Want To Own The Amazon Of Latin America? Checkout MercadoLibre
- Date: 16-Dec-2021
- Source: Forbes
- Sector:Financial Markets
- Country:Middle East
Want To Own The Amazon Of Latin America? Checkout MercadoLibre
As 2021 winds down, many stocks are trading well off their year-to-date highs. One such example is MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI), which as of this writing is down about 40% from its January peak. MercadoLibre is widely considered the "Amazon of Latin America." The company is the largest e-commerce provider in the fastest growing e-commerce region in the world. MercadoLibre's network of over 132 million active buyers is spread across an 18-country footprint, with most of its revenue derived from Brazil (55%), Argentina (25%) and Mexico (15%). Over the last year, booming e-commerce sales helped drive 73% sales growth for MercadoLibre. By comparison, Amazon and Alibaba achieved 38% and 41% topline growth, respectively. According to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, Julie Chariell, MercadoLibre is poised to continue benefitting from e-commerce adoption amongst Latin American consumers. She writes, "E-commerce's penetration of retail sales in Latin America has significantly advanced since Covid-19 began, doubling to nearly 6%, and can approach 10% by 2025, in our view. Smartphone and digital-payment adoption are key drivers of e-commerce enablement, but stand where the U. S. was in 2013-14. About 50% of the LatAm population has a smartphone vs. 81% in the U. S., where e-commerce penetration exceeds 15%."