Facebook launches a dedicated Marketplace app for sellers

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1:40Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18+. Facebook launches a dedicated marketplace app for sellers. I'm Imran Shaikh and your Weekend Crunch featuring three big tech headlines starts right now. Patreon is laying off 20 % of its workforce or 93 people, CEO Jack Conte told employees on Thursday. In a memo to staff that was shared online by the company, Conte said Patreon's core business is strong, but that the platform has to respond to market changes and adjust its cost structure to remain stable, which is why he needs to make the painful but necessary cuts.

2:24Conte wrote that AI has fundamentally transformed the tech industry and that the pace of change has never been more intense. However, Conte went on to note that Patreon isn't making the cuts because it wants to replace employees with AI. The more we have learned to use these new tools, the clearer it has become that they are not substitutes for the creativity, judgment, detail, orientation, or craftsmanship that our teammates have in spades, he wrote. Nor do they replace the desire for human connection that all of us cherish so deeply. Our product vision and business are both predicated on the value of human creativity and human connection.

3:02Beyond the headcount reduction, Conti said Patreon is also restructuring how it operates, flattening its organizational chart and refocusing teams around its top priorities. Affected employees will receive at least 16 weeks of severance pay, plus an additional week for every year worked. healthcare coverage through the end of the year, and a$1 ,500 stipend to replace their company laptop. The move came as online publishers and creators are grappling with AI companies using their work to train AI models. On Thursday, OpenAI said it has updated its ChatGPT desktop app to add support for ChatGPT voice, allowing users to talk to the app to control AI agents and perform tasks on their computer.

3:47The new feature taps OpenAI's new family of voice models called ChatGPT Live, which it launched earlier this month. OpenAI said ChatGPT Voice works with both ChatGPT Work and Codex and can also tap computer use skills to look up websites and apps. Plus, on macOS, with app shots, users can let the app access what's on their screen, including alt text. At launch, ChatGPT Voice's smartphone version featured smoother conversations with better interruption handling, but it was not built to take action on smartphones. Thursday's desktop update is more capable, allowing users to dictate complex commands involving many steps and respond when ChatGPT needs their input.

4:29In a demo video, OpenAI showed a developer asking ChatGPT to create a new thread, making a pull request, and find the root cause for a bug with one command. The company said that users can utilize ChatGPT voice in codecs from the iOS app through remote access. Anthropic has also updated its voice mode for Claude, which can tap the company's Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku models to complete tasks in apps like Gmail, Calendar, Slack, Notion, and Canva. Today, Facebook is rolling out new updates in a bid to increase engagement and make the platform more organized for its users. You see, in the offing are new apps for sellers on Marketplace, a verification system to prove you are human on services like dating, Marketplace end groups, and a new immersive design for video.

5:20Facebook Marketplace sees more than 430 million monthly listings, and with more than 1.1 billion active users, it is a big reason younger folks still use the platform. To keep this momentum going, Facebook is launching a separate app for people who list and sell items on the platform frequently. Dubbed Seller, the app lets sellers manage their listings, message buyers, and track the performance of items. Facebook's also rolling out a free verification system called Facebook Verified, not to be confused with MetaVerified, which lets you subscribe for a verification mark and other features. The new system lets people take a selfie to verify their authenticity as a real user, and then the verification mark will show up on their profile across Facebook dating, marketplace, and groups.

6:06The verified mark looks like a checkmark within a white circle, unlike the blue badge you can get by paying for meta-verified. The company said it's also testing an optional immersive full-screen video view for the Facebook app that pops up as soon as you open it. This update will initially be rolled out to video-heavy international markets and make its way to the U.S. next year. New app releases are turning into a routine course of action for Meta, which has ramped up its app development to engage different sets of users. In May, it debuted a Reddit-like app for Facebook groups called Forum, and this month, it released a vibe-coding app called Pocket.

6:45And folks, that's your Daily Crunch. Today's stories were reported by Asha Malik, Ivan Mehta, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists. We'll see you here next week, and until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.

7:18pricing may be lower than real pricing