This document provides a case study of MercadoLibre, an Argentine e-commerce company that operates online marketplaces and other services across Latin America. It summarizes MercadoLibre's history and founding in 1999, its growth to become the leading e-commerce platform in Latin America with over 60 million users, and its expansion of services like payments and online stores. It also outlines MercadoLibre's financial performance, goals of increasing users and transactions, acquisition history, competitors, and strategic analysis using models like the generic strategy and five forces.

1. Case Study
MercadoLibre
Rebeca Dallal

2. MercadoLibre
1
“Our mission is to
democratize commerce.”
– Marcos Galperin
MercadoLibre CEI

3. History
MercadoLibre was established by Marcos Galperín
in 1999. While still a student in business school at
Stanford, Galperín, had the opportunity to present
his project to John Muse, got him interested and
provided funding from Hicks Muse Tate and Furs
in addition to JPMorgan Partners, Flatiron
Partners, Goldman Sachs, GE Capital and Banco
Santander Central Hispano. MercadoLibre was
launched in Argentina and after a couple of years
started doing partnerships and acquisitions as it
grew and began services in other Latam countries.
In 2005 MercadoLibre broke even for the firs time
and in 2007 it went public and was the first
technology IPO and showed quick growth.
At the beginning it had only 4 employees, and has
since grown to become a true online giant and the
leading platform for buying and selling products
across the Latam region.
Today MercadoLibre is the eight worldwide online
retailer with presence in 15 countries and over
1,500 employees. There are 62 million individual
users registered on its systems and it processes
traffic equal to 2 million site requests per minute,
with up to 4 million during peak times (such as
Christmas).
In the recent years MercadoLibre has expanded the
services offered in order to keep up with changing
markets and technology, as well as to expand its
portfolio.
Solutions:
• MercadoLibre Marketplace - a fully-
automated, topically-arranged and user-friendly
online commerce service
• MercadoPago - an integrated online payments
solution designed to facilitate transactions both
on and off the MercadoLibre Marketplace by
providing a mechanism that allows our users to
securely, easily and promptly send, receive and
finance payments online
• MercadoLibre Advertising - a cost efficient
and automated platform that enables advertisers
to acquire traffic through advertisements placed
on our platform. Advertisers purchase, on a cost
per click basis, advertising space that appears
around product search results for specific
categories and other pages. These advertising
placements are clearly differentiated from
product search results and direct traffic both to
and from our platform depending on the
advertiser. With millions of visitors to the site,
MercadoClic delivers rapid returns on
investment for advertisers.
• MercadoShops - users can set-up, manage and
promote their own on-line webstores. These
webstores are hosted by MercadoLibre and
offer integration with the other marketplace,
payments and advertising services we offer.
Users can choose from a basic, free webstore or
pay monthly subscriptions for enhanced
functionality and value added services on their
stores.which is a platform that allows users to
create new e-commerce sites quickly, at no cost.
Companies can customize their sites based on
their own brands and use free tools to
administer sales, stock and transaction status.
There’s also a feature that supports payments in
12 interest-free installments.
• Mercado Classified - which helps users earn
more money from their websites by becoming
Mercadolibre partners. Partners earn money for
referring traffic to the Mercadolibre site and for
each new sale generated through this activity
• MercadoShops - on-line webstores solution.
Through MercadoShops, users can set-up,
manage and promote their own on-line
webstores. These webstores are hosted by
MercadoLibre and offer integration with the
2
Industry: Internet
Goal: Be the leading
eCommerce ecosystem
in Latin America
Product: Marketplace

4. marketplace, payments and advertising services
we offer. Users can choose from a basic, free
webstore or pay monthly subscriptions for
enhanced functionality and value added services
on their webstores.
• MercadoEnvíos - Shipping solution in Brazil
and Argentina. Through this solution, we offer
cost efficient integration with existing logistics
and shipping carriers to sellers on our platforms.
Sellers opting into the program are able to offer
a uniform and seamlessly integrated shipping
experience to their buyers.
MercadoLibre began as a used-stuff action site,
now 75% of sales are new products. The platform
is strong in C2C business, there is an important
amount of people who make a living by selling
their products in Mercadolibre.
Another interesting service provided by
MercadoLibre is free listings, or free
announcements (which makes sense when users
are trying to sell something), and they can be
upgraded to paid listings, which offer greater
visibility. Free listings were implemented because
there were millions of new users, and making them
free eliminated barriers. Growth was amazing, the
Gross Merchandise Volume went from 5 million in
2002 to 3.4 billion in 2010, this means it grew 60
times.
The solutions provided by MercadoLibre have
been strategic moves to increase the number of
users, as well as the number of transactions.
MercadoPago was at first only to be used in
MercadoLibre and paid escrow service, now its
free and has rapid growth outside the platform. At
first it was like PayPal, it was optional and now its
compulsory that every seller offers this payment
option. In 2011 30% trade actions were done this
way. Other payment options caused noise because
of the need of customer service, this greatly
reduced this problem.
MercadoClics works in a similar way to Google’s
Adwords. Small and medium size businesses were
doing all right before this, but bigger retailers
needed a better a way for buyers to find their
products. Now, small and large retailers are in one
place. There are over 13 thousand advertisements.
MercadoShops had over 7 thousand active
websites by 2013 and what it does for eCommerce
is that it integrates with Mercadolibre,
MercadoPago and MercadoClics and offers a full
integrated ecosystem. in 2010 it generated $220
million USD, $56 million USD net income. This
service has given back dividends to shareholders.
All these strategies were implemented to
overcome barriers and increase the number of
people who join MercadoLibre. Another thing
done in order to achieve this is regarding data
given by people, if they would only have to fill-in
their data once, it eliminates barriers and increases
probabilities people will buy.
The use of data is critical, so MercadoLibre makes
sure it offers a good level of protection and safety,
and do not sell it.
Although MercadoLibre is present in most Latin-
American countries, there is no commerce across
borders because there is no common framework,
financial or commercial agreement, so payment
becomes a problem, it is hard to transfer money
between countries. Customs and duties are also
complicated and, up to the present, there is no
solution that makes cross-border commerce viable.
Goals:
• Increase Gross Merchandise Volume.
• Increase the number of users.
• Increase income by adding services, such as
logistics.
Mergers and Acquisitions
• iBazar
• Lokau
• DeRemate
• CMG
• Autoplaza
• Neosur
In September 2001, MercadoLibre entered into a
strategic alliance with eBay Inc., or eBay, which
became one of their stockholders and started
working with them to better serve the Latin
American e-commerce community. As part of this
strategic alliance, MercadoLibre acquired eBay’s
Brazilian subsidiary at the time, iBazar, and eBay
agreed not to compete with MercadoLibre in the
region during the term of the agreement. This
agreement also provided them with access to
certain know-how and experience, which
accelerated aspects of MercadoLibre’s
development, which ended on September 24, 2006.
Even though eBay is one of MercadoLibre’s
stockholders, since the termination of this
agreement, there are no contractual restrictions
preventing eBay from becoming one of
MercadoLibre competitors.
In November 2002, MercadoLibre acquired certain
key strategic assets of Lokau.com , a competing
Brazilian online commerce platform and we
incorporated all registered users of Lokau.com into
MercadoLibre’s platform.
In November 2005, MercadoLibre acquired certain
operations of a regional competitor in e-commerce,
DeRemate.com Inc., or DeRemate, including all of
its operations and the majority of the shares of
capital stock of its subsidiaries in Brazil,
Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and
Venezuela for an aggregate purchase price of $12.1
million, net of cash acquired. This acquisition
increased MercadoLibre’s user base by
approximately 1.3 million confirmed registered
users and solidified our market leadership position
in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and
Uruguay. In that year MercadoLibre did not
3

5. acquire DeRemate’s Argentine and Chilean subsidiaries, which continued to
operate under the control of certain previous stockholders of DeRemate until
2008.
In January 2008, MercadoLibre acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding
shares of capital stock of Classified Media Group, Inc., or CMG, and its
subsidiaries. CMG and its subsidiaries operate an online classified
advertisements platform primarily dedicated to the sale of vehicles at
www.tucarro.com in Venezuela, Colombia and Puerto Rico and real estate at
www.tuinmueble.com in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, the United States, Costa
Rica and the Canary Islands. On the acquisition date, MercadoLibre paid
$19 million subject to certain escrows and working capital adjustment clauses.
On June 27, 2008, the Company released to the former CMG shareholders
$1.9 millions in full satisfaction of the management escrow. On January 22,
2009, MercadoLibre released the escrow balance of $1.1 million to the sellers of
CMG.
In September 2008, MercadoLibre completed the acquisition of DeRemate.com
de Argentina S.A., DeRemate.com Chile S.A., Interactivos y Digitales México
S.A. de C.V. and Compañía de Negocios Interactiva de Colombia E.U. for an
aggregate purchase price of $37.6 million. MercadoLibre also purchased certain
URLs, domains, trademarks, databases and intellectual property rights related to
those businesses for $2.4 million. On February 12, 2009, the purchase price
allocation period ended and MercadoLibre agreed with the sellers to a working
capital adjustment of $480,912 to be paid by the sellers to MercadoLibre.
In September 2011, MercadoLibre acquired 60% of outstanding membership
interest of Autopark LLC, a limited liability company organized under the laws
of Delaware with 100% ownership of AP Clasificados, an online classified
advertisements platform in Mexico primarily dedicated to the sale of vehicles at
www.autoplaza.com.mx and real estate at www.homeshop.com.mx. The
aggregate purchase price paid in cash was $5.5 million and includes URLs,
domain names, trademarks, databases non-compete agreements and intellectual
property rights that are used or useful in connection with the online platforms of
the acquired business.
In March 2013, MercadoLibre acquired the 100% of equity interest in an
Argentine software development company located in the Province of Cordoba,
Argentina. The objective of the acquisition was to enhance the capabilities of the
Company in terms of software development. The aggregate purchase price for the
business acquisition was $3.4 million.
Competitors
• Mas Oportunidades
• Rakuten
• OLX
• Submarino
• NovoaPontocom
• VivaStreet
• Dafiti
• CasaBahía
• Walmart
• Webmotors
• Falabela
• Buscapé
• Bendfaro
• Zas
MercadoSolidario
It is MercadoLibre's section where foundations and non-profit organizations sell
products or organize charity auctions without paying any fee to MercadoLibre as
part of its fundraising activities.
MercadoSolidario is a social cause promotion program which helps non-profit
organizations, civil associations and foundations in Latin America by providing
them with eCommerce as a way to collect fonds and the generation of economic
resources. It works as an online commercialization platform. It is so integrated to
our business that it uses the same metrics that measure amount of articles sold,
money raised and amount of registered organizations.(1)
Presence
Currently MercadoLibre has presence in 13 countries in Latam and Europe:
• Argentina
• Mexico
• Costa Rica
• Panama
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• Peru
• Chile
• Uruguay
• Dominican Republic
• Venezuela
• Brasil
• Portugal
4
1. United States Security and Exchange Commission. Annual Report Pursuant to
Section 13 or 15 (d) of the Securities Exchange act of 1934.For the fiscal year
ended December 31, 2013. http://secfilings.nasdaq.com/edgar_conv_html
%2f2014%2f03%2f03%2f0001193125-14-078151.html#D639270D10K_HT
M_TOC
2. Informe de Responsabilidad Social 2012, MercadoLibre http://
static.globalreporting.org/report-pdfs/
2013/016e568a41a1f20a7ede352143cf592f.pdf
3. Investor Relations, MercadoLibre http://investor.mercadolibre.com/results.cfm

6. Financial Status
According to Marcos Galperin, MercadoLibre
CEO, the company’s growth is result of innovation
and the expansion of product selection. The
reinforcement their growth with added value
products puts them in a privileged situation to face
high demand seasons, such as Christmas (4).
Investments
MercadoLibre has been investing seriously in the
past years. One of the main areas of investment is
technology, with the objective of updating
infrastructure, hardware and software, as well as
doing research and innovation. (5)
5
0
27500000
55000000
82500000
110000000
1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q
2012
Net Revenue Gross Profit Net Income
0
37500000
75000000
112500000
150000000
1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q
2013
Net Revenue Gross Profit Net Income
4. El Economista, Ventas de MercadoLibre crecen
25.5%, 7 de noviembre de 2013. http://
eleconomista.com.mx/mercados-estadisticas/
2013/11/07/ventas-mercado-libre-crecen-265
0
30
60
90
120
2011 2012 2013
Purchase of Property and Equipment
5. United States Security and Exchange Commission.
Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15 (d) of the
Securities Exchange act of 1934.For the fiscal year
ended December 31, 2013. http://
secfilings.nasdaq.com/edgar_conv_html
%2f2014%2f03%2f03%2f0001193125-14-078151.htm
l#D639270D10K_HTM_TOC

7. 6
0
22500000
45000000
67500000
90000000
1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q
2011
Net Revenue Gross Profit Net Income
0
17500000
35000000
52500000
70000000
1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q
2010
Net Revenue Gross Profit Net Income

8. 0
250000000
500000000
750000000
1000000000
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Net Revenues Gross Profit Net Income
7
6%
8%
12%
19%
56%
2011
Brazil Argentina
Venezuela Mexico
Other Countries
6%
7%
15%
24%
48%
2012
Brazil Argentina
Venezuela Mexico
Other Countries
6%
7%
18%
26%
44%
2013
Brazil Argentina
Venezuela Mexico
Other Countries
Net Revenues by segment

9. Strategic Analysis
2
“We want to use the benefits of
eCommerce to create a positive
impact on a community of users”
– Marcos Galperin
MercadoLibre CEO

10. Strategy Models
Generic Strategy Model
Broad Range of Buyers
• Although it has a good degree of differentiation,
the goal is to achieve an as broad reach as
possible.
• Provides good performance that attracts users.
• Offers great User Experience which promotes
users to return.
Low Cost
• Offers users free services
• Upscale to low/fair cost services
• Matches rivals and equals or beats them on
price.
Five Forces
Threat of New Entry:
• Mercadolibre has done great efforts to reduce
entry barriers by providing no cost services
such as free listings.
• Reduced barriers by implementing a one time
sign-in, so they must fill-in their data only once.
• Mercadolibre has economies of scale, although
on a whole, not equal to eBay.
• Similar eCommerce platforms can be created at
low cost, but the effort it takes to scale to
Mercadolibre’s size and reach is an important
barrier for competition.
Supplier Power:
• Mercadolibre has few software suppliers due to
very specific technology needs, only a few offer
proper solutions, so suppliers have a lot of
power.
• Another thing they need is hosting, but
Mercadolibre has eliminated this by acquiring
its own servers.
• Mercadolibre has its own tech team and is
developing their own technology, reducing (not
eliminating) the need of suppliers.
Threat of substitution:
• With technology resources and tools available at
present, it is fairly easy to implement
eCommerce, but not at the scale and reach
Mercadolibre has.
• Mercadolibre has spent a lot of time and
resources creating a whole ecosystem which
improves and supports the commercial
experience, this is extremely hard and
expensive to do by competition.
• A considerable threat would be eBay or
Amazon, they have the platform, technology
and reach, but they haven’t focused on the
Latam market.
• Competitive Rivalry:
• Mercadolibre is quite strong in the eCommerce
market, there have been some niche
competitors, but have been bought by
Mercadolibre.
• There is only one real competitor (eBay), but
the threat is decreased because of
Mercadolibre’s regional strength.
• Mercadolibre’s users are not very likely to
switch to another platform because they are
offered free and easy processes and options (as
well as effective) here. Users will hardly leave
MercadoLibre to go to non-digital options
because it reduces reach and the don’t usually
have the necessary infrastructure.
Buyer Power:
• There is a very large number of customers.
9
Lower Cost Differentiation
Broad Range
of Buyers
Narrow Buyer
Segment

11. • High buyer concentration, there are one-time-
sellers and companies who use the whole
ecosystem.
• Very high buyer volume .
• The switching cost is relatively low, but if
sellers switch they lose visibility.
• Users who sell have several costless options,
some options are low price. The company does
this to reduce barriers.
• Users who buy hardly pay any additional costs
to the product they are buying.
SWOT
Strengths
• Senior executives in MercadoLibre since the
year 2000 providing a stable and experienced
management team.
• Outstanding usability.
• Free services.
• Varied and efficient payment methods.
Weaknesses
• No integrated delivery.
• Inability to keep up with industry and
technology changes.
• Delays or problems with upgrading existing
information technology infrastructure.
• Inability to properly manage the size of the
business (if it continues to grow).
Opportunities
• Expansion to other regions.
• Integrate delivery services.
• Improve and add logistics.
Threats
• Cross border commerce not possible because of
country regulations.
• Multiple currencies in the region.
• Uncertainty in Internet legal issues could
adversely affect the business.
• Liability for the sale of regulated and prohibited
items, or infringe on intellectual property.
Analysis
Seasonality
Like most retail businesses, MercadoLibre
experiences the effects of seasonality in all
operating territories throughout the calendar year.
Although much of the seasonality is due to the
Christmas holiday season, the geographic diversity
of operations helps mitigate the seasonality
attributed to summer vacation time ( i.e. southern
and northern hemispheres) and national holidays.
Typically, the fourth quarter of the year is the
strongest in every country where MercadoLibre
operates due to the significant increase in
transactions before the Christmas season (see
“Management’s Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Condition and Results of Operations—
Seasonality” for more detail). The first quarter of
the year is generally the slowest period. The
months of January, February and March
correspond to summer vacation time in Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. Additionally, the
Easter holiday falls in March or April, and Brazil
celebrates Carnival for one week in February or
March. This first quarter seasonality is partially
mitigated by the countries located in the northern
hemisphere, such as Colombia, Mexico and
Venezuela, the slowest months for which are the
summer months of July, August and September.
Competition
The market for trading over the Internet is rapidly
evolving and highly competitive, and
MercadoLibre expects competition to intensify
even further in the future. Barriers-to-entry for
large, established Internet companies are relatively
low, and current and new competitors can launch
new sites at relatively low cost using commercially
available software. While MercadoLibre is
currently the market leaders in a number of the
markets in which it operates, MercadoLibre
currently or potentially compete with a limited
number of smaller marketplace operators, with
businesses that offer business-to-consumer online
e-commerce services or others with a focus on
specific vertical categories..
There are also a growing number of bricks and
mortar retailers who have launched on line
offerings and shopping comparison sites located
throughout Latin America. There also is
competition in the classified advertising market we
compete with regional players such as OLX an,
and with local players which have strong positions
in certain markets.
In addition, MercadoLibre could face competition
from a number of large online communities and
services that have expertise in either, developing
online commerce, facilitating online interaction, or
both. Other large companies with strong brand
recognition and experience in online commerce,
such as large newspaper or media companies, also
compete in the online listing market in Latin
America.
In September 2001, MercadoLibre entered into a
strategic alliance with eBay, through which eBay
became one of MercadoLibre’s stockholders and
started working with to better serve the Latin
American online commerce community. As part of
this strategic alliance, we acquired eBay’s
Brazilian subsidiary at the time, iBazar, and eBay
agreed not to compete with MercadoLibre in the
region during the term of the agreement, which
ended on September 24, 2006. This agreement also
provided MercadoLibre with access to certain
know-how and experience, which accelerated
aspects of our development. Even though eBay
continues to be one of our stockholders, since the
termination of this agreement, there are no
contractual restrictions preventing eBay from
competing with us. For example, in 2012, eBay
acquired Alamaula.com, classifieds site which
operates in many of the countries where we
operate.
MercadoPago competes with existing online and
offline means of payment businesses, including,
among others, banks and other providers of
traditional means of payment, particularly credit
cards, checks, money orders, and electronic bank
deposits, international online payments services
such as Paypal and Google Checkout, local online
payment services such as DineroMail in Argentina,
Chile, Colombia and Mexico, and Bcash and
PagSeguro in Brazil, money remitters such as
Western Union, the use of cash, which is often
preferred in Latin America, and offline funding
alternatives such as cash deposit and money
transfer services. Some of these services may
operate at lower commission rates than
MercadoPago’s current rates.
Finally, Amazon started operations in Brazil during
2012 by offering on-line content. MercadoLibre
does not compete in this space, however the
consolidation and expansion of their operations in
Brazil, could eventually lead to more direct
competition.
Intellectual property
MercadoLibre regards the protection of copyrights,
service marks, trademarks, domain names, trade
dress and trade secrets as critical to the future
success and rely on a combination of copyright,
trademark, service mark and trade secret laws and
contractual restrictions to establish and protect our
proprietary rights in our products and services.
MercadoLibre has entered into confidentiality and
invention assignment agreements with our
employees and certain contractors. MercadoLibre
has also established non-disclosure agreements
with our employees, strategic partners and some
suppliers in order to limit access to and disclosure
of our proprietary information.
MercadoLibre pursues the registration of our
trademarks and service marks in each country
where they operate, in the United States and in
certain other Latin American countries. Generally,
we register the name “MercadoLibre,”
“MercadoLivre,” “MercadoPago” and
“MercadoSocios” as well as the handshake logo,
and other names and logos in each country where
they operate. As part of MercadoLibre’s
acquisition of DeRemate, they acquired the
trademarks of DeRemate and CMG, respectively,
throughout the countries where they operated, as
well as certain other jurisdictions.
Autopark LLC, an entity in which we own a 60%
interest and have an option to acquire the
remaining 40% ownership interest, has 100%
ownership of AP Clasificados which owns
trademarks of Autoplaza.com.mx and
Homershop.com.mx in Mexico. MercadoLibre
expects to acquire the remaining 40% ownership
interest in Autopark in the future.
We have licensed in the past, and expect that we
may license in the future, certain of our proprietary
rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material,
to third parties. While we attempt to ensure that
our licensees maintain the quality of the
MercadoLibre brand, our licensees may take
actions that could materially adversely affect the
value of our proprietary rights or reputation.
Third party technologies
We also rely on certain technologies that we
license from third parties, such as Oracle Corp.,
SAP AG, Salesforce.com Inc., Microstrategy,
Teradata, Radware, Juniper Networks, Cisco
Systems Inc., Arista Networks, Imperva, F5
Networks, and Netapp, the suppliers of key
database technology, the operating system and
specific hardware components for our services.
Third parties have from time to time claimed, and
others may claim in the future, that we have
infringed their intellectual property rights by
allowing sellers to list certain items on
MercadoLibre. See “Item 3. Legal proceedings”
below and “Item 1A. Risk factors—Risks related
to our business—We could face legal and financial
liability for the sale of items that infringe on the
intellectual property and distribution rights of
others and for information disseminated on the
MercadoLibre Marketplace”.(2)
10

12. 11
Users
Marketplace
Classifieds
Shops
Pago
Envíos
Advertising
•List merchandising items
•Conduct sales and purchases
online
• Browse for products
• Bid for purchases
• Offer for sales
• Generate leads
• Real Estate and Services
categories!
• Enable businesses to promote services
and products on the Internet
• Place display and/or text advertisements
on web pages in order to promote their
brands and offerings
• Acquire traffic through advertisements
• Transactions on and off MercadoLibre
• Mechanism for secure online payments
• Check balances
• Set-up, manage and promote their own
on-line webstores
• Offers integration with the marketplace,
payments and advertising services
• Basic, free webstore or pay monthly
subscriptions
• Cost efficient integration with existing
logistics and shipping carriers to sellers
on platforms.
• Offer seamlessly integrated shipping
platform to buyers
MercadoLibre Ecosystem
MercadoSolidario
• Platform for non-profit organizations
• Ability to sell products, services and
receive donations
• Same functionality as for vendors

13. 12
Storage
• Guarantee proper function 100% of time
• Secure content storage
• Safeguard from intrusions and attacks
Distribution
• Offer seamlessly integrated shipping
platform to buyers
• Logistics support
ISP
• Provide broadband
• Stable connection
• Cost-awareness for download of
images
• Money transfer MercadoPago
• Online banking
• Money balance
ePayment
• Desktop, laptop and mobile
• Integration with platforms
• Functionality support
Devices
Platform
• Multi-Platform readiness
• Responsive Design
• Ensure Usability
• Software R&D
• Security and privacy
Users
Advertising
• Marketing through different digital
channels
• Visibility in major sites (Google, Yahoo,
MSN, etc.)
• Partnership and exchange with
businesses
Ecosystem Analysis

14. Value Chain Analysis
13
• Call off to
sellers/suppliers
• Search &
selection of
products or
services
Procurement
• Vendor
agreements
• Alliances &
Partnerships
• Tech solutions
Tech Development
• R & D
• Software design
• Usability
Human Resources
• Recruiting & hiring
• Training
• Certification
Infrastructure
• IT
• Executive Board
• Advisory Board
• Finance
• Accounting
• Regional
Management
•
Primary Value Chain
Support Activities
• Product or
service
classification
• Transaction
• Packaging
• Order
processing
• Shipment
• Delivery
• Invoicing
• Advertising
channels &
alliances
• Analysis & market
research
• Customer
support
• Upgrades
• Maintenance
Procurement
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Mkt & Sales Service

15. IT Strategic Grid
14
Factory Strategic
Support Turnaround
Significant
Business
Implications of
IT Applications
Portfolio
Limited
Limited SignificantBusiness
Implications of
IT Project
Portfolio
• Proprietor of
Servers
• Highly
capable IT
department
• Constant
Innovation
•Sufficient
storage space
• Effective Risk
Management
• Robust
Infrastructure
• Cultural
concerns
• Trans-country
differences
• Trade law
• Copyright
regulation
• Constant IT
staff training
• Use of
emerging
technology
• IT Investment
MercadoLibre

16. Technolgy Solutions
3 “We have collaborated with youth
education promoting digital
inclusion and strengthening of
non-profit organizations.” -
– Marcos Galperin

17. Solutions
Based upon the strategic models presented in this
paper, which provide a clear vision of the current
status of different areas or MercadoLibre, and
where the company is now, the threats and risks it
faces, as well as where it wants to be in the future,
I recommend the following technology solutions in
order to be better prepared for the future and to be
able to build a solid strategy.:
Faster Web Experience
Implement a web accelerator with velocity and
flexibility.
MercadoLibre’s marketplace is heavy in content
and it is critical that pages load quickly or users
will leave the page.The site has over 50 million
users, so a solution is needed to optimize
performance and in order to do this web pages
must be stored in memory by servers so they do
not have to create the same page over and over
again, it should do so only when it is changed.
The use of cache also speeds up websites, loading
pages much faster, however care must be taken to
evaluate the download speed of different providers.
Website performance and speed are essential to
keep the customer satisfied.(6)
Build a Cloud Infrastructure
A website which has become the leading forum for
buying and selling products online across the Latin
America region, with around two million site
requests/min. and up to four million in peak times,
infrastructure must be flexible enough to be auto-
provisioned in real time.IT must constantly be
aligned to business needs and count with unlimited
scalability either with a low cost or, preferably at
no cost.To serve MercadoLibre’s needs properly, a
1,000-node cloud infrastructure should be
deployed, it should support self-service realtime
provisioning of IT resources.(7)
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect,
view of a physical, real-world environment whose
elements are augmented by computer-generated
sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or
GPS data. It is related to a more general concept
called mediated reality, in which a view of reality
is modified (possibly even diminished rather than
augmented) by a computer. As a result, the
technology functions by enhancing one’s current
perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality
replaces the real world with a simulated one.
Augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in
semantic context with environmental elements,
such as sports scores on TV during a match. With
the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding
computer vision and object recognition) the
information about the surrounding real world of
the user becomes interactive and digitally
manipulable. Artificial information about the
environment and its objects can be overlaid on the
real world.
By using this technology to show products,
customers will be able to see them better and it
will be easier to make a choice. The use of this
technology will is also fun and will motivate
people to use it and increase the probability of
selling.(8)
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Augmented Reality

18. Offline Window-Shopping
WiFi in not always available or, in some cases,
costs are high. Because of this it incorporating the
capability of downloading research results of a
certain product or service can be done and stored
on the device, and then to be able to consult it
offline. This will allow customers to make a
purchase choice and do the shopping when they go
online again.
Current technology development foresees in a
medium term, by the year 2020, that most of the
globe will have infrastructure that provides a near
to 100% wifi coverage. However, speed is a
critical factor for the proper usability and correct
viewing of content heavy websites, such as
MercadoLibre, in which many pictures are needed
in order to view products well. So this proposed
solutions would increase the amount of people
capable of viewing products and services in the
platform, and increase the probability of purchases.
Social Shopping
Future tendencies point strongly towards the use of
Social Networks as the natural place in which
socializing takes place in an increasing manner.
The platform should start integration of social
networks so customers can go online, specially on
mobile devices, and share with their friends the
products or what they buy. Purchases should take
place seamlessly and all this be automatically
shared on the network (s). A good strategy is to
compensate customers when buy and share as a
way to motivate users.
This strategy lowers barriers and democratizes
shopping.(9)
6. Varnish software, https://www.varnish-
software.com/sites/default/files/fields/
attachments/
success_story_mercadolibre_web_0.pdf
7. Ubuntu Case Study, http://insights.ubuntu.com/
wp-content/uploads/
Mercadolibre_CS_WEB1.pdf
8. Augmented Reality, Mashable, http://
mashable.com/category/augmented-reality/
9. How Smart Devices and Social Media impact
your Shopping Habits, Mashable http://
mashable.com/2012/10/02/smart-devices-social-
media-shopping/
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19. Recommendation
Based on the strategic analysis models presented in
chapter 2, it is clear that MercadoLibre was born
with a long range vision of building a company,
not only with a narrow focus just on products or
customers. The company has been able to achieve
sustained growth and maintain innovation while in
a very competitive and fast changing industry.
MercadoLibre faces great challenges and risks
because it operates in 13 countries across Latam
and one in Europe, so it must deal with great
differences regarding legal issues, banking,
currency, customs, communications and cultural
differences. All these trans-border disparities are
not likely to change soon and MercadoLibre has
absolutely no control over this, it is in the hands of
individual governments to work towards regional
integration.
My recommendation for MercadoLibre, based on
the issues mentioned in the above paragraph, is
that it should direct efforts to using innovative
technology with a future vision for the following
issues:
• Provide a state-of-the-art eCommerce platform
with seamless integration across the services
offered in the ecosystem.
• Expand and adapt operations to meet rapidly
changing industry and technology standards.
• Maintain a top-of-the-line information
technology infrastructure to avoid business
disruptions.
• Prepare for future growth to be able to
appropriately manage a larger business.
• Develop an increasingly efficient technology for
a 100% reliable payment processor for online
transactions.
• Ensure information safety within the ecosystem.
Vision
Future trends point towards and increasing
technology integration with everything, Internet of
Everything (IoE), so MercadoLibre
must get into that frame of mind and
gear towards total integration of their
eCommerce platform with every
platform, device and network in which
people will be able to view content.
Whenever a user lists an item on
MercadoLibre, it will appear
everywhere:
• YouTube, facebook, Pinterest,
Twitter, etc.
• WordPress, Blogger, etc.
• Computers, smartphones, tablets and
phablets.
• In virtual worlds
• Social games
• Lifecasts and Livestreams
Keep in mind:
• Google Glass
• Thought text
• 3D everything (pictures, printing)
• Wifi and Broadband for everyone, everywhere
• Crowdsourcing
• New materials (graphene, silicene, ferrafluids)
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