美卡多 (MELI) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the MercadoLibre earnings conference call for the quarter ended September 30, 2022. Thank you for joining us. I'm Richard Cathcart, Investor Relations Officer for MercadoLibre. Today, we will share our quarterly highlights on video, after which we'll begin our live Q&A session with our Chief Financial Officer, Pedro Arnt; and Chief Executive Officer of Mercado Pago, Osvaldo Gimenez.

大家好，歡迎參加MercadoLibre截至2022年9月30日的季度財報電話會議。感謝各位的參與。我是MercadoLibre的投資者關係負責人Richard Cathcart。今天，我們將透過影片分享本季的亮點，之後我們將與財務長Pedro Arnt和Mercado Pago執行長Osvaldo Gimenez進行現場問答環節。

Before we go on to discuss our results for the third quarter of 2022, I remind you that management may make forward-looking statements relating to such matters as continued growth prospects for the company, industry trends and product and technology initiatives. These statements are based on currently available information and our current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. While we believe that our assumptions, expectations and projections are reasonable in view of the currently available information, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

在討論2022年第三季業績之前，我提醒各位，管理層可能會就公司持續成長前景、行業趨勢以及產品和技術舉措等事項發表前瞻性聲明。這些聲明是基於目前可獲得的資訊以及我們對未來事件的假設、預期和預測。儘管我們認為，鑑於目前可獲得的信息，我們的假設、預期和預測是合理的，但請各位不要過分依賴這些前瞻性聲明。

Our actual results may differ materially from those included in this conference call for a variety of reasons, including those described in the forward-looking statements and risk factor sections of our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and any of MercadoLibre Inc.'s other applicable filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on our Investor Relations website.

由於各種原因，我們的實際結果可能與本次電話會議中包含的結果存在重大差異，這些原因包括我們在截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日止年度的 10-K 表格的前瞻性聲明和風險因素部分中描述的原因，以及 MercadoLibre Inc. 向美國證券交易委員會提交的任何其他投資者適用文件中描述的原因，這些文件中可查閱我們的投資者。

With that, let's begin with a summary of our results.

接下來，讓我們先來總結一下我們的結果。

Hello, everyone. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to share some of the achievements and key messages from our third quarter of 2022 results. During Q3, we were able to deliver a strong combination of growth in Commerce and Fintech with continued progress towards our annual targets for profit expansion. Our operating margin expanded more than 500 basis points to 11%, contributing to quarterly profit of $296 million, while operating cash generation was solid once again. This reflects the strong performance of our business, our ability to dilute costs as we scale and our long-term commitment to delivering sustainable and profitable growth.

大家好。我很高興有機會與大家分享我們2022年第三季業績中的一些成就和關鍵訊息。第三季度，我們在商業和金融科技領域實現了強勁成長，並持續朝著年度利潤成長目標邁進。我們的營業利益率提升超過500個基點，達到11%，季度利潤達到2.96億美元，同時經營現金流也維持穩健。這反映了我們業務的強勁表現、我們在規模擴張過程中有效降低成本的能力，以及我們對實現永續獲利成長的長期承諾。

Our Commerce business continues to show resilience amidst macroeconomic challenges and as physical retail fully reopens, with GMV growing 32% on an FX-neutral basis. Our investments across the businesses over the last few years in technology have enabled us to improve our service levels significantly, and this is translating into market share gains across geographies both on a consolidated level and also across multiple product categories.

在宏觀經濟挑戰和實體零售全面恢復營運的背景下，我們的電商業務持續展現韌性，以固定匯率計算，商品交易總額增加了32%。過去幾年，我們對各業務部門的技術投入顯著提升了服務水平，這轉化為我們在各個地區以及多個產品類別中市場份額的增長。

Logistics investments have been the other major contributor to the improvements in service levels as our managed Mercado Envios network penetration hit 92% during the third quarter, up 5 percentage points over the last 12 months. We are progressing our strategy to increase monetization with our Ads business reaching 1.3% penetration over gross merchandise volume, a small but steady increase on previous quarters. We delivered a series of improvements in our Ads tools, and we have a road map of improvements that is accelerating.

物流投資是提升服務水準的另一個主要因素，我們管理的Mercado Envios網路滲透率在第三季達到92%，較過去12個月成長了5個百分點。我們正在推進提高獲利能力的策略，廣告業務的滲透率已達到商品交易總額的1.3%，較前幾個季度實現了小幅但穩定的成長。我們對廣告工具進行了一系列改進，並制定了改進路線圖，目前正在加速前進。

Mercado Pago had another exceptional with unique Fintech active users surpassing 40 million mark for the first time. Off-platform TPV achieved its fourth consecutive quarter of triple-digit growth, reaching $23 billion with growth of 122%. Our MPOS businesses in Mexico and Chile made a strong contribution to this growth, as did QR in Brazil and our digital banking account solutions in Argentina.

Mercado Pago 再創佳績，其獨特的金融科技活躍用戶首度突破 4,000 萬大關。平台外交易總額連續第四個季度實現三位數成長，達到 230 億美元，增幅高達 122%。我們在墨西哥和智利的行動支付業務、巴西的二維碼支付業務以及阿根廷的數位銀行帳戶解決方案均為此成長做出了重要貢獻。

Mercado Credito's portfolio reached $2.8 billion, growing at a slower rate than in past quarter as we slowed originations. This is a reflection of our prioritization of risk management and margin over growth. Our credit business delivered a resilient financial performance with annualized IMAL spreads rising quarter-on-quarter to 37%. Our early NPLs are stable versus the prior quarter, which is a reflection of the steps we took to mitigate risks in a weaker lending environment, particularly in Brazil.

Mercado Credito的投資組合規模達到28億美元，成長速度較上一季放緩，這主要得益於我們放緩了貸款發放速度。這體現了我們優先考慮風險管理和利潤率而非成長的策略。我們的信貸業務表現穩健，年化IMAL利差較上季上升至37%。早期不良貸款率與上一季相比保持穩定，這反映了我們在信貸環境疲軟（尤其是在巴西）的情況下為降低風險而採取的措施。

With significant gross profit and operating margin expansion, we closed out another quarter of strong financial results that reflect the growth of higher-margin businesses, our disciplined approach to short-term growth investments as well as our focus on leveraging our scale to deliver cost dilution on COGS, sales and marketing and G&A expense lines. This has enabled us to continue to invest in engineering headcount, which is reflected in higher product and development expenses as a percentage of sales as we had anticipated.

憑藉著顯著的毛利和營業利潤率提升，我們又一個季度取得了強勁的財務業績。這反映了高利潤業務的成長、我們對短期成長投資的審慎策略，以及我們專注於利用規模優勢降低銷售成本、銷售和行銷費用以及一般及行政費用。這使我們能夠繼續投資於工程人員，正如我們預期的那樣，這導致產品和研發費用佔銷售額的比例上升。

A more detailed review of the third quarter operational and financial results is available in the shareholder letter, which is published on our IR Relations website.

有關第三季營運和財務表現的更詳細回顧，請參閱我們投資者關係網站上發布的股東信。

And before turning to live Q&A section of today's earnings, I'll hand it back to Richard to get through some of the latest updates to the MELI product and user experience. Thank you.

在進入今天財報發布會的現場問答環節之前，我將把麥克風交還給理查德，讓他介紹一下MELI產品和用戶體驗的最新進展。謝謝。

In our mission to democratize access to commerce and financial services, we continued to deliver improvements in the shopping experience of our marketplace. One example of this is the short videos that can be found on the homepage of our e-commerce app, where consumers can discover products and learn more details and features about the products they're looking to purchase. This introduces enjoyable content, a discovery element to the search experience, helps promote user engagement and for our sellers as a new channel for marketing and sales.

為了實現讓更多人能夠平等地獲取商業和金融服務的目標，我們持續改善平台的購物體驗。例如，我們在電商應用程式首頁推出了短視頻，消費者可以透過這些視頻發現產品，並了解更多產品詳情和功能。這不僅為用戶帶來愉悅的瀏覽體驗，增添了探索發現的元素，還有助於提升用戶參與度，並為賣家開闢了新的行銷和銷售管道。

When shopping for apparel and fashion products offered by thousands of sellers, brands and official stores, the search experience matters. We improved the user experience of our fashion segment, and you can now browse through different product segments, lifestyles and brands. This enhances the discovery experience that is key for this category.

在成千上萬的賣家、品牌和官方店鋪中選購服裝和時尚產品時，搜尋體驗至關重要。我們優化了時尚板塊的使用者體驗，現在您可以瀏覽不同的產品類別、生活風格和品牌。這顯著提升了該品類的關鍵－發現心儀商品的體驗。

As buyers search for something they need, they have better filters to facilitate their search. This is another example of improvements that have been enabled by our continued investment in technology this year that you can find much more on our app. And as always, we will deliver it quickly to your house so you can start using your new item as soon as possible.

買家在搜尋所需商品時，可以使用更完善的篩選功能來簡化搜尋過程。這是我們今年持續投資技術所帶來的另一個改進，您可以在我們的應用程式中體驗更多功能。一如既往，我們會盡快將商品送到您家，讓您盡快開始使用。

On the path to improving delivery times and bringing down logistics costs, we have introduced our crowdsourcing solution for the last mile in Brazil and Mexico, leveraging on our service centers network. With this innovation, our vans will take products destined for high-density delivery neighborhoods to a service center that serves as our last-mile facility instead of delivering them from door-to-door. From there, the drivers from our crowdsourcing platforms make the deliveries to our final customers.

為了縮短配送時間並降低物流成本，我們利用自身的服務中心網絡，在巴西和墨西哥推出了「最後一公里」眾包配送解決方案。透過這項創新，我們的貨車會將運往高密度配送區域的貨物運送到作為「最後一公里」配送中心的服務中心，而不是進行門到門配送。之後，來自我們眾包平台的司機將貨物送達最終客戶手中。

All of this is underpinned by technology developed by the 1,500 engineers are dedicated to logistics. These developers continue to work on logistics projects like this that make our network more effective and cost-efficient from inbound to delivery and returns. The MELI Places network has grown to almost 7,000 locations with over 99% enabled for pickup and returns.

這一切都歸功於我們1500名專注於物流的工程師所開發的技術。這些開發人員持續致力於此類物流項目，使我們的網路從入庫、配送到退貨等各個環節都更有效率且經濟。 MELI Places網路已擴展至近7000個地點，其中超過99%的地點支援取貨和退貨。

On our path to democratize financial services across the Lat Am region, we launched many new products over the last 18 months. This includes debit and credit cards, savings and investments, crypto wallets, insurance, personal loans and many other products. We now have a complete offering tailored to the needs of our users, allowing tens of millions of people to manage all of their financial services within our ecosystem, whether they're individuals or small, medium and large entrepreneurs. And this is not just happening in Brazil as the approval of our IFPE license in Mexico allows us to begin to market Mercado Pago and actively offer its tools to the country's large unbanked and underbanked populations.

為了在拉丁美洲地區普及金融服務，我們在過去18個月中推出了許多新產品，包括金融卡和信用卡、儲蓄和投資、加密錢包、保險、個人貸款以及其他眾多產品。如今，我們擁有完整的金融服務體系，能夠滿足用戶的各種需求，讓數千萬用戶，無論個人、中小企業或大型企業，都能在我們的生態系統中管理所有金融服務。不僅在巴西，我們在墨西哥也獲得了IFPE（國際金融平台協會）的許可，這使我們能夠開始推廣Mercado Pago平台，並積極向該國龐大的無銀行帳戶和銀行服務不足人口提供相關工具。

MercadoLibre will continue to deliver better products and services, focusing on the experience of our millions of users with solutions tailored to their needs. To underline that commitment, we will have hired an additional 4,000 engineers by year-end, all of whom will work to develop and extend the competitive advantages of our ecosystem.

MercadoLibre 將繼續致力於提供更優質的產品和服務，專注於提升數百萬用戶的體驗，並提供量身定制的解決方案。為了實踐這項承諾，我們將在年底前新增 4000 名工程師，他們將共同努力，發展並拓展我們生態系統的競爭優勢。

As always, the best yet to come.

一如既往，最好的還在後頭。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Andrew Ruben with Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的安德魯魯本。

So some strong results overall. But just to focus on credit and particularly the past due rates. So when considering the moving pieces, you mentioned origination, loan performance and the 360-day dynamics, how do you see the evolution of this metric playing out? Really, any color on the drivers when you think this past due cycle could end and what the necessary factors might be? Anything around that would be highly appreciated.

整體而言，結果相當不錯。但我們想專注於信貸，特別是逾期率。您提到了貸款發放、貸款表現和360天動態等因素，您認為這項指標的演變趨勢如何？您能否就逾期週期何時結束以及需要哪些因素做出一些分析？任何相關資訊將不勝感激。

Andrew, this is Osvaldo. So I think we -- when we see the turn we see, it's fairly in line with what we expected. When we look at the segments in terms of past due dates, we see that they are basically performing as we expected them to perform. We did see some degradation of metrics, particularly in Brazil, mostly during the second quarter, and that was where we started to limit the amount of loans we offer, particularly in the personal loans. And since then, the results this quarter has been in line with what we expected.

安德魯，我是奧斯瓦爾多。我認為，我們看到的轉變與預期基本一致。從逾期還款情況來看，各業務板塊的表現基本上符合預期。我們確實看到一些指標出現下滑，尤其是在巴西，主要發生在第二季。正是在那時，我們開始限制貸款發放量，特別是個人貸款。自那以後，本季的業績就符合預期了。

Going forward, we don't provide guidance, but we believe that probably interest rates in Brazil have -- are close to -- have peaked already or close to peaking. And probably next year, it should start coming down. It's still too early to tell. Brazil elected a new President last week, so it's still very early to tell. But with that in mind, we expect that macro conditions will start to improve in Brazil, which was the country where we were more concerned about degradation of credit lines. So I think that all is working out according to what we expected.

展望未來，我們不提供具體指引，但我們認為巴西的利率可能已經或接近高峰。明年利率可能會開始下降。現在下結論還為時過早。巴西上週才剛選出新總統，所以現在下結論還為時過早。但考慮到這一點，我們預期巴西的宏觀經濟狀況將開始改善，而巴西正是我們之前最為擔憂信貸額度惡化的國家。因此，我認為一切都在預期中發展。

Our next question comes from Irma Sgarz with Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的伊爾瑪·斯加茲。

So with Ads now reaching 1.3% of GMV, I was hoping you could just shed a little bit more light on what drove this quarter-over-quarter increase as you correct -- as you pointed out, it was just a small but steady increase. So I was wondering if you already feel that you saw an impact from the launch of the new Ads tools that you've been developing or if this is just much more something for the quarters to come off of even for 2023?

廣告收入目前已佔GMV的1.3%，我希望您能進一步解釋一下是什麼因素推動了這一季度環比增長——正如您所指出的，這只是一個小幅但穩定的增長。所以我想知道，您是否已經感受到新廣告工具的推出帶來了影響，還是說這還需要更多時間才能顯現，甚至要到2023年才能真正體現出來？

And the second quick question is, with encouraging metrics that you've posted once again around user growth and engagement, I was wondering if you could perhaps just share your latest thoughts around shifting to a different, perhaps, 2-tiered loyalty program going forward.

第二個問題是，鑑於您再次發布了有關用戶成長和參與度的令人鼓舞的指標，我想知道您是否可以分享您關於未來轉向不同的（也許是兩級）忠誠度計劃的最新想法。

Great. Thanks, Irma. So on advertising, I think most of the rollout of the new product tools have come towards the end of the quarter. And the impact of those -- and this is obviously a constantly evolving and improving product, I think we should see more in the upcoming quarters than the entire third quarter. I think what we see in the third quarter is just the natural evolution of an advertising business that there's very strong demand for despite the macro backdrop given where we play along the conversion funnel. And as we continue to invest resources and roll out the tools that came out towards the end of the quarter, but also new tools that we have, we continue to think that there's a lot of upside from our advertising solutions to come in the future.

太好了，謝謝伊爾瑪。關於廣告方面，我認為大部分新產品工具的推出都集中在第三季末。這些工具的影響——顯然，這是一個不斷發展和改進的產品——我認為在接下來的幾季裡會比整個第三季都更加顯著。我認為我們在第三季看到的只是廣告業務的自然發展，儘管宏觀經濟狀況不佳，但鑑於我們在轉換漏斗中的位置，市場對廣告的需求依然非常強勁。隨著我們繼續投入資源，推出本季末推出的工具以及我們現有的新工具，我們仍然認為我們的廣告解決方案在未來具有巨大的成長潛力。

In terms of loyalty, we continue to work towards launching a next version of the loyalty program. I think we've identified that where most of the value is, is in L6. We continue to see a strong evolution of users buying L6. The overwhelming majority of Level 6 users are purchased users and not users who have earned their way towards L6. And so we would hope to be launching a new version of the loyalty program in the upcoming quarters. That really positions it increasingly better to be a subscription model with more and more benefits that we will continue to build for that highest level where a majority of users will probably purchase, but we will continue most likely to offer the ability to be earned into that as well.

在會員忠誠度方面，我們正持續努力推出新版忠誠度計畫。我們認為，L6 級別最有價值。我們持續看到購買 L6 等級的用戶數量顯著成長。絕大多數 L6 等級用戶都是付費用戶，而非透過自身努力晉升到 L6 等級的用戶。因此，我們希望在接下來的幾季推出新版忠誠度計畫。這將使其更適合採用訂閱模式，並不斷增加我們為最高等級用戶打造的更多權益。雖然大多數用戶可能會選擇付費升級到最高級別，但我們仍將繼續提供透過自身努力晉升到最高級別的途徑。

Our next question comes from Thiago Macruz from Itaú.

下一個問題來自伊塔烏大學的蒂亞戈·馬克魯茲。

Well, my first question is regarding Mercado Pago's cost of funding. You've been consistently bringing it down, but arguably, there's still some way to go to reach levels similar to those of your competition. Which alternatives do you feel you have to accelerate this process? It's fair -- is it fair to say that your cost of funding keeps you from maybe entering any lower spread credit products today?

我的第一個問題是關於Mercado Pago的融資成本。你們一直在努力降低融資成本，但可以說，要達到與競爭對手類似的水平，還有一段路要走。你們認為有哪些方法可以加快這個過程？公平地說，你們目前的融資成本是否限制了你們進入低利差信貸產品市場？

And my second question is regarding the World Cup and Black Friday, very unique combination at the end of this year. Should we expect you to become maybe a little bit more aggressive on your 1P product in the upcoming months?

我的第二個問題是關於世界盃和黑色星期五，這是今年年底一個非常特殊的組合。我們是否可以預期，在接下來的幾個月裡，你們會更積極地推廣1P產品？

So let's see. You're correct in saying that there is still room to continue to drive down the cost of funding through renegotiation [in PD] structures, more use of CDBs. For the current segments where we participate and where we still think most of our focus will be, the quality of the underwriting is still by far the most significant driver of the margins in that business and less so incremental basis points or hundreds of basis points even that we can derive from cost of funding.

好的，我們來看看。您說得對，透過重新協商（在PD結構中）以及更多地使用CDB，仍有空間進一步降低融資成本。對於我們目前參與的、並且我們認為未來仍將重點關注的領域，承保品質仍然是該業務利潤率的最重要驅動因素，而融資成本帶來的哪怕是幾百個基點的增量利潤，其影響都遠不及此。

I think if you take a longer-term view, then what you bring up is valid. And as we look to penetrate higher income segments or pursue lower spread credit products, then we will have to continue expanding our cost of funding windows and alternatives to look for increasingly lower cost of funding. But that's not a short-term priority right now, it's more something that -- it's in more of a midterm road map.

我認為，從長遠來看，你提出的觀點是合理的。當我們尋求擴大高收入群體或開發利差較低的信貸產品時，我們將不得不繼續擴大融資管道和替代方案，以尋求更低的融資成本。但這並非目前的短期優先事項，而是中期規劃的一部分。

In terms of fourth quarter. Historically, the fourth quarter, we do lean into it more in terms of the 1P business. You see that in the results last year, where the profitability in the fourth quarter was significantly lower than prior quarters. But I think we continue to see a combination of a 1P business that has a better margin structure than it had last year, an overall business with a better margin structure.

就第四季而言，從歷史數據來看，我們通常會更專注於第四季的1P業務。從去年的業績可以看出，第四季的獲利能力明顯低於前幾季。但我認為，我們將繼續看到1P業務的利潤率結構比去年有所改善，整體業務的利潤率結構也得到了提升。

And so although there will be a ramp-up in the pace of investment, I don't encourage investors to assume that what happened last year is what we will replicate this year. I think the margin in the fourth quarter should be better this year than it was last year, so don't extrapolate from prior year performance.

因此，儘管投資步伐將會加快，但我並不鼓勵投資人假設去年的情況會在今年重現。我認為今年第四季的利潤率應該會高於去年，所以不要根據往年的業績來推論。

Our next question comes from Bob Ford with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的鮑伯福特。

Pedro, Richard, Osvaldo, congratulations on the quarter. How was the ad penetration across geographies? And how do you expect that to evolve? And in that context, how should we think about the contribution margin in Brazil and the outlook for that as well, please? And then Richard, you mentioned nearly 7,000 places in the opening remarks. Can you provide some year-on-year numbers for maybe the top 3 markets and describe any additional functionality besides the pickup and drop-off that you're doing now, please?

佩德羅、理查德、奧斯瓦爾多，恭喜你們本季的業績。廣告在各地區的滲透率如何？你們預計未來會如何發展？在此背景下，我們該如何看待巴西的廣告貢獻率以及未來的發展前景？理查德，你在開場白中提到了近7000個地點。能否提供一下前三大市場的同比數據，並介紹一下除了目前的取還車服務之外，你們還有哪些其他功能？

Bob, so the margin structure for the advertising business is fairly consistent across geographies. It's a very high-margin business. I think we've set EBIT margins in the high 70s, low 80s. Attach rates or adoption do vary by geography. Mexico is the country with the highest attach rate. There is, I think, a combination there of 1P business but also simply how far we've executed and what the overall market dynamics are. But in general, I think with 1.3% of overall penetration, it's still incipient in any of the geographies that we look at, and we expect very solid growth over a multiyear period across all of the geos.

鮑勃，所以廣告業務的利潤率結構在各個地區都相當一致。這是一個利潤率非常高的業務。我認為我們設定的息稅前利潤率約為70%以上到80%。附加率或採用率確實因地區而異。墨西哥是附加率最高的國家。我認為這既與個人客戶業務有關，也與我們執行的程度以及整體市場動態有關。但總的來說，我認為1.3%的整體滲透率在我們關注的所有地區都還處於起步階段，我們預計未來幾年所有地區的滲透率都將非常穩健成長。

That makes sense. And then with respect to the contribution margin from Brazil, how should we be thinking about that?

這很有道理。那麼關於巴西的貢獻毛利，我們該如何看待呢？

On advertising?

關於廣告？

No, the total contribution margin, it just seemed to dip a little bit.

不，是總貢獻毛利，似乎略有下降。

Okay. It was the second question, sorry. So Brazil did have impression in contribution margin. A majority of that, you can explain really by top line movement where our reticence to pass on incremental interest rate costs into the marketplace pricing, unlike what we did off marketplace, generates a certain amount of compression in terms of take rates.

好的，是第二個問題，抱歉。巴西確實對貢獻毛利產生了影響。這其中大部分可以用營收變動來解釋：我們不願意將增量利率成本轉嫁到市場定價中（這與我們在市場外採取的做法不同），這在一定程度上壓縮了佣金率。

And when you combine that with investments that have continued to grow at a constrained pace but somewhat faster than what revenue growth is where you see that compression. I think the overall idea is if we get a change in interest rate environment and just through natural scale going forward, we don't expect the Brazilian market to necessarily be one that doesn't add incremental margin, but it should also be able to scale going forward.

再加上投資雖然成長受限，但略高於營收成長速度，這就導致了利潤空間的壓縮。我認為總體思路是，如果利率環境發生變化，隨著未來規模的自然擴大，我們預計巴西市場不僅能夠增加利潤，未來也應該能夠實現規模化成長。

Then on places and functions -- so it's interesting. I think we've always said that places had potentially a very important role in adding nodes to our logistics network, so for pickup, delivery and returns. Returns continued to grow in terms of percentage. But more importantly, the customer satisfaction that, that drives and ideally also better conversions.

然後是地點和功能——這很有趣。我們一直認為，地點在為我們的物流網絡增加節點方面發揮著非常重要的作用，例如提貨、配送和退貨。退貨率持續成長。但更重要的是，客戶滿意度能夠提升，理想情況下還能帶來更高的轉換率。

But if you look, for example, at Argentina, we began to see the other piece of the places thesis, which is the creation of a cash-in and a cash-out network that has the potential to rival ATM machines. So these small store owners can make incremental revenue and drive incremental foot traffic by serving as cash-in and cash-out points, and we're seeing strong execution on that front in Argentina, and it's something that we would look to mirror across all of the geographic footprint. Remember that we have these Kangu points in Brazil, in Mexico and in Chile as well.

但以阿根廷為例，我們開始看到「場所」概念的另一部分，建立一個能夠與ATM機相媲美的現金存取網路。這樣，小型商店的店主就可以透過提供現金存取服務來增加收入並吸引更多客流量。我們在阿根廷看到了這方面的出色成效，我們也希望將這種模式推廣到我們業務所涵蓋的所有地區。請記住，我們在巴西、墨西哥和智利也都有類似的Kangu提款點。

And right now, are you testing any other functionality around fintech or maybe apparel, something like a little wardrobe area, where people try things on and return right there, those types of things?

那麼，目前您是否正在測試金融科技或服裝方面的其他功能，例如一個小型衣櫥區，人們可以在那裡試穿衣服並直接退貨之類的功能？

No, not yet. I think we need to be cautious with how much extra operational demands we overlay on these corner shops and small stores. So the focus right now is on the 2 biggest opportunities we see short term, which are the nodes on the logistics network, drop-off, pickup, returns. And the ability to move money into and out of your digital wallets through these storefronts.

不，還沒到時候。我認為我們需要謹慎對待為這些街角小店和小型商店增加的額外營運需求。所以，目前的重點是短期內我們看到的兩個最大機會：一是物流網路中的節點，包括收貨、取貨和退貨；二是用戶可以透過這些門市進行數位錢包的資金存取。

Our next question comes from Marcelo Santos of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的馬塞洛·桑托斯。

I have 2. The first is regarding fulfillment. The penetration has been kind of around 40% for a while. What has been the performance there? What are your goals regarding this modality?

我有兩個問題。第一個是關於訂單履行情況。訂單履行率一直徘徊在40%左右。這方面的表現如何？你們對這種模式的目標是什麼？

And the second one is regarding logistic monetization. So I think a couple of quarters ago, you said you'd start to experiment some ways to try to differentiate the monetization of fulfillment. How has that been going? Maybe you can give some color geographically or in general.

第二個問題是關於物流變現。我記得幾個季度前，您說過會嘗試一些方法來區分訂單履行的變現方式。進展如何？您能否從地域或總體上談談情況？

Marcelo, thank you. So we continue to aspire to drive greater adoption of Fulfilled by MELI in Brazil and across other markets. So we've invested in warehouses and the infrastructure that allows us to scale up and have a higher percentage of orders and purchases being made on MercadoLibre being fulfilled through us.

Marcelo，謝謝。我們一直致力於在巴西及其他市場推廣「Fulfilled by MELI」模式。為此，我們投資建造了倉庫和基礎設施，以擴大規模，並提高透過我們完成的MercadoLibre訂單和購買的比例。

And if you look at the evolution from Q3 to Q2, it was actually positive. We added about 3 percentage points of adoption of fulfillment in Brazil, added 3 in Chile as well. So Mexico has always been the highest penetration. It's over 2/3 of all orders fulfilled from our fulfillment centers. And the other markets, we believe, will continue to grow and trend towards a higher number. We have to see what the end state there is. But we continue to try to improve the experience for sellers in terms of sending inventory to us, removing inventory when it's not having the right kind of turn performance. And all of these things eventually should help make it easier and more attractive for merchants to continue to send more and more inventory to our fulfillment centers.

如果觀察第三季到第二季的發展趨勢，實際上是正面的。我們在巴西和智利的物流配送採用率分別提高了約3個百分點。墨西哥一直是滲透率最高的市場，超過三分之二的訂單都由我們的物流中心完成配送。我們相信其他市場也將繼續成長，並朝著更高的比例發展。最終結果如何，我們拭目以待。但我們一直在努力改善賣家向我們發送庫存的體驗，並在庫存週轉率不理想時及時下架。所有這些措施最終將使商家更容易、更有動力地向我們的物流中心發送更多庫存。

Simultaneously, and this also explains the double act we're trying to carry out here, we have introduced monetization not only on low-turning inventory, but simply on usage of our fulfillment centers. That obviously helps our P&L. But in a way, it generates a disincentive for merchants to send us inventory until they see that the added cost is more than offset by the improved conversion and lift in sales.

同時，這也解釋了我們目前採取的雙管齊下的策略：我們不僅對低週轉率庫存進行變現，還對使用我們物流中心進行收費。這顯然有助於提升我們的損益。但在某種程度上，這也降低了商家向我們供貨的積極性，直到他們看到增加的成本能夠被轉換率的提高和銷售額的成長所抵消。

That monetization is still very timid. So we're talking something that's closer to $10 million a quarter of monetization than what its long-term potential could be. So it's still fairly slow because we're trying to carry out both the introduction of monetization, but more importantly, continuing to grow the adoption of fulfillment.

目前這種商業模式的獲利能力仍然非常有限。我們目前每季的獲利額接近1,000萬美元，遠低於其長期潛力。之所以進展緩慢，是因為我們既要努力引入獲利模式，更重要的是，還要持續擴大訂單履行服務的普及率。

Our next question comes from Stephen Ju from Credit Suisse.

下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的Stephen Ju。

Pedro, I guess a follow-up question on the advertising business. So what about principal ad units that are driving the growth there? I think you talked about display as what sounds like sponsored search ad units. So -- and also, how much more heavy lifting do you think you need to do on behalf of your sellers? Because some of them will be very sophisticated and will understand how to run ad campaigns on their own, but others may need some help. So can you talk about some of the advancements you may be driving with automation on their behalf?

佩德羅，我想就廣告業務再問一個問題。那麼，推動成長的主要廣告單元有哪些呢？我記得你提到過展示廣告，聽起來像是付費搜尋廣告。另外，你認為還需要為銷售人員做多少工作？因為有些銷售人員非常精通，能夠獨立運行廣告活動，但有些可能需要一些幫助。你能談談你正在透過自動化為他們推動的一些進展嗎？

Great. So still, the vast majority of the monetization is on product ads. So the insertion of sponsored listings that are interspersed within search results are identified as a sponsored listing, but they appear in the middle of a search result.

很好。所以，絕大部分的獲利來源還是產品廣告。因此，穿插在搜尋結果中的贊助廣告會被標記為贊助廣告，但它們實際上出現在搜尋結果的中間位置。

We have growing capabilities and begin to see improved monetization in terms of display advertising and other more complex ways to work with larger merchants or even brands that want to promote the sales of their products either directly by themselves or from merchants that are already selling on the network, but that's still a smaller part of the revenue base and where a lot of the uptick can come from.

我們的能力不斷增強，開始看到在展示廣告和其他更複雜的方式上實現更好的盈利，與大型商家甚至品牌合作，他們可以直接或透過已經在網路上銷售的商家來推廣其產品，但這仍然是收入基礎中較小的一部分，也是未來成長的主要來源。

You're correct in saying that many of the merchants, especially the smaller merchants still have a learning curve. We see that very clearly when we look at the dollars invested per listing that we see from cross-border merchants, many of them coming from China and Asia that are much more sophisticated in terms of the use of advertising to help conversion rates. So over time, we will have to work with the local Latin American merchant base, which is by far the largest merchant base, for them to be able to gain the level of comfort and also ability to use the advertising product as we see in those cross-border merchants. And that will be a combination of better tools and greater automation, which is what we've been working on and also simply education and also patience over time.

您說得對，很多商家，尤其是小型商家，仍然需要學習適應。這一點在我們觀察跨境商家的單一商品廣告投入時體現得尤為明顯，這些商家大多來自中國和亞洲，他們在利用廣告提升轉換率方面更加成熟老練。因此，我們需要與拉丁美洲本地商家群體（目前規模最大的商家群體）合作，幫助他們逐步掌握並熟練運用我們的廣告產品，達到跨國商家那樣的水平。這需要結合更完善的工具和更高的自動化程度（這也是我們一直在努力的方向），以及持續的訓練和耐心。

In the case of the larger brands and larger merchants, it was more a matter of having improved reporting capabilities and improved abilities to segment and generate audiences within MercadoLibre and a lot of the more recent rollouts in the back half of this quarter were really tailored around that, reporting capabilities and the construction of audiences. So hopefully, as I answered in an earlier question, we'll begin to see the results of that over the next few quarters by seeing some of these larger brands and advertisers increasing their average spend on our platform.

對於規模較大的品牌和商家而言，關鍵在於提升報告功能，並增強在MercadoLibre平台上細分和創建受眾的能力。本季後半段推出的許多新功能都圍繞著這一點展開，即報告功能和受眾建立。正如我在之前回答的問題中提到的，我們希望在未來幾季看到這些改進帶來的成效，例如一些大型品牌和廣告商在我們平台上的平均支出增加。

Our next question comes from Marvin Fong with BTIG.

下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Marvin Fong。

A question on the -- achieving the 40 million Fintech users for the quarter. I think in terms of percentage growth and as well as absolute new users, this is the best quarter in recent memory. Just could you comment on any particular things that you think drove this higher adoption rate? Or do you think it was just general trends towards more Fintech usage?

關於本季金融科技用戶突破4000萬的目標，我想問一個問題。我認為無論從成長率或新增用戶絕對數量來看，這都是近年來最好的季度。您能否談談您認為推動用戶成長的具體因素？或者您認為這只是金融科技使用量普遍成長的自然結果？

And then a second question just on contribution margins. I did note the decline in Brazil, but also Argentina increased pretty significantly even in U.S. dollars. What drove that improvement? Is it because the mix of Fintech in Argentina is higher and that's a higher-margin category compared to Commerce?

第二個問題是關於貢獻毛利率的。我注意到巴西的貢獻毛利率有所下降，但阿根廷的貢獻毛利率即使以美元計算也有顯著成長。是什麼因素促成了這種成長？是因為阿根廷的金融科技佔更高，而金融科技的利潤率高於商業領域嗎？

Marvin, so with regards to the Fintech users per quarter, I would say that this has been a year where we decreased the incentives we have been giving users to use our products, particularly in the -- we decreased mostly in the first and second quarter. In the past, we were offering more incentives and discounts for people to try our QR codes or pay utilities with -- or top up their mobile phones using our wallet. We stopped pretty much doing all of that. And so I would say that it's more organic, the growth we are seeing now. And the focus has been mostly on increasing engagement, increasing principality and having our users come and try different use cases and the larger possible amount of product flows.

馬文，關於每季的金融科技用戶數量，我想說，今年我們減少了對用戶使用我們產品的激勵措施，尤其是在第一季和第二季。過去，我們會提供更多優惠和折扣，鼓勵用戶嘗試我們的二維碼、支付水電費或使用我們的錢包充值手機話費。現在我們幾乎停止了所有這些活動。因此，我認為我們現在看到的成長更加自然。我們主要致力於提高用戶參與度、增強用戶忠誠度，並鼓勵用戶嘗試不同的使用情境和盡可能多的產品流程。

In terms of what are we going to do to continue doing that, it's mostly we continue rolling out new products and services. And in different countries, I would say today that the focus is at a given level in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and only now we're starting to roll out more products to Chile. So there's room for us to continue with these rollouts and this growth.

至於我們如何能繼續保持這種勢頭，主要還是在於不斷推出新產品和服務。目前，我們在阿根廷、巴西和墨西哥的業務發展勢頭強勁，而智利市場也剛開始逐步拓展。因此，我們仍有空間持續推動這些業務拓展和成長。

Sure. In Argentina, what we see is, yes, there's an increase in participation from Fintech. In Argentina, the Fintech business in general is also higher margin than in other markets given the scale that we've already reached there. I think one interesting data point is the digital account and the wallet in Argentina are already breakeven or actually slightly positive in terms of margin structure. That's interesting because, for us, it shows the way that ideally other markets will evolve over time as those businesses grow and gain scale.

當然。在阿根廷，我們看到金融科技的參與度確實在提高。鑑於我們在阿根廷已經達到的規模，金融科技業務的整體利潤率也高於其他市場。我認為一個有趣的數據點是，阿根廷的數位帳戶和電子錢包在利潤率方面已經實現了盈虧平衡，甚至略有盈利。這很有意思，因為它向我們展示了隨著這些企業發展壯大，其他市場最終也會朝著理想方向發展。

And then -- so on the back of that kind of high-level growth, some of that's burned by inflation, there is also a greater ability to dilute costs in general. So both at the gross profit level and also a direct contribution level, there is a significant amount of cost dilution given a much higher rate of growth of local currency revenues than the expenses that are mostly denominated in local currencies as well.

而且，在這種高水準成長的背景下（儘管部分成長被通貨膨脹抵消），總體而言，成本稀釋的能力也更強。因此，無論是在毛利潤層面或直接貢獻層面，由於以當地貨幣計價的收入成長率遠高於同樣以當地貨幣計價的支出成長率，成本稀釋的幅度都非常顯著。

Our next question comes from Deepak Mathivanan with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Deepak Mathivanan。

Great. So first, given the recent sort of changes in political climate in Brazil, do you anticipate any operational or sort of business strategy changes over the next maybe 12, 24 months in any areas that we should be aware of?

好的。首先，鑑於巴西近期政治環境的變化，您預計未來12到24個月內，在哪些方面會出現營運或業務策略上的變化？我們需要注意這些變化嗎？

And then maybe second question, Pedro, can you give us some color on the current profitability on the e-commerce segment? With advertising scaling and obviously, logistics monetization kind of coming through in many markets, how should we think about, maybe at a high level, contribution from e-commerce to the total profitability over the next 12 months?

那麼，佩德羅，或許可以問第二個問題，您能否簡單介紹一下目前電子商務領域的獲利情況？隨著廣告規模的擴大，以及物流變現在許多市場逐漸顯現，我們該如何看待電子商務在未來12個月內對整體獲利的貢獻？

Great. So the answer to the first question is no. No change in strategy derived from any change in political governments. I think our business has thrived over the past 20-plus years throughout the entire region and has gone through multiple changes in presidents and ideological lean of governing parties, and that's never changed our strategy. I think our users inform our strategy and the enormous need for digital commerce and digital payment that exists across the region.

太好了。所以第一個問題的答案是否定的。政治政權的更迭並沒有導致我們戰略的改變。我認為，過去二十多年來，我們的業務在整個地區蓬勃發展，經歷了總統的多次更迭和執政黨意識形態的轉變，但這從未改變過我們的策略。我認為，使用者的需求以及整個地區對數位商務和數位支付的巨大需求，才是我們策略的真正依據。

I think both on the e-commerce side and on the Fintech side, the story and the way we're trying to manage the P&L continues to be, first and foremost, for growth and continued market share gains and hold our leadership position. But we believe that given the scale we have, some incremental profit engines that we found in the different Commerce and Fintech businesses, whether that be advertising, credit, the MPOS business, we can combine that growth with consistently delivering incremental EBIT over the upcoming periods. At least that's the aspiration in terms of a financial model.

我認為，無論是在電子商務領域還是金融科技領域，我們管理損益表的首要目標仍然是實現成長，持續提升市場份額，並保持領先地位。但我們相信，憑藉我們現有的規模，以及在不同的電商和金融科技業務中發現的一些新增利潤引擎，例如廣告、信貸和移動POS業務，我們可以將這些增長與未來幾個時期持續提升息稅前利潤相結合。至少，這是我們在財務模型方面的預期目標。

Our next question comes from Kaio Prato with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Kaio Prato。

I have 2 on my side here regarding Mercado Credito, please. So we can see that the overall margins of your credit business actually expanded on a quarter-over-quarter basis. But if you take a look in your provision coverage, you actually reduced it if we look on 30 days or 90 days. So just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about your provision coverage going forward. If in the next quarters, we should see -- should we expect an increase in the provisions as a percentage of total portfolio in order to increase the short-term coverage ratio again or not, if this is a matter only of lower origination?

關於Mercado Credito，我這裡有兩個問題。我們可以看到，貴公司信貸業務的整體利潤率較上季成長。但是，如果查看撥備覆蓋率，無論是30天還是90天，實際上都有所下降。所以，我想請您詳細談談未來的撥備覆蓋率。在接下來的幾個季度裡，我們是否應該預期撥備佔總投資組合的比例會上升，以再次提高短期撥備覆蓋率？或者，如果這只是由於貸款發放量下降造成的？

And the second one is around your appetite towards the end of the year and the beginning of next year in terms of origination, if you are already originating more during October or not. And what is the strategy going forward as well?

第二個問題是關於您在年底和明年年初的業務拓展需求，例如您是否已經在10月份增加了業務拓展。此外，您未來的策略是什麼？

Kaio, we disclose more information this quarter in the shareholder letter, but there's -- it's clearly broken down how our current and 1 to 90 days past due or 90 days past due is provisioned in our portfolio. And when you look at that, you can see that basically, we are provisioning pretty much 93% of all of the loans that are over 90 days past due and over 2/3, 68% of those that are between 1 and 90 days past due.

Kaio，我們在本季度的股東信中披露了更多信息，但其中清楚地列出了我們投資組合中當前貸款以及逾期1至90天或逾期90天貸款的撥備情況。從數據中可以看出，我們基本上對逾期90天以上的貸款提列了約93%的撥備，對逾期1至90天的貸款提列了超過三分之二（68%）的撥備。

So I think that we have been very conservative in our provisions. We continue to be. We have remain using the same way to provision bad debt, and we have been very, very conservative. The increase you see in NPLs is related mostly to us slowing down the originations and having an average duration of about 2 months and keeping the bad loans in our books for a full year, but it's mostly related to that.

所以我認為我們在撥備方面一直非常保守，而且會繼續保持這種做法。我們一直沿用相同的壞帳撥備提列方式，而且一直都非常非常保守。您看到的壞帳增加主要與我們放緩貸款發放速度、平均貸款期限約為兩個月以及將壞帳在帳簿中保留一整年有關，但主要原因就在於此。

With regards to year-end and early of next year, as you know, we provide guidance. So far, what we have done is reduce the volume of origination. And as we see conditions improve, we will reverse that, but we're not giving guidance on when that should happen.

關於年底和明年初的情況，如您所知，我們會提供相關指引。目前，我們採取的措施是減少貸款發放量。隨著市場狀況的改善，我們將恢復貸款發放量，但目前我們不對特定時間給予指引。

Our next question comes from Geoffrey Elliott with Autonomous.

我們的下一個問題來自 Autonomous 公司的 Geoffrey Elliott。

On this topic of credit and when you can ramp up originations again, I mean, the way you describe trends during the third quarter, it's kind of in line with what you expected. It doesn't sound like things fell off the cliff. So what is it now that is stopping you from ramping back up? What would you need to see to get more profit on credit origination. Is it something in your portfolio? Is it something on the macro side? What do you need to see there?

關於信貸業務以及何時可以再次擴大貸款發放規模，我的意思是，您描述的第三季趨勢與您的預期基本一致。聽起來情況並沒有急轉直下。那麼，現在是什麼阻礙了您恢復貸款發放規模？您需要看到哪些跡象才能在信貸發放方面獲得更多利潤？是您的投資組合出了問題嗎？還是宏觀經濟方面出了問題？您需要看到哪些跡象？

So Geoffrey, what we did during the last end of the second quarter and during the third quarter, basically, we have scored users in 12 segments. And those that were lower ranking, we stopped offering them both personal loans and buy now pay later. Those that were a little bit better ranked but still not so high up, we stopped offering them personal loans. And we -- but we continue to offering them buy now pay later.

傑弗裡，我們在第二季末和第三季期間，基本上把用戶分成了12個不同的群體來評分。對於排名較低的用戶，我們停止向他們提供個人貸款和「先買後付」服務。對於排名稍高但仍然不高的用戶，我們也停止向他們提供個人貸款服務。但我們仍然繼續向他們提供「先買後付」服務。

The good news that we saw is that we believe in hindsight that we took the right decision. This was a wise decision because on the one hand, those segments where we continue offering loans were profitable. And on the other hand, we kept control groups for those groups where we were not -- where we stopped offering loans and those who have not been profitable. So I think that we took a wise decision. And now we continue offering loans in terms of control groups. When we see conditions improving, we will be able to ramp up those segments again.

好消息是，事後看來，我們相信當初的決定是正確的。這是一個明智的決定，因為一方面，我們繼續提供貸款的那些業務板塊盈利頗豐；另一方面，我們保留了對照組，用於那些我們停止提供貸款的業務板塊以及那些一直不盈利的業務板塊。所以我認為我們做出了明智的決定。現在，我們繼續向對照組提供貸款。一旦市場環境好轉，我們將能夠再次擴大這些業務板塊的規模。

And if I can add a 30,000 foot here, I think the way we've always constructed MercadoLibre is with a long-term view. We're not looking to maximize the size of the credit portfolio over the next 2 or 3 quarters, we're looking to build a very healthy and sustainable credit book and business over 10 years. And so I think we've said from the beginning that we would slow down when we thought that the quality of the underwriting merited that and make sure that we don't put the credit organization under any pressure to accelerate unless they are very comfortable that it's the right time to start accelerating originations again. So I think we will continue to manage it in that conservative fashion.

如果我能從更高的層面補充一點，我認為我們一直以來建構MercadoLibre的方式都是著眼於長遠發展。我們並不追求在未來兩三個季度內最大化信貸組合的規模，而是著眼於在未來十年內建立一個非常健康且可持續的信貸帳簿和業務。因此，我認為我們從一開始就說過，當承銷品質達到一定水平時，我們會放慢速度，並確保不會給信貸部門施加任何加速擴張的壓力，除非他們非常確信現在是再次加速信貸發放的合適時機。所以我認為我們將繼續以這種保守的方式進行管理。

And [what's -- one of the Fujikis have made a state] that would allow it to buy the loans as well as consumer and merchant loans. How soon could you start doing that, originating auto loans and funding them through the [Fujiki] channel?

而且（藤木家族的某位成員已經建立了一個州），允許其購買貸款，包括消費貸款和商家貸款。那麼，多久才能開始透過藤木管道發放汽車貸款並為其提供資金呢？

Not sure I fully understood the question.

我不太確定我是否完全理解了這個問題。

So there was a change in the offering memorandum of one of your [Fujikis who improved] in the last few weeks to allow it to hold auto loans. So the question was, are we going to see your [Fujiki holding auto loans] soon? How are they going to be originated? What was behind that change?

所以，你們旗下某家（業績改善的藤木公司）在過去幾週修改了發行備忘錄，允許其持有汽車貸款。問題是，我們很快就能看到你們的（藤木公司）持有汽車貸款嗎？這些貸款將如何發放？這項變更背後的原因是什麼？

Okay, auto loans was the question. Sorry, I apologize. We didn't pick up on that. So we are going to take our time over the next few quarters to make sure we build out the product, we build out the user experience. We test the risk models. So -- but don't expect any rapid ramp-up of auto loans. It is a segment that we're interested in. It's one that, over the long run, should be one of the multiple credit segments that we move into. But we are still in the process of building out the product, building the user experience, testing product market fit and gathering data for the models. So it's not something that will be material in any way over the next few quarters.

好的，您問的是汽車貸款。抱歉，我們之前沒注意到。所以，接下來的幾個季度，我們會穩紮穩打，確保產品和使用者體驗都得到完善，風險模型也經過了測試。因此，請不要指望汽車貸款業務會迅速成長。我們確實對這個領域很感興趣，從長遠來看，它應該是我們拓展的眾多信貸領域之一。但我們目前仍在完善產品、優化使用者體驗、測試產品市場契合度以及收集模型數據。所以，在接下來的幾個季度裡，汽車貸款業務不會有任何實質的成長。

Our next question comes from Neha Agarwala from HSBC.

下一個問題來自匯豐銀行的Neha Agarwala。

Congratulations on the results. On your credit book, could you give us some light -- throw some light on how the -- your underwriting models have performed across the geographies? Has one geography performed better than the other versus your expectation? And also across the different verticals, so across consumer loans and merchant loans. I noticed that the duration for the merchant loan book has gone down quarter-on-quarter. Is that on purpose? Or is that the -- kind of the one that you're seeing?

恭喜您取得這樣的成績。關於您的信貸業務，能否詳細說明您的核保模型在不同地區的表現？是否有某個地區的表現優於其他地區，超越您的預期？另外，能否也說明一下不同業務部門（例如消費貸款和商家貸款）的表現？我注意到商家貸款的平均期限較上月有所下降。這是有意為之嗎？還是您觀察到的自然現象？

And the second is on secured lending products, are you looking -- given the current environment where you're being cautious on the unsecured lending products, are there new secured lending products like, say, a collateralized credit card where you are looking to grow to compensate for the slow growth in the unsecured side?

第二個問題是關於擔保貸款產品，鑑於目前您對無擔保貸款產品持謹慎態度，您是否正在考慮推出新的擔保貸款產品，例如抵押信用卡，以彌補無擔保貸款業務增長緩慢的情況？

I would say that -- let me start with the first part with regards to the different geographies and different products. So I think, again, we have 3 main geographies and mostly 2 or 3 products, merchant loans, which are split in online and in-store and then consumer loans. And each of those 9 categories were profitable during the quarter.

我想說的是——首先，關於不同的地域和不同的產品。我認為，我們主要有三大地域，產品也主要分為兩到三種：商家貸款（又分為線上和線下）和消費貸款。這九個產品類別在本季度都實現了盈利。

I would say that probably, we saw more pressure mostly on Brazilian consumers, and that is where we took the -- we became the most restrictive with regard to our loans, and that was compensated with higher profitability and higher margins in Argentina. But all in, our IMAL numbers improved for the quarter, and so we are happy with the results we have seen. On top of that, sorry, merchant margins also improved, both in Brazil and Mexico.

我認為，我們可能主要看到巴西消費者面臨更大的壓力，因此我們在貸款方面採取了最嚴格的措施，而這則透過阿根廷更高的獲利能力和利潤率得到了彌補。但總的來說，我們本季的IMAL指標有所改善，所以我們對所取得的成果感到滿意。此外，巴西和墨西哥的商家利潤率也有所提高。

On collateralized credit cards or other secured lending, let me just separate. This is not a consequence of slowing down the unsecured lending. I think one of the beauties of MELI is we are not solely a financial institution that needs to grow the credit business in order to continue delivering growth and margin expansion. Credit, for us, is a business that serves as a driver of more volume and sales and more wallet adoption and usage in our transactional businesses, but we're not any -- under any undue pressure to grow it because it is our core revenue stream. And so that allows us to pace ourselves going back to my previous answer.

關於有抵押信用卡或其他擔保貸款，我想單獨說明一下。這並非放緩無擔保貸款業務的必然結果。我認為MELI的優勢之一在於，我們並非僅僅是一家需要透過發展信貸業務來維持成長和利潤率提升的金融機構。對我們而言，信貸業務能夠促進交易業務的交易量、銷售額以及錢包的普及和使用，但我們並沒有因為信貸是我們的核心收入來源而承受任何過度擴張的壓力。因此，正如我之前所說，這使我們能夠合理地控制發展節奏。

So I don't think we get into the more secured lending product because we're having to slow down unsecured. Those have always been attractive segments that have been within our view of what the product road map would be. Collateralized loans, credit cards is one alternative. We mentioned auto loans. We've talked in the past about payroll loans. But those are all things that are in the future. So right now, some of those are being built like the auto loan product, others are just ideas. Eventually, we'll get there, but not as a consequence of what's happening in the unsecured lending businesses, which, by the way, continue to be very profitable and actually expanded margins despite the macro headwinds.

所以我認為，我們不會因為必須放緩無抵押貸款業務而進入擔保貸款產品領域。擔保貸款一直是我們產品發展路線圖上非常有吸引力的市場區隔。抵押貸款、信用卡就是一個替代方案。我們之前提到過汽車貸款，也討論過薪資貸款。但這些都是未來的發展方向。目前，有些產品正在開發中，例如汽車貸款，而其他一些則只是構想。最終，我們會實現這些目標，但這並非源自於無抵押貸款業務的發展。順便一提，儘管面臨宏觀經濟逆風，無抵押貸款業務依然獲利頗豐，利潤率甚至有所成長。

Perfect. If I can just follow up on that, have you been raising prices even in the third quarter for your loan products passing on the higher funding cost or passing on the higher risk perception that you have? Or are you largely done with the repricing initiative for the lend loans?

好的。我能再追問一下嗎？你們在第三季是否提高了貸款產品的價格，將更高的融資成本或更高的風險預期轉嫁給了客戶？或者你們已經基本完成了貸款產品的重新定價計畫？

So yes, there has been an increase in APRs as a consequence of an anticipation in certain deterioration of credit performance in the mid-risk segments. And for the lower-risk segments, we actually turn those off in many aspects. But so yes, there has been a price increase in anticipation of weakening performance.

是的，由於預期中度風險客戶的信用表現將出現一定程度的惡化，年利率上升。而對於低風險客戶，我們其實在許多方面都停止了相關服務。所以，是的，由於預期客戶表現會減弱，價格確實有所上漲。

And we should continue to expect that in the fourth quarter as well? Or do you think you're largely where you should be?

我們是否應該繼續預期第四季也會如此？或者您認為目前的情況基本上符合預期？

I think -- let's talk about the fourth quarter when we report the fourth quarter. It's still early in the quarter. Thank you.

我認為——我們等到公佈第四季業績時再討論第四季吧。現在第四季才剛開始。謝謝。

Our next question comes from João Soares with Citigroup.

下一個問題來自花旗集團的 João Soares。

Just 2 quick ones on my side. The first one, Pedro, you mentioned the profitability of your ad business currently at 70 -- low -- high 70s, low 80s EBIT margin. Can we expect -- I mean, as this business changes, is this margin sustainable? How should we see this margin in the medium long run? That's my first question.

我這邊有兩個問題想問一下。第一個問題，佩德羅，你提到你們廣告業務目前的息稅前利潤率在70%左右，接近80%。我們能否預期－我的意思是，隨著業務的變化，這個利潤率能夠持續嗎？中長期來看，我們該如何看待這個利潤率？這是我的第一個問題。

The second question is a more broader question. When you take into consideration -- I mean, you're basically stepping back on certain initiatives that have been dragging margins, right? And you're -- right now, as you revised the underwriting of the credit card business and reduced origination, you're also lowering -- at least as a percentage of net revenue, you're probably going to lower your provision. So it seems just, to me, everything points out to constructive margin at least in the medium run. So just wondering how -- what can you share in terms of messages on all those moving parts in terms of how should we see those margins going forward? I know you don't provide guidance, but just anything you can share would be very helpful.

第二個問題更廣泛一些。考慮到——我的意思是，你們基本上是在擱置一些拖累利潤率的舉措，對吧？而且，你們現在調整了信用卡業務的承保標準並減少了貸款發放，至少從淨收入的比例來看，你們的撥備也可能降低。所以在我看來，所有跡像都表明，至少在中期內，利潤率將保持成長。因此，我想知道，就所有這些變化因素而言，你們能否分享一些訊息，讓我們了解未來的利潤率走勢？我知道你們不提供業績指引，但任何資訊都將非常有幫助。

Sure. So on advertising, we've said that we are going to start accelerating the rate of engineers that we allocate to the advertising businesses. We see very encouraging signs in terms of how big this could be. We see very strong product market fit and are getting very good feedback from advertisers. And so that probably implies that as we try to accelerate the revenue base and the penetration of GMV, those investments could compress those margins somewhat.

當然。關於廣告業務，我們已經宣布將加快向廣告業務部門派遣工程師的速度。我們看到了一些非常令人鼓舞的跡象，預示著這項業務的潛力巨大。我們的產品與市場契合度很高，並且從廣告主那裡也獲得了非常好的回饋。因此，隨著我們努力擴大收入基礎並提高GMV（商品交易總額）的滲透率，這些投資可能會在一定程度上壓縮利潤率。

I think we give out the high 70s to low 80s just to give a clear indication that even if you assume a ramp-up in investment to accelerate growth, this is still incredibly accretive to overall margins and an incredibly attractive business. But I think it's fair to expect that as we accelerate growth, by throwing more resources at it and most of that is actually research and development and engineers, you could see some margin compression.

我認為我們給出70%到80%的預期收益率，是為了清楚地表明，即使假設為了加速成長而加大投資，這仍然能大大提升整體利潤率，而且業務極具吸引力。但我認為，隨著我們透過投入更多資源（其中大部分實際上用於研發和工程師）來加速成長，利潤率可能會下降，這是可以預期的。

I think you're right, we don't guide bigger picture. What we've said is that we have made sure to be constantly reviewing our portfolio of revenue streams, and many of these revenue streams are newer revenue streams with negative EBIT margins. But that we have confidence that, over time, will grow into profitable businesses and to differentiate between the ones where we believe we should continue to invest aggressively and others where we are not going to give up. There are no changes in strategy or tactics, but we think that we can wait because they're strategically potentially less critical. So certain areas like supermarket, for example, there has been a strong effort to improve the margin structures there, and we're seeing good results so that we can reaccelerate as quickly as possible. That's the largest category in terms of household spend and one that as we improve the margin structures, we can accelerate again.

我認為您說得對，我們並不著眼於大局。我們一直強調的是，我們會持續評估我們的收入來源組合，其中許多收入來源是較新的，目前息稅前利潤率為負。但我們相信，隨著時間的推移，這些收入來源最終會發展成為獲利業務。我們會區分哪些業務需要繼續大力投資，哪些業務我們不會放棄。我們的策略和戰術沒有改變，只是我們認為可以等待，因為這些業務在策略上的重要性可能較低。例如，像超市這樣的特定領域，我們已經大力改善了利潤率結構，並且看到了良好的效果，以便盡快恢復成長。超市是家庭支出中佔比最大的品類，隨著利潤率結構的改善，我們可以再次加速發展。

Others where potentially we think there's time, we can wait and not have to carry as steep losses as something that, for us, is a priority. So I think the takeaway I'm trying to transmit here is our strategy hasn't changed over the last few quarters. Tactically in this market, businesses that are very EBIT negative and that we don't see a strategic imperative, we're comfortable slowing down their growth, but there still are some where we continue to invest.

對於一些我們認為時間還比較充裕的項目，我們可以等待，不必像那些對我們來說是優先事項的項目那樣承受巨大的損失。所以我想傳達的訊息是，過去幾季我們的策略並沒有改變。在當前的市場環境下，對於那些息稅前利潤為負且我們認為沒有策略必要性的企業，我們會放慢它們的成長速度，但我們仍然會繼續投資一些企業。

And then on the 2 other fronts, which are engineering headcount and product development salaries and wages and also the rollout of our logistics network, we've said that we've continued to invest aggressively there. We called out in the video, 4,000 engineers that we'll be adding this year. That's the same number that we had planned towards the end of last year and that remained unchanged for 2023.

此外，在另外兩個方面，即工程人員數量、產品開發薪酬以及物流網路的部署，我們已表示將繼續大力投資。我們在影片中提到，今年將新增4000名工程師。這個數字與我們去年年底的計劃一致，2023年的計劃也保持不變。

So again, I think being reiterative, we continue to aspire for growth for market share gains and we think we can deliver that while also increasing our EBIT generation on an annual business. That's the financial model that we're striving to deliver.

所以，我再次重申，我們仍然渴望實現市場份額的成長，並且我們相信我們能夠在提高年度息稅前利潤的同時實現這一目標。這就是我們努力實現的財務模式。

Our next question comes from Sean Dunlop with Morningstar.

下一個問題來自晨星公司的肖恩·鄧洛普。

It sounds like we're fairly constructive on the macro, at least taking Osvaldo's comments about Brazil. And it is great to see ongoing market share gains. I guess I'm just wondering how we can think about buyer health in some of the key geos, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico. Any sort of color regarding the cadence of spend during the quarter? If you saw a good drop off towards the back half and the last month would be helpful among certain demographics or geographies.

聽起來我們對宏觀經濟的分析相當有建設性，至少奧斯瓦爾多對巴西的評論是成立的。看到市佔率持續成長，真是令人欣喜。我只是想了解一下，在巴西、阿根廷、墨西哥這些關鍵地區，我們該如何看待消費者的健康狀況？能否提供一些關於本季消費節奏的資訊？如果某些特定族群或地區的消費在下半年和最後一個月出現明顯下降，那就很有幫助了。

And then to the extent that we did see a downturn, would it be appropriate to look towards in 2014 to '16 or 2009 as an analog? Or are there maybe features of the business today that would render it more or less recession-resistant than in these periods?

那麼，如果我們確實看到了經濟衰退，是否可以將2014年至2016年或2009年的情況作為類比？或者，如今的商業活動是否具有一些特點，使其比這些時期更能或更不能抵禦經濟衰退的影響？

Great. So let me take those in reverse order. Historically, our business has been resilient. We've never said countercyclical, but we do think that because of the breadth of selection that our marketplace can offer, in tougher macro conditions, consumers have the ability to trade down while continuing to shop from us.

好的。那我倒著回答這些問題。從歷史數據來看，我們的業務一直很有韌性。我們從未說過我們的業務是反週期的，但我們確實認為，由於我們的平台能夠提供豐富的商品選擇，即使在宏觀經濟形勢嚴峻的情況下，消費者也能在繼續從我們這裡購物的同時，選擇更經濟實惠的商品。

Now we have to see what happens. I wouldn't try to linearly extrapolate '14 to '16 because when you look at the overall percentage of retail, not even online retail, just overall retail that MELI represents today versus what it did in '14 or '16, that's changed significantly, and we need to see what happens.

現在我們只能拭目以待。我不會試圖將2014年的資料線性外推到2016年，因為如果你看一下MELI如今所代表的整體零售額（甚至不包括線上零售），與2014年或2016年相比，就會發現已經發生了顯著變化，我們需要觀察後續發展。

More importantly, the first part of your question -- and again, it's still early, and really the peak period in Q4 is about to come about, so we'll have to see what happens. But we don't see any indications of any significant weakening in consumer spend so far. Again, we'll address the full fourth quarter when we reconvene in February. But so far across most of the geos, nothing significant to report. Argentina potentially is the country where we're seeing some level of weakening. But elsewhere, nothing to call out at this point, and we'll go through the full quarter in February.

更重要的是，關於您問題的第一部分——再次強調，現在還為時過早，第四季度的高峰期即將到來，所以我們需要觀察事態發展。但到目前為止，我們還沒有看到任何消費者支出明顯疲軟的跡象。我們將在二月的會議上詳細討論第四季的情況。但就目前而言，在大多數地區，沒有什麼值得注意的重大變化。阿根廷可能是我們看到消費支出出現一定程度疲軟的國家。但在其他地區，目前沒有什麼特別需要指出的，我們將在二月詳細分析整個季度的情況。

Our next question comes from John Colantuoni with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自傑富瑞集團的約翰·科蘭圖奧尼。

This is Chris checking in for John. So your marketplace has been gaining share in Brazil over the past year. Can you just talk about what you think are the most impactful drivers of that outperformance? And then again, what gives you confidence kind of in the business' ability to continue those share gains going forward?

我是克里斯，替約翰報到。過去一年，你們的市場在巴西的市佔率一直在成長。您能否談談您認為推動這一成長的最主要因素是什麼？另外，您又有哪些方面對公司未來持續維持市佔率成長的能力充滿信心？

We've been investing behind this business for over 20 years. I think we have an unparalleled tech team that's really -- if you look at the pace of innovation on the user experience over the last 2 years, it's dramatically increased in quality and quantity of output. And I think our users begin to see that in the experience. We've expanded our selection. We've gotten a lot better at category management, and we see that with market share gains in Brazil, if we look at our data, not only on a consolidated basis but also across most categories. And that's a reflection of more verticalized category experiences.

我們已經在這個行業投入了20多年。我認為我們擁有一支無與倫比的技術團隊，尤其在過去兩年裡，使用者體驗的創新步伐顯著提升，無論在品質或數量上都取得了長足進步。我認為我們的用戶也開始感受到這一點。我們拓展了產品種類，品類管理也得到了極大的改進。從我們在巴西的市佔率成長來看，這一點顯而易見。如果我們查看數據，不僅從整體數據來看，而且從大多數品類來看，我們的市佔率都在不斷成長。這反映了我們更垂直化的品類體驗。

Obviously, the overlay of our logistics network is a critical part to that, a network that today in Brazil, nearly 90% of all deliveries are done through what we call MELI Logistics, so 3PLs that we control most of the routing and the experience. Pago is increasingly a differentiator on marketplace, the availability of credit, the ease of payment. So again, I think we are now reaping the benefits of investments that we've been carrying out over the past 5, 6 years.

顯然，我們物流網路的覆蓋範圍是其中的關鍵一環。如今在巴西，近90%的貨物配送都透過我們稱為MELI物流的第三方物流公司完成，我們掌控大部分的路線規劃和物流體驗。 Pago平台在市場上的差異化優勢日益凸顯，它提供信貸和便利的支付方式。因此，我認為我們現在正在收穫過去五、六年投資的成果。

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd now like to turn it back to Pedro, MercadoLibre's CFO, for closing remarks.

我目前不再接受其他提問。現在我想把時間交還給MercadoLibre的財務長佩德羅，請他作總結發言。

Thanks, everyone. Thanks for the questions. We and the whole MELI team have a big fourth quarter coming up, moving into the peak season. So back to work for us. And like we said, we'll be able to go over the fourth quarter when we speak to you again in February. We look forward and until then, bye-bye, everyone.

謝謝大家。感謝大家的提問。我們和整個MELI團隊即將迎來繁忙的第四季度，也就是旺季。所以我們又要開始工作了。正如我們之前所說，我們會在二月再次與大家交流時詳細討論第四季的安排。我們期待與大家再次相聚，在此之前，再見各位。

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.

感謝您參加今天的會議。會議到此結束，您可以斷開連線了。