Net Revenues of
Income from operations of
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay,
To our Shareholders
The end of the fourth quarter of 2022 brought a highly successful year to a close. Over the last 12 months, we have processed more than
Over the last three years, we have built a GMV base that is 2.5x larger than in 2019 and continues to grow, we have ramped-up a logistics network with world-class delivery speeds (GMV delivered within 48 hours rose from an average of 44% in 2019 to almost 80% in 2022) and we have strengthened the other key pillars of our Commerce value proposition: assortment, price and service. The much-increased scale gained through this three year period solidifies our position as Latin America’s e-commerce leader. It also positions us well to continue to capitalize on the growth opportunity of the offline to online shift in retailing across the region.
During the same three year period we have also grown our TPV more than 4x, and our Fintech revenues nearly 5x, making our Fintech business a major contributor to our top and bottom line growth. At the same time, we have launched a full suite of products and services that extends our original payments offering to cards, credit, insurance and savings, amongst others. Although we still have more products to build, the launches of the last 18 months give us - for the first time - the critical mass of services that would enable our users to have their principal financial services relationship with
Our market share of
As a consequence of the building blocks we have laid over this past period, we believe we are well-positioned to continue to drive growth and profit expansion in our businesses in the coming years. Our results in the fourth quarter provide a good example of how a combination of strong execution, increased scale, solid competitive advantages and appropriate long-term thinking can yield high growth and market share gains alongside robust profit increases.
Commerce
A strong performance in the fourth quarter rounded-off a great year for our Commerce business. Our FX-neutral GMV growth accelerated to 35% in Q4’22, with
We delivered a record-breaking
Mercado Ads continued to grow at a rapid pace in 2022 in all key geographies, with revenue as a percentage of GMV reaching 1.4% in Q4’22. This marks another consistent step in the business’ expansion, making the Ads business more than 5x larger than it was three years ago. This year has also been an important year in building-out our capabilities, supported by doubling the number of engineers allocated to the Ads business. This year’s technology deployments included our own Ad Server, which enables the automatic insertion of display advertising, targeting capabilities and an automated dashboard for real-time reporting for Display performance, as well as enhancements to the bidding process and placement logic of product ads. We have also made important progress in the development of our DSP (demand side platform), which we expect to launch in 2023 and will significantly upgrade our capabilities. All of these improvements are aligned with our strategy to build a complete Ad Tech platform in
Fintech
Momentum in our Fintech business remains strong. Our unique active fintech users reached almost 44mn in Q4’22, rising 27% year-on-year, whilst TPV grew at 45% in US dollars and 80% on an FX-neutral basis. A strong off-platform performance in Q4’22, with growth of 58% in US dollars and 121% on an FX-neutral basis, took our quarterly off-platform TPV over
One of the main ambitions on that path is to achieve principality amongst the portion of our user base where our distribution and underwriting capabilities enable us to offer a strong value proposition. One of the keys to unlocking principality is being able to offer the products and services that satisfy our users’ day-to-day needs. After 12 to 18 months of product development and deployment, we now have the tools in place to shift
In
Our POS business has played an important role in our achievement of surpassing
Our Online Payments business also delivered consistent levels of growth in 2022, and in the fourth quarter, FX neutral TPV growth was stable in
Consolidated Results
A strong finish to the year took our full-year revenue past
In Q4’22, we generated
Our Q4’22 income from operations reached
We generated
Looking Ahead
After a year of successfully navigating macroeconomic instability across the region and delivering on our promise of sustainable and sequential growth in profit dollars, we are confident in Mercado Libre’s growth potential in the coming years. We will continue to develop competitive advantages through technology so that we are best placed to capitalize on the growth opportunities in Commerce and Fintech across
In the short-term, we are operating in a fast-changing competitive landscape in
For the long-term, we remain as optimistic as ever about the fundamentals of our business, and we are confident that the best is yet to come.
The following table summarizes certain key performance metrics for twelve and three-month periods ended December 31, 2022 and 2021.
Year Ended |
Three Months Ended |
||||||
(in millions) | 2022 | 2021 | 2022 | 2021 | |||
Other data: | |||||||
Unique Active Users | 148 | 140 | 97 | 82 | |||
Gross merchandise volume | 34,449 | 28,351 | 9,615 | 7,957 | |||
Number of successful items sold | 1,147 | 1,014 | 321 | 288 | |||
Number of successful items shipped | 1,105 | 962 | 311 | 276 | |||
Total payment volume | 123,633 | 77,371 | 35,951 | 24,244 | |||
Total volume of payments on marketplace | 36,281 | 29,078 | 10,101 | 8,187 | |||
Total payment transactions | 5,470 | 3,255 | 1,677 | 1,029 | |||
Capital expenditures | 455 | 630 | 112 | 196 | |||
Depreciation and amortization | 403 | 204 | 122 | 67 |
(*) Figures have been calculated using rounded amounts. Growth calculations based on this table may not total due to rounding.
Year-over-year USD Growth Rates by Quarter
Consolidated Net Revenues | Q4’21 | Q1’22 | Q2’22 | Q3’22 | Q4’22 | |||||
51 | % | 63 | % | 53 | % | 35 | % | 36 | % | |
47 | % | 74 | % | 62 | % | 72 | % | 50 | % | |
92 | % | 58 | % | 65 | % | 60 | % | 55 | % | |
Commerce | 56 | % | 40 | % | 23 | % | 20 | % | 22 | % |
Fintech | 70 | % | 108 | % | 113 | % | 94 | % | 73 | % |
Gross Merchandise Volume | Q4’21 | Q1’22 | Q2’22 | Q3’22 | Q4’22 | |||||
19 | % | 29 | % | 28 | % | 20 | % | 29 | % | |
21 | % | 43 | % | 33 | % | 35 | % | 13 | % | |
31 | % | 20 | % | 30 | % | 22 | % | 35 | % | |
Total Payment Volume | Q4’21 | Q1’22 | Q2’22 | Q3’22 | Q4’22 | |||||
On-Platform | 21 | % | 26 | % | 25 | % | 22 | % | 23 | % |
Off-Platform | 79 | % | 103 | % | 105 | % | 71 | % | 58 | % |
Year-over-year Local Currency Growth Rates by Quarter
Consolidated Net Revenues | Q4’21 | Q1’22 | Q2’22 | Q3’22 | Q4’22 | |||||
61 | % | 55 | % | 42 | % | 35 | % | 28 | % | |
84 | % | 110 | % | 104 | % | 140 | % | 143 | % | |
96 | % | 59 | % | 66 | % | 62 | % | 46 | % | |
Commerce | 67 | % | 44 | % | 23 | % | 33 | % | 36 | % |
Fintech | 81 | % | 113 | % | 107 | % | 115 | % | 93 | % |
Gross Merchandise Volume | Q4’21 | Q1’22 | Q2’22 | Q3’22 | Q4’22 | |||||
23 | % | 23 | % | 19 | % | 20 | % | 22 | % | |
53 | % | 73 | % | 66 | % | 87 | % | 83 | % | |
33 | % | 21 | % | 30 | % | 23 | % | 28 | % | |
Total Payment Volume | Q4’21 | Q1’22 | Q2’22 | Q3’22 | Q4’22 | |||||
On-Platform | 32 | % | 48 | % | 42 | % | 39 | % | 44 | % |
Off-Platform | 97 | % | 139 | % | 135 | % | 122 | % | 121 | % |
Conference Call and Webcast
The Company will host an earnings video as well as a conference call and audio webcast for any questions that investors may have on
Definition of Selected Operational Metrics
Unique Fintech User – Users who engage in at least one of the following services within the quarter: wallet payments online, in app or in store; transfers; withdrawals; consumer or merchant credit borrowers; card users; fintech sellers; and fintech active products such as asset management and insurtech users.
Foreign Exchange (“FX”) Neutral – Calculated by using the average monthly exchange rate of each month of 2021 and applying it to the corresponding months in the current year, so as to calculate what the results would have been had exchange rates remained stable. Intercompany allocations are excluded from this calculation. These calculations do not include any other macroeconomic effect such as local currency inflation effects or any price adjustment to compensate local currency inflation or devaluations.
Gross merchandise volume – Measure of the total
Total payment transactions – Measure of the number of all transactions paid for using
Total volume of payments on marketplace – Measure of the total
Total payment volume – Measure of total
MPOS – Mobile point-of-sale is a dedicated wireless device that performs the functions of a cash register or electronic point-of-sale terminal wirelessly.
Commerce – Revenues from core marketplace fees, shipping fees, first-party sales, ad sales, classified fees and other ancillary services.
Fintech – Revenues includes fees from off-platform transactions, financing fees, interest earned from merchant and consumer credits and sale of MPOS.
Successful items sold – Measure of the number of items that were sold/purchased through the
Successful items shipped – Measure of the number of items that were shipped through our shipping service.
Local Currency Growth Rates – Refer to FX Neutral definition.
Net income margin – Defined as net income as a percentage of net revenues.
Operating margin – Defined as income from operations as a percentage of net revenues.
IMAL (Interest Margins After Losses) – IMAL is the spread between credit revenues and the expenses associated with provisions for doubtful accounts, and expressed as a percentage of the outstanding portfolio.
About
Founded in 1999,
The Company is listed on NASDAQ (Nasdaq: MELI) following its initial public offering in 2007.
For more information about the Company visit: http://investor.mercadolibre.com.
The
Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements herein regarding
(In millions of
2022 | 2021 | ||||||
Assets | |||||||
Current assets: | |||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 1,910 | $ | 2,585 | |||
Restricted cash and cash equivalents | 1,453 | 1,063 | |||||
Short-term investments ( |
2,339 | 810 | |||||
Accounts receivable, net | 130 | 98 | |||||
Credit card receivables and other means of payments, net | 2,946 | 1,839 | |||||
Loans receivable, net of allowances of |
1,704 | 1,199 | |||||
Prepaid expenses | 38 | 40 | |||||
Inventories | 152 | 253 | |||||
Customer crypto-assets safeguarding assets | 15 | — | |||||
Other assets | 266 | 288 | |||||
Total current assets | 10,953 | 8,175 | |||||
Non-current assets: | |||||||
Long-term investments | 322 | 89 | |||||
Loans receivable, net of allowances of $30 and |
32 | 61 | |||||
Property and equipment, net | 993 | 807 | |||||
Operating lease right-of-use assets | 656 | 461 | |||||
153 | 148 | ||||||
Intangible assets, net | 25 | 45 | |||||
Deferred tax assets | 346 | 181 | |||||
Other assets | 256 | 134 | |||||
Total non-current assets | 2,783 | 1,926 | |||||
Total assets | $ | 13,736 | $ | 10,101 | |||
Liabilities | |||||||
Current liabilities: | |||||||
Accounts payable and accrued expenses | 1,393 | 1,036 | |||||
Funds payable to customers | 3,454 | 2,393 | |||||
Amounts payable due to credit and debit card transactions | 483 | 337 | |||||
Salaries and social security payable | 401 | 313 | |||||
Taxes payable | 414 | 291 | |||||
Loans payable and other financial liabilities | 2,131 | 1,285 | |||||
Operating lease liabilities | 142 | 92 | |||||
Customer crypto-assets safeguarding liabilities | 15 | — | |||||
Other liabilities | 129 | 90 | |||||
Total current liabilities | 8,562 | 5,837 | |||||
Non-current liabilities: | |||||||
Amounts payable due to credit and debit card transactions | 5 | 4 | |||||
Loans payable and other financial liabilities | 2,627 | 2,233 | |||||
Operating lease liabilities | 514 | 372 | |||||
Deferred tax liabilities | 106 | 62 | |||||
Other liabilities | 95 | 62 | |||||
Total non-current liabilities | 3,347 | 2,733 | |||||
Total liabilities | $ | 11,909 | $ | 8,570 | |||
Commitments and contingencies | |||||||
Equity | |||||||
Common stock, |
— | — | |||||
Additional paid-in capital | 2,309 | 2,439 | |||||
(931 | ) | (790 | ) | ||||
Retained earnings | 913 | 397 | |||||
Accumulated other comprehensive loss | (464 | ) | (515 | ) | |||
Total Equity | 1,827 | 1,531 | |||||
Total Liabilities and Equity | $ | 13,736 | $ | 10,101 |
Consolidated Statements of Income
For twelve and three-month periods ended
(In millions of
Year Ended |
Three Months Ended |
||||||||||||||
2022 | 2021 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||||
Net service revenues | $ | 9,442 | $ | 6,149 | $ | 2,676 | $ | 1,783 | |||||||
Net product revenues | 1,095 | 920 | 326 | 347 | |||||||||||
Net revenues | 10,537 | 7,069 | 3,002 | 2,130 | |||||||||||
Cost of net revenues | (5,374 | ) | (4,064 | ) | (1,544 | ) | (1,277 | ) | |||||||
Gross profit | 5,163 | 3,005 | 1,458 | 853 | |||||||||||
Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||||
Product and technology development | (1,099 | ) | (590 | ) | (325 | ) | (179 | ) | |||||||
Sales and marketing | (1,296 | ) | (1,074 | ) | (380 | ) | (338 | ) | |||||||
Provision for doubtful accounts | (1,073 | ) | (435 | ) | (228 | ) | (164 | ) | |||||||
General and administrative | (661 | ) | (465 | ) | (176 | ) | (148 | ) | |||||||
Total operating expenses | (4,129 | ) | (2,564 | ) | (1,109 | ) | (829 | ) | |||||||
Income from operations | 1,034 | 441 | 349 | 24 | |||||||||||
Other income (expenses): | |||||||||||||||
Interest income and other financial gains | 265 | 138 | 123 | 54 | |||||||||||
Interest expense and other financial losses (*) | (321 | ) | (229 | ) | (100 | ) | (54 | ) | |||||||
Foreign currency losses, net | (198 | ) | (109 | ) | (64 | ) | (57 | ) | |||||||
Net income before income tax expense | 780 | 241 | 308 | (33 | ) | ||||||||||
Income tax expense | (298 | ) | (149 | ) | (144 | ) | (4 | ) | |||||||
Equity in earnings of unconsolidated entity | — | (9 | ) | 1 | (9 | ) | |||||||||
Net income (loss) | $ | 482 | $ | 83 | $ | 165 | $ | (46 | ) |
(*) Includes
Year Ended |
Three Months Ended |
|||||||||||
2022 | 2021 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||
Basic earning per share | ||||||||||||
Basic net income (loss) | ||||||||||||
Available to shareholders per common share | $ | 9.57 | $ | 1.67 | $ | 3.28 | $ | (0.92 | ) | |||
Weighted average of outstanding common shares | 50,345,353 | 49,802,993 | 50,284,640 | 49,926,533 | ||||||||
Diluted earning per share | ||||||||||||
Diluted net income (loss) | ||||||||||||
Available to shareholders per common share | $ | 9.53 | $ | 1.67 | $ | 3.25 | $ | (0.92 | ) | |||
Weighted average of outstanding common shares | 51,335,621 | 49,802,993 | 51,274,909 | 49,926,533 |
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
For the twelve months ended
Year Ended |
|||||||
2022 | 2021 | ||||||
Cash flows from operations: | |||||||
Net income | $ | 482 | $ | 83 | |||
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: | |||||||
Equity in earnings of unconsolidated entity | — | 9 | |||||
Unrealized foreign currency losses, net | 411 | 91 | |||||
Impairment of digital assets | 12 | 9 | |||||
Depreciation and amortization | 403 | 204 | |||||
Accrued interest income | (166 | ) | (36 | ) | |||
Non cash interest expense, convertible notes amortization of debt discount and amortization of debt issuance costs and other charges | 137 | 86 | |||||
Provision for doubtful accounts | 1,073 | 435 | |||||
Results on derivative instruments | 66 | — | |||||
Settlement of the call option | — | (11 | ) | ||||
Stock-based compensation expense - restricted shares | 1 | 1 | |||||
LTRP accrued compensation | 84 | 89 | |||||
Deferred income taxes | (97 | ) | (29 | ) | |||
Changes in assets and liabilities: | |||||||
Accounts receivable | (71 | ) | (26 | ) | |||
Credit card receivables and other means of payments | (1,084 | ) | (1,063 | ) | |||
Prepaid expenses | 3 | (13 | ) | ||||
Inventories | 114 | (142 | ) | ||||
Other assets | (90 | ) | (175 | ) | |||
Payables and accrued expenses | 449 | 380 | |||||
Funds payable to customers | 1,044 | 808 | |||||
Amounts payable due to credit and debit card transactions | 128 | 309 | |||||
Other liabilities | (82 | ) | (79 | ) | |||
Interest received from investments | 123 | 35 | |||||
Net cash provided by operating activities | 2,940 | 965 | |||||
Cash flows from investing activities: | |||||||
Purchases of investments | (12,694 | ) | (7,371 | ) | |||
Proceeds from sale and maturity of investments | 11,023 | 7,801 | |||||
Payments for acquired businesses, net of cash acquired | — | (51 | ) | ||||
Capital contributions in joint ventures | — | (5 | ) | ||||
Receipts from settlements of derivative instruments | 1 | 6 | |||||
Payments from settlements of derivative instruments | (45 | ) | (20 | ) | |||
Purchases of intangible assets | (1 | ) | (36 | ) | |||
Changes in principal loans receivable, net | (1,701 | ) | (1,348 | ) | |||
Investments of property and equipment | (454 | ) | (573 | ) | |||
Net cash used in investing activities | (3,871 | ) | (1,597 | ) | |||
Cash flows from financing activities: | |||||||
Purchase of convertible note capped calls | — | (101 | ) | ||||
Exercise of Convertible Notes | — | (3 | ) | ||||
Payments on repurchase of the 2028 Notes | — | (1,865 | ) | ||||
Unwind of convertible note capped calls | — | 397 | |||||
Proceeds from loans payable and other financial liabilities | 17,017 | 9,262 | |||||
Payments on loans payable and other financing liabilities | (15,933 | ) | (6,782 | ) | |||
Payments of finance lease obligations | (20 | ) | (17 | ) | |||
Common Stock repurchased | (148 | ) | (486 | ) | |||
Proceeds from issuance of common stock, net | — | 1,520 | |||||
Net cash provided by financing activities | 916 | 1,925 | |||||
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and cash equivalents | (270 | ) | (153 | ) | |||
Net (decrease) increase in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and cash equivalents | (285 | ) | 1,140 | ||||
Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and cash equivalents, beginning of the year | 3,648 | 2,508 | |||||
Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and cash equivalents, end of the year | $ | 3,363 | $ | 3,648 |
Financial results of reporting segments
Three Months Ended |
|||||||||||||||||||
Other Countries | Total | ||||||||||||||||||
(In millions) | |||||||||||||||||||
Net revenues | $ | 1,532 | $ | 713 | $ | 607 | $ | 150 | $ | 3,002 | |||||||||
Direct costs | (1,245 | ) | (420 | ) | (504 | ) | (133 | ) | (2,302 | ) | |||||||||
Direct contribution | 287 | 293 | 103 | 17 | 700 | ||||||||||||||
Operating expenses and indirect costs of net revenues | (351 | ) | |||||||||||||||||
Income from operations | 349 | ||||||||||||||||||
Other income (expenses): | |||||||||||||||||||
Interest income and other financial gains | 123 | ||||||||||||||||||
Interest expense and other financial losses | (100 | ) | |||||||||||||||||
Foreign currency losses, net | (64 | ) | |||||||||||||||||
Net Income before income tax expense | $ | 308 | |||||||||||||||||
Three Months Ended |
|||||||||||||||||||
Other Countries | Total | ||||||||||||||||||
(In millions) | |||||||||||||||||||
Net revenues | $ | 1,127 | $ | 475 | $ | 392 | $ | 136 | $ | 2,130 | |||||||||
Direct costs | (1,063 | ) | (324 | ) | (372 | ) | (133 | ) | (1,892 | ) | |||||||||
Direct contribution | 64 | 151 | 20 | 3 | 238 | ||||||||||||||
Operating expenses and indirect costs of net revenues | (214 | ) | |||||||||||||||||
Income from operations | 24 | ||||||||||||||||||
Other income (expenses): | |||||||||||||||||||
Interest income and other financial gains | 54 | ||||||||||||||||||
Interest expense and other financial losses | (54 | ) | |||||||||||||||||
Foreign currency losses, net | (57 | ) | |||||||||||||||||
Net loss before income tax expense | $ | (33 | ) | ||||||||||||||||
Non-GAAP Measures of Financial Performance
To supplement our audited consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with
This non-GAAP measure should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with
We provide this non-GAAP financial measure to enhance overall understanding of our current financial performance and its prospects for the future. We believe that FX neutral measures provide useful information to both Management and investors by excluding the foreign currency exchange rate impact that may not be indicative of our core operating results and business outlook.
The FX neutral measures were calculated by using the average monthly exchange rates for each month during 2021 and applying them to the corresponding months in 2022, so as to calculate what our results would have been had exchange rates remained stable from one year to the next. The comparative FX neutral measures were calculated by using the average monthly exchange rates for each month during 2020 and applying them to the corresponding months in 2021 The table below excludes intercompany allocation FX effects. Finally, these measures do not include any other macroeconomic effect such as local currency inflation effects, the impact on impairment calculations or any price adjustment to compensate local currency inflation or devaluations.
The following table sets forth the FX neutral measures related to our reported results of the operations for the three-month period ended December 31, 2022:
Three-Month Periods Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||||
As reported | FX Neutral Measures | As reported | |||||||||||||||||||
(In millions, except percentages) | 2022 | 2021 | Percentage Change | 2022 | 2021 | Percentage Change | |||||||||||||||
Net revenues | $ | 3,002 | $ | 2,131 | 40.9 | % | $ | 3,334 | $ | 2,131 | 56.5 | % | |||||||||
Cost of net revenues | (1,544 | ) | (1,278 | ) | 20.8 | % | (1,677 | ) | (1,278 | ) | 31.2 | % | |||||||||
Gross profit | 1,458 | 853 | 70.9 | % | 1,657 | 853 | 94.3 | % | |||||||||||||
Operating expenses | (1,109 | ) | (830 | ) | 33.6 | % | (1,264 | ) | (830 | ) | 52.3 | % | |||||||||
Income from operations | $ | 349 | $ | 23 | 1417.4 | % | $ | 393 | $ | 23 | 1585.3 | % |
CONTACT:
Investor Relations
http://investor.mercadolibre.com

Source: MercadoLibre, Inc.