MercadoLibre.com

MercadoLibre

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Traded as	NASDAQ: MELI
Founded	August 2, 1999
Headquarters	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Area served	Latin America
Key people	Marcos Galperin (Chairman, President & Chief executive officer) ; Pedro Arnt (Vice president & Chief financial officer) ; Stelleo Tolda (Vice president & Chief operating officer) ; Osvaldo Giménez (Vice president-Payments) ; Daniel Rabinovich (Senior Vice president and Chief technology officer) ; Marcelo Melamud (Vice president and Chief Accounting Officer)
Industry	E-commerce
Services	Online marketplace and E-commerce payment system
Revenue	472.6M (2013)
Employees	2,171
Slogan(s)	Donde compras y vendes de todo. (Where you buy and sell anything)
Website	www.mercadolibre.com
Alexa rank	3,021 (April 2014)
Type of site	e-commerce
Registration	required to sell and buy
Available in	Spanish Portuguese
Launched	August 2, 1999

MercadoLibre.com (literally "free market" in Spanish) or MercadoLivre in Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal) is an Argentine online marketplace dedicated to e-commerce and online auctions. eBay is the largest common stocks owner in MercadoLibre, with 18.40% of total common stocks. eBay entered into a strategic alliance with MercadoLibre in September 2001. MercadoLibre is Latin America's number-one e-commerce site. It is currently present in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela.

History

MercadoLibre was established in August 1999 in Argentina and rapidly expanded to Brazil (as MercadoLivre.com), Mexico and other South American countries. Marcos Galperin, current CEO, began the company while still in business school at Stanford University. Finance professor Jack McDonald had been helping Marcos to contact potential investors, and asked John Muse, an invited speaker and co-founder of the Hicks Muse private equity fund, if Marcos could drive him to his private plane. Before boarding his plane, Muse expressed his desire to have his fund invest in the idea and soon thereafter the company started. MercadoLibre received funding from JPMorgan Partners, Flatiron Partners, Hicks Muse Tate and Furst, Goldman Sachs, GE Capital and Banco Santander Central Hispano. In September 2001 eBay acquired 19.5% of MercadoLibre in exchange for eBay's recently acquired Brazilian subsidiary of Ibazar.com.br. In this transaction, MercadoLibre also became eBay's exclusive partner for the Latin American region. eBay currently holds an 18.37% share in MercadoLibre with more than 50% of the board votes.

In 1999, MercadoLibre was chosen to be an Endeavor Entrepreneur.

In November 2005, MercadoLibre acquired DeRemate's operations in eight countries (till then, DeRemate (or Arremate.com in Brazil) was MercadoLibre main competitor in the region). The acquisition included Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In 2006, MercadoLibre.com launched new operations in Costa Rica, Panama and Dominican Republic.

In August 2008, MercadoLibre acquired the remnant DeRemate operations, including its Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil branches. This way, the company seeks to strengthen its leading position in Argentina and Chile.

In 2010, MercadoLibre.com launched new operations in Portugal.

The MercadoLibre system

MercadoLibre works in the way as eBay does: customers bid for an item or buy without bidding, and the customer with the highest bid after a determined date wins the item. But the main selling option MercadoLibre's community use is fixed price (80%). The seller offers a product at a fixed price and the first buyer who offers that amount, gets the product. The customer must then pay before receiving the item bought or by meeting with the seller in person, they can make the transaction face to face. There are various methods for paying, such as "MercadoPago" (MercadoLibre's version of PayPal), credit cards and money orders. When sending money to a seller, the customer puts his or her trust in the seller to send the item. Once the transaction is finished, the seller and the buyer can write feedback on each other.

MercadoPago

"MercadoPago" is MercadoLibre's safety payment system. When adding MercadoPago in its listings, sellers allow buyers to choose among many payment alternative methods such as cash, bank transfers and credit cards or installments, among others.

MercadoShops

"MercadoShops" is MercadoLibre's ecommerce solution for small and midsize business creating their own ecommerce website, integrated with MercadoLibre ecosystem and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

MercadoSocios

"MercadoSocios" MercadoLibre's Partners Program, allow small, medium and large websites to accumulate benefits through MercadoLibre's online promotion. Payments are generated once new users register and make operations referred by partners and when commissions are paid to MercadoLibre related to activity coming through partners websites.

MercadoSolidario

"MercadoSolidario" is MercadoLibre's section where foundations and non-profit organisations sell products or organise charity auctions without paying any fee to MercadoLibre as part of its fundraising activities.

Criticism

General

When MercadoLibre absorbed the DeRemate regional sites other than Argentina and Chile in 2005, MercadoLibre became a monopoly. Although other sites have emerged, none of them have been able to challenge MercadoLibre, similar to eBay's monopoly in English speaking countries. In September 2008, MercadoLibre acquired whole ownership of DeRemate, including the site Deremate.com had launched to renew its challenge for Latin American domination.

For Sellers

MercadoLibre does not take a stance on customer issues. The company employs a "buyer beware" policy in relation to fraud.

External links

• MercadoLibre's Countries Hub
• MercadoPago's Countries Hub
• MercadoShop's Countries Hub
• MercadoLibre's Affiliates Program "MercadoSocios"
• MercadoLibre's NGO´s Program "MercadoSolidario"