Mercado Livre, a Latin American e-commerce giant, announced this Tuesday (26) that it will invest R$23 billion in 2024 in Brazil, its main market. As reported by Reuters, the investment represents an increase of 21.1% compared to 2023, a record among all the company’s investments in the country.
What do you need to know:
- The value includes investments and some expenses seen by the company as strategic;
- The plan represents an acceleration in the pace of the company’s annual investments in Brazil after an increase of 11.5% in 2023;
- The investments, however, are focused on the long term, according to Fernando Yunes, senior vice president of Mercado Livre and leader of marketplace operations in Brazil, to Reuters.
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According to Yunes, the new record investment can be attributed to the company’s intention to continue gaining share in Brazil in 2024. Furthermore, there are expectations of a slightly better scenario when compared to last year.
For comparison purposes, the company invested just R$2 billion in the country in 2019. The impetus for the new impulse also came from the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused a boom in the e-commerce segment.
Based in Uruguay, Mercado Livre generates more than half of its revenue in Brazil.
Mercado Livre’s plans for Brazil
According to Yunes, Mercado Livre is considering concentrating its investments in the country this year in four areas, the main one being logistics.
A new distribution center in the state of Pernambuco, already announced, should also debut in July or August.
The company is also considering launching two more distribution centers to expand its operations in Brazilian regions where it has a smaller presence. The company did not specify the locations.
Among other focuses of Mercado Livre in Brazil are:
- Investments in technology, mainly with the hiring of new employees;
- Innovation in Mercado Pago, with the launch of new products in the credit, insurance and investment segments;
- Invest in advertising with Mercado Ads. The company aims to create tools that can attract larger audiences to advertisers.
