What happened
MercadoLibre (MELI 1.92%) reported second-quarter earnings after the market closed on Wednesday, beating Wall Street's expectations on both the top and bottom lines. As a result, shares rocketed higher on Thursday morning, gaining 12.6% as of 12:20 p.m. EDT.
So what
MercadoLibre is the leading e-commerce and fintech platform in Latin America, one of the fastest-growing regions of the world in terms of internet penetration and online shopping. That advantage has been a significant tailwind in recent years, and MercadoLibre continued to gain momentum in the second quarter.
Image source: Getty Images.
Gross merchandise volume exceeded $7 billion, jumping 39%, and total payment volume hit $17.5 billion, surging 56% over the prior year. Collectively, those figures translated into revenue of $1.7 billion, as sales growth accelerated to 94% in the second quarter.
One of MercadoLibre's greatest advantages is its ecosystem of products. In addition to its fintech platform and marketplace, the company provides its merchants with solutions for logistics, financing, advertising, and more. And these value-added services also saw strong growth in the most recent quarter.
For instance, Mercado Credito's lending portfolio now exceeds $800 million, growing nearly fivefold during the past year. And MercadoLibre's logistics business, Mercado Envios, shipped 231 million items during Q2, up 46% over the prior year.
Now what
Investors should be pleased with these results, but it's important to keep a long-term mindset. E-commerce and digital payments are still in the early stages of adoption in Latin America, leaving MercadoLibre with plenty of room to grow its business.
