MercadoLibre (MELI -0.45%) is quickly taking off as the Amazon of Latin America.
In this Industry Focus: Tech segment, Motley Fool analyst Dylan Lewis and contributor Danny Vena explain how the Latin America payments transactions market is different from the U.S., and how MercadoLibre is working to make e-commerce more accessible to consumers there.
A full transcript follows the video.
10 stocks we like better than MercadoLibre
When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*
David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and MercadoLibre wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.
Click here to learn about these picks!
*Stock Advisor returns as of June 5, 2017
This video was recorded on June 23, 2017.
Dylan Lewis: Looking at this market in particular, I think there are a lot of things to like. That's why I'm an investor -- I own shares of Mercado. I don't have the cost basis that you do. You bought into this company a long time ago. But this Latin American market is in a lot of ways behind the U.S. in the wave of e-commerce. When I look at how they're positioned here, I think there are a lot of really good-looking tailwinds that should help drive Mercado's business going forward.
Danny Vena: That's right. Actually, to give folks a little background, they're behind us in several ways that, if you're aware of it, it kind of makes sense. If you look at the Latin American market, many of the transactions that occur there between consumers and vendors are still paid in cash. Most of the people in Latin America don't have a credit card. Most do not even have a bank account. So they are still primarily a cash-based economy. MercadoLibre, when they first moved into the market and set up MercadoPago, and that has been key to their growth thus far because it provided a way for vendors and sellers to transact business that didn't include cash, which is key to them moving into the e-commerce arena.
