Mercado Libre, Latin America’s e-commerce and financial services giant, announced plans on Thursday to invest US $2.5 billion in its Mexico operations this year and next, marking its largest-ever expenditure in the country.
The move comes just eight months after a separate pledge from the company to invest $2.45 billion in Mexico in 2024, highlighting the firm’s strong position in the Mexican market.
President Claudia Sheinbaum met with Mercado Libre founder and director Marcos Galperin and his team at the National Palace, accompanied by Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard and the governor of Hidalgo, Julio Menchaca.
Sheinbaum shared news of the meeting in a post on Facebook, saying, “We are promoting a process of digitalization to encourage investment in Mexico.”
MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI), founded in 1999, is an Argentine company headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay. It has become Latin America’s largest e-commerce site and Mexico is its second-largest market.
During the meeting, Ebrard said that the platform is the “most important in Mexico,” and emphasized that the investment in 2025 will be higher than that of 2024.
“The investment for the next year is estimated to exceed US $2.5 billion,” Ebrard said, a record figure that demonstrates the company’s commitment to the Mexican market.
The new investment will support the expansion of the firm’s logistics center in Hidalgo.
“In the state of Hidalgo alone there will be 7,000 [new] employees,” Ebrard said.
Mercado Libre’s investment in the Mexican market has been growing steadily year on year, after a $1.5 billion investment in 2022 and a further $1.6 billion in 2023. The company is Mexico’s largest online retailer, holding a 15.4% market share in 2023, compared to Amazon’s 11.2% share.
The company also has a growing electronic payment system, Mercado Pago, which helps consumers make secure transactions both on and outside of the platform.
In Mexico, Mercado Libre has five planes currently in operation and employs over 30,000 people in its distribution centers and various local operations. The firm is now building new facilities in Querétaro, Hidalgo and other key areas.
The expansion of its logistics sector is expected to help improve delivery times and boost customer satisfaction, as well as make small and medium businesses more competitive in e-commerce.
According to the company, over 26 million unique sellers use Mercado Libre to sell their products in Mexico. The Mexican site received around 576 million visits in 2022, making it one of the country’s most-visited websites, Merca20 reported.
With reports from Merca20, Milenio and El Universal Hidalgo
