Egypt Among First in the Region to Get Facebook Marketplace
In a bid to tap into the region’s online trade scene, the social media giant aims to bring consumer and sellers together in one place.
Social media mammoth Facebook announced earlier this Monday that it will be launching its tried and true Marketplace platform in the Middle East, starting with Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco over the span of the next few weeks.
Initially launched in the US on October of 2016, the Marketplace is Facebook’s solution to buying and selling within the user’s area. Instead of wasting time having to join a dozen groups to find an item you need or put one up on offer, you can just head over to the Marketplace on either your desktop or the Facebook app and start trading with people in your local community. You don’t need a separate app, and you can use your own Facebook account to use it. “Over 550 million people globally use Facebook today to buy and sell items in local communities. Marketplace builds on this momentum to create a single destination for people to discover, buy and sell items,” said Jonathan Labin, Managing Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan at Facebook.
Facebook’s Marketplace in the Middle East can only find prosperity; with a relatively recent massive surge in online spending, going from US $2.7 billion to US $7.3 billion over the span of just two years. So a move like this only helps to benefit both Facebook and the common Arab consumer, regardless of the region’s hesitation to rely on online spending due to fears of being scammed. Facebook aims to curb raw deals with its safety tips, privacy, and reporting tools as well as its commerce policies feature.
