Research On Business Model Of Latinamerican Cross-border E-commerce Platform Mercado Libre

In recent years,cross-border e-commerce has played an increasingly important role in sustainable development by virtue of its superiority in breaking through the limitations of time and space.The sweeping wave of digitalization and the outbreak of the COVID-19 have accelerated the transformation of consumption behavior in the society,which also stimulate the growth of cross-border e-commerce.In the postepidemic era,the growth rate of cross-border e-commerce in Latin America is the fastest in the world,unleashing development potential continuously.While the partnership between China and Latin America is further developing,many crossborder e-commerce enterprises of China regard Latin America as the blue ocean.Mercado Libre,born in Latin America and headquartered in Argentina,is the largest e-commerce platform in the region.Under the strike of the COVID-19,it has developed rapidly,enhancing its impact in Latin America,due to its business model.Therefore,choosing Mercado Libre as the research case,this paper analyzes its business model,summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of its business model,and puts forward optimization suggestions for the same type of enterprises in our country.This paper uses document study method and case analysis method,reviews and sorts out the relevant theories and researches regarding cross-border e-commerce platforms and business models at home and abroad.By means of sorting the development history of Mercado Libre,this paper analyzes the external factors accordingly,including macro factors as well as industrial environmental factors which affect the choices of business models at three stages of development.Afterwards,according to Osterwalder’s business model canvas,three key aspects,value proposition,key resource and key activity,and profit model are selected to conduct a detailed analysis of the business model of the Mercado Libre.Through a comprehensive analysis,it finds out that the success of Mercado Libre lies in its deep cultivation in the Latin American market,providing products and services that in line with the development characteristics and needs of the Latin American market;it has a relatively complete cross-border e-commerce ecosystem,where six major businesses support each other,covering important segments of the e-commerce and forming a virtuous circle;it emphasizes on strategic cooperation and technological improvement.However,the deficiencies of Mercado Libre are also exposed in the increasingly fierce competition,including obvious infringement caused by low-price positioning,weak social attributes,high homogenization of sale categories,insufficient anti-risk ability and etc.Based on the strengths and weaknesses of Mercado Libre’s business model,it proposes three pieces of optimization suggestions for our country’s cross-border e-commerce platform,including improving localized operation,enhancing the abilities of cross-border logistics and payment,and completing the cross-border e-commerce ecosystem.It comes up with advices of further research.