Online commerce: Latin Americas other Amazon
线上商务：拉美的另一个亚马逊
The Economist 2023.05.06
词数：582难度：⭐️ ⭐️文章背景世界各大电商平台营业额均有下滑，也纷纷放出了裁员消息，但“自由市场”却是个例外，而且，其市值一直在上升，当前已经达到了 640 亿美元。且在今年四月份的时候，该公司还宣布要招聘 1.3 万名员工。是什么让“自由市场”这家公司在如今大环境不景气的情况下，显得如此“另类”？本文是《经济学人》就这家公司进行的一些讨论。音频MercadoLibre soars as other e-emporiums sink.
“自由市场”（MercadoLibre，或“美客多”）在其他电子商城衰落之时蒸蒸日上。
In March Amazon announced it would fire 9,000 workers — bringing to 27,000 the total number it has laid off this year. The e-commerce giants share price is down by a third since 2021. Other online-shopping darlings, from Shopify in Canada to Coupang in South Korea and Grab in South-East Asia, have suffered a similar fate. With one exception. At $64bn, the market value of MercadoLibre, an Argentine firm listed in New York with operations across Latin America, has been rising lately and is back roughly to where it was at the start of 2022 — and twice that before covid-19. In April, as the worlds tech firms were sacking workers en masse, it said it would hire 13,000, mainly in Brazil and Mexico, raising its workforce by a third.
今年三月，亚马逊宣布将解雇 9000 名员工，使今年裁员总数达到 27000 人。自 2021 年以来，这家电子商务巨头的股价下跌了三分之一。其他在线购物宠儿，从加拿大的 Shopify 到韩国的 Coupang，再到东南亚的 Grab，都遭遇了类似的命运。只有一个例外。在纽约上市、业务遍及拉丁美洲的阿根廷公司“自由市场”的市值最近一直在上升，目前为 640 亿美元，大致回到了 2022 年初的水平，是新冠疫情前的两倍。今年四月，当世界各地的科技公司都在大规模裁员时，“自由市场”表示要招聘 1.3 万人（主要在巴西和墨西哥），这使其员工人数增加了三分之一。
图片来源：经济学人杂志
MercadoLibre needs more workers. On May 3rd it reported that revenues grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2023, to $3bn. Last year goods worth $35bn changed hands on its platform, helping generate $1bn in pre-tax profits. How is it flourishing as similar firms elsewhere struggle?“自由市场”需要更多的员工。5 月 3 日，该3公司报告称，2023 年第一季度的收入增长了 35%，达到了 30 亿美元。去年，价值 350 亿美元的商品在其平台上易手，帮助创造了 10 亿美元的税前利润。它是如何在其他地方的类似公司挣扎时繁荣起来的呢？
Its success is a mix of good management and good fortune. Early on it expanded from connecting buyers and sellers into payments, initially to allay users fear of fraud. Its payments system, MercadoPago, is now widely trusted and used beyond its platform; more than $100bn flowed through it in 2022. The company has also built its own logistics network to deliver packages quickly in a region where infrastructure can be patchy. In ten years it has gone from not touching parcels, all of which were handled by third-party shippers, to having a hand in ferrying 93% of its e-commerce packages. More recently it added a fast-growing advertising business. Unlike Amazon, which regularly receives complaints about working conditions, employees rank MercadoLibre among the best Latin American firms to work for.“自由市场”的成功是良好管理和好运的结合。早期，它从连接买家和卖家扩展到支付，最初是为了减轻用户对欺诈的恐惧。它的支付系统 MercadoPago 现在被广泛信任，并且在其平台之外也有使用；2022 年，有超过 1000 亿美元的资金流入该系统。该公司还建立了自己的物流网络，以便在基础设施不完善的地区快速运送包裹。十年来，它从不接触包裹（所有包裹都由第三方托运人处理）发展到参与运送 93% 的电商包裹。最近，它又增加了一个快速增长的业务。与经常收到工作环境投诉的亚马逊不同，员工们将“自由市场”列为最适合工作的拉美公司之一。
MercadoLibre also benefits from a deep understanding of local shopping habits, notes Ricardo Tapia of the University of Anáhuac in Mexico City. For instance, by accumulating points for purchases, its shoppers can gain benefits such as free delivery. What may seem gimmicky to Western shoppers, for whom a big benefit of buying online is that it saves time, is a big draw for game-loving Latin Americans.墨西哥城阿纳瓦克大学（University of Anáhuac）的里卡多·塔皮亚（Ricardo Tapia）指出，“自由市场”也得益于对当地购物习惯的深刻理解。例如，通过累积积分，购物者可以获得免费配送等福利。对西方购物者来说，网上购物的一大好处是节省时间，这似乎是一种噱头，但对热爱游戏的拉丁美洲人来说，累计积分则是一种巨大的吸引力。The resulting strength has allowed the firm to take advantage of fortuitous circumstances. As everywhere in the world, the pandemic accelerated the growth of e-commerce in its region. In Mexico, MercadoLibres third-biggest market after Brazil and Argentina, 63m people bought something online in 2022, up from 37m in 2018. In contrast to more mature markets such as Britain, the number of Latin Americans buying online did not drop back down after an initial boom in 2020.
凭此得来的实力让公司可以抓住转瞬即逝的机会。与世界各地一样，疫情加速了该地区电子商务的发展。墨西哥是“自由市场”仅次于巴西和阿根廷的第三大市场，2022 年有 6300 万人在网上购物，高于 2018 年的 3700 万人。与英国等更成熟的市场相比，拉丁美洲在线购物的数量在 2020 年最初的繁荣之后并没有回落。The regions brick-and-mortar retailers, which are rapidly improving their own digital offerings, and online giants such as Amazon have cottoned on to this trend. To keep growing, MercadoLibre may need to boost penetration in less online countries such as Colombia, where Amazon is weaker, and perhaps move into new segments, such as groceries. But it does at least enjoy another advantage over foreign rivals, for which Latin America is a peripheral market—focus. Failure in its home region is simply not an option, says Agustin Gutierrez of McKinsey, a consultancy. Nothing concentrates the mind like survival.
该地区的实体零售商正在迅速改善自己的数字产品，亚马逊等在线巨头也抓住了这一趋势。为了保持增长，“自由市场”可能需要提高在哥伦比亚等网络较少的国家的渗透率，亚马逊在哥伦比亚的实力较弱，或许还需要进军杂货等新领域。但它至少比外国竞争对手有另一个优势，拉美市场是外国竞争对手较少关注的外围市场。麦肯锡（McKinsey）咨询公司的奥古斯丁·古铁雷斯（Agustin Gutierrez）表示，在本国失败根本不是一种选择。没有什么比生存更能集中精神了。