Facebook to offer live shopping via start-up

Facebook has quietly acquired Packagd, a start-up specialising in live shopping from videos. It is looking to integrate the feature into its Marketplace platform.

Marketplace

Packagd, founded by Eric Feng, and most of its five employees were acquired by Facebook in September, AdAdge writes, even though the takeover was not officially announced by the social media platform. The small team is now working on a Facebook project for a marketplace that will enable users to make purchases while watching live videos. The used goods trading platform was created about three years ago and now has a billion monthly users.

A company spokeswoman confirmed that work in this area is underway. “As we have shared in the past, we are exploring ways to let buyers easily ask questions and place orders within a live video broadcast.”

Live video shopping is becoming increasingly popular, especially in China. Alibaba gladly took the opportunity to use it for Singles’ Day this year, a shopping event with a turnover of 34 billion euros during which Kim Kardashian used live video shopping during her new perfume launch, to add extra hype to the event.