Facebook has finally announced its procurement of the consumer driven website, TheFind, on March 13, 2015. This recent purchase has just proved the new direction that Facebook is heading to – connecting people to products. This is a bold move that might just help the eCommerce sector all around the world. Just imagine a billion people being linked to the products that they wish to buy at the best price available.
TheFind also announced through their website of the changes that will happen on that same Friday. The title of the announcement was clear and direct to the point. It states, “We are joining Facebook!” When TheFind was originally launched in 2006, its vision was to provide a search engine that linked consumers to different eCommerce websites and enabled consumers to compare prices. TheFind’s search engine also had a geographical locator that will automatically link consumers to products that are sold locally. Now that Facebook has purchased TheFind, the latter’s search engine will cease to exist and instead transition to Facebook through its ads. Thus the announcement at TheFind’s website, “Key members of our team are joining the company and will be working hard to integrate our technology to make the ads you see on Facebook every day better and more relevant to you.”
The promise to connect people to products will now be made true through the Facebook ads. Each personal Facebook account will have featured Facebook ads that are directly connected to TheFind’s product finder. The Facebook ads that will appear on every Facebook account will be dependent on the Facebook likes the account owner has clicked on. In effect, every Facebook account will have personalized Facebook ads according to the user’s interests. This is actually very smart of Facebook. What they are trying to figure out now is how to make the system work with no glitches. Facebook has actually been trying to perform some tests regarding online purchases and online credits. This dates as far back as July 2014, but never did Facebook make any huge step towards eCommerce until almost a year after.
Everyone is now anticipating the new changes that will soon unfold in Facebook. Analysts predict that this move will really boost both local and international retailing companies. It will likewise change the mindset of Facebook users from being purely social to something commercial. People now will spend the same amount of time on Facebook but will transition from who’s available online to what’s available online. Soon this online marketing scheme will evolve to an offline scheme, which will enable people to see what’s available even if they do not have a direct connection online.
It is going to be an exciting year for Facebook which has yet again set another milestone in the digital world. It does continue to rebrand and reshape which will make its competitors stay on their toes. It is really true that Facebook is the current leader in terms of online innovation and it will surely stay at pole position in the coming years to come.
Images: hngn.com, venturebeat.com
