Facebook launches Facebook Marketplace in Egypt

Facebook has launched its buy and sell feature “Marketplace” in Egypt, enabling people to use the platform to discover, buy, and sell items. The feature is now available in Arabic on mobile and desktop.

Egypt is the first country in MENA to be able to buy and sell items through the platform.

The service, first introduced in the United States in 2016, is currently available in 51 other countries and is restricted to people aged 18 and above.

🔖 See Also: Facebook Marketplace Step-by-Step Guide

What is Facebook Marketplace?

Marketplace allows people to list and browse items for sale and filter results by location, price, or categories such as furniture, electronics, and apparel. 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. Buyers and sellers can communicate with each other using Messenger and negotiate the terms of the sale. They can also keep track of all current and past transactions in the ‘Your Items’ section.

Jonathan Labin, Managing Director, Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan at Facebook, said, “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. The MENA region has seen tremendous growth in online spending and internet penetration, rising from $2.7 billion to $7.3 billion over the last two years. 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.”

Sell and buy safely on Marketplace.

Facebook also helps people trade safely on Marketplace by offering safety tips, privacy controls, and easy to use reporting tools on its Help Centre. Items, products, or services sold on Marketplace must also comply with Facebook Community Standards and Commerce Policies. People can easily block and report illegal items, bad sellers, and unwanted Messenger conversations from either the item listing or within the messenger conversation.

The platform has also built a variety of tools to help rights owners protect their IP rights on Marketplace, which includes tailored reporting forms to report content as well as a specialized tool to efficiently identify and report content that brands think to infringe their IP on Marketplace, buy-sell groups, and ads.