PayPal is not coming to Lebanon

by Joe Dyke February 28, 2014

written by Joe Dyke February 28, 2014

A year ago in Beirut, the then general manager of PayPal Middle East Elias Ghanem stood up at the Lebanese branch of the tech festival ArabNet and made an announcement that brought the conference to life. Egypt, he said, would have PayPal within months. Lebanon would have it before the end of 2013. The crowd was excited, and the Middle Eastern blogosphere went wild over a declaration that had the potential to give a huge boost to Middle Eastern e-commerce. Next week, the conference is due to start again. A year on, Egypt is now over six months into its PayPal experience — one that the company’s Middle East business development head Francis Barel describes as a “major success.” The Lebanese launch, however, is not just stuck in the pipeline – it has been taken out of it altogether. Currently, Barel says, there are no specific plans to launch in Lebanon

Joe Dyke

Joe Dyke worked at Executive from 2012 until 2014, mostly as economics and politics editor. He later worked for The New Humanitarian, Agence France Presse (AFP) and is now head of investigations at the civilian harm monitoring organisation Airwars.

15 comments

PayPal Has No Plans To Launch In Lebanon Anymore | Blog Baladi February 28, 2014 - 12:46 PM

[…] to Executive-Magazine’s [article], we won’t be having PayPal anytime soon in […]

Sad times February 28, 2014 - 2:03 PM

What a shame! That is really sad

marwan February 28, 2014 - 10:20 PM

we hope hope Telr.com ‘s purpose would be to make online payments in the region easier.. we need a safer way to shop online..
this is why lebanese dont buy online.. we dont have trust.. if paypal was in lebanon.. you would have seen the number 40-50% of lebanese online shoppers

Mario Awad April 1, 2014 - 11:41 AM

Shame on you PayPal. You promised. You didn’t deliver. Time to get the ball rolling for Lebanon, even if it means a little sacrifice on your end. Lebanon needs all the help it can get! I hope you can reconsider and real soon.

test May 19, 2014 - 4:25 PM

could it be because Lebanon estill enjoys banking secrecy

What is the hype with Telr? | May 27, 2014 - 12:41 PM

[…] all that rosy. Paypal is not likely to be in every market – for example in the Middle East, it will definitely not be in Lebanon for the foreseeable future. Also, PayPal is a closed loop consumer wallet, which means you need to have a PayPal account to […]

Telr hopes to become leading multi-currency, multi-lingual payment gateway in MENA and Southeast Asia | Webrazzi - Tech startup news from Europe, Middle East and North Africa May 28, 2014 - 11:26 AM

[…] transactions in a wider variety of currencies. PayPal may operate in 190 countries, but they are not everywhere and there is a window for Telr to move […]

Telr: The New Revolution In Payment Gateway - TFOUR.ME | TFOUR.ME May 29, 2014 - 8:38 AM

Emma October 18, 2014 - 9:38 PM

We want paypal in Lebanon !! It’s almost 2015 !! Why are we still so closed on ourselves ??

Because Being From Lebanon Is Enough For Being An Unwelcome Customer! | October 30, 2014 - 9:02 AM

[…] available in 193 of 196 countries is not a workaround as Lebanon is one of the three exceptions and may still for a long time alike: Businesses are prevented from buying items they need, bloggers are obliged to ask friends living […]

Don't Get Too Excited About Facebook Payment | Mustapha Hamoui's Geek Blog March 18, 2015 - 8:52 AM

[…] Amazon, it doesn’t look down on my Lebanese credit card). But on the other, whatever reason prevented Paypal from coming to Lebanon (despite all the promises and the sizable demand), it will surely […]

MMM April 27, 2015 - 6:20 PM

I am Lebanese not settled in Lebanon. I am trying to open paypal account from my country. However Lebanese nationality is not listed! I won’t shop from Lebanon and I had given my address outside Lebanon. Just include the nationality at least!!!

What’s with the hype with Telr? | Telr June 17, 2015 - 3:48 PM

Louay April 18, 2017 - 11:49 PM

I think Mr. Andy khawaja will find a solution

david July 20, 2017 - 2:44 AM

as long as terrosirt Hezbollah in Lebanon,paypal will never provide services there

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PayPal is not coming to Lebanon

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15 comments