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MercadoLibre was founded on August 2, 1999 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Founder and CEO Marcos Galperin established the company while attending Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, United States. He acquired funding from John Muse, co-founder of HM Capital Partners. MercadoLibre received additional funding from JPMorgan Partners, Flatiron Partners, Goldman Sachs, GE Capital, and Banco Santander Central Hispano. In 1999, MercadoLibre was chosen as an Endeavor company.
In September 2001, the American online auction company eBay purchased a 19.5% stake in the company. eBay sold its stake in MercadoLibre in 2016, but the companies continue to collaborate to expand eBay sellers into Latin America. eBay opened its first branded store on the MercadoLibre marketplace from Chile in March 2017. The following month, MercadoLibre acquired iBazar Como, the Brazilian subsidiary of eBay's earlier acquisition, iBazar S.A. In 2006, MercadoLibre.com launched new operations in Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
In August 2007, MercadoLibre became the first Latin American technology company to be listed on the NASDAQ, under the ticker MELI. MercadoLibre acquired competitor DeRemate's operations in August 2008. MercadoLibre also acquired Classified Media Group (CMG) in 2008. CMG established the Latin American e-commerce portals tucarro.com and tuinmueble.com.
In 2011, the company transitioned its platform to open source technology. The transition allowed application programming interface (API) developers to expand the platform's solutions and services. In 2013, MercadoLibre launched the MeLi Commerce Fund, dedicated to investing in technology startups that create software using MercadoLibre's APIs.
By August 2016, the fund had invested US$ 1.5 million in 15 companies in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. MercadoLibre acquired Portal Inmobiliario, a Chilean classified ad website, in 2014. In 2015, MercadoLibre announced its acquisition of Metroscúbicos.com, the portal of Mexico-based real estate company Grupo Expansión.
In 2016, MercadoLibre relocated its Brazilian headquarters to new offices in São Paulo, Brazil. The 17,000 square meter complex, named Melicidade, held a cafeteria, auditorium, gym, beauty parlor, meeting and training rooms, and a recreation area. In March 2016, MercadoLibre announced its expansion into Córdoba, Argentina with its new software center.
However, the company announced that the offices located in Córdoba would be closing their doors in August 2025, citing the high cost of municipal taxes, with all the company's staff continuing their work remotely. MercadoLibre opened its first Colombian office in Bogotá in October 2016. It was the company's fourth customer service center in Latin America, following centers in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
On June 19, 2017, MercadoLibre became a NASDAQ-100 company. In 2019, MercadoLibre opened its first distribution centers in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. In March 2020, MercadoLibre announced its new distribution centers in Chile and Colombia. In June 2020, MercadoLibre announced its new software center in Colombia. In March 2021, MercadoLibre announced an investment of R$ 1.8 billion in its Brazilian operations.
In April 2025, MercadoLibre announced a ARS$ 2.6 billion investment in Argentina, representing a 53% increase from the previous year, as part of its regional expansion strategy across Latin America, with plans to hire 2,000 additional employees and expand its logistics network and technological capabilities.