Founded by two Stanford MBA in June 1999, MercadoLibre.com is the online auction site, aimed at Spanish and Portuguese-speaking population in the world. MercadoLibre.com «The first site was launched in Argentina in August 1999. The company has been well received by consumers and has received significant media attention, both in Argentina and the United States. After this initial launch, the management team decided to expand in Brazil and Mexico, given that, together with Argentina, these three markets account for more than 70% market share in Latin America in terms of population, GDP and Internet use. Despite his success, MercadoLibre face intense competition in the online auction space. DeRemate was another regional player, which followed MercadoLibre to each of its markets. Lokau was a major player in Brazil, who decided that instead of entering new markets, he is going to "go deep", offering its customers value-added services. International competitors such as Yahoo! also entering the market. In October 1999, MercadoLibre received $ 7.6 million from several well-known investors and faced with the difficult decision continues to expand throughout Latin America and other Spanish-and Portuguese-speaking markets and deepen its presence in its current markets. "Hide
by Joel Podolny, Andrea Higuera, Lauren Pressman Source: Stanford Graduate School of Business 24 pages. Publication date: April 12, 2000. Prod. #: IB19A-PDF-ENG
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