From a garage in Argentina to being the most valuable company in Latam

In 2001, Mercado Libre obtained the backing of eBay, which bought a minority stake in the company, strengthening its credibility in the region and giving it access to the technology and experience of an e-commerce giant.

Around 2007, the firm made its initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ stock exchange, becoming the first Latin American e-commerce company to be listed on the US market. This move was key to the company’s financial growth, allowing it to invest in infrastructure and expand its services, thanks to the $289 million it raised.

During this period, the company stopped focusing exclusively on auctions and began to diversify its model into a marketplace where sellers could offer products at a fixed price, similar to Amazon.

In these years, Mercado Libre also launched Mercado Pago (2004), its online payments platform, which began as a tool to facilitate transactions within the marketplace, but which eventually became one of the pillars of the company’s ecosystem.

“Now we have the yellow division and the blue division, which are equally relevant and important for us and which have managed to grow over the last few years, generating a platform for managing payments for services, but also for access to content from entertainment and the buying and selling of products,” indicated the executive vice president of Mercado Libre.

In 2019, the company’s market value exceeded $30 billion, making it the most valuable company in Latin America. This growth was driven, in part, by the expansion of its fintech ecosystem through Mercado Crédito, which offers loans to small and medium-sized businesses and users of its platform.

After the covid-19 pandemic, e-commerce grew exponentially in the region and by 2021, the company reached a new milestone by becoming the most valuable technology company in Latin America, surpassing local giants from other sectors, such as oil. and the banks.