By Brazil Stock Guide – Mercado Livre (NASDAQ: MELI) generated an estimated R$73.1 billion in direct and indirect economic impact in Brazil in 2025, equivalent to about 0.7% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to an impact report released by the company in August.
The study estimates that for every R$1 directly added to GDP by Mercado Livre’s operations, another R$1.40 was generated across related value chains. The calculation includes the company’s marketplace, logistics, payments, credit and other financial services, as well as activity generated among suppliers and other businesses tied to its ecosystem.
Mercado Livre directly employed more than 61,100 people in Brazil last year, while another 352,000 jobs were associated with the broader value chain, bringing the total to about 413,000. That implies nearly six indirect jobs elsewhere in the economy for every direct position at the company, according to the report.
The company estimates that about 5.3 million small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs operate within its ecosystem. Nearly 627,000 Brazilian SMEs and entrepreneurs sold products through Mercado Livre’s marketplace in 2025.
About 160,000 of those sellers were individual entrepreneurs with no employees, while roughly 90% of the companies had teams of two to five workers. The report said 40% of sellers were registered as individual microentrepreneurs, or MEIs, representing about 8% of all MEIs operating in Brazilian commerce.
For almost 60% of surveyed sellers, Mercado Livre was their main sales channel and accounted for an average 50% of revenue. About 45% had no digital presence outside the marketplace.
Marketplace and logistics drive activity
Marketplace and logistics businesses together accounted for 41% of the estimated economic impact, contributing more than R$29 billion in added value. Payments, lending and other financial products represented another 40%, also totaling about R$29 billion.
Mercado Livre’s logistics network reached 137 active facilities in 2025, including warehousing centers and last-mile operations. The company opened 10 warehousing sites and 26 facilities linked to last-mile distribution during the year.
The expansion created more than 22,500 logistics jobs, bringing the total number of workers involved in delivering packages to more than 49,800, according to the study. Mercado Livre also added 978 pickup and delivery agencies, taking its network to 5,950 points.
The company’s reach also broadened geographically. About 61% of SMEs using the marketplace sold to at least one city where they had not previously operated, while three out of every five shipments crossed state borders.
Mercado Pago expands payments and credit
About 4.7 million businesses and entrepreneurs used Mercado Pago to process payments in 2025. Companies moved more than R$410 billion through Pix and card transactions on the platform, equivalent to roughly 3.4% of digital payments received by Brazilian companies through those methods, the report said.
Mercado Pago also extended about R$100 billion in personal credit and R$12.4 billion in loans to SMEs. The latter represented roughly 1.1% of Brazil’s outstanding credit to micro, small and medium-sized businesses, according to the study.
Growth spreads beyond major markets
Regional data show the scale of Mercado Livre’s operations outside Brazil’s largest commercial centers. More than 55,700 SMEs and entrepreneurs sold through the platform in Minas Gerais in 2025, compared with almost 360,000 in São Paulo and more than 43,200 in Rio de Janeiro. Santa Catarina had about 32,400 sellers, while the Northeast region had more than 27,800.
Some of the fastest shipment growth came from outside the traditional hubs. Routes originating in Brazil’s Northeast recorded the strongest increase in parcel volumes during 2025, particularly in Pernambuco, while routes linking Paraná, Ceará and Maranhão grew by more than 75%.
The report was prepared by a team led by economist Bernardo Díaz de Astarloa and combines company data, surveys of more than 22,800 sellers, buyers and Mercado Pago users in Brazil, government statistics and an input-output model designed to estimate direct and indirect economic effects.
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