Facebook has ventured into the group buying arena, testing a new “Buy with Friends” feature, which lets users share deals on virtual goods.
Discussing the feature at a conference on Tuesday, Facebook’s commerce product marketing manager Deb Liu said more than 50% of users in a test program elected to share their purchases.
The feature will also let one user ‘unlock’ a deal and then share that same deal or discount with friends who can take advantage of the fact that it’s already been unlocked.
Forbes reports that users could share information about their purchases in their news feed, but sharing that info will let others “unlock” a deal related to the product being discussed.
Facebook launched its Deals product late last year so that businesses can offer various deals as a reward for check-ins on Facebook Places.
The move puts the social networking giant in competition with the Likes of Groupon and Living Social, which popularised the group-buying scheme last year.
