Facebook users in US can now order food from the platform

Facebook Inc said users in the United States would be able to order food through the Facebook pages of restaurants starting on Wednesday as part of its efforts to connect users and businesses.  Users will also be able to get quotes from businesses, buy movie tickets and book appointments at spas and salons, Facebook said in a blog post.

Earlier this month, Facebook launched “Marketplace”, a platform that allows people to buy and sell items locally. Facebook, which has about 1.7 billion monthly active users, also said on Wednesday it would add a “recommendations” feature that will allow users to share recommendations on such things as places to eat.

Facebook shares were up 0.8 percent at $129.58 in early trading. Shares of GrubHub Inc, which offers a food ordering service similar to that announced by Facebook, were down 2.4 percent at $41.07. This comes right after the company announced that now users can schedule Facebook lives.

Scheduling lives will help users and brands to amass questions in advance and Facebook sends a notification to all users when the scheduled live starts. This feature is currently limited to verified users and brand pages.

With inputs from Reuters