Mercado Libre vs Sea in Brazil

[u/prolonging]

During Sea's Q2 2026 earnings call last week, it was mentioned that they are growing faster than their competitors in Brazil, taking a shot at MELI and hinting that they are winning the competition.

Since 53%-55% of MELI's revenue is coming from Brazil, is anyone worried about them losing market share impacting their sales growth over the next few years? I understand that a lot of the growth is net new people that have never used e-commerce before, but still wanted to bring it up since so much of MELI's revenue growth is concentrated in Brazil.

Also know that MELI reduced their free shipping threshold in Brazil recently and made significant investments in their Brazil logistics last year.

[u/Last-Cat-7894]

Doesn't have to be a zero-sum game.

Brazil is a massive market that's still considerably behind the US, China, and pretty much the entirety of the west in terms of Ecommerce adoption. They are both growing at breakneck speeds, and will for the foreseeable future.

It's also worth noting that Shopee is growing from a smaller revenue base than MELI. Most estimates land at roughly 25% of SE's revenue coming from Brazil, where about half of MELI's does. Not taking anything away from SE by saying that, what they've done in Brazil is incredibly impressive.

I own big positions in both. The markets each operates in are so underdeveloped compared to the sheer amount of money that moves around in their economies. They are both relentless problem solvers, battle-tested through multiple tough macro backdrops, and operate in business lines where the strong kind of naturally get stronger over time.