MercadoLibre

MercadoLibre
legal form	Corporation
ISIN	US58733R1023
founding	August 2, 1999
Seat	Buenos Aires , Argentina
management	Marcos Galperín ( Managing Director )
Number of employees	1,295 (according to website)
Branch	E-commerce
Website	http://www.mercadolibre.com

MercadoLibre SA (the name comes from mercado libre ; Spanish "free market" ) is a multinational company in the field of e-commerce, founded in 1999, based in Argentina . It concentrates on the operation of auction and classifieds portals based on the model of eBay , with which it has officially cooperated since 2001.

In addition to its main product, the auction and classifieds portal MercadoLibre (in Brazil MercadoLivre ) it operates the micropayment platform MercadoPago and similar portals Dere Mate and DeReto that have been adopted throughout the company's history of competitors. This expansionary policy means that MercadoLibre has a monopoly-like position in parts of Latin America .

history

MercadoLibre was established in August 1999 by the then students of Stanford University , Marcos Galperin founded as an online auction platform for Argentina. In the same year it expanded to Brazil , where it operates under the name MercadoLivre , and other countries in Latin America. In 2001 it took over the Brazilian portal IBazar run by eBay ; In return, 19% of the shares were transferred to eBay and an official cooperation began.

In 2003 MercadoLibre opened the micropayment platform MercadoPago . In 2005 it took over some of the Internet portals of DeRemate.com , also Argentina's main competitor in the area of ​​e-commerce in Latin America ; In 2008 the company was completely taken over. Another competitor, CMO Classified Media Group , which operated classifieds portals primarily in Central and Northern South America, was also taken over in 2008.

MercadoLibre is registered in the US commercial register as MercadoLibre Inc. , its shares have been traded on the NASDAQ (symbol MELI ) since 2007 .

Services

MercadoLibre / MercadoLivre

The company's main service is the online advertising platform MercadoLibre . It is based on the eBay model and offers sellers the option of offering items either as an auction or at a fixed price. There is a fee to post ads even if the sale is unsuccessful. Buyers and sellers can rate each other positively, negatively or neutrally using a rating system and with short comments.

According to its own information on the company website, MercadoLibre has around 35 million registered users (2009). The platform operates in Argentina , Brazil , Chile , Costa Rica , the Dominican Republic , Ecuador , Colombia , Mexico , Panama , Peru , Uruguay and Venezuela . Corresponding activities in Spain were given up again.

MercadoPago

MercadoPago is an online payment platform that was initially only usable with MercadoLibre, but has developed into a general micropayment platform based on the model of services such as PayPal since the system was reformed in early 2008 .

At MercadoPago, payment is usually made in two steps: First, the buyer transfers the amount to an interim account. Upon receipt of payment, the seller will be notified and asked to deliver the item. The seller is only credited with the purchase amount after the buyer has confirmed the delivery. It is also possible to send amounts to other members by e-mail .

MercadoPago credit can be paid out directly by bank transfer or check or used for further purchases on the Internet. Payment is made by bank transfer, credit card or the cash payment services popular in Latin America such as Rapipago or Pago Fácil .

Other portals

MercadoLibre continues to operate the auction and classifieds portals DeRemate and DeReto , the provider of automotive classifieds TuCarro and the real estate advertising portal TuImmueble , through which it also has customers in the USA .

distribution

MercadoLibre is the largest Argentinian Internet company and, according to its own information, the market leader in the online classifieds market in many Latin American countries. At Alexa Internet , the Brazilian site was ranked 13 locally in June 2009 (292th place worldwide), while the Argentinean site was 10th locally (491th place worldwide).

criticism

Criticisms concern the rating system, which is unfair from the buyer's point of view, as it allows revenge ratings on the one hand - i.e. the negative ratings of a seller who has properly fulfilled his contract by an angry seller who was previously rated negatively due to lack of or lack of performance - on other negative reviews that have been carried out by buyers to dealers are deleted by MercadoLibre without a reason, while negative reviews from dealers always remain unchanged. Thus, in the opinion of the critics, the rating system is unusable.

Another point of criticism concerns the buyer protection, which in the opinion of many users is deliberately contradictory and does not keep the promise of secure payment. It is promised:

NO TENEMOS LETRA CHICA: Todo lo que pagues a través de MercadoPago estará protegido: tanto el costo del producto como los gastos del flete. (WE DO NOT HAVE THE SMALL PRINT: Everything you pay with MercadoPago is protected: both the cost of the product and the shipping costs.)

The latter, however, are actually excluded in the small print and regularly not reimbursed in the event of problems:

Términos y Condiciones en la sección 04 indica que "Se aclara que la suma que MercadoLibre reembolsará sólo corresponde al precio de publicación del artículo [...], excluidos otros gastos como flete, garantías, otros artículos y seguros." (General Terms and Conditions § 04: "It is made clear that the amount that Mercadolibre will refund only corresponds to the price of the published item [...], excluding other costs such as shipping, guarantee, other items and insurance.")

Critics complain that the small print, which according to the advertising should not even exist, is in complete contradiction to the advertising claims and accuse MercadoLibre of fraud or at least the promotion of fraudulent activities on the sales platform.

This also applies to the lack of buyer protection for cases in which a retailer has sent the wrong product. If the dealer can prove that he has sent anything at all, which is usually done with a scanned shipping receipt, the case is closed for MercadoLibre and the money stays with the dealer. This reduces the buyer protection advertised as all-encompassing to cases in which the retailer does not send anything.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Website of MercadoLibre Argentina , key point Beneficios a la sociedad
2. ↑ ^{a b} MercadoLibre compra las operaciones de DeRemate , Clarín.com , August 27, 2008
3. ↑ Alexa ranking for mercadolivre.com.br , accessed on June 18, 2009
4. ↑ Alexa ranking for mercadolibre.com.ar , accessed on June 18, 2009
5. ↑ Ayuda Mercado Libre: Ayuda con Mercado Libre: soluciones, información y más | Mercado Libre. Retrieved March 8, 2017 (Spanish). 
6. ↑ Ayuda Mercado Libre: Ayuda con Mercado Libre: soluciones, información y más | Mercado Libre. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 21, 2015 ; Retrieved March 8, 2017 (Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Posted by Michael Müller: MercadoLibre y MercadoPago - La ilusión del pago protegido. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 9, 2017 ; accessed on March 8, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Ayuda Mercado Libre: Ayuda con Mercado Libre: soluciones, información y más | Mercado Libre. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 21, 2015 ; Retrieved March 8, 2017 (Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Web presence
• MercadoLibre y MercadoPago - La ilusión del pago protegido - Critical website (Spanish)