Facebook will roll out its online shopping feature Marketplace in Egypt, Morocco and Algeria in the coming weeks, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to Ahram Online.
Users can buy and sell items on the peer-to-peer selling platform, which will be available in Arabic for the first time, according to an e-mailed press release.
“With an existing community of 164 million active monthly users in the Arab world, Facebook already has an audience that spends a lot of time on the platform – adding a mobile commerce function can help cement Facebook as the go-to app for almost all of one’s Internet-related needs,” said Jonathan Labin, the Managing Director, Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan at Facebook.
Online spending in the MENA region grew from $2.7 billion to $7.3 billion over the last two years, Labin added.
The platform will be available on mobile and desktop and will be rolled out to iOS and Android users.
“People looking to use Marketplace can tap the new shopfront icon in the latest version of the Facebook app, while desktop users can click on a dedicated Marketplace tab,” the release said.
Marketplace was first launched in the United States in 2016 and is available in 51 other countries.
Source: Ahram online
