MercadoLibre.com
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Type of site
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e-commerce |
|---|---|
| Available in |
Spanish Portuguese |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: MELI |
| Founded | May 8, 1999 (as MercadoLivre.com) |
| Headquarters | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Area served | Latin America |
| Key people | Marcos Galperin (Chairman, President & Chief executive officer) ; Pedro Arnt (Executive 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 |
 651.8M (2015) |
| Net income |
105.8M (2015) |
| Employees | 3,500 (2015) |
| Slogan(s) | Nunca dejes de buscar (Never stop searching) |
| Website | www.mercadolibre.com |
| Alexa rank |
 572 (April 2016[update]) |
| Registration | required to sell and buy |
| 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 stock owner in MercadoLibre, with 18.40% of total common stock. eBay entered into a strategic alliance with MercadoLibre in September 2001. MercadoLibre is Latin America's most popular e-commerce site by number of visitors. It is currently present in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela.
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.
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