Mercado Libre: Epilogue

I spent a lot of time locked up in a room with the Mercado Libre team recently, and came away with the following observations:

* It is a very strong brand. Random “normal” people I asked about the company were familiar not only with the brand, but also knew what they did.

* The competitive landscape is enviable. Since there is no venture capital market to write home about, the competition from startups is relatively low. The larger brands like eBay, Yahoo, Google are busy elsewhere. It gives MELI a nice, clean runway to build their business without a lot of interruption.

* The team is well set and stable. Unlike Silicon Valley or other “hot” markets like India or China, attrition is low, making it easier for the company to bank on the talent base that has been trained and has matured on its clock, a luxury that I am sure the Indians and the Chinese cannot dream of affording.

* Unlike eBay, which remained singularly focused on the auctions business for the longest time, and missed important trends such as online advertising, MELI’s management has kept their eyes wide open.

* And finally, it was incredibly gratifying for me, personally, to observe how well they have embraced my Web 3.0 framework and vision, and are building a platform that really incorporates it.