the NY Times. What I found really interesting was Mark’s comment:

“There are no anonymous listings, and we give you a very clear path to see how you can trust the other person you are conducting business with,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

No more anonymous listings… Is this a good thing for classified advertising? I’m not sure. Do most people want to sell their old car, TV, couch, computer etc.. to someone they know.

I recently sold some Police tickets for a small fortune, approximately 600% margin. I’m not sure I would feel comfortable making that sort of margin off someone I know. It will be interesting to see if the Facebook marketplace can achieve the level of success that Craigslist has achieved with a very smart anonymous classified system.

Disclosure: I work for Trader Corporation which operates several classified publications and websites.