When it comes to online shopping, you should pity us poor souls in the Gulf and the wider Middle East. There’s no Amazon and no eBay. We’ve only had our own iTunes store for a couple of months (Apple officially launched its UAE iTunes store in December of 2012). When we refer to online and shopping in the Gulf, what we really mean is messaging our friends on BBM or Whatsapp while roaming the nearest/biggest mall in town.
There are some brave souls who are trying to make a difference and fight the good fight. One of my favorite sites is Dubizzle, which specializes in online classified advertising across 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Basically put, whatever you need, you’ll find it being sold on Dubizzle.
And now comes the fun part. I wouldn’t have thought that people in this region would take to the internet to buy cars, but after receiving a number of stats from Dubizzle’s very friendly marketing manager I’ve been proved completely wrong. Have a look at the below Infographic and then tell me why we don’t have more e-commerce companies operating in this region.
You think people don’t buy cars online? Have a look at this, and think again.
Alex of Arabia's Blog 
Absolutely fascinating info Alex – thank you for sharing your fabulous insights, I love receiving your posts 🙂
How do they know a car is sold through Dubizzle? I use Dubizzle a lot and think it is a great site, but verification on that data is needed as having sold items through the site, I have never had follow up surveys to ask if I sold an item or not
I can totally understand the figures in terms of how many advertised, and how many views…but how many sold?
I agree with Brett, i am a dubizzle addict, sold and bought many things (including cars) and there was no single survay or notification of the process completion.
When i sold my car, i removed the Ad, and thats about it.
Would love to know how does dubizzle know if i actually sold my car or just changed my mind and deleted the ad.
Thank you
Thanks Nicole for the kind comment. I aim to please. Sami and Brett, I hear you and I’ll head over to Dubizzle and ask them just that question.