The purchase and sale platform revealed which producer was in greater demand in various Latin American countries
With thousands of publications and dozens of offers for the most varied goods and services, Mercado Libre became one of the most used buying and selling platforms in the countries that are located in the Latin American region. From household appliances to pet accessories and everything imaginable, there are few things that can’t be found there. Of this infinite catalog of possibilities, there was one in particular that was the most purchased in Argentina during 2022.
Just over two decades ago, a group of friends were encouraged to dream big and decided to start a business together. Thus, in 1999, Marcos Galperin and a couple of colleagues decided to venture into an area that had not yet been explored.
“We talked about the importance of the private sector in the development of products and services, in innovation, in the generation of genuine work and in inclusion at multiple levels. We were talking about opening doors, lowering barriers, reducing inequality”, they explained at the celebration of the 21st anniversary of the company’s foundation.
The first steps of Mercado Libre were taken as an improvised Market Place -an online market that survived on the basis of auctions-, but slowly it began to evolve. They grew, they made mistakes, they learned from their mistakes and, 24 years later, they are one of the main platforms for the exchange of goods and services in all of Latin America.
In 2022, they registered a record sales level and, according to the reports they shared in their year-end balance sheet, in the second quarter they had a total of USD 8.6 billion in purchases. Of the thousands of purchases made in those months, what was the best-selling item?
Through its Twitter profile, the company shared a graph in which it revealed the number one position in the sales ranking of each country in the region and, in the case of Argentina, generated a great surprise. Many might believe that it was an element linked to traditional customs, such as those that make up a mate team. Others, that it was something related to the World Cup in Qatar, the sporting event that crossed the lives of millions of Argentines.
However, nothing more and nothing less than the Telepase Mercado Pago – an application that allows the payment of services and the transfer of money – was discussed, a function that “allows to pay the tolls of highways and routes in Argentina without the need for cash or stop the vehicle. It works with a device attached to the windshield so that the tollbooth readers automatically read the data of the license plate and payment information”.
As for the rest of the countries, the products were aligned with what users expected. In Mexico it was wireless headphones, in Colombia ecological toothbrushes, in Brazil creatine supplements, in Uruguay air conditioners and, in both Chile and Peru, cell phones ranked first.