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Nature of Business | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2012
Nature of Business [Abstract] |
Nature of Business | 1. Nature of Business MercadoLibre Inc. (the “Company”) 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. The Company developed a Web-based marketplace in which buyers and sellers are brought together to browse, buy and sell items such as computers, electronics, collectibles, automobiles, clothing and a host of practical and miscellaneous items. Additionally, the Company introduced MercadoPago in 2004, an integrated online payments solution. MercadoPago was designed to facilitate transactions on the MercadoLibre Marketplace by providing an escrow mechanism that enables users to send and receive payments online. Since 2004, the Company introduced an online classifieds platform for motor vehicles, vessels and aircrafts and since 2006 the real estate online classifieds platform. In 2006, the Company launched eShops, a platform tailored to attract lower rotation items and increase the breadth of products offered, the introduction of user generated information guides for buyers that improve the shopping experience, and the expansion of the online classifieds model by adding the services category. During 2007 the Company also launched a new and improved version of its MercadoPago payments platform in Chile and Colombia as well as in Argentina during 2008. The new MercadoPago, in addition to improving the ease of use and efficiency of payments for marketplace purchases, also allows for payments outside of the Company’s marketplaces. Users are able to transfer money to other users with MercadoPago accounts and to incorporate MercadoPago as a means of payments in their independent commerce websites. In this way MercadoPago 3.0 as it has been called is designed to meet the growing demand for Internet based payments systems in Latin America. In 2010, the Company started processing off-MercadoLibre transactions through this new direct payments product to any website in Brazil which wants to adopt it and launched MercadoPago 3.0 in Brazil for all its marketplace transactions. In 2011, the Company started processing off-platform transactions using MercadoPago 3.0 in Mexico and Venezuela. As of March 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 Florida, U.S.A.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for the nature of an entity's business, the major products or services it sells or provides and its principal markets, including the locations of those markets. If the entity operates in more than one business, the disclosure also indicates the relative importance of its operations in each business and the basis for the determination (for example, assets, revenues, or earnings). + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Name Statement of Position (SOP) -Publisher AICPA -Number 94-6 -Paragraph 10 -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 275 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6927468&loc=d3e6003-108592 + Details
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