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
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
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
I am in Argentina this week on a Consulting assignment with Mercado Libre (MELI), the region’s largest e-commerce marketplace. So here’s some interesting data about the Latin American Internet market from a bunch of different sources that I am working with. [My Indian readers would find it interesting to contrast some of this data with