{"id":3716605,"date":"2026-05-07T21:27:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T01:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/?p=3716605"},"modified":"2026-05-07T21:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T01:27:59","slug":"mercado-libre-sacrifices-short-term-profits-to-fuel-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/earnings\/2026\/mercado-libre-sacrifices-short-term-profits-to-fuel-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercado Libre Sacrifices Short-Term Profits to Fuel Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/investor.mercadolibre.com\/\">Mercado Libre<\/a>\u2019s investments in free shipping, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercadopago.com.ar\/\">Mercado Pago<\/a> credit card, first-party selection and cross-border trade drove a 49% year-over-year increase in net revenue and financial income in the first quarter, the company said in a Thursday (May 7) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20260507238255\/en\/Mercado-Libre-Kicks-Off-2026-with-Fastest-Revenue-Growth-in-Almost-Four-Years-as-Strategic-Investments-Drive-Market-Share-Gains\">earnings release<\/a>.<\/p><div\r\n\tid=\"article-paywall-overlay\"\r\n\tclass=\"d-none\"\r\n>\r\n\t<div id=\"article-paywall-content\" class=\"my-4\">\r\n\t\t\n<div class=\"wpcf7 no-js\" id=\"wpcf7-f2699550-o1\" lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" data-wpcf7-id=\"2699550\">\n<div class=\"screen-reader-response\"><p role=\"status\" aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\"><\/p> <ul><\/ul><\/div>\n<form action=\"\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716605#wpcf7-f2699550-o1\" method=\"post\" class=\"wpcf7-form init pymnts-article-paywall-form\" aria-label=\"Contact form\" novalidate=\"novalidate\" data-status=\"init\">\n<fieldset class=\"hidden-fields-container\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wpcf7\" value=\"2699550\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wpcf7_version\" value=\"6.1.5\" \/><input 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id=\"article-paywall-hidden-content\">\r\n\t\n<p>That increase brought the Latin American eCommerce and FinTech\u2019s net revenue and financial income for the quarter to $8.8 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Mercado Libre said in the release that its lower free shipping threshold in Brazil, which it introduced last year, continued to deliver results beyond its expectations. The company said that move was \u201cone of our most important strategic decisions of 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, the company\u2019s net income declined 16% year over year in the first quarter, slipping to $417 million, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/blob:https:\/investor.mercadolibre.com\/140e3a16-0bdc-4cc9-8aeb-61c78b3dc0cf\">letter to shareholders<\/a> released Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncome from operations decreased by 20% YoY [year over year] as we chose to prioritize long-term growth investments over short-term profitability,\u201d Mercado Libre said in the letter.<\/p>\n<p>The company said that the investments\u2019 results show it is taking the right steps, that it is growing at startup rates even though the company is 26 years old, and that its growth is even accelerating in its largest and most established market, Brazil.<\/p><div id=\"pymnt-1498295523\" class=\"pymnt-content pymnt-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-top: 50px;\"><p style=\"text-align:center\">Advertisement: Scroll to Continue<\/p><script async type=\"text\/javascript\" id=\"dianomi_context_script\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dianomi.com\/js\/contextfeed.js\"><\/script> \r\n<div class=\"dianomi_context\" data-dianomi-context-id=\"4329\"><\/div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhen your business is behaving like this, we believe the right response is not to harvest \u2014 it is to invest,\u201d Mercado Libre said.<\/p>\n<p>Outlining the results of its investments, the company said the lower free shipping threshold in Brazil drove conversion, frequency, retention and NPS to record highs; the Mercado Pago credit card has turned millions of the company\u2019s marketplace-only users into FinTech users too; its first-party business enabled it to offer a broader assortment and more competitive prices than its third-party marketplace alone; and its cross-border trade complements its core local marketplace and is expected to see growing demand.<\/p>\n<p>It was reported in November that Mercado Libre was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/news\/ecommerce\/2025\/mercado-libre-invests-record-amount-coupons-amid-growing-competition-from-amazon\/\">investing<\/a> more than ever before in coupons ahead of Black Friday due to heightened competition in Latin America from Amazon, Shein, Shopee, Temu and other online retailers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uy.linkedin.com\/in\/martin-de-los-santos-287ab730\">Martin de los Santos<\/a>, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Mercado Libre, said during a Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/finance\/beta\/quote\/MELI:NASDAQ?tab=earnings\">earnings call<\/a>: \u201cAs we have always said, we\u2019re not trying to optimize short-term margins. What we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re investing for the long term. We will continue to invest boldly in those initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>\r\n\twindow.pymntsAllowedArticleCount = 1;\r\n\twindow.pymntsPostID = 3716605;\r\n<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mercado Libre\u2019s investments in free shipping, a Mercado Pago credit card, first-party selection and cross-border trade drove a 49% year-over-year increase in net revenue and financial income in the first quarter, the company said in a Thursday (May 7) earnings release. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3716621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","pymnts_footnotes":""},"categories":[13270],"tags":[4152,7617,19329,24140,9206,133069,5299],"class_list":["post-3716605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earnings","tag-ecommerce","tag-fintech","tag-mercado-libre","tag-mercado-pago","tag-news","tag-pymnts-news","tag-whats-hot"],"acf":{"suggested_titles":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mercado Libre Sacrifices Short-Term Profits to Fuel 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