Mexico beats Argentina… on Mercado Libre

It's schizophrenic. Via WhatsApp, some Mexicans are suggesting to me that the country is about to collapse.

While these memes and texts made by who knows who are falling, the Argentine Mercadolibre turns Mexico into its best global market, only behind Brazil. Argentina, its place of origin, moves to third place on its podium.

Did someone lose the map here, dude?

Local economists warn pessimistically about how the 'forest' looks:

That recently the Inegi revealed how we fared in 2024 and that the economy began to fall more or less on the dates that Los Peces en el Río sang.

But the same Inegi also revealed last week that in this country e-commerce is growing at an annual rate of 22 percent and that at least until 2023 this business already represented two trillion pesos, about 100 billion dollars .

That, the institution says, already represents more than six percent of the national GDP.

Just so we understand each other: Pemex exported 20,726 million dollars of crude oil in 2024. You will say where there is a future.

Liverpool, Walmart and Amazon are among the common 'suspects' of e-commerce, but let's get into the data.

Last year, MercadoLibre alone collected 4,664 million dollars in net income in Mexico.

Invested in logistics infrastructure in Mexico, opening new distribution centers in Villa de Tezontepec, Hidalgo, and Tultepec, State of Mexico, thereby increasing the expansion of free shipping, attracting a record number of new buyers.

Ariel Szarfsztejn, president of commerce for that company, highlighted that the low-cost products segment is growing as much or more than the average of its marketplace , precisely because of that strategy.

What does that mean? It's very likely that people are starting to buy things from Mercado Libre that they used to buy at OXXO, but that's another topic.

Note that the company does not only sell everything from stoves to passion powders. What is new is the financial business, its credit card, to be precise.

At Walmart de México, business is also on fire. The company's president, Ignacio Caride, has not been able to raise the company's share price , which continues to decline, but he has used his strongest weapon to present positive news:

His online sales grew 19.8 percent last year . His 13 years of experience at Mercadolibre were worth it.

The company highlighted its November campaign “The Irresistible End” and 19 percent higher investments in 2024 compared to the previous year, aimed at remodeling and improving omnichannel infrastructure, including the opening of new stores and distribution centers to strengthen its logistics.

Please note that the data I referred to previously from Inegi no longer refer only to the well-known format of a ' marketplace ' such as that of the companies mentioned.

“The results reflect the performance of online commerce in the economy, with the increased use of services on platforms and social networks.”

In this last area, another step in electronic commerce is approaching through transactions made directly on platforms such as Tiktok and YouTube , since 'influencers' can now market articles with their followers.

Well, it is true that the Mexican economy is slowing down, but Enrique Quintana already wrote this in his Coordenadas:

“In such uncertain times, general averages mean little. More than ever, it is essential to analyse the specific behaviour of each sector, branch or region, as the contrasts will be pronounced throughout the year.”