08/07/2021 16:00
Clarín.com
Technology
Updated 08/07/2021 16:00
Mercado Libre has a few scrolls to brag about.
Founded
22 years ago,
the company is the most successful Argentine unicorn, but also one of the most important companies in Latin America, to the point that even Amazon sees it as a huge competition.
But Marcos Galperín said this week that that was not the name he wanted for his project:
"LibreMercado" had been "taken away."
In a too clear nod to the liberal current of thought, Galperín wanted his site to be the classic construction of the “free market”, but the domain
was already registered.
As a solution, he reversed the terms.
"If I asked you why they decided to put Mercado Libre in your company 22 years ago, what would you answer me?" A Twitter user asked him.
"Someone had anticipated me when I tried to book LibreMercado.com," explained the businessman.
Someone had anticipated me when I tried to book https://t.co/cy6BZLb0ut 🙄
- Marcos Galperin (@marcos_galperin) August 2, 2021
Other users took the opportunity to bring back old memories, such as mugs with the logo from the beginning:
How much are these 22 years later?
@marcos_galperin @chcibelli @estebanweb pic.twitter.com/fdUxCyjNrL
- facuim (@facuim) August 3, 2021
Mercadolibre started out as something very different from what we know today.
In its origins, it was rather an auction site inspired by the eBay system, where the main attraction was not buying online but, precisely, offering a price like in an auction.
In fact,
DeRemate.com
was one of its main competitions.
Over time, the market evolved and copied
the model of Amazon
, the company founded by Jeff Bezos that revolutionized the ecommerce business by controlling not only the sale but also the
logistics of product distribution.
One of Mercado Libre's distribution centers.
Photo Bloomberg
Mercado Libre turned 22 years old on Monday, August 2.
This day, Galperín published a video.
"
It is an integral part of the economic recovery of all Latin America
," he said. "The best of all is that this is just beginning, what we are going to build is much more interesting than what we have done so far," he added.
Today @Mercadolibre turns 22 since we put the site on the air from a garage in Buenos Aires.
Congratulations to the entire team that allowed so many achievements, those that were, those that joined and those that continue to be.
#perseverance #arriesgar #trabajoenequipo pic.twitter.com/t3WKJp4xQC
- Marcos Galperin (@marcos_galperin) August 2, 2021
The great moment of the company
Mercado Libre reported this Thursday a growth of more than 102% in net income, registering
USD 1.7 billion during the second quarter of 2021
.
The figure comes from the last balance sheet this Wednesday, at the close of operations on Wall Street.
At 2:50 p.m., the shares of the company founded by Argentine Marcos Galperín climb 15% in the Nasdaq technology average in New York, to $ 1,799.
Likewise, the market capitalization of the leading e-commerce company in Latin America amounts to 90,000 million dollars.
The numbers released by the e-commerce multinational show a year-on-year increase of 93.9% in net income measured in dollars, reaching US $ 1.7 billion, while the increase in constant currency was 102 , 6 percent.
The results beat market expectations - (about $ 1.5 billion) and boosted stocks up to 7%, then fell to 5.8 percent.
Marcos Galperín, founder and CEO of Mercado Libre.
Photo Clarín
"Mercado Libre is one of the typical so-called“ growth ”companies. They are precisely this type of company in which investors focus on their ability to
grow and on what they can become in the future
. Until now, the company has always it had been standing out due to the growth in income but failed to present positive results. Until today, where not only did it meet the income but the novelty was that it presented positive results and 15 times above what the market expected "Maximiliano Donzelli, Head of Research at IOL invertironline.
Its CFO, Pedro Arnt, commented on the main figures on the balance sheet: Net income before income tax expense was US $ 138.9 million, an increase of 55.5% from US $ 89.3 million. during the second quarter of 2020.
Look also
E-commerce war: Amazon and a play to win a key territory to MercadoLibre
Mercado Libre's balance sheet exceeded analysts' expectations: its shares rose 7%