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  • Emerson Seiti Takahashi One year ago

    Mercado Livre - http://www.mercadolivre.com.br is eBay backed option here in Brazil. If you click Brazil on the bottom of eBay’s page it will redirect to Mercado Livre.

    While it’s true that many people doesn’t have access to computers in LatAm, the another option would be to buy a newspaper to reach many prospects (and not everyone will buy - $ - because there is the search costs to find what you want).

    I expect this share to raise someday because eBay will buy MercadoLibre if chooses to expand instead of using building a presence in Latam

    • John One year ago

      Why the apostrophe in IPO’s? If Lindsay had been on, I’m sure she would have noticed the error.

      • howard lindzon One year ago

        Hmmm. Thanks for that catch John. My mistake.

        • maximo One year ago

          Man! I’m getting a kick out of this one. It’s a daring move by ebay to invest, but I think Mercadolibre.com is too early and its fate is indeed a big unknown. I certainly would not advice anyone to invest in this company knowing what I know.

          My sister is big-time corporate lawyer–one week she is in Hong Kong and the next week in Buenos Aires or Rio, so she likes to go online a lot. Anyway, she has used Mercadolibre.com and she’s had to return everything because it is crap or she never got that stuff.

          Cyber commerce is a big problem in Latin America because the legal system lags behind and the postal system is a nightmare–half the countries don’t even have a zipcode system in place. So unless you are using DHL or FedEx forget it. And those services are only available in Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. National postal systems are corrupt and just terrible.

          Also, how do check a person background? How do you screen a person’s credit worthiness? There is no guarantee honesty and unless you’re a small business the cost to use the web will be to high for individuals. This could be a huge mistake on ebay’s part for not understanding the cultural makeup of Latin America and any American putting money in this venture should be aware of this.

          There is a lot to overcome. And that’s without talking about the underground economy based on contraband and the narco money that will get washed here. Just take a good look at the bilions on stolen goods sold on ebay here in the U.S.

          But the more obvious image problem: they sell stuff at premium and when you get the stuff (if at all) the stuff is a knock-off from China, so where is the appeal in that? Plus it’s no way near ebay in regards to bidding volume, trust level, and discounts. Looks like a lot surplus of junk coming in from Asia via Panama and Paraguay.
          I don’t even think rich and upper middle class Latin Americans will hit this thing in mass numbers. Everything about Latin America is about image…people want to be seen buying a Prada purse because the act itself is more important than the item.

          But I could be wrong. But as a Latin American, and a student of culture and markets I think the concept is way ahead of its time.

          • howard lindzon One year ago

            i have to agree and would not chase it.

            I think fred sold his shares at the IPO as well.

            • Emerson Seiti Takahashi One year ago

              @maximo
              To make a transaction in MercadoLivre, you use MercadoPago (Pay Market).

              The seller ships the item, you pay the site MercadoLivre the money (deposit in bank account or credit card - kinda of PayPal but only to merchandise in the site). After you received the item, you check it and it everything is ok, you release the payment and MercadoLivre will pay the seller.

              I wouldn’t put my money in MercadoLivre either. But eBay can be pressured to make a bigger stake in other areas of the world since US market is slowing down.

              Well… we have to sit and watch.

              • Arturo Montano 19 days ago

                Since about 4 days from now, the MercadoLibre ( MELI ) website, all
                across Latin America, has been on an apparent “maintenance”.

                The problem is that users are not allowed to sell or buy. And all
                payments, and auctions that have been published within that time, are
                not being shown, blocking many users (even the ones that make a
                living) from getting their own money.

                As now, no official word has been received from MercadoLibre. Only
                automatic messages stating (since day 1) that is a maintenance that
                would only take 48 hours.

                It’s been over 4 days, and the outage is expected to have an impact on
                the stock market, no later than Monday.
                If you speak Spanish, you may confirm this news (which are not being
                covered by anyone) by googling the following words… pretty much all
                the sites are regarding this issues: Octubre Mantenimiento
                Mercadolibre

                AM

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