eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 8)

SM: How does the entrepreneur network in Latin America work? Are there many entrepreneurs in Latin America now? MG: Yes, there is a foundation called Endeavor Foundation. They select entrepreneurs in their region and then supports them. This foundation was founded by Linda Rosenburg and Peter Kelner, two Harvard graduates. They got the big private

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 7)

SM: Does PayPal operate in South America? MG: You can withdraw money but you cannot fund a PayPal account. They do not have a Spanish speaking site either. SM: What is your dynamic with eBay today? Competitive or collaborative?

eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 6)

SM: So you grew well through 2006, and in 2007 you went public. How was the IPO received in the investor community? MG: Very well. The stock went up quite a bit. We were quite unlucky in that we did our road show in the middle of the sub prime crisis. The day we priced,

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 5)

SM: What was Internet adoption like in 2003? MG: I do not remember year by year. I think the evolution was somewhere around 10% per year. SM: What type of revenues were you seeing in 2003? MG: I believe we had $4M in 2003. I would have to check that number, but 2006 was $52M,

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 4)

SM: What was your platform in those early days – an auction platform or a fixed price platform? MG: It was completely an auction platform, and today it is 90% a fixed priced platform. Another thing we did different is that we did not like the Buy It Now feature on eBay. We used it

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 3)

SM: Having just 3% Internet penetration must have been very frustrating! MG: Exactly! We tried to focus more on milestones which were operational but not necessarily revenue. We still remember the first time someone came and paid their bill at the office. We still have the PDF of the scanned check. We tried to focus

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 2)

SM: Did you get the sense that eBay was not focused on Latin America at all yet? What was the Latin America Internet market at the time? What kind of Internet penetration? MG: It was very small. There was 3% penetration roughly. Today it is 20%, so it still can grow a lot. Out of

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 1)

I did this interview in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during my recent trip consulting with Mercado Libre, Latin America’s largest online marketplace. I found the story fascinating, and wanted to capture it for my readers all over the world. SM: I would like to hear the story of how you built Mercado Libre. Let’s start with

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