The Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) has announced it intends to double its staff across the region to cope with increasing consumer and vendor demand. The pandemic has fueled a pivotal shift toward online sales in many countries throughout the region.
The company integrates e-commerce and digital payments and is aiming to further consolidate its market dominance with this expansion strategy. This will also impede the strategic room for competitors in the region, particularly its fiercest rival, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).
Chief People Officer Sebastián Fernández Silva stated that the business plans to employ a workforce of 32.000 by the end of this year, compared to 15.500 at the end of 2020. The hiring process will be financed in part by a $1.1 billion bond sale that was conducted earlier this year.
The most capital will flow to MercadoLibre’s biggest market Brazil and to Mexico, which overtook Argentina as the second biggest market in 2020. Mexico manager David Geisen noted that, “if we don’t speed up (investment), we would have various bottlenecks” pointing at the necessity to expand due to enormous growth in this market.
MercadoLibre Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) trades up more than 3% following the announcement.
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