Choose a New Industry for Facebook to Expand Into and Defend the Bet

As a product manager at Meta, recommend the next vertical Facebook should expand into. Commit to one choice and explain why it beats the other options you considered. ```hint Start from what Facebook already has Before naming industries, list the assets a newcomer could not copy. The strongest vertical is the one where those assets matter most, not simply the biggest market. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the main goal new revenue beyond ads, deeper engagement from existing users, or progress on Meta's mission of bringing people together, and how should I weigh them? - Does "vertical" mean an industry Facebook would serve end to end, such as healthcare or travel, or can it be a new product category inside the app, the way Marketplace and Dating were? - Should the bet live inside the Facebook app, or can it span Meta's other apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp? - Am I looking for something that can launch within a year, or a multi-year bet? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear objective for the expansion and evaluation criteria tied to it: user demand, Facebook's right to win, business fit, and trust and regulatory risk - A short list of candidate verticals compared on those criteria, with a reason for dropping each one not chosen - A single recommendation grounded in specific Facebook assets such as the friend graph, Groups, Pages, Messenger and Marketplace - A first product and entry sequence, with a north-star metric and guardrails - Honest risks, including Meta's trust and privacy history and incumbent competitors, with mitigations ### Follow-up Questions - What evidence after the first year would make you shut the vertical down? - How would you solve the cold-start problem on the supply side of your chosen vertical? - Why build it rather than partner with or acquire an existing player?