Facebook to roll out Marketplace in 3 other African countries in the coming weeks

Just some weeks after rolling out its online classifieds service, Facebook Marketplace,  in South Africa, Facebook says it will be rolling out this service in three new African countries in the coming weeks. They are North African countries – Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.

Facebook Marketplace is a platform where people buy and sell. The Marketplace feature will be available in the three north African countries in English and Arabic on desktop and for iOS and Android mobile users.

“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 of Facebook in MENA and Pakistan.

“The MENA [Middle East & North Africa] region has seen a tremendous growth in online spending along with internet penetration, rising from $2.7 billion to $7.3bn over the last two years,” he adds.

As the service takes root in Africa, does Facebook have the panacea for online classifieds in Africa? Naspers recently announced that it was closing its OLX offices in Sub-Saharan Africa and last year, Saltside Technologies closed down its Efritin office in Nigeria.

Well no date has been given when it will be rolled out to West and East Africa yet.

Facebook launched this service for the second time in 2016.