Oodle raises round, plans to relaunch Facebook Marketplace soon
More people will have more stuff to buy and sell informally during a recession, classified advertising network Oodle might hope. It has just raised $5.6 million from existing investors, presumably to help itself do well during the current economic conditions.
San Mateo, Calif. based Oodle also says it has passed 10 million visits in January. These are visits that I assume didn’t just come from Oodle’s site, but from its ads that run across sites and services provided by companies like Comcast, Wal-Mart and MySpace. The company has also won the rights to take over Facebook’s less-than-successful classifieds "Marketplace" application - the relaunched version of Marketplace will be launched later this quarter, Oodle says.
Indeed, "social media offers different opportunities for classified advertising than traditional media,” says Redpoint Ventures founding partner Geoff Yang. He adds, mysteriously, that “Oodle is pioneering ‘social classifieds’ which uniquely combine commerce, social interaction, and an entertainment experience. This company could be a key player in changing the economics of social media.” We’ll see what that these unique social classified ads turn out to be.
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