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，歡迎參加截至 2022 年 9 月 30 日的季度 MercadoLibre 收益電話會議。感謝您加入我們。我是 MercadoLibre 的投資者關係官 Richard Cathcart。今天，我們將通過視頻分享季度亮點，之後我們將開始與首席財務官 Pedro Arnt 的現場問答環節；和 Mercado Pago 的首席執行官 Osvaldo Gimenez。

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.

在我們繼續討論我們 2022 年第三季度的業績之前，我提醒您，管理層可能會就公司的持續增長前景、行業趨勢以及產品和技術計劃等事項做出前瞻性陳述。這些陳述基於當前可用的信息以及我們當前對未來事件的假設、預期和預測。雖然我們認為我們的假設、預期和預測鑑於當前可用信息是合理的，但請注意不要過分依賴這些前瞻性陳述。

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，包括我們截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的 10-K 表格的前瞻性陳述和風險因素部分中描述的那些，以及任何MercadoLibre Inc. 向證券交易委員會提交的其他適用文件，可在我們的投資者關係網站上查閱。

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

有了這個，讓我們開始總結我們的結果。

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。我很高興有機會分享我們 2022 年第三季度業績中的一些成就和關鍵信息。在第三季度，我們能夠實現商業和金融科技的強勁增長，並繼續朝著我們的年度利潤擴張目標邁進。我們的營業利潤率擴大了 500 多個基點，達到 11%，為季度利潤貢獻了 2.96 億美元，而營業現金產生再次穩固。這反映了我們業務的強勁表現、我們隨著規模擴大而稀釋成本的能力以及我們對實現可持續和盈利增長的長期承諾。

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重新開放的情況下，我們的商業業務繼續顯示出韌性，在外匯中性的基礎上，GMV 增長了 32%。過去幾年，我們在技術方面的業務投資使我們能夠顯著提高我們的服務水平，這正在轉化為跨地域的市場份額增長，無論是在綜合層面還是在多個產品類別中。

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.

物流投資是服務水平提高的另一個主要貢獻者，因為我們管理的 Mercado Envios 網絡滲透率在第三季度達到 92%，在過去 12 個月中上升了 5 個百分點。我們正在推進我們的戰略以增加貨幣化，我們的廣告業務在商品總量中的滲透率達到 1.3%，比前幾個季度小幅但穩定增長。我們對廣告工具進行了一系列改進，並且制定了正在加速的改進路線圖。

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 的另一個例外是，獨特的金融科技活躍用戶首次超過 4000 萬大關。平台外 TPV 連續第四個季度實現三位數增長，達到 230 億美元，增長 122%。我們在墨西哥和智利的 MPOS 業務為這一增長做出了巨大貢獻，巴西的 QR 和我們在阿根廷的數字銀行賬戶解決方案也是如此。

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 的投資組合達到 28 億美元，由於我們放慢了發起的速度，增長速度低於上一季度。這反映了我們將風險管理和利潤率置於增長之上。我們的信貸業務表現強勁，年化 IMAL 利差環比上升至 37%。我們早期的不良貸款與上一季度相比保持穩定，這反映了我們在貸款環境較弱的情況下（尤其是在巴西）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.

隨著毛利潤和營業利潤率的顯著增長，我們又完成了一個季度強勁的財務業績，這些業績反映了利潤率較高的業務的增長、我們對短期增長投資的嚴格方法以及我們對利用規模來稀釋成本的關注銷貨成本、銷售和營銷以及 G&A 費用項目。這使我們能夠繼續投資於工程人員，這反映在我們預期的更高的產品和開發費用佔銷售額的百分比上。

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.

股東信中提供了對第三季度運營和財務業績的更詳細審查，該信發佈在我們的 IR 關係網站上。

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.

在轉向今天收益的現場問答部分之前，我將把它交還給 Richard，以了解 MELI 產品和用戶體驗的一些最新更新。謝謝你。

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.

在實現商業和金融服務民主化的使命中，我們繼續改善我們市場的購物體驗。一個例子是可以在我們的電子商務應用程序主頁上找到的短視頻，消費者可以在其中發現產品並了解他們想要購買的產品的更多詳細信息和功能。這引入了令人愉悅的內容，是搜索體驗的發現元素，有助於促進用戶參與，並為我們的賣家提供新的營銷和銷售渠道。

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.

在購買成千上萬的賣家、品牌和官方商店提供的服裝和時尚產品時，搜索體驗很重要。我們改進了時尚板塊的用戶體驗，您現在可以瀏覽不同的產品板塊、生活方式和品牌。這增強了對這一類別至關重要的發現體驗。

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.

當買家搜索他們需要的東西時，他們有更好的過濾器來促進他們的搜索。這是我們今年對技術的持續投資實現的另一個改進示例，您可以在我們的應用程序上找到更多信息。和往常一樣，我們會迅速將它送到您家，以便您盡快開始使用您的新產品。

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.

在改善交貨時間和降低物流成本的道路上，我們利用我們的服務中心網絡在巴西和墨西哥推出了最後一英里的眾包解決方案。通過這項創新，我們的貨車將把運往高密度交付社區的產品運送到服務中心，該服務中心作為我們的最後一英里設施，而不是門到門交付。從那裡，來自我們眾包平台的司機將貨物交付給我們的最終客戶。

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.

所有這一切都以 1,500 名致力於物流的工程師開發的技術為基礎。這些開發人員繼續致力於這樣的物流項目，使我們的網絡從入庫到交付和退貨更有效和更具成本效益。 MELI Places 網絡已發展到近 7,000 個地點，超過 99% 的地點可以取貨和退貨。

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.

在拉美地區金融服務民主化的道路上，我們在過去 18 個月推出了許多新產品。這包括借記卡和信用卡、儲蓄和投資、加密錢包、保險、個人貸款和許多其他產品。我們現在擁有根據用戶需求量身定制的完整產品，使數以千萬計的人能夠在我們的生態系統中管理他們的所有金融服務，無論他們是個人還是中小型企業家。這不僅發生在巴西，因為我們在墨西哥獲得的 IFPE 許可證使我們能夠開始營銷 Mercado Pago 並積極向該國大量沒有銀行賬戶和銀行賬戶不足的人群提供其工具。

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 將繼續提供更好的產品和服務，專注於我們數百萬用戶的體驗，提供適合他們需求的解決方案。為了強調這一承諾，我們將在年底前再僱傭 4,000 名工程師，他們都將致力於開發和擴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 Andrew Ruben。

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.

因此，總體上取得了一些強勁的結果。但只是專注於信貸，尤其是逾期利率。因此，在考慮動態因素時，您提到了起源、貸款表現和 360 天動態，您如何看待這個指標的演變？真的，當您認為這個過期週期可能結束時，驅動程序上的任何顏色以及可能的必要因素是什麼？周圍的任何事情都會受到高度讚賞。

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，這是奧斯瓦爾多。所以我認為我們 - 當我們看到我們看到的轉機時，它與我們的預期相當一致。當我們根據逾期日期查看細分市場時，我們發現它們的表現基本上符合我們的預期。我們確實看到指標有所下降，尤其是在巴西，主要是在第二季度，這就是我們開始限制我們提供的貸款數量的地方，特別是在個人貸款方面。從那時起，本季度的業績一直符合我們的預期。

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，我們不提供指引，但我們認為巴西的利率可能已經 - 接近 - 已經或接近見頂。可能明年，它應該開始下降。現在說還為時過早。巴西上週選出了一位新總統，所以現在下結論還為時過早。但考慮到這一點，我們預計巴西的宏觀狀況將開始改善，我們更擔心巴西的信貸額度下降。所以我認為一切都在按照我們的預期進行。

Our next question comes from Irma Sgarz with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 Irma Sgarz。

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?

因此，隨著廣告現在達到 GMV 的 1.3%，我希望您能更清楚地了解推動這個季度環比增長的原因，正如您所指出的那樣，這只是一個小而穩定的增長.所以我想知道你是否已經感覺到你已經看到了你一直在開發的新廣告工具的推出所產生的影響，或者這是否只是對 2023 年季度的影響更大？

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.

第二個快速的問題是，您再次發布了關於用戶增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轉向不同的、也許是兩層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.

偉大的。謝謝，厄瑪。所以在廣告方面，我認為大部分新產品工具的推出都是在本季度末進行的。以及這些影響 - 這顯然是一個不斷發展和改進的產品，我認為我們應該在接下來的幾個季度看到比整個第三季度更多的東西。我認為我們在第三季度看到的只是廣告業務的自然演變，儘管我們在轉換漏斗中發揮作用的宏觀背景，但需求非常強勁。隨著我們繼續投入資源並推出本季度末推出的工具，以及我們擁有的新工具，我們繼續認為我們的廣告解決方案在未來會有很多好處。

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.

在忠誠度方面，我們將繼續努力推出下一個版本的忠誠度計劃。我認為我們已經確定了大部分價值在 L6 中。我們繼續看到購買 L6 的用戶的強勁發展。絕大多數 6 級用戶是購買的用戶，而不是已經進入 L6 的用戶。因此，我們希望在接下來的幾個季度推出新版本的忠誠度計劃。這確實使訂閱模式變得越來越好，我們將繼續為大多數用戶可能會購買的最高級別構建具有越來越多好處的訂閱模式，但我們將繼續提供最有可能獲得的能力也是。

Our next question comes from Thiago Macruz from Itaú.

我們的下一個問題來自 Itaú 的 Thiago Macruz。

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?

嗯，我的第一個問題是關於 Mercado Pago 的資金成本。您一直在降低它，但可以說，要達到與您的競爭對手相似的水平，還有一些方法可以達到。您認為必須採用哪些替代方案來加速這一過程？這是公平的——說你的融資成本讓你今天無法進入任何低利差的信貸產品是否公平？

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今年年底的世界杯和黑色星期五，非常獨特的組合。我們是否應該期望您在接下來的幾個月中對您的 1P 產品更具侵略性？

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.

那麼讓我們看看。你說得對，通過重新談判 [在 PD 結構中]、更多地使用 CDB 來繼續降低融資成本是正確的。對於我們目前參與的領域以及我們仍然認為我們最關注的領域，承保的質量仍然是迄今為止該業務利潤率的最重要驅動因素，而不是增量基點甚至數百個基點我們可以從資金成本中得出。

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，如果您從長遠來看，那麼您提出的內容是有效的。隨著我們尋求滲透到更高收入領域或追求更低利差的信貸產品，我們將不得不繼續擴大我們的融資窗口和替代方案的成本，以尋找越來越低的融資成本。但這不是目前的短期優先事項，它更多的是 - 它更多的是中期路線圖。

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.

就第四季度而言。從歷史上看，第四季度，我們確實更傾向於 1P 業務。您在去年的結果中看到了這一點，第四季度的盈利能力明顯低於前幾個季度。但我認為我們繼續看到利潤率結構比去年更好的 1P 業務的組合，以及利潤率結構更好的整體業務。

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，儘管投資步伐會加快，但我不鼓勵投資者假設去年發生的事情就是我們今年將復制的事情。我認為今年第四季度的利潤率應該比去年好，所以不要從去年的表現中推斷出來。

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

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Bob Ford。

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，祝賀本季。跨地區的廣告滲透率如何？您希望它如何發展？在這種情況下，我們應該如何考慮巴西的邊際貢獻以及前景？然後理查德，你在開場白中提到了近 7,000 個地方。您能否提供一些可能是前 3 個市場的同比數字，並描述除了您現在正在做的接送服務之外的任何其他功能，好嗎？

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.

Bob，因此廣告業務的利潤率結構在各個地區都相當一致。這是一項利潤非常高的業務。我認為我們已經將息稅前利潤率設定在 70 年代的高位和 80 年代的低位。附加率或採用率確實因地理位置而異。墨西哥是依戀率最高的國家。我認為，這裡既有 1P 業務的組合，也有簡單的我們執行的程度以及整體市場動態的組合。但總的來說，我認為佔整體滲透率的 1.3%，在我們所關注的任何地區都還處於起步階段，我們預計在所有地區的多年期內都將實現非常穩健的增長。

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

那講得通。然後關於巴西的邊際貢獻，我們應該如何考慮？

On advertising?

關於廣告？

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

不，總邊際貢獻，它似乎只是稍微下降了一點。

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。這是第二個問題，對不起。所以巴西確實對邊際貢獻有印象。其中大部分，你可以通過頂線變動來解釋，我們不願將增量利率成本轉嫁到市場定價中，不像我們在市場外所做的那樣，在收取利率方面產生了一定程度的壓縮。

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.

當您將其與繼續以有限的速度增長但比您看到壓縮的收入增長速度略快的投資相結合時。我認為總體思路是，如果我們改變利率環境，並且僅通過自然規模向前發展，我們並不認為巴西市場一定會增加利潤率，但它也應該能夠規模向前發展。

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。我想我們一直說地方在向我們的物流網絡添加節點方面可能具有非常重要的作用，因此對於取貨、交付和退貨而言。按百分比計算，回報率繼續增長。但更重要的是，客戶滿意度，這推動並且理想地也是更好的轉換。

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.

但是，例如，如果你看一下阿根廷，我們開始看到地方論文的另一部分，即創建一個有可能與 ATM 機競爭的現金存取網絡。因此，這些小店主可以通過充當提款點和提款點來增加收入並增加客流量，我們在阿根廷看到了這方面的強大執行力，我們希望在所有人中都能反映出這一點的地理足跡。請記住，我們在巴西、墨西哥和智利也有這些 Kangu 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?

現在，您是否正在測試圍繞金融科技或服裝的任何其他功能，比如一個小衣櫃區，人們在那裡試穿並返回，那些類型的東西？

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.

還沒有。我認為我們需要謹慎對待這些街角商店和小商店的額外運營需求。因此，目前的重點是我們在短期內看到的兩個最大機會，即物流網絡上的節點，下車、取貨、退貨。以及通過這些店面將錢進出您的數字錢包的能力。

Our next question comes from Marcelo Santos of JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Marcelo Santos。

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 2 個。第一個是關於實現的。一段時間以來，滲透率一直在 40% 左右。那裡的表現如何？您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.

第二個是關於物流貨幣化。所以我想幾個季度前，你說你會開始嘗試一些方法來嘗試區分履行的貨幣化。進展如何？也許您可以在地理上或總體上賦予一些顏色。

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.

馬塞洛，謝謝。因此，我們繼續渴望推動 MELI Fulfilled 在巴西和其他市場得到更大的採用。因此，我們投資了倉庫和基礎設施，使我們能夠擴大規模，並通過我們完成 MercadoLibre 上更高比例的訂單和採購。

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.

如果你看看從第三季度到第二季度的演變，它實際上是積極的。我們在巴西增加了大約 3 個百分點的履約採用率，在智利也增加了 3 個百分點。所以墨西哥一直是滲透率最高的。它占我們履行中心完成的所有訂單的 2/3 以上。我們相信，其他市場將繼續增長並趨向於更高的數字。我們必須看看最終狀態是什麼。但我們會繼續努力改善賣家向我們發送庫存的體驗，並在庫存表現不佳時移除庫存。所有這些最終都應該有助於商家更容易、更有吸引力地繼續向我們的履行中心發送越來越多的庫存。

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，這也解釋了我們在這裡試圖執行的雙重行動，我們不僅在低周轉庫存上引入了貨幣化，而且僅僅在我們履行中心的使用上引入了貨幣化。這顯然有助於我們的損益表。但在某種程度上，它會抑製商家向我們發送庫存，直到他們發現增加的成本被提高的轉化率和銷售額的提升所抵消。

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.

這種貨幣化仍然非常膽小。所以我們說的是每季度的貨幣化接近 1000 萬美元，而不是其長期潛力。所以它仍然相當緩慢，因為我們正在嘗試引入貨幣化，但更重要的是，繼續增加對履行的採用。

Our next question comes from Stephen Ju from Credit Suisse.

我們的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?

Pedro，我想是關於廣告業務的後續問題。那麼推動那裡增長的主要廣告單元呢？我認為您將展示視為聽起來像是讚助搜索廣告單元的內容。所以——而且，你認為你需要代表你的賣家做多少繁重的工作？因為他們中的一些人會非常老練，並且會了解如何自行開展廣告活動，但其他人可能需要一些幫助。那麼，您能代表他們談談您可能通過自動化推動的一些進步嗎？

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.

偉大的。儘管如此，絕大多數的貨幣化都是在產品廣告上。因此，散佈在搜索結果中的讚助列表的插入被標識為贊助列表，但它們出現在搜索結果的中間。

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，並開始看到在展示廣告和其他更複雜的方式與更大的商家甚至品牌合作方面的盈利能力得到改善，這些商家甚至希望直接由自己或已經在網上銷售的商家促進其產品的銷售。網絡，但這仍然是收入基礎的一小部分，而且很多增長都來自於此。

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，許多商家，尤其是較小的商家仍然有學習曲線。當我們從跨境商家那裡看到每次上市投資的美元時，我們非常清楚地看到了這一點，其中許多來自中國和亞洲，他們在使用廣告來幫助提高轉化率方面要復雜得多。因此，隨著時間的推移，我們將不得不與當地最大的商戶基地——拉丁美洲商戶基地合作，讓他們能夠獲得我們在那些跨境商戶。這將是更好的工具和更高的自動化的結合，這是我們一直在努力的，也只是教育和耐心。

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.

對於更大的品牌和更大的商家來說，更多的是提高報告能力和在 MercadoLibre 中細分和生成受眾的能力，並且本季度後半段最近推出的許多產品都是圍繞那，報告能力和受眾的建設。因此，正如我在之前的問題中回答的那樣，希望通過看到其中一些較大的品牌和廣告商增加他們在我們平台上的平均支出，我們將在接下來的幾個季度開始看到結果。

Our next question comes from Marvin Fong with BTIG.

我們的下一個問題來自 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?

關於本季度實現 4000 萬金融科技用戶的問題。我認為就百分比增長和絕對新用戶而言，這是近期記憶中最好的季度。您能否評論一下您認為推動這種更高采用率的任何特定事物？還是您認為這只是更多金融科技使用的總體趨勢？

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?

然後是關於邊際貢獻的第二個問題。我確實注意到巴西的下降，但即使以美元計算，阿根廷的增長也相當顯著。是什麼推動了這種改進？是因為阿根廷的金融科技組合更高，而且與商業相比，這是一個利潤率更高的類別嗎？

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，所以關於每季度的金融科技用戶，我想說這是我們減少給予用戶使用我們產品的激勵措施的一年，特別是在 - 我們主要在第一和第二季度減少.過去，我們為人們提供更多獎勵和折扣，讓他們嘗試使用我們的二維碼或使用我們的錢包支付水電費——或使用我們的錢包為手機充值。我們幾乎停止了所有這些。所以我會說它更加有機，我們現在看到的增長。重點主要放在增加參與度、增加公國度和讓我們的用戶來嘗試不同的用例和可能的更大數量的產品流上。

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.

就我們將要做什麼來繼續這樣做而言，主要是我們繼續推出新產品和服務。在不同的國家，我今天要說的是，阿根廷、巴西和墨西哥的重點是特定水平的，直到現在我們才開始向智利推出更多產品。因此，我們有空間繼續這些推出和增長。

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，我們看到的是，是的，金融科技的參與度有所增加。鑑於我們已經達到的規模，在阿根廷，金融科技業務的利潤率總體上也高於其他市場。我認為一個有趣的數據點是阿根廷的數字賬戶和錢包已經實現盈虧平衡，或者在保證金結構方面實際上略微有利。這很有趣，因為對我們來說，它展示了理想情況下其他市場將隨著這些業務的增長和規模擴大而隨著時間的推移而發展的方式。

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.

然後 - 在這種高水平增長的背景下，其中一些被通貨膨脹所燒毀，總體上還有更大的稀釋成本的能力。因此，無論是在毛利潤水平還是直接貢獻水平，考慮到本幣收入的增長率遠高於主要以本幣計價的費用，因此成本大幅稀釋。

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?

偉大的。首先，鑑於巴西最近政治氣候的變化，您是否預計在接下來的 12 到 24 個月內我們應該注意的任何領域的運營或商業戰略會發生任何變化？

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?

然後也許是第二個問題，佩德羅，你能給我們一些關於電子商務領域當前盈利能力的看法嗎？隨著廣告規模的擴大以及物流貨幣化在許多市場上的出現，我們應該如何考慮電子商務對未來 12 個月總盈利能力的貢獻？

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.

偉大的。所以第一個問題的答案是否定的。政治政府的任何變化都不會導致戰略的變化。我認為我們的業務在過去 20 多年中在整個地區蓬勃發展，並且經歷了總統和執政黨意識形態的多次變化，這從未改變我們的戰略。我認為我們的用戶會告知我們的戰略以及該地區存在的對數字商務和數字支付的巨大需求。

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方面還是在金融科技方面，我們試圖管理損益的故事和方式仍然首先是為了增長和持續的市場份額增長並保持我們的領導地位。但我們相信，鑑於我們擁有的規模，以及我們在不同商業和金融科技業務中發現的一些增量利潤引擎，無論是廣告、信貸、MPOS 業務，我們都可以將這種增長與在未來期間持續提供增量 EBIT 相結合.至少這是財務模型方面的願望。

Our next question comes from Kaio Prato with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的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，我這邊有2個，請。因此，我們可以看到，您的信貸業務的整體利潤率實際上環比增長。但是，如果您查看您的準備金覆蓋率，如果我們查看 30 天或 90 天，您實際上會減少它。所以只是想知道你是否可以多談談你未來的準備金覆蓋率。如果在接下來的幾個季度中，我們應該看到——我們是否應該期望增加撥備佔總投資組合的百分比以再次增加短期覆蓋率，如果這只是較低的起源問題？

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?

第二個是關於你在年底和明年年初的興趣，如果你在 10 月份已經開始更多了。未來的戰略是什麼？

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，但有 - 它清楚地分解了我們當前和 1 至 90 天逾期或 90 天逾期是如何在我們的投資組合中提供的。當你看到它時，你可以看到基本上，我們為所有逾期 90 天以上的貸款和超過 2/3、68% 的逾期 1 到 90 天的貸款提供了幾乎 93% 的準備金到期的。

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.

所以我認為我們的規定非常保守。我們繼續存在。我們仍然使用相同的方式來計提壞賬，而且我們一直非常非常保守。您在不良貸款中看到的增加主要與我們放慢了起源和平均持續時間約為 2 個月並將不良貸款在我們的賬簿中保留一整年有關，但這主要與此有關。

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.

如您所知，關於年底和明年初，我們提供指導。到目前為止，我們所做的只是減少了原始數量。當我們看到情況有所改善時，我們將扭轉這種情況，但我們沒有就何時應該發生這種情況提供指導。

Our next question comes from Geoffrey Elliott with Autonomous.

我們的下一個問題來自 Autonomous 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?

關於信貸這個話題，當你可以再次增加發行量時，我的意思是，你描述第三季度趨勢的方式，有點符合你的預期。這聽起來不像是從懸崖上掉下來的。那麼現在是什麼阻止了你重新開始？您需要看到什麼才能從信貸發放中獲得更多利潤。它在你的投資組合中嗎？是宏觀方面的東西嗎？你需要在那裡看什麼？

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.

所以 Geoffrey，我們在第二季度末和第三季度所做的工作，基本上，我們在 12 個部分對用戶進行了評分。而那些排名較低的，我們不再向他們提供個人貸款，而是先買後付。那些排名稍高但仍不那麼高的人，我們停止向他們提供個人貸款。我們 - 但我們繼續為他們提供先買後付的服務。

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.

我們看到的好消息是，事後看來，我們相信我們做出了正確的決定。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部門是有利可圖的。另一方面，我們為那些不存在的群體保留了對照組——我們停止提供貸款和那些沒有盈利的群體。所以我認為我們做出了明智的決定。現在我們繼續提供控制組的貸款。當我們看到情況有所改善時，我們將能夠再次增加這些細分市場。

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.

如果我可以在這裡增加 30,000 英尺，我認為我們一直以來構建 MercadoLibre 的方式都是著眼長遠的。我們不希望在未來 2 或 3 個季度最大化信貸組合的規模，我們希望在 10 年內建立一個非常健康和可持續的信貸賬簿和業務。所以我認為我們從一開始就說過，當我們認為承保的質量值得這樣做時，我們會放慢速度，並確保我們不會讓信貸機構承受任何加速的壓力，除非他們非常滿意現在是重新開始加速起源的正確時機。所以我認為我們將繼續以這種保守的方式管理它。

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?

並且[什麼——Fujikis 中的一個已經建立了一個國家] 將允許它購買貸款以及消費者和商業貸款。您多久可以開始這樣做，發起汽車貸款並通過 [Fujiki] 渠道為其提供資金？

Not sure I fully understood the question.

不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?

因此，在過去的幾周里，您的一位 [Fujikis 改進了] 的發行備忘錄發生了變化，以允許其持有汽車貸款。所以問題是，我們會很快看到你的[藤木持有汽車貸款]嗎？它們將如何起源？這種變化的背後是什麼？

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.

好吧，汽車貸款是個問題。對不起，我道歉。我們沒有註意到這一點。因此，我們將在接下來的幾個季度中花時間確保我們構建產品，構建用戶體驗。我們測試風險模型。所以——但不要指望汽車貸款會迅速增加。這是我們感興趣的一個部分。從長遠來看，它應該是我們進入的多個信用部分之一。但我們仍在構建產品、構建用戶體驗、測試產品市場契合度和收集模型數據的過程中。因此，在接下來的幾個季度中，這不會以任何方式產生重大影響。

Our next question comes from Neha Agarwala from HSBC.

我們的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?

祝賀結果。在您的信用簿上，您能否給我們一些啟示 - 闡明您的承保模式在各個地區的表現如何？與您的預期相比，一個地區的表現是否優於另一個地區？並且跨越不同的垂直領域，包括消費貸款和商業貸款。我注意到商業貸款賬簿的期限環比下降。這是故意的嗎？還是您所看到的那種？

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?

第二個是關於擔保貸款產品，您是否正在尋找 - 鑑於當前您對無擔保貸款產品持謹慎態度的環境，是否有新的擔保貸款產品，例如您希望增長的抵押信用卡以彌補無抵押方面的緩慢增長？

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——讓我從關於不同地區和不同產品的第一部分開始。所以我認為，我們有 3 個主要地區，主要是 2 或 3 種產品，即商家貸款，它們分為在線和店內，然後是消費貸款。這 9 個類別中的每一個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.

我想說的是，我們可能主要看到巴西消費者承受了更大的壓力，這就是我們採取的措施——我們在貸款方面受到了最嚴格的限制，而這在阿根廷得到了更高的盈利能力和更高的利潤率。但總而言之，我們的 IMAL 數字在本季度有所改善，因此我們對所看到的結果感到滿意。最重要的是，抱歉，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.

關於抵押信用卡或其他擔保貸款，讓我分開。這不是放慢無擔保貸款的結果。我認為 MELI 的優點之一是我們不僅僅是一家需要發展信貸業務以繼續實現增長和利潤率擴張的金融機構。對我們來說，信用是一項業務，它可以推動我們的交易業務中更多的銷量和銷售額以及更多的錢包採用和使用，但我們不是任何人——承受任何不適當的增長壓力，因為它是我們的核心收入溪流。這樣一來，我們就可以調整自己的速度，回到我之前的答案。

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.

所以我不認為我們會進入更有擔保的貸款產品，因為我們不得不放慢無擔保的速度。這些一直是我們對產品路線圖的看法範圍內的有吸引力的部分。抵押貸款，信用卡是一種選擇。我們提到了汽車貸款。我們過去曾討論過工資貸款。但這些都是未來的事情。所以現在，其中一些正在像汽車貸款產品一樣構建，其他只是想法。最終，我們會到達那裡，但不是因為無擔保貸款業務正在發生的事情，順便說一句，儘管存在宏觀逆風，但這些業務仍然非常有利可圖並且實際上擴大了利潤率。

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?

完美的。如果我可以跟進，您是否甚至在第三季度就提高了貸款產品的價格，轉嫁了較高的融資成本或轉嫁了您擁有的較高風險認知？還是您基本上完成了貸款的重新定價計劃？

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.

因此，是的，由於預期中風險部分的信貸表現會出現一定程度的惡化，因此 APR 有所增加。對於風險較低的部分，我們實際上在很多方面都將其關閉。但是，是的，由於預期業績疲軟，價格上漲。

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

我們應該繼續期待第四季度的情況嗎？或者你認為你在很大程度上是你應該在的地方？

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

我想——讓我們在報告第四季度時談談第四季度。這個季度還早。謝謝你。

Our next question comes from João Soares with Citigroup.

我們的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.

我這邊只有 2 個快速的。第一個，佩德羅，你提到你的廣告業務的盈利能力目前在 70 年代 - 低 - 高 70 年代，低 80 年代息稅前利潤率。我們可以期待 - 我的意思是，隨著這項業務的變化，這種利潤率是否可持續？從中長期來看，我們應該如何看待這一邊際？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.

第二個問題是一個更廣泛的問題。當您考慮到-我的意思是，您基本上是在退出某些一直在拖累利潤的舉措，對嗎？而且你現在——當你修改信用卡業務的承保和減少發起時，你也在降低——至少作為淨收入的百分比，你可能會降低你的撥備。因此，在我看來，至少在中期內，一切都指向建設性的邊際。所以只是想知道如何——就我們應該如何看待這些利潤的未來，你可以分享關於所有這些活動部件的信息？我知道您不提供指導，但您可以分享的任何內容都會非常有幫助。

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。所以在廣告方面，我們已經說過我們將開始加快我們分配給廣告業務的工程師的速度。就這可能有多大而言，我們看到了非常令人鼓舞的跡象。我們看到了非常強大的產品市場契合度，並且從廣告商那裡得到了非常好的反饋。因此，這可能意味著，當我們試圖加速收入基礎和 GMV 的滲透時，這些投資可能會在一定程度上壓縮這些利潤率。

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.

我認為我們給出從 70 年代高到 80 年代的低點只是為了明確表明，即使你假設投資增加以加速增長，這仍然會極大地增加整體利潤率和極具吸引力的業務。但我認為可以公平地預期，隨著我們加速增長，通過投入更多資源，其中大部分實際上是研發和工程師，你可能會看到一些利潤壓縮。

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.

我認為你是對的，我們不指導更大的圖景。我們所說的是，我們確保不斷審查我們的收入流組合，其中許多收入流是新的收入流，息稅前利潤率為負。但我們有信心，隨著時間的推移，它們將成長為有利可圖的業務，並將我們認為應該繼續積極投資的業務與我們不會放棄的其他業務區分開來。戰略或戰術沒有變化，但我們認為我們可以等待，因為它們在戰略上可能不那麼重要。因此，例如超市等某些領域，一直在努力改善那裡的利潤率結構，我們看到了良好的結果，因此我們可以盡快重新加速。就家庭支出而言，這是最大的類別，隨著我們改善利潤率結構，我們可以再次加速。

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.

其他可能我們認為有時間的地方，我們可以等待，而不必承擔像對我們來說是優先事項那樣的巨大損失。所以我認為我想在這里傳達的要點是我們的戰略在過去幾個季度沒有改變。從戰術上講，在這個市場上，息稅前利潤非常負且我們認為沒有戰略必要性的企業，我們可以放慢它們的增長速度，但我們仍然會繼續投資一些領域。

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.

然後在其他兩個方面，即工程人員人數和產品開發工資和工資，以及我們物流網絡的推出，我們已經說過我們會繼續在這方面進行積極投資。我們在視頻中呼籲，今年我們將增加 4,000 名工程師。這與我們去年年底計劃的數字相同，並且在 2023 年保持不變。

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.

因此，我再次重申，我們繼續渴望增長以獲取市場份額的增長，我們認為我們可以實現這一目標，同時也增加我們的年度業務的息稅前利潤。這就是我們正在努力實現的財務模型。

Our next question comes from Sean Dunlop with Morningstar.

我們的下一個問題來自 Sean Dunlop 和 Morningstar。

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.

聽起來我們在宏觀上相當有建設性，至少接受了奧斯瓦爾多對巴西的評論。很高興看到持續的市場份額增長。我想我只是想知道我們如何考慮巴西、阿根廷、墨西哥等一些關鍵地區的買家健康狀況。關於本季度支出節奏的任何顏色？如果您看到後半部分的下降幅度很大，那麼上個月在某些人口統計或地理區域中會有所幫助。

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?

然後就我們確實看到經濟衰退的程度而言，將 2014 年到 16 年或 2009 年作為類比來看是否合適？或者，今天的業務是否有可能比這些時期或多或少地抵抗衰退？

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.

偉大的。所以讓我把它們倒序排列。從歷史上看，我們的業務一直具有彈性。我們從未說過逆週期，但我們確實認為，由於我們的市場可以提供廣泛的選擇，在更嚴峻的宏觀條件下，消費者有能力在繼續向我們購物的同時進行降價交易。

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.

現在我們必須看看會發生什麼。我不會嘗試將 14 年到 16 年線性推斷，因為當您查看零售的總體百分比時，甚至不是在線零售，而是 MELI 今天所代表的整體零售與它在 14 或 16 年所做的相比，情況發生了顯著變化，我們需要看看會發生什麼。

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，你的問題的第一部分——再說一次，現在還為時過早，第四季度的高峰期真的即將到來，所以我們必須看看會發生什麼。但到目前為止，我們沒有看到任何跡象表明消費者支出有任何顯著減弱。同樣，我們將在二月份重新召開會議時討論整個第四季度。但到目前為止，在大多數地區，沒有什麼重要的報告。阿根廷可能是我們看到某種程度減弱的國家。但在其他地方，目前沒有什麼可說的，我們將在 2 月份完成整個季度。

Our next question comes from John Colantuoni with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 John Colantuoni。

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?

這是克里斯為約翰辦理登機手續。因此，您的市場在過去一年中一直在巴西獲得份額。你能談談你認為對這種優異表現最有影響力的驅動因素嗎？話又說回來，是什麼讓你對企業繼續保持這些份額收益的能力充滿信心？

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.

20 多年來，我們一直在投資這項業務。我認為我們擁有一支無與倫比的技術團隊，如果你看看過去 2 年用戶體驗的創新速度，它的輸出質量和數量都顯著提高。我認為我們的用戶開始在體驗中看到這一點。我們擴大了選擇範圍。我們在品類管理方面取得了很大進步，我們看到隨著巴西市場份額的增加，如果我們查看我們的數據，不僅是在綜合基礎上，而且在大多數類別中也是如此。這反映了更加垂直化的品類體驗。

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，我們的物流網絡覆蓋是其中的關鍵部分，今天在巴西，近 90% 的交付都是通過我們所謂的 MELI Logistics 完成的，因此我們控制了大部分路線和體驗的 3PL。 Pago 越來越成為市場、信貸可用性和支付便利性的差異化因素。再說一次，我認為我們現在正在從過去 5、6 年的投資中獲益。

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.

我現在沒有進一步的問題。我現在想把它轉回 MercadoLibre 的首席財務官 Pedro 來做結束語。

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.

感謝大家。感謝您的提問。我們和整個 MELI 團隊即將迎來一個重要的第四季度，進入旺季。所以回來為我們工作。就像我們說的那樣，當我們在 2 月份再次與您交談時，我們將能夠回顧第四季度。我們期待著，在那之前，再見，大家。

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。程序到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。