Nature of Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

1.	Nature of Business

MercadoLibre, Inc. (“MercadoLibre” or the “Company”) was incorporated in Delaware in October 1999. MercadoLibre is a Latin American e-commerce platform and payments leader. MercadoLibre is an e-commerce enabler whose mission is to build the necessary online and technology tools to allow practically anyone to trade almost anything in Latin America. MercadoLibre enables commerce through its marketplace platform (including online classifieds for motor vehicles, vessels, aircraft, services and real estate), the Latin American largest online marketplace, which allows users to buy and sell in nearly every country in Latin America; through MercadoPago, which enables individuals and businesses to send and receive online payments; through MercadoClics, which facilitates the advertising service to large retailers and brands to promote their product and services on the web; and through MercadoShops which facilitates users to set-up, manage promote their own on-line web-stores, to support MercadoLibre’s mission of enabling e-commerce.

As of December 31, 2012, the Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, operated online commerce platforms directed towards Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela, and online payments solutions directed towards Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile and Colombia. In addition, the Company operates a real estate classified platform that covers some areas of State of Florida, U.S.A.

MercadoPago is currently available to users in each of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.