ISSN1680-8754 PRODUCTIONDEVELOPMENT SERIES 231 ThelandscapeofB2Ce-commercemarketplacesinLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean EstefaníaLotittoBernardoDíazdeAstarloa ThankyouforyourinterestinthisECLACpublication Pleaseregisterifyouwouldliketoreceiveinformationonoureditorialproductsandactivities.Whenyouregister,youmayspecifyyourparticularareasofinterestandyouwillgainaccesstoourproductsinotherformats. Register www.cepal.org/en/publications www.instagram.com/publicacionesdelacepalwww.facebook.com/publicacionesdelacepal www.issuu.com/publicacionescepal/stackswww.cepal.org/es/publicaciones/apps 231 ThelandscapeofB2Ce-commercemarketplacesinLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean EstefaníaLotittoBernardoDíazdeAstarloa ThisdocumenthasbeenpreparedbyEstefaníaLotittoandBernadoDíazdeAstarloa,consultantswiththeDivisionofProduction,ProductivityandManagementandtheDivisionofInternationalTradeandIntegrationoftheEconomicCommissionforLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean(ECLAC),aspartoftheactivitiesofUnitedNationsDevelopmentAccountproject2023W,entitled“GlobalInitiativetowardspost-Covid-19resurgenceoftheMSMEsector”.ThecommentsfromNannoMulderandValeriaJordán,andfromJesseWeltevreden,ProfessorofDigitalCommerceattheCentreforMarketInsights(CMI)attheAmsterdamUniversityofAppliedSciences,aregratefullyacknowledged. Theviewsexpressedinthisdocument,whichhasbeenreproducedwithoutformalediting,arethoseoftheauthorsanddonotnecessarilyreflecttheviewsoftheOrganizationorthecountriesitrepresents. UnitedNationspublication ISSN:1680-8754(electronicversion)ISSN:1020-5179(printversion)LC/TS.2022/194 Distribution:L Copyright©UnitedNations,2022Allrightsreserved PrintedatUnitedNations,SantiagoS.22-00697 Thispublicationshouldbecitedas:E.LotittoandB.DíazdeAstarloa“ThelandscapeofB2Ce-commercemarketplacesinLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean”,ProductionDevelopmentseries,No.231(LC/TS.2022/194),Santiago,EconomicCommissionforLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean(ECLAC),2022. ApplicationsforauthorizationtoreproducethisworkinwholeorinpartshouldbesenttotheEconomicCommissionforLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean(ECLAC),DocumentsandPublicationsDivision,publicaciones.cepal@un.org.MemberStatesandtheirgovernmentalinstitutionsmayreproducethisworkwithoutpriorauthorization,butarerequestedtomentionthesourceandtoinformECLACofsuchreproduction. Contents Abstract5 Introduction7 I.Definitionsanddata9 II.ExploringthemarketplacelandscapeinLAC13 A.MainmarketplacesintheLACregion13 1.CharacterizationofLACB2Conlinemarketplaces15 B.Sizeandconcentration21 C.Trendsinmarketplaceactivity24 III.DeterminantsoftheB2Cmarketplaceecosystem27 A.Literatureonenablersofmarketplacedevelopment27 B.EstimatesofdeterminantsofmarketplacegrowthanddevelopmentinLAC28 IV.Finalcomments31 Bibliography33 Annex37 SeriesProductionDevelopment:issuespublished40 Tables Table1MarketplaceswiththelargesttrafficsharesinLAC,2019-202114 Table2TotaltrafficofmarketplaceswiththelargesttrafficsharesinLAC,2019-202114 Table3Numberofvisitstoglobalmarketplaceswithnocountryfocus, selectedLACmarkets,May-July202215 Table4Mostpopularproductcategories,bynumberofURLs,202219 Table5TrafficevolutionbyURLshoppingtype,2019-202126 Table6Country-leveldeterminantsofonlinemarketplacetraffic,baseline29 Table7Country-leveldeterminantsofonlinemarketplacetraffic,fullcontrols30 Figures Figure1Uniqueusersandgrossmerchandisevolume,MercadoLibre,2019Q1-2022Q111 Figure2Cross-countrydistributionofURLsshares,202216 Figure3Distributionofmarketplacesbytype,LAC,202216 Figure4Typesofmarketplacesbycountry,202217 Figure5Marketplacesbygeographicalscope,202219 Figure6Marketplacesbyownertype,202220 Figure7Weborapp-basedURLsbyshoppingtype,202221 Figure8Marketplaceconcentrationbycountry,202122 Figure9Platforms’websitetrafficpercapitaandnumberofURLspercapita,202123 Figure10Platformtrafficpercapita,numberofplatformspercapita, andsizeofURLsinLACcountries,202123 Figure11Evolutionofmarketplacetrafficandnumberofwebsites,2019-202125 Figure12Changeinmarketplacetrafficbycountry,2019-202125 Abstract Thedigitizationofeconomy,andparticularlythee-commercecanencourageinnovationandcontributetotheprocessofdigitaltransformationofmicro,smallandmediumenterprises(MSME)throughtheimplementationofdigitaltechnologiesandnewbusinessmodels,whichcanimprovetheefficiencyandproductivityofcompaniesbeyonditseffectsonaccesstonewmarkets.Despitepotentialgains,activityofonlineplatformsimpliesrisksandchallengesintermsofantitrustregulation,dataprotection,cybersecurity,andmarketdynamic.Betterqualityofinstitutionsandaneffectivejudiciarysystemandacompetitivebusinessenvironmentareassociatedwithhigherefficientofplatforms. DataandevidencefortheLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean(LAC)regionremainscarcestill.Thispaperanalyzesdatasetofonlinemarketplaceactivityintheregionbetween2019and2021.Besides,itdescribesthemaincharacteristicsofonlineplatformsintheregion,aswellastheirdistributionacrosscountriesandtheevolutionoftrafficduringsuchperiod.Thesedataalsowerecombinedwithcountry-levelindicatorstostudystructuraldeterminantsofthosemarketplaceactivities. ECLAC-ProductionDe