MercadoLibre.com
MercadoLibre S. A. ( the name comes from mercado libre, Spanish for " free market " ), established in 1999 multinational companies in e -commerce based in Argentina. It focuses on the operation of auction and classifieds portals modeled on eBay, with which it cooperates officially since 2001.
In addition to its main product, the auctions and classifieds portal MercadoLibre ( in Brazil MercadoLivre ) it operates the micropayment platform MercadoPago and similar portals Dere Mate and DeReto who have taken over the company's history of competitors. This expansive policy has the consequence that MercadoLibre occupies a monopoly position in Latin America.
History
Mercado Libre was founded in August 1999 by the then students of Stanford University, Marcos Galperin, as an online auction platform for Argentina. In the same year it expanded its activity to Brazil, where it operates under the name MercadoLivre, and other Ländere of Latin America. 2001 took over the run of eBay Brazilian portal Ibazar; in return 19 % of the shares official cooperation was ceded to eBay and started.
Opened in 2003, Mercado Libre, the micropayment platform MercadoPago. 2005 took over some of the Internet portals of the main competitors in the Argentine also e-commerce in Latin America, DeRemate.com; In 2008 the company was taken over completely. Another competitor, CMO Classified Media Group, operating the classifieds portals, especially in Central and northern South America, was also acquired in 2008.
MercadoLibre is registered with the U.S. Commercial Register as MercadoLibre Inc., and its shares are traded on the NASDAQ since 2007 (symbol MELI ).
Services
MercadoLibre / MercadoLivre
Main services the company is the online ad platform MercadoLibre. It is structured along the lines of eBay sellers and provides the opportunity to offer products as either an auction or as a fixed price. The setting of ads is not free, even if the sale is not successful. Buyers and sellers can rate each positive, negative or neutral about a rating system and with short comments.
According to information on the company website MercadoLibre has about 35 million registered users ( 2009). The platform operates in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Corresponding activities in Spain, however, were abandoned.
MercadoPago
MercadoPago is an online payment platform that was used to start only with Mercado Libre, has been a reform of the system in early 2008 but developed into a general micropayment platform along the lines of services like PayPal.
In MercadoPago payment is usually performed in two steps: First, the buyer transfers the amount to a suspense account. Upon receipt of payment, the seller will be notified and asked to deliver the item. Only after confirmation of delivery by the buyer, the seller receives the purchase amount credited. Furthermore, the shipping amounts by e- mail to other members is possible.
MercadoPago credit may be paid directly or be used for further purchases in the internet bank transfer or check. Payment will be made via bank transfer, credit card or cash payment spread in Latin America services such as Pago Facil or Rapipago.
Other portals
MercadoLibre still operates the Auction and Classifieds Portals Dere Mate and DeReto, the provider of automotive classified TuCarro and real estate portal TuImmueble, through which it also has customers in the USA.
Dissemination
MercadoLibre is the largest Argentine Internet companies and in many countries of Latin America claims to be the market leader in the online classifieds market. In Alexa Internet, the Brazilian side came in June 2009 to a local ranking of 13 (ranked 292 worldwide), the Argentine side was locally on rank 10 ( world ranking 491 ).