As the tech world undertakes layoffs, MercadoLibre in employment mode.
The Latin American e-commerce giant plans to add 13,000 jobs this year, head of the people division Sebastian Fernandez Silva V said interview With Bloomberg News Thursday (April 20).
The hiring will focus on the logistics operations in Brazil and Mexico, as well as the technology and product teams of the Argentine company.
“It is very important for us to have a stronger and more robust logistics network that allows faster and cheaper delivery to users,” Fernandez told Bloomberg.
He added that the new hire will strengthen MercadoLibre’s investigation network, especially in smaller towns.
While he declined to provide a figure for the number of new distribution and service centers MercadoLibre will open this year, the company said in previous statements that it plans to invest $3.6 billion in Brazil this year and $1.6 billion in Mexico.
PYMNTS spoke last year with MercadoLibre’s Karen Brook About the rapidly expanding e-commerce market in Latin America, especially in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic.
E-commerce penetration [before the pandemic] was much less [in Latin America] From the United States or other regions, like Asia or China, in particular.” “E-commerce penetration in Latin America doubled during the pandemic, but the biggest difference from other regions is that it never stopped growing.”
But, she added, foreign traders hoping to gain a foothold in this fast-growing market first need to understand its ins and outs. Brooke cautioned that it would be a mistake to think of the Latin American e-commerce landscape as a monolith, rather than a very diverse group of countries and consumers.
“Latin America is very fragmented, and the regulations in every country are different,” she told PYMNTS. “If you go to Brazil, you will have a very different market than in Mexico, Argentina or Colombia, and you will also have different regulations in terms of how products are invoiced and imported.”
The company’s hiring efforts — which will be funded through Internal Revenue without the need for financing, according to Bloomberg — are occurring in the middle of a wave of job cuts at other big tech companies around the world.
Among them is the associate e-commerce company Amazonwhich announced last month that it was laying off 9,000 employees — mostly in the cloud computing divisions of its company, Twitch livestream, and advertising — after laying off 18,000 employees in January.
“For several years prior to this year, most of our businesses added a significant amount of staff,” said CEO Andy Jassy.
“This made sense given what was happening in our business and the economy as a whole. However, given the uncertain economy we live in, and the uncertainty that exists in the immediate future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount.”