eBay bought a stake in MercadoLibre and agreed to stay out of Latin America, leaving the region to a startup from Buenos Aires. MercadoLibre let people in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and other countries buy and sell new and used goods online. Its payment service, MercadoPago, let them trust strangers with their money. When it went public in August 2007, it was one of the few Latin American internet companies to list in New York.

A Stanford Business Plan

Marcos Galperin started MercadoLibre in 1999 while studying at Stanford Business School. He launched it in Buenos Aires with Hernán Kazah. The bet was that e-commerce in Latin America needed a local champion that understood its markets, currencies and logistics. eBay's stake came two years later, in 2001, along with its promise to stay out of the region. The company later moved its base to Montevideo, Uruguay.

Bigger Than the Marketplace

MercadoLibre priced its IPO at $18 a share in August 2007 on the Nasdaq. It built its own shipping network and turned MercadoPago into a major fintech business. That arm now offers digital wallets, loans and payments to people across the region, far beyond the marketplace. MercadoLibre became one of the most valuable companies in Latin America, and it remains publicly traded on the Nasdaq.

Cover: The Road to Market, Constant Troyon. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the road to market (a great marketplace).