Participants of the Mercado Libre Experience 2023 on August 30 in São Paulo. Isaac Fontana (EFE)
These are times of political upheaval in Latin America. Paraguay and Guatemala voted for president in a year when, in addition to Colombia, which is holding regional elections, Argentina and Ecuador are also holding elections to elect new leaders. But amid a changing and polarized political map, two of the continent’s most successful entrepreneurs, the founder of e-commerce platform MercadoLibre, Marcos Galperín, and the president of his fintech company Mercado Pago, Osvaldo Giménez, believe that these changes in the political map does not jeopardize the company’s investments in the region.
On the contrary, faced with a cash payment scenario with little bank coverage and little access to credit, they believe that there is a great opportunity to strengthen trade and better democratize the financial system. In an interview in São Paulo, Brazil, at the Mercado Libre Experian 2023 event, Galperín and Giménez responded to questions from Prisa Media about MercadoLibre, a company that aims to offer new services to Latin America, including free streaming programming and new financial services to open in countries such as Chile and Colombia.
With more than 108 million users and a profit of almost $262 million last year, MercadoLibre processes 270 payments and 40 purchases per second, employs more than 50,000 people and 16,000 developers exclusively for Latin America.
One of the conferences during the Mercado Libre Experience 2023. Isaac Fontana (EFE)
Questions. Latin America is experiencing electoral processes in several countries this year. How does this panorama affect the operations and planned investments of the Mercado Libre in the region?
Marcos Galperin (MG). We have been in Latin America since 1999, so I would say we are making progress. We would feel strange if there was stability and consistent policies. Since this year we have been to Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela and I think we have seen it all. We continue with our plans, in fact we have opened our distribution center in Colombia, we continue to grow with Mercado Pago in several countries, we coordinate our process to continue launching products and new projects, just as we have already done the last 23 years.
Osvaldo Gimenez (OG). Leaving aside the political changes that might occur, we believe that there is an opportunity to strengthen trade and we believe that there remains a chance that trade in Latin America could be much more efficient than it is , there are too many cash payments, too few people are banked, this continues and we are sure that we will make progress in the next decade in all the countries where we are present. It was a year in which we invested a lot in Chile, where we received the license last year. Now we have received the license in Colombia and Uruguay, so we will increase investments in the coming years.
Q Mercado Play will offer content services via streaming for free. What type of content and how will it be financially sustainable?
MG. Mercado Play is a unique place where you can access more than 6,000 hours of content and 1,600 titles, a very wide range of free audiovisual content. Meli Plus has similar subscription costs to Level 6 in Colombia today, Mercado Play has no subscription costs, and audiovisual content is free. We will not produce content, the idea is that together with our Meli Plus partners who generate content we can distribute what they want for free. We have all the advertising tools that allow us to make money and in return give content generators compensation by selling advertising.
Marcos Galperín during a conversation at the Mercado Libre Experience 2023 in São Paulo on August 30. Isaac Fontana (EFE)
Q How do you remember the beginnings of Mercado Libre?
MG. I remember it with great nostalgia. From a distance they were very nice years, but they were very stressful. The truth is that we managed to achieve balance for seven years. Everything we expected happened, but it took much longer and was much more difficult. A lot of people told me that wouldn’t work; I wasn’t aware of it, I knew it. And it worked. People had a reason: it was very difficult to sort out the logistics, sort out the payments, and convince people to buy something they had never seen or touched before. Things weren’t easy in Latin America and that’s why it took us so much time. The beginnings were difficult because the volumes were very small. On the other hand, we have now learned that with perseverance, with good technology, with good ideas and with time, things and good ideas work in the end, maybe later than before, but in the end they work.
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