Smart Contracts are in NXT, Ethereum and Bitshares also and the decentrilized market place is also there. Why then BitBay ?
Because nobody has actually won the race to real world implementation yet. (Actual use of any importance) Bitbay isn't the only one I own, but I think it is a solid option and cheap.
BlackHalo and BitHalo won the smart contract race in May. There was fully functional software with user interface and fully customizable contracts. Since then, the Halo tech has become even more expansive.
Smart contracts are not in any of those projects you mentioned. First off, Etherium doesnt exist and has scaling issues(bloat). Etherium also said there is a chance they will never exist. It was in the disclaimer that nobody read. Counterparty only released an article and their implementation is too bulky on the blockchain. Bitcoin core actually banned certain Counterparty and Mastercoin addresses. NXT doesnt have smart contracts only a concept. Bitshares doesnt have smart contracts, please show me a user interface and describe what it can be used for. None of them have markets either. There is only right now, some sparse derivative markets with very basic UI in counterparty and ultracoin
This is totally different. Its an entire economy. Also, its faster than Bitmessage, decentralized, does not suffer from bloat and has no single point of failure. It grants wishes.

Halo is the only functional smart contracting client and has been for over a year. It was the first in the world. Also, they are the only ones with a full interface and encrypted email and bitmessage.

Since Bitbay is joining with Halo, BitBay will be getting all of these resources.
If a market place like this ever became as big as eBay then it would need its own blockchain for sure. It wouldn't surprise me if eBay had more buys than there are Bitcoin trades, I bet their server costs are ridiculous.