美卡多 (MELI) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the MercadoLibre Q4 '21 Earnings Conference Call.

女士們先生們，感謝您的支持，歡迎參加 MercadoLibre Q4 '21 收益電話會議。

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the MercadoLibre Earnings Conference Call for the quarter ended December 31, 2021. I am Lissa Schreurs, Investor Relations Officer for MercadoLibre. Our Chief Financial Officer, Pedro Arnt, will be leading today's prepared remarks. Joining him on the line as Chief Executive Officer of Mercado Pago, Osvaldo Gimenez, who will be available during today's Q&A session.

大家好，歡迎參加截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的季度 MercadoLibre 收益電話會議。我是 MercadoLibre 投資者關係官 Lissa Schreurs。我們的首席財務官 Pedro Arnt 將主持今天準備好的講話。與他一起擔任 Mercado Pago 首席執行官 Osvaldo Gimenez 將在今天的問答環節中加入。

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.

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 Factors section of our upcoming 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，包括我們即將發布的截至 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，這些文件可在我們的投資者關係網站上找到。

I will now turn the call over to Pedro.

我現在將把電話轉給佩德羅。

Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining our earnings announcements for this past quarter and the full year 2021.

大家好，感謝您加入我們上個季度和 2021 年全年的收益公告。

Before we delve into our Q4 performance and financial results, I'd like to begin by sharing some reflections on fiscal year 2021. Last year presented us with challenges and with those also came many more opportunities. With our team's resilience and focus on delivering on our strategic objectives, we've been able to overcome shifting pandemic lockdown measures, rising inflationary cost pressures and a highly competitive environment in the digital commerce space. The final outcome was a year with record results across the board, sustained strong growth in key business metrics and top line, and improving margins and operating income for a second consecutive year.

在我們深入研究第四季度的業績和財務業績之前，我想首先分享一些對 2021 財年的思考。去年給我們帶來了挑戰，隨之而來的是更多的機遇。憑藉我們團隊的韌性和專注於實現我們的戰略目標，我們已經能夠克服不斷變化的大流行封鎖措施、不斷上升的通脹成本壓力以及數字商務領域競爭激烈的環境。最終的結果是全年業績創紀錄，關鍵業務指標和收入持續強勁增長，利潤率和營業收入連續第二年提高。

In commerce, we had another very strong year, reaching $28.4 billion in gross merchandise volume, a full year growth of over 48% in GMV on an FX-neutral basis. This represents an additional $7.4 billion over 2020's GMV, positioning us well ahead of competitors and market share in the region for yet another year. More importantly, we saw a sustained shift in consumer behavior on our platform. Customer loyalty and retention are improving consistently, and our clients are buying more with us. On average, items per buyer were up by 17% on a year-over-year basis, growing over a strong 2020 baseline. Even with the reopening of physical stores, customers in Latin America have embraced shopping online, paving the way for further long-term growth in the region.

在商業方面，我們又經歷了一個非常強勁的一年，商品總額達到 284 億美元，在外匯中性的基礎上，全年 GMV 增長超過 48%。這比 2020 年的 GMV 增加了 74 億美元，使我們在該地區的競爭對手和市場份額再領先一年。更重要的是，我們在我們的平台上看到了消費者行為的持續轉變。客戶忠誠度和保留率不斷提高，我們的客戶購買我們的產品更多。平均而言，每位買家的商品同比增長 17%，超過了 2020 年的強勁基線。即使實體店重新開業，拉丁美洲的客戶也開始接受網上購物，為該地區的進一步長期增長鋪平了道路。

We attribute this growing engagement and improving cohort behavior on our free shipping program that already delivers over 80% of GMV on our network at no cost to our buyers; continuous improvements in delivery speed; a robust buyer protection program and customer service; an enhanced loyalty program; and our increasingly wide assortment of products sold on our marketplace as we push into new categories. All of this, in turn, has resulted in more than 2/3 of our GMV coming from organic, nonpaid traffic, mostly through our app, cementing our position as a pull rather than push business.

我們將這種不斷增長的參與度和不斷改善的群體行為歸功於我們的免費送貨計劃，該計劃已經在我們的網絡上免費向我們的買家提供了超過 80% 的 GMV；交付速度的持續改進；強大的買家保護計劃和客戶服務；增強的忠誠度計劃；隨著我們進入新的類別，我們在市場上銷售的產品種類越來越多。所有這一切反過來又導致我們超過 2/3 的 GMV 來自有機的、非付費流量，主要是通過我們的應用程序，鞏固了我們作為拉動業務而非推動業務的地位。

On the fintech side, growth comes from both our established strength in the payments businesses and increasingly from our newer consumer-facing financial services businesses. Total unique fintech active users topped 51 million annually, with transactions per unique fintech active user also increasing steadily throughout the year as our product suite became more comprehensive.

在金融科技方面，增長來自我們在支付業務方面的既定實力，也越來越來自我們面向消費者的新型金融服務業務。每年獨立金融科技活躍用戶總數超過 5100 萬，隨著我們的產品套件變得更加全面，每個獨立金融科技活躍用戶的交易量也在全年穩步增長。

Originations on our credit book surpassed $3.8 billion this year as we improved our credit underwriting capabilities. The credits business has become a core piece of our ecosystem, enabling merchants to invest in more inventory and working capital and consumers to finance their consumption needs in all of their touch points with our platforms.

由於我們提高了信用承銷能力，今年我們的信用賬簿的起源超過了 38 億美元。積分業務已成為我們生態系統的核心部分，使商家能夠投資更多的庫存和營運資金，消費者可以通過我們的平台為他們所有接觸點的消費需求提供資金。

We also distributed over 1 million insurance policies during the year, and began rapidly expanding the portfolio of savings and investment products available to our users towards the latter half of the year with the launch of our crypto wallet in Brazil. Our payments business delivered consistent growth throughout 2021. Total payment volume reached $77.4 billion for the full year, growing 78% on an FX-neutral basis. Considering just the off-platform total payment volume, we reached over $48 billion and FX-neutral growth of 97% year-over-year.

年內，我們還分發了超過 100 萬份保單，並隨著我們在巴西的加密錢包的推出，在下半年開始迅速擴大可供用戶使用的儲蓄和投資產品組合。我們的支付業務在 2021 年實現了持續增長。全年支付總額達到 774 億美元，在外匯中性的基礎上增長 78%。僅考慮平台外的總支付量，我們達到了超過 480 億美元，外匯中性同比增長 97%。

We continue to onboard more merchants into our ecosystem, doubling the number of off-platform merchants year-over-year, reaching over 20 million unique payment collectors in 2021. We sold over 4.7 million mobile point-of-sale devices this year and are expanding greatly in Brazil and Argentina, while making important strides in Mexico, and we also launched the MPOS business in Chile at year's end.

我們繼續讓更多商家加入我們的生態系統，平台外商家的數量同比翻了一番，到 2021 年達到超過 2000 萬獨特的支付收集者。我們今年售出了超過 470 萬台移動銷售點設備，並且正在在巴西和阿根廷大幅擴張的同時，在墨西哥也取得了長足的進步，年底我們還在智利推出了 MPOS 業務。

Regarding our financial model, we are increasingly focused on efficiencies and operational leverage across our expenses and cost basis while continuing to invest appropriately in our long-term growth to maintain our competitive leadership. Our decided outcome is to construct a financial model that can gain overall market share while growing our profits.

關於我們的財務模式，我們越來越關注費用和成本基礎的效率和運營槓桿，同時繼續對我們的長期增長進行適當投資，以保持我們的競爭領導地位。我們決定的結果是構建一個能夠在增加利潤的同時獲得整體市場份額的財務模型。

During 2021, net revenues grew by 78% year-over-year, reaching $7.1 billion on a consolidated basis. The revenue expansion was coupled with margin expansion at the EBIT level, improving by 300 basis points year-over-year, reaching a 6.2% EBIT margin in 2021, up from 3.2% in 2020 and a 6.7% loss in 2019. Our EBIT dollars reached $441 million in 2021, which translates to over $330 million in incremental EBIT dollars compared to 2020 and $594 million of incremental EBIT when compared to 2019. While there may be oscillations between quarters to accommodate for seasonality and product launches, we aim to deliver consistently growing profits over time on a full year basis.

2021 年，淨收入同比增長 78%，合併後達到 71 億美元。收入增長與息稅前利潤率增長相結合，同比增長 300 個基點，2021 年息稅前利潤率達到 6.2%，高於 2020 年的 3.2% 和 2019 年的 6.7%。我們的息稅前利潤美元2021 年達到 4.41 億美元，與 2020 年相比，息稅前利潤增加了 3.3 億美元，與 2019 年相比，息稅前利潤增加了 5.94 億美元。雖然季度之間可能存在波動以適應季節性和產品發布，但我們的目標是始終如一地交付隨著時間的推移，全年利潤不斷增長。

With that broad overview of the year, let's now jump into a deeper review of our fourth quarter results, starting off with the commerce business.

有了對今年的廣泛概述，現在讓我們從商業業務開始，對我們的第四季度業績進行更深入的回顧。

During the fourth quarter, gross merchandise volume reached almost $8 billion, growing 32% on an FX-neutral basis despite challenging comps. Our 2-year CAGR trend on an FX-neutral basis was relatively stable compared to the prior quarter, with a 71% growth in Q4 compared to 74% growth in the prior quarter of the year.

第四季度，商品交易總額達到近 80 億美元，在不影響匯率的情況下增長了 32%，儘管比較具有挑戰性。與上一季度相比，我們在外匯中性基礎上的 2 年復合年增長率趨勢相對穩定，第四季度增長 71%，而上一季度增長 74%。

Our unique buyer base continues to grow year-over-year and sequentially, with 40.5 million unique buyers on our marketplace during the fourth quarter. Not only are we expanding our user base, but we are also increasing the number of purchases per unique buyer. In Q4, items per buyer grew by 14% year-over-year and are now over 50% higher than they were during pre-pandemic times. The higher engagement levels throughout the year were sustained across all of our key geographies.

我們的獨特買家群繼續同比增長，第四季度在我們的市場上有 4050 萬獨特買家。我們不僅在擴大我們的用戶群，而且還在增加每個獨立買家的購買次數。在第四季度，每位買家的商品同比增長 14%，現在比大流行前時期高出 50% 以上。全年較高的參與度在我們所有的主要地區都得到了維持。

The improvements in buyer experience are also linked to our relationship with sellers on the platform as we continue to increase assortment and improve the quality of our merchant base. We had close to 300 million live listings in Q4, and our seller base is diverse. Sales from official stores represented over 23% of GMV during the fourth quarter, and the remainder comes from an array of mid- and long-tail sellers.

買家體驗的改善也與我們在平台上與賣家的關係有關，因為我們將繼續增加商品種類並提高商家群的質量。我們在第四季度有近 3 億個實時列表，我們的賣家群是多樣化的。官方店舖的銷售額在第四季度佔 GMV 的 23% 以上，其餘來自一系列中長尾賣家。

For the promotional season, we also ramped up our first-party assortment, reaching almost 5% of our total gross merchandise volume during the quarter. During this promotional season, we also saw improvements in our logistics network. During the fourth quarter, we shipped over 275 million items, while decreasing our average delivery times and simultaneously lowering average shipping costs per order. Almost 90% of all our volumes were delivered through our managed logistics network compared to 77% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

在促銷季，我們還增加了我們的第一方商品種類，在本季度達到了我們商品總銷量的近 5%。在這個促銷季，我們的物流網絡也有所改善。在第四季度，我們運送了超過 2.75 億件商品，同時減少了我們的平均交貨時間，同時降低了每個訂單的平均運輸成本。我們近 90% 的銷量是通過我們管理的物流網絡交付的，而 2020 年第四季度這一比例為 77%。

The evolution of efficiencies and delivery times has also been significant. For the fourth quarter, almost 80% of the volume was delivered within 48 hours and close to 60% of the volume was delivered within the same or next day when the purchase was made. Particularly for the items within our fulfillment centers, average delivery times are less than 24 hours. Volumes in fulfillment increased sequentially in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia this quarter. We are now able to handle heavy and bulky items within our fulfillment network, unlocking our potential to execute better service levels in consumer electronic categories like home appliances and white goods. These continuous improvements in productivity of our fulfillment centers have enabled us to deliver cost efficiencies throughout the peak shopping season compared to last year. And therefore, we are encouraged to keep scaling our warehousing operations. Moreover, we continue to invest in additional capabilities and efficiencies in our cross-docking network.

效率和交付時間的發展也很重要。第四季度，近 80% 的訂單在 48 小時內交付，近 60% 的訂單在購買當天或次日交付。特別是對於我們履行中心內的商品，平均交貨時間不到 24 小時。本季度巴西、墨西哥、智利和哥倫比亞的履約量環比增長。我們現在能夠在我們的履行網絡中處理笨重的物品，釋放我們在家用電器和白色家電等消費電子產品類別中執行更好服務水平的潛力。與去年相比，我們履行中心的生產力不斷提高，使我們能夠在整個購物旺季實現成本效益。因此，我們鼓勵我們繼續擴大我們的倉儲業務。此外，我們將繼續投資於我們的交叉對接網絡的額外功能和效率。

MELI Places, our network of pickup and drop-off points, have been leveraged to provide more services to our customers. 90% of our places are enabled now for both package pickup and drop-off. And we have already started using the technology rollout to receive returns from buyers in these MELI Places. MELI Places' network spans Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia already.

MELI Places 是我們的接送點網絡，已被用來為我們的客戶提供更多服務。現在，我們 90% 的地方都啟用了包裹取件和投遞服務。我們已經開始使用這項技術來接收來自這些 MELI Places 買家的退貨。 MELI Places 的網絡已經遍及巴西、墨西哥、阿根廷、智利和哥倫比亞。

The reliability of our shipping solution has thus become a key driver behind our Net Promoter Scores and we continue to believe that shipping is a key lever to drive higher e-commerce penetration throughout Latin America. As a result, we remain committed to continuing to decrease delivery times and offering a wide variety of services to a larger range of customers across the entire region.

因此，我們航運解決方案的可靠性已成為我們淨推薦值背後的關鍵驅動因素，我們仍然相信航運是推動整個拉丁美洲電子商務滲透率更高的關鍵槓桿。因此，我們仍然致力於繼續縮短交貨時間，並為整個地區的更多客戶提供廣泛的服務。

Let's now turn to the FinTech business, starting with a review of our credit portfolio performance. We are very pleased to see that our credit book continues to grow as we expand our credit offering to a broader group of users without signs of behavior shifts in loan default rates. We closed the fourth quarter with a credit book of almost $1.7 billion after having originated close to $1.5 billion during the quarter. Over 65% of these originations were consumer credit loans.

現在讓我們轉向金融科技業務，首先回顧一下我們的信貸組合表現。我們很高興地看到，隨著我們向更廣泛的用戶群體提供信貸服務，而沒有出現貸款違約率行為轉變的跡象，我們的信用賬簿繼續增長。在本季度產生近 15 億美元後，我們以近 17 億美元的信用賬簿結束了第四季度。這些來源中超過 65% 是消費信貸貸款。

In consumer credits, we saw for the second consecutive quarter, originations in the Mercado app outpacing originations from the Marketplace app, especially driven by personal loans offered through that Mercado Pago app. We finished the quarter with 7.4 million consumers with an active loan, and we have been consistently growing the base of prescored users with an active credit offer. This growth is driven by the strong combination of more user data from interactions with our ecosystem being fed directly into our risk and pricing models and continuous improvements in our technology models.

在消費者信貸方面，我們連續第二個季度看到，Mercado 應用程序的發放量超過了 Marketplace 應用程序的發放量，尤其是通過 Mercado Pago 應用程序提供的個人貸款。我們在本季度結束時有 740 萬消費者擁有活躍的貸款，並且我們一直在通過積極的信貸優惠來擴大預評分用戶的基礎。這種增長是由與我們的生態系統交互產生的更多用戶數據的強大組合推動的，這些數據被直接輸入我們的風險和定價模型以及我們技術模型的不斷改進。

Looking into the future, we are excited about the role the credit business plays in our entire ecosystem. Growth will remain spurred on by increasing the knowledge we have of merchants and consumers and our continued access to several proprietary distribution channels to offer credit. We have developed an attractive and resilient business model that allows us to grow sustainably and adapt quickly when uncertain circumstances arise.

展望未來，我們對信貸業務在我們整個生態系統中所扮演的角色感到興奮。增長將繼續通過增加我們對商家和消費者的了解以及我們繼續訪問幾個專有分銷渠道來提供信貸。我們開發了一種有吸引力且有彈性的商業模式，使我們能夠在不確定的情況出現時實現可持續發展並迅速適應。

We have been managing the default risk levels in our credit book very closely and observed sequential improvements in nonperforming loans during the fourth quarter. Total nonperforming loans as a percentage of the outstanding portfolio have improved from 28% in the third quarter to 24%. And the allowance for uncollectibles has also reduced relative to the size of the portfolio sequentially.

我們一直在非常密切地管理我們信用賬簿中的違約風險水平，並觀察到第四季度不良貸款的連續改善。不良貸款總額佔未償還投資組合的百分比從第三季度的 28% 提高到 24%。相對於投資組合的規模，對不可收藏品的備抵也有所減少。

Our funding strategy has also evolved as the portfolio has matured over time, having ended 2020 with 20% of the portfolio being funded through external securitization while now having closed 2021 with 45% of the portfolio through external securitization.

我們的融資策略也隨著投資組合的成熟而發展，到 2020 年底，20% 的投資組合通過外部證券化獲得資金，而現在到 2021 年底，45% 的投資組合通過外部證券化獲得資金。

Our financial services offerings beyond credit are also showing important growth. We reached 34.5 million unique active fintech users during the fourth quarter, growing 23% versus the previous year, and the new product launches are boosting engagement levels for these users. We had 22.3 million investment accounts in Q4, an additional 7.4 million compared to the same period in 2020. Users have also increased payment transactions for utilities and peer-to-peer transfers using the wallet throughout most of our key geographies.

我們的信貸以外的金融服務產品也顯示出重要的增長。我們在第四季度達到了 3450 萬唯一活躍的金融科技用戶，比去年增長了 23%，新產品的推出提高了這些用戶的參與度。我們在第四季度擁有 2230 萬個投資賬戶，與 2020 年同期相比增加了 740 萬個。用戶還增加了在我們大部分主要地區使用錢包進行公用事業和點對點轉賬的支付交易。

Digital account total payment volume, which includes these wallet payments as well as card payments, reached $7.1 billion, growing 138% during the fourth quarter on an FX-neutral basis. Within InsurTech, we launched the distribution of insurance for card and PIX payments in Brazil expanding on our insurance product offering. Our goal is to keep adding to these services such that the digital account becomes a more integrated offering, making it a seamless experience for individuals to concentrate their financial lives with us.

包括這些錢包支付和信用卡支付在內的數字賬戶總支付量達到 71 億美元，在外匯中性的基礎上，第四季度增長了 138%。在 InsurTech 內，我們在巴西推出了卡和 PIX 支付保險分銷，擴大了我們的保險產品供應。我們的目標是不斷增加這些服務，使數字賬戶成為一個更加集成的產品，為個人提供一種無縫的體驗，讓他們將他們的財務生活集中在我們身上。

Among the most recent launches is the trading function for cryptocurrencies. Within the digital account, all users in Brazil can now buy, hold and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and the USDP stable coin. Our cryptocurrency custodian partner will provide the blockchain infrastructure platform while we act as the distribution channel and user interface.

最近推出的一項是加密貨幣的交易功能。在數字賬戶內，巴西的所有用戶現在都可以購買、持有和出售比特幣、以太坊和 USDP 穩定幣。我們的加密貨幣託管合作夥伴將提供區塊鏈基礎設施平台，同時我們充當分銷渠道和用戶界面。

Consistent with our other products, the crypto trading interface is very user-friendly, simple to navigate, secure, and inclusive, with a minimum investment value of only BRL 1. It is still early on in our crypto journey, but we are encouraged with the uptake we are seeing in the number of Brazilian users transacting with crypto in our wallet.

與我們的其他產品一樣，加密交易界面非常用戶友好、易於導航、安全且具有包容性，最低投資價值僅為 1 巴西雷亞爾。它仍處於我們加密之旅的早期階段，但我們受到鼓舞我們看到在我們的錢包中使用加密貨幣進行交易的巴西用戶數量的增加。

Finally, I want to go over some of the highlights for our payments processing and acquiring business. Acquiring TPV grew 51% in the fourth quarter on an FX-neutral basis, reaching $17.2 billion. On-platform and off-platform online merchants accelerated payment volume growth in the fourth quarter, surpassing 32% and 54% year-over-year growth, respectively, on an FX-neutral basis. The off-platform online payments are particularly improving in Brazil and Argentina, where we are adding new merchants to our base. In Brazil, the addition of PIX, as a payment checkout option online, is also gaining traction.

最後，我想回顧一下我們的支付處理和收單業務的一些亮點。在外匯中性的基礎上，第四季度收購 TPV 增長了 51%，達到 172 億美元。平台內和平台外在線商戶在第四季度加快了支付量的增長，在外匯中性的基礎上，同比增長分別超過 32% 和 54%。巴西和阿根廷的平台外在線支付尤其得到改善，我們正在為我們的基地增加新的商家。在巴西，添加 PIX 作為在線支付結賬選項也越來越受歡迎。

Our off-line payment solution with the QR network and MPOS devices are growing steadily, and the cross-sell opportunity for payment services is starting to come to fruition. The QR network continued to post triple-digit growth rates for TPV in Argentina, where we have our most matured QR network. And we are happy to see that we have been able to accelerate our expansion of the QR merchant base in Brazil and Mexico over the last few quarters.

我們的 QR 網絡和 MPOS 設備的線下支付解決方案正在穩步增長，支付服務的交叉銷售機會開始開花結果。 QR 網絡在阿根廷的 TPV 繼續保持三位數的增長率，我們在阿根廷擁有最成熟的 QR 網絡。我們很高興地看到，在過去幾個季度中，我們已經能夠加速我們在巴西和墨西哥的二維碼商家基礎的擴張。

In Brazil, new active QR merchants are soaring as we leverage the PIX rails to introduce the QR network to long-tail merchants. Furthermore, within SMBs, we have stepped up our go-to-market strategy and improved our capacity to convert MPOS device merchants to also use QR and vice versa.

在巴西，隨著我們利用 PIX rail 將 QR 網絡引入長尾商家，新的活躍 QR 商家正在飆升。此外，在中小型企業內部，我們加強了進入市場的戰略，並提高了將 MPOS 設備商家轉換為也使用二維碼的能力，反之亦然。

We also achieved some exciting milestones in the MPOS business in the fourth quarter, which grew 69% in TPV on an FX-neutral basis. We sold over 1.3 million devices across our core markets, a record sales mark for us. In addition, we made an important acquisition in the Chilean market by adding; Redelcom, a payment service provider to our ecosystem, allowing us to accelerate our expansion of financial services for local SMBs and micro merchants in Chile. We are encouraged by the initial growth potential that we have seen as we ramp up our payment services in these new markets and transition SMB into digital financial solutions.

我們在第四季度的 MPOS 業務也取得了一些令人興奮的里程碑，在外匯中性的基礎上，TPV 增長了 69%。我們在核心市場銷售了超過 130 萬台設備，創下了我們的銷售記錄。此外，我們在智利市場進行了一項重要收購，增加了； Redelcom 是我們生態系統的支付服務提供商，使我們能夠加速為智利當地的中小企業和微型商家擴展金融服務。隨著我們在這些新市場增加支付服務並將 SMB 轉變為數字金融解決方案，我們看到了最初的增長潛力，我們對此感到鼓舞。

With that, let's review the financial results for the quarter. In terms of net revenues, we delivered a record $2.1 billion on a consolidated basis, a growth rate of 61% in U.S. dollars and 74% on an FX-neutral basis for the fourth quarter of 2021. Strong revenue growth on top of a record in absolute dollars was achieved despite headwinds in fintech monetization. Our fintech take rates over the total payment volume have been pressured by increases in interest rates, mainly in Brazil.

有了這個，讓我們回顧一下本季度的財務業績。就淨收入而言，我們在 2021 年第四季度的合併基礎上實現了創紀錄的 21 億美元，以美元計算的增長率為 61%，在外匯中性基礎上增長了 74%。在創紀錄的基礎上實現了強勁的收入增長儘管金融科技貨幣化存在逆風，但仍實現了絕對美元。我們的金融科技佔總支付量的利率受到利率上升的壓力，主要是在巴西。

The spread compression effect on take rate is about 10 basis points year-over-year. We recently announced a new pricing structure for our financing fees starting in 2022 to contemplate new interest rate levels and begin offsetting these pressured financing revenues and the subsequent impact to profitability. On the other hand, we had a strong year-over-year improvement in take rates over gross merchandise volume in the commerce business as well as the higher penetration of first-party sales, both of which are boosting our commerce revenues across many key geographies.

對獲取率的利差壓縮效應同比約為 10 個基點。我們最近宣布了從 2022 年開始的新融資費用定價結構，以考慮新的利率水平，並開始抵消這些承壓的融資收入以及隨後對盈利能力的影響。另一方面，我們在商業業務中的商品總成交率和第一方銷售的更高滲透率都取得了強勁的同比增長，這兩者都提高了我們在許多關鍵地區的商業收入.

Even more relevant than these 2 offsetting monetization trends is the increasingly positive impact on take rate coming from the credit business. Credit revenues reached almost $300 million during the fourth quarter alone, triple the value of the previous year.

比這兩個抵消貨幣化趨勢更相關的是來自信貸業務的對利率的日益積極的影響。僅在第四季度，信貸收入就達到了近 3 億美元，是上一年的三倍。

During the fourth quarter, our gross profit reached almost $853 million at a margin of 40%, a 320 basis point improvement compared to the 36.8% in Q4 of 2020. Our shipping operations were more efficient this quarter compared to last year, and we were able to further scale other costs associated with customer service, fraud prevention and collection fees for processing payments.

第四季度，我們的毛利潤達到近 8.53 億美元，利潤率為 40%，與 2020 年第四季度的 36.8% 相比提高了 320 個基點。與去年相比，本季度我們的航運業務效率更高，我們能夠進一步擴展與客戶服務、欺詐預防和處理付款收取費用相關的其他成本。

Consolidated operating expenses represented 39% of revenues this quarter, similar to 38.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020, albeit with a different mix, and more importantly, with solid operational leverage across key expenses. General and administrative expenses were $148 million or 6.9% of revenues, down from 8.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

合併運營費用佔本季度收入的 39%，與 2020 年第四季度的 38.7% 相似，儘管組合不同，更重要的是，在關鍵費用方面具有穩固的運營槓桿。一般和行政費用為 1.48 億美元，佔收入的 6.9%，低於 2020 年第四季度的 8.7%。

Product development expenses were almost $180 million or 8.4% of revenues compared to 8.8% last year. We have scaled across our investments in product development, even while onboarding 4,000 additional software developers and data engineers to our employee base this year.

產品開發費用接近 1.8 億美元，佔收入的 8.4%，而去年為 8.8%。我們已經擴大了對產品開發的投資，即使今年我們的員工基礎增加了 4,000 名軟件開發人員和數據工程師。

Within sales and marketing, the 23.6% spending as a percentage of revenues, which is up from 21.3% last year, is explained by increasing bad debt allowances. Our credit books bad debt provisions, which are booked under sales and marketing expenses, have increased compared to the fourth quarter of last year due to the expanding credit origination. While this does add pressure to an otherwise scaling expense line, the incremental revenues I previously mentioned from the credit business more than offset the bad debt charges when looking at impact on dollar earnings.

在銷售和營銷方面，23.6% 的支出佔收入的百分比高於去年的 21.3%，這是由於壞賬準備增加所致。由於信貸來源的擴大，我們計入銷售和營銷費用的貸方壞賬準備較去年第四季度有所增加。雖然這確實給原本按比例增加的支出項目增加了壓力，但我之前提到的信貸業務的增量收入在考慮對美元收益的影響時，足以抵消壞賬費用。

Other sales and marketing investments in marketing activities such as branding, customer acquisition, buyer protection programs and other incentives and sales initiatives are showing operational leverage of 170 basis points as a percentage of total revenues when compared to the same quarter in 2020. Consequently, our fourth quarter EBIT was $23.3 million at a margin of 1.1%, an improvement compared to the negative 1.9% EBIT margin loss we had in Q4 of last year.

與 2020 年同一季度相比，營銷活動中的其他銷售和營銷投資（例如品牌推廣、客戶獲取、買家保護計劃以及其他激勵措施和銷售計劃）的運營槓桿佔總收入的百分比為 170 個基點。因此，我們的第四季度息稅前利潤為 2330 萬美元，利潤率為 1.1%，與去年第四季度 1.9% 的負息稅前利潤率損失相比有所改善。

During the fourth quarter, our interest income was positively impacted by higher interest rates reaching $53 million and more than doubling compared to last year. Similarly, interest expenses were $54 million, offsetting gains from interest income. We also had a foreign exchange loss of almost $57 million in the quarter, mainly due to the difference of the Argentine official exchange rate and the blue chip swap rate at which we effectively repatriate retained earnings from the Argentine subsidiary.

在第四季度，我們的利息收入受到高達 5300 萬美元的高利率的積極影響，比去年增加了一倍多。同樣，利息支出為 5400 萬美元，抵消了利息收入的收益。我們在本季度也有近 5700 萬美元的外匯損失，主要是由於阿根廷官方匯率和藍籌掉期匯率的差異，我們有效地從阿根廷子公司匯回了留存收益。

The resulting net loss after income tax in the quarter was $46 million, a negative 2.2% margin over revenues which is an improvement compared to last year's negative 3.8% net income margin. As I noted previously, we are closing 2021 with several important achievements in terms of growth, and our ability to deliver consistent improvements at the EBIT margin level for the full year marks our long-term commitment towards growth with sustained operating leverage and increasing earnings.

本季度所得稅後的淨虧損為 4600 萬美元，比收入下降 2.2%，與去年 3.8% 的負淨利潤率相比有所改善。正如我之前指出的，我們在 2021 年結束時在增長方面取得了幾項重要成就，我們能夠在全年息稅前利潤率水平上持續提高，這標誌著我們對持續經營槓桿和增加收益的增長的長期承諾。

To conclude this section, I'd like to reiterate that there remains a huge runway of opportunities ahead of us. Even after the significant uptake in digital services we experienced over the last couple of years, e-commerce penetration in our region is still only at around the 10% range. In the same light, even with all of the recent advances in the financial technology space in Latin America, we still live in a context where most people have difficulty accessing credit, savings and insurance products and controlling their finances. This emboldens us to remain committed to our mission to democratize access to commerce and financial services throughout the region. There is still a lot to build, and we trust that our continuous investments in technology and human capital will be determining factors in our future success.

在結束本節時，我想重申，我們面前仍有大量機會。即使在過去幾年我們經歷了數字服務的顯著增長之後，我們地區的電子商務滲透率仍然只有 10% 左右。同樣，即使拉丁美洲金融技術領域取得了所有最新進展，我們仍然生活在大多數人難以獲得信貸、儲蓄和保險產品以及控制財務的環境中。這鼓勵我們繼續致力於我們的使命，即在整個地區實現商業和金融服務的民主化。還有很多工作要做，我們相信我們對技術和人力資本的持續投資將成為我們未來成功的決定因素。

I'm also happy to announce that we are releasing our annual impact report simultaneous with our 10-K, allowing us to communicate with shareholders, both our financial and nonfinancial objectives and performance. We believe this allows for a more cohesive understanding of our value-creation capacity and its impact over time. We are also publishing our first sustainability bond report in connection with the 2026 sustainability notes issued a year ago, with 15.5% of proceeds already having been allocated this past year.

我也很高興地宣布，我們將與 10-K 同時發布年度影響報告，讓我們能夠與股東就我們的財務和非財務目標和績效進行溝通。我們相信，這可以讓我們更深入地了解我們的價值創造能力及其隨著時間的推移產生的影響。我們還發布了與一年前發布的 2026 年可持續發展票據相關的第一份可持續發展債券報告，去年已經分配了 15.5% 的收益。

Finally, we can now share an in-depth analysis of climate-related risk factors following the framework of the task force on climate-related financial disclosures that we conducted during 2021, and we will be deep diving into in coming years. We are proud of this integrated approach and are committed to improving upon it year-on-year and encourage you to review the material to get a clear understanding of our sustainability programs and their impact.

最後，我們現在可以根據我們在 2021 年開展的氣候相關財務披露工作組的框架，分享對氣候相關風險因素的深入分析，我們將在未來幾年深入研究。我們為這種綜合方法感到自豪，並致力於逐年改進它，並鼓勵您查看材料以清楚地了解我們的可持續發展計劃及其影響。

Thanks, everyone, again, for joining us today to review these results, and we're happy to take your questions and to connect with you over the next few weeks.

再次感謝大家今天加入我們來審查這些結果，我們很高興在接下來的幾週內回答您的問題並與您聯繫。

(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。

It was helpful to hear about the commitment towards growth with sustained operating leverage. I was curious if you could please zoom in a bit on how 2022 fits into this narrative, namely your incremental investment focus areas for the year. And conversely, any areas where you could see incremental expense leverage?

聽到有關通過持續經營槓桿實現增長的承諾很有幫助。我很好奇您能否詳細說明 2022 年如何適應這一敘述，即您今年的增量投資重點領域。相反，您可以看到增加費用槓桿的任何領域？

Andrew, as you know, we don't guide. I think conceptually, we will continue to invest behind the key areas that are a part of our strategy: logistics, category expansion, the rollout of our different fintech products, our credit business, which we are very encouraged by. And as we've said, I think growth and making sure we're investing behind these many growth opportunities that still have significant run rate is our #1 priority.

安德魯，如你所知，我們不指導。我認為從概念上講，我們將繼續投資於我們戰略中的關鍵領域：物流、品類擴張、推出我們不同的金融科技產品、我們的信貸業務，我們對此感到非常鼓舞。正如我們所說，我認為增長並確保我們投資於這些仍然具有顯著運行率的增長機會是我們的第一要務。

Having said that, given the size of the business and the operational leverage that is still inherent in the business model, we enter a phase where we think we can continue to invest, maintain our focus on share gains and sustaining our leadership and yet still deliver modest yet consistent increase in earnings over a multiyear cycle. So you shouldn't see any departure from what you've been seeing in terms of the area of focus. We're pleased with the portfolio of services we have. We think it's ample and many of these are in the early stages and have significant room to grow. And even the more mature businesses where we see really strong capabilities to sustain and potentially even increase our leadership.

話雖如此，鑑於業務規模和業務模式仍然固有的運營槓桿，我們進入了一個我們認為可以繼續投資的階段，保持我們對分享收益的關注和維持我們的領導地位，但仍然可以交付在多年周期內收入適度但持續增長。因此，就焦點領域而言，您不應該看到任何偏離您所看到的內容。我們對我們擁有的服務組合感到滿意。我們認為這是充足的，其中許多處於早期階段，並且有很大的增長空間。即使是更成熟的企業，我們也看到了真正強大的能力來維持甚至可能提高我們的領導地位。

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。

There was no direct mention of advertising revenues this quarter. I think there was maybe a comment about monetization. And I know it's still a small percentage of overall sales, but with a very strong organic traffic numbers that you spoke to and the user engagement stats that you provided, it feels like 2022 could be a year where this is becoming overall more important, and I would imagine it's also accretive to the overall margin story that we're seeing play out. Could you just maybe sort of talk a little bit about what you're seeing in terms of new developments on the advertising front and what incremental maybe investments you're making?

本季度沒有直接提及廣告收入。我認為可能有關於貨幣化的評論。而且我知道這仍然只佔整體銷售額的一小部分，但是由於您與之交談過的自然流量數字以及您提供的用戶參與度統計數據非常強勁，感覺 2022 年可能是整體變得更加重要的一年，並且我想它也會增加我們看到的整體利潤故事。您能否稍微談談您在廣告方面的新發展以及您正在進行的增量投資方面所看到的情況？

Yes, Irma. So thanks. We continue to see a very, very significant opportunity in the advertising business. It's a high-margin business with gross margins above 70%. As we grow our first-party business and as we get into new product categories, such as consumables that have very large advertisers, we're seeing some really interesting work in combination with those advertisers, along with our 1P business, but also behind the marketplace.

是的，艾爾瑪。那謝謝啦。我們繼續在廣告業務中看到一個非常非常重要的機會。這是一個毛利率超過70%的高利潤業務。隨著我們第一方業務的發展以及我們進入新的產品類別（例如擁有非常大廣告客戶的消耗品），我們看到了一些非常有趣的工作與這些廣告客戶以及我們的 1P 業務一起，但也落後於市場。

The advertising business as a percentage of GMV has crossed the 1% mark, which for us is the first big milestone in a multiyear trajectory that we think could deliver multiple times that. And then we see really good progress so far in a fast-growing, high-margin business that's very, very synergistic with what we're doing on the marketplace. And also, we began to now integrate some advertising placements and advertising features into the payments app and some of our payments products as well.

廣告業務佔 GMV 的百分比已超過 1%，這對我們來說是多年發展軌跡中的第一個重要里程碑，我們認為可以實現該目標的數倍。然後，到目前為止，我們在快速增長、高利潤的業務中看到了非常好的進展，這與我們在市場上所做的事情非常非常協同。此外，我們現在開始將一些廣告展示位置和廣告功能集成到支付應用程序和我們的一些支付產品中。

So we will report in the future when we think it makes sense, but it's yet another very encouraging business that is performing well and that we will continue to add engineering talent and innovate on because there's a lot of potential there.

因此，我們將在未來認為有意義時進行報告，但這是另一個非常令人鼓舞的業務，表現良好，我們將繼續增加工程人才並進行創新，因為那裡有很多潛力。

Our next question comes from Thiago Macruz with Itaú.

我們的下一個問題來自 Thiago Macruz 和 Itaú。

You guys seem to be at the very beginning of a monetization trend of your e-commerce business. And I wonder if you could give us some feedback on the initial reaction of sellers to your first attempt to charge for your fulfillment services in Mexico, in Brazil? And if I may, on the credit side of the equation, we already see some NPL deterioration for banks exposed to lower-income clientele in Brazil. We're not seeing that for you guys. Is that a case to be made that your credit business in Brazil is more exposed to higher income clientele? Can you discuss that with us?

你們似乎正處於電子商務業務貨幣化趨勢的初期。我想知道您是否可以就賣家對您第一次嘗試在墨西哥和巴西收取履行服務費用的最初反應給我們一些反饋？如果可以的話，在等式的信貸方面，我們已經看到銀行在巴西低收入客戶中的不良貸款有所惡化。我們沒有看到你們。是否可以證明您在巴西的信貸業務更容易受到高收入客戶的影響？你能和我們討論一下嗎？

So starting with monetization on logistics, we haven't seen a negative impact of this. Our logistics network as it's consistently driven better delivery times, better conversions, therefore for merchants, I think, justifies initiating monetization. Having said that, I think it's still early, so let's keep tracking that and see how the monetization efforts progress throughout the year. So far, so good.

因此，從物流的貨幣化開始，我們還沒有看到這方面的負面影響。我們的物流網絡一直在推動更好的交貨時間，更好的轉換，因此對於商家來說，我認為有理由開始貨幣化。話雖如此，我認為現在還為時過早，所以讓我們繼續跟踪這一點，看看全年貨幣化工作的進展情況。到目前為止，一切都很好。

And if you look at the Mexican business, you'll see that Mexico delivered in the first quarter -- fourth quarter, one of its best direct contribution margins in this multiyear investment cycle we've been in, in Mexico. That's a consequence of many factors of that improving P&L as it continues to execute towards profitability. But one piece of that is the better overall economics on the logistics business, and charging is a piece within that. So, so far, so good.

如果你看看墨西哥的業務，你會發現墨西哥在第一季度 - 第四季度交付，這是我們在墨西哥經歷的這個多年投資週期中最好的直接貢獻率之一。這是由於許多因素改善損益的結果，因為它繼續朝著盈利方向執行。但其中之一是物流業務的整體經濟性更好，而收費是其中的一部分。所以，到目前為止，一切都很好。

Thiago, with regards to credit, we have continued to see improvements in our NPLs. Our clients, our users tend to be middle to lower income. So we are happy with how we have been improving our risk models and monitoring how much risk we take.

蒂亞戈，在信貸方面，我們的不良貸款繼續改善。我們的客戶，我們的用戶往往是中低收入。因此，我們對如何改進風險模型和監控我們承擔的風險感到滿意。

Yes. I think just a quick conceptual complement there. At the end of the day, the reason that we think there is so much potential in the credit business is directly linked to our ability to underwrite credit for segments of the population that historically have been very difficult to underwrite for, either because of cost to serve or the actual underwriting capability. Again, we need to continue to monitor this. It's early stage. But everything we've seen so far makes us very encouraged in the capabilities we've built in-house to be able to serve that very large portion of the Latin American population that has historically been starved for credit.

是的。我認為這只是一個快速的概念補充。歸根結底，我們認為信貸業務潛力巨大的原因與我們為歷史上很難承保的人群提供信貸的能力直接相關，要么是因為成本服務或實際承保能力。同樣，我們需要繼續監控這一點。這是早期階段。但是到目前為止，我們所看到的一切都讓我們對我們內部建立的能力感到非常鼓舞，這些能力能夠為歷史上一直缺乏信貸的拉丁美洲人口提供服務。

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。

Congratulations on all the operating strides. In the presentation, there is a mention of a strong scale up in the credit card business. Can you put some numbers around that in terms of the Brazilian credit card base today, average credit limits, the take-up of those limits and bad debt trends in that product? And are those card balances reflected in the loan book numbers that you gave earlier, Pedro?

祝賀所有的操作進展。在演示文稿中，提到了信用卡業務的強大規模。您能否就今天的巴西信用卡基數、平均信用額度、這些額度的使用情況以及該產品的壞賬趨勢給出一些數字？ Pedro，這些卡餘額是否反映在您之前提供的貸款賬簿編號中？

Let me go from back to forth, Bob. Yes, they are part of the books that we disclosed. Roughly, 17% of the credit on the balance sheet is from the very nascent credit card business. It's very early, Bob. We're scaling it well, hence the mention. As you know, MELI as a whole, is a phenomenal distribution platform. But let's wait a few more quarters. This is a very new product. It's in 1 country, and then we can begin to give more disclosure and visibility.

讓我來回走，鮑勃。是的，它們是我們披露的書籍的一部分。資產負債表上大約 17% 的信貸來自非常新興的信用卡業務。太早了，鮑勃。我們很好地擴展了它，因此提到了。如您所知，MELI 作為一個整體，是一個了不起的分銷平台。但讓我們再等幾個季度。這是一個非常新的產品。它在 1 個國家/地區，然後我們可以開始提供更多的披露和可見性。

So far, everything we've seen is a part of our enthusiasm with our ability to efficiently underwrite credit and serve credit. So, so far, so good. but that's one of the newest products within the credit portfolio. So again, another case of something that has enormous potential, but let's cautiously and diligently build that out and keep you guys posted on how it's performing.

到目前為止，我們所看到的一切都是我們熱情的一部分，我們有能力有效地承保信貸和提供信貸。所以，到目前為止，一切都很好。但這是信貸組合中的最新產品之一。再說一次，另一個具有巨大潛力的案例，但讓我們謹慎而努力地構建它，並讓你們隨時了解它的表現。

And without providing any numbers, probably, the other thing I want to add is that, we are very excited with how people who have a credit card are showing increased engagements with our platforms and also increased Net Promoter Scores.

在不提供任何數字的情況下，我可能想補充的另一件事是，我們對擁有信用卡的人如何表現出對我們平台的參與度增加以及淨推薦值增加感到非常興奮。

And is it fair to say, Osvaldo, that you're starting off with relatively low limits and being very prudent in terms of the way you're moving forward? Because you really don't see this in the Pago kind of user numbers, whether it's unique users or frequency?

公平地說，奧斯瓦爾多，你從相對較低的限制開始，並且在前進的方式方面非常謹慎嗎？因為您真的沒有在 Pago 類型的用戶數量中看到這一點，無論是唯一用戶還是頻率？

That's correct. We're starting with low limits, and we will increase them afterwards.

這是正確的。我們從低限制開始，然後我們會增加它們。

Okay. And then my second question, I'll make this the last one, is if you could comment, please, on the Mexico City mass transit deal, right? I just wanted to confirm that it's exclusive as well as the reported transaction fee, which seemed a little bit high relative to what I would have expected. And I was just hoping -- or hoping to get a little bit of color around the service commitments that you're making? Are you required to make to win that base of business?

好的。然後我的第二個問題，我將把它作為最後一個問題，請您就墨西哥城的公共交通交易發表評論，對嗎？我只是想確認它是獨家的以及報告的交易費用，相對於我的預期，這似乎有點高。我只是希望 - 或者希望圍繞您所做的服務承諾獲得一點色彩？您是否需要為贏得該業務基礎而努力？

Yes. We are very excited with the Movi transaction. And there are roughly 10 million daily passengers in Mexico City, and they will be able to top up their cards using our app or even using our POSes. We believe it's a tremendous deal. The economics also are reasonable, and it would be profitable, and it will allow us to significantly increase, we believe, the number of active users in the city.

是的。我們對 Movi 的交易感到非常興奮。墨西哥城每天大約有 1000 萬乘客，他們將能夠使用我們的應用程序甚至使用我們的 POS 來為他們的卡充值。我們相信這是一筆巨大的交易。經濟性也是合理的，它會是有利可圖的，我們相信它將使我們能夠顯著增加城市的活躍用戶數量。

And Osvaldo, it's an exclusive contract, right? 2 years? Is that correct?

還有奧斯瓦爾多，這是一份獨家合同，對吧？ 2年？那是對的嗎？

Exclusive. That's correct, yes. Yes.

獨家的。沒錯，是的。是的。

The next question comes from Marcelo Santos with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Marcelo Santos。

The first question is regarding the new pricing structure for the fintech that you mentioned starting 2022. How much do you think this could offset the increase in interest rates? And could you give a bit more detail on how this will impact different products that you have? This is the first question. And the second question is, if you could explain a bit more how PIX is helping the QR code payments? I couldn't understand that very well.

第一個問題是關於您提到的從 2022 年開始的金融科技的新定價結構。您認為這可以在多大程度上抵消利率的上漲？您能否詳細說明這將如何影響您擁有的不同產品？這是第一個問題。第二個問題是，您能否多解釋一下 PIX 如何幫助二維碼支付？我不能很好地理解這一點。

Marcelo, with regards to PIX, what we are seeing is I think there are -- there's a different effect online and offline and then offline also a different effect in the long tail and with large merchants. Let's start with online. We are very excited with online -- with PIX online because mostly, there was really no debit cards online in Brazil. And so this is, we believe, incremental volume, that we are seeing not only on MercadoLibre, but also on merchant services and it already represents double digits of the PPV we are seeing in merchant services. So we are very excited with PIX there.

Marcelo，關於 PIX，我們看到的是我認為有 - 線上和線下有不同的效果，然後線下在長尾和大型商家中也有不同的效果。讓我們從在線開始。我們對在線感到非常興奮——使用 PIX 在線，因為大多數情況下，巴西實際上沒有在線借記卡。因此，我們認為，這就是我們在 MercadoLibre 和商家服務上看到的增量數量，它已經代表了我們在商家服務中看到的 PPV 的兩位數。所以我們對那裡的 PIX 感到非常興奮。

With regard to offline, I'd say, in the long tail, what we're seeing is, in some cases, it's the same merchants who have an MPOS device who are using PIX, and in some cases, probably some merchants are switching and instead of using a POS device, they just rely on PIX. The usability is not great because in most cases, they are typing in either the mobile phone or the e-mail information to make a PIX transfer rather than scanning a QR code, but we are seeing that it's taking some traction.

關於離線，我想說的是，在長尾，我們看到的是，在某些情況下，使用 PIX 的是擁有 MPOS 設備的同一商家，在某些情況下，可能有些商家正在切換他們不使用 POS 設備，而是依賴 PIX。可用性不是很好，因為在大多數情況下，他們是在輸入手機或電子郵件信息來進行 PIX 傳輸，而不是掃描 QR 碼，但我們看到它正在發揮作用。

And furthermore, what PIX is allowing us is reaching out to large merchants. For example, we are working with Burger King over the CNA, and they are using Mercado Pago to collect PIX, and this is a small portion of their revenues offline because mostly it's cards to cash. But we are excited with how it is growing and it is allowing to reach these merchants.

此外，PIX 允許我們接觸大型商家。例如，我們在 CNA 上與漢堡王合作，他們正在使用 Mercado Pago 來收集 PIX，這只是他們線下收入的一小部分，因為主要是卡兌現。但我們對它的增長方式感到興奮，它允許接觸這些商家。

Great. On the pricing piece, Marcelo, a couple of thoughts. So the first one, if you look at the presentation and you look at fintech take rates, you'll see that despite the compression, because of interest rates, the growth of the credit business, the fact that we did adjust some prices in December on the [parcelado sem juros]. So the interest-bearing purchases by consumers, we had already started to adjust pricing, offset a lot of the take rate compression. So I think we've been less hit than others.

偉大的。在定價方面，Marcelo 有幾個想法。所以第一個，如果你看一下演示文稿和金融科技的利率，你會看到儘管有壓縮，但由於利率、信貸業務的增長以及我們在 12 月確實調整了一些價格的事實在 [parcelado sem juros] 上。所以消費者的有息購買，我們已經開始調整定價，抵消了很多的利率壓縮。所以我認為我們受到的打擊比其他人少。

Second piece, as we rolled into 2020, we've also began to adjust prices on installment purchases on the parcelado sem juros off-marketplace. And therefore, we are passing on a lot of the incremental interest rates to merchants who then can decide how much of that to eventually pass on to their consumers because it's the free installment product. We've done this also understanding what competitive movements have been -- and that's why we took our time and decided to not move too quickly in the fourth quarter, understanding that we had some interesting revenue streams that were allowing us to offset some of the compression.

第二部分，隨著我們進入 2020 年，我們也開始調整 parcelado sem juros 場外分期付款的價格。因此，我們將很多增量利率轉嫁給商家，他們可以決定最終轉嫁給他們的消費者，因為它是免費的分期付款產品。我們已經這樣做了，也了解了競爭趨勢——這就是為什麼我們花時間決定在第四季度不要太快行動，因為我們知道我們有一些有趣的收入來源，可以讓我們抵消一些壓縮。

So going forward, I think that's what's happening, right? There's clearly an environment of higher interest rates, primarily in Brazil, we think that's probably here to stay for some time, and we've intelligently adjusted pricing.

所以展望未來，我認為這就是正在發生的事情，對吧？顯然存在較高利率的環境，主要是在巴西，我們認為這可能會持續一段時間，我們已經明智地調整了定價。

On the marketplace, where as we had said in the last earnings call, we were going to hold steady during the shopping season and absorb a lot of those incremental costs. And you will see that in some of the commerce take rate evolution Q-on-Q. As December has finished and we've rolled into 2022, we've also began to adjust pricing on the marketplace. We've done it in a more, I would say, surgical way where it hasn't simply been raising prices. A lot of that has been a more intelligent installment engine that will allow different lengths of installments depending on product profile, requirement of credit on that product and conversion rates, but that allows us to offset some of the interest rate spread compression by offering less lengthy credit on products where that doesn't have such an impact on demand elasticity. So that should also be something that helps us offset the spread compressions from the rising interest rates on the commerce business throughout the year.

在市場上，正如我們在上次財報電話會議中所說，我們將在購物季節保持穩定並吸收大量這些增量成本。你會看到，在一些商業交易中，採取率 Q-on-Q 的演變。隨著 12 月結束，我們已經進入 2022 年，我們也開始調整市場定價。我會說，我們以一種更加外科手術的方式完成了它，而不僅僅是提高價格。其中很多是一個更智能的分期付款引擎，它將根據產品配置、該產品的信用要求和轉換率允許不同長度的分期付款，但這允許我們通過提供更少的時間來抵消一些利差壓縮信貸對需求彈性沒有影響的產品。因此，這也應該有助於我們抵消全年商業業務利率上升帶來的利差壓縮。

Our next question comes from Kaio Prato with UBS Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀銀行的 Kaio Prato。

So my question is related to Mercado credit solution. So we saw that the credit portfolio and revenues continues to increase steadily. While amidst this environment of higher policy rates, we have been seeing some announcements made by the company, as you mentioned during this call, such as higher prepayment rates for MPS business in Brazil.

所以我的問題與 Mercado 信用解決方案有關。因此，我們看到信貸組合和收入繼續穩步增長。正如您在本次電話會議中提到的，在這種較高的政策利率環境中，我們一直看到該公司發布了一些公告，例如巴西 MPS 業務的更高預付率。

So having said that, my question is related to the level of interest rates that you are charging to consumers today. I would like to understand if you are increasing rates for new originations because of this environment of higher rates as well. Or as we are starting to see better trend in terms of NPLs, we could start to see some interest rate normalization, both for consumers and measurements going forward?

話雖如此，我的問題與您今天向消費者收取的利率水平有關。我想了解您是否也因為這種較高的費率環境而提高了新發起的費率。或者當我們開始看到不良貸款方面的更好趨勢時，我們可以開始看到一些利率正常化，無論是對於消費者還是未來的衡量標準？

Great. So look, if you look at the aggregate numbers, the actual implied APRs in the consumer book in Brazil are down sequentially into the fourth quarter. Now you have to be careful because there are multiple products and multiple segments that we're expanding into. And so you really need to be able to look at this at a more segregated level, which we don't necessarily disclose. But all in all, I think what we're seeing is longer legacy cohorts, better understanding of older cohorts, and also newer products with different risk profile and therefore, lower APRs. So it's not like we've simply adjusted APRs up across the board to reflect the changing macro environment. I think the complexity of the underwriting models and the overall diversity of the books has really been a big part of why we continue to be able to grow the business significantly and have seen an actual improvement in NPLs over the last few quarters.

偉大的。所以看，如果你看一下總數，巴西消費者手冊中的實際隱含 APR 到第四季度連續下降。現在您必須小心，因為我們正在擴展到多種產品和多個細分市場。因此，您確實需要能夠在更加隔離的層面上看待這個問題，我們不一定會透露。但總而言之，我認為我們看到的是更長的傳統隊列，對舊隊列的更好理解，以及具有不同風險特徵的新產品，因此 APR 較低。因此，我們並沒有簡單地全面調整 APR 以反映不斷變化的宏觀環境。我認為承保模式的複雜性和賬簿的整體多樣性確實是我們繼續能夠顯著發展業務並在過去幾個季度看到不良貸款實際改善的重要部分。

Our next question comes from Marvin Fong with BTIG.

我們的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Marvin Fong。

Great. Congratulations on the quarter. Two questions, if I could. Just first, I guess, a high-level question. Just we're seeing several competitors with marketplaces acquire more and more local sellers, Brazil-based sellers in that country. Just wondering if you could comment on your strategy there? What is it about the MercadoLibre marketplace that will keep local sellers allocating their inventory to your fulfillment centers? Is it -- is it a matter of your speed delivery and fulfillment capabilities? Or is there some pricing component? Just your thoughts there would be great.

偉大的。祝賀本季度。兩個問題，如果可以的話。首先，我想，一個高層次的問題。只是我們看到幾個擁有市場的競爭對手在該國收購了越來越多的本地賣家，即巴西的賣家。只是想知道您是否可以在那裡評論您的策略？ MercadoLibre 市場是什麼讓本地賣家將他們的庫存分配到您的履行中心？是不是——這與您的交付速度和履行能力有關嗎？還是有一些定價成分？只是你的想法會很棒。

And then a second question on lending. You mentioned how you're leveraging your proprietary platform. And I'm just curious if you could comment just how the launch of open banking is affecting that? Do you feel like open banking really isn't helping you expand the credit book and you're just going to primarily leverage your own data to make your credit decisions for both consumers and merchants?

然後是關於貸款的第二個問題。您提到瞭如何利用您的專有平台。我很好奇您是否可以評論開放銀行的推出如何影響這一點？您是否覺得開放式銀行業務真的沒有幫助您擴大信用額度，而您只是主要利用自己的數據為消費者和商家做出信用決策？

Great. So first of all, I think we continue to focus primarily on ourselves and what we can offer our merchant base, and even more importantly, our consumer base. Merchants will probably trial and test multiple marketplaces. At the end of the day, the determinant factor is where consumers are buying and why consumers are opting for one platform over the other.

偉大的。所以首先，我認為我們繼續主要關注我們自己以及我們可以為我們的商家群提供什麼，更重要的是，我們的消費者群。商家可能會試用和測試多個市場。歸根結底，決定性因素是消費者在哪裡購買以及消費者選擇一個平台而不是另一個平台的原因。

When we look at the MercadoLibre value proposition for consumers, we are very confident that it is significantly improving from an already solid base. So the combination of widespread selection across a growing number of product categories that allow us to service more and more of the overall needs of households; our best-in-class, probably if you look at it regionally, logistics network that continues to lower cost and increase delivery speeds and amount of inventory delivered within 24 hours; the widest and most available free shipping program where over roughly 80% of volume is free shipping to the consumer; a loyalty program with expanding benefits; a very, very strong value proposition now in terms of content distribution of premium content; subscriptions to the highest level of our loyalty program are growing very nicely, which shows that Latin American consumers, as they see the offering and the loyalty program, are increasingly willing to pay to reach that level 6, even before their behavior on MELI gets them there for free. And then the overlay with all the fintech offerings. So our ability to extend credit in different formats, whether it's the MELI credit card now that gives you longer-duration installments on the marketplace; if it's personal loans; if it's buy now, pay later-type products, is also a strong advantage because the visibility we have to that consumer and the way we can score him more efficiently.

當我們審視 MercadoLibre 對消費者的價值主張時，我們非常有信心它正在從已經堅實的基礎上顯著改善。因此，越來越多的產品類別的廣泛選擇使我們能夠服務於越來越多的家庭整體需求；我們一流的物流網絡，如果您從區域來看，可能會繼續降低成本並提高交付速度和 24 小時內交付的庫存數量；最廣泛和最可用的免費送貨計劃，其中大約 80% 的容量免費送貨給消費者；具有擴展福利的忠誠度計劃；在優質內容的內容分發方面，現在非常非常強大的價值主張；我們忠誠度計劃最高級別的訂閱量增長非常好，這表明拉丁美洲消費者在看到產品和忠誠度計劃時，越來越願意為達到第 6 級而付費，甚至在他們在 MELI 上的行為得到他們之前那裡是免費的。然後覆蓋所有金融科技產品。因此，我們能夠以不同的形式提供信貸，無論是現在的 MELI 信用卡，它都能為您在市場上提供更長期限的分期付款；如果是個人貸款；如果是現在購買，以後支付類型的產品，也是一個強大的優勢，因為我們對該消費者的可見性以及我們可以更有效地為他評分的方式。

So going forward, I think we will continue to focus on these areas of competitive differentiation for our consumers. And we think that if we do that, we will be able to continue to grow the business, sustain our leadership position and continue to offer what we think is a very, very solid value proposition to our users. And again, merchants, above else, they value volume.

因此，展望未來，我認為我們將繼續專注於為我們的消費者提供競爭差異化的這些領域。我們認為，如果我們這樣做，我們將能夠繼續發展業務，保持我們的領導地位，並繼續為我們的用戶提供我們認為非常、非常可靠的價值主張。再一次，商人，最重要的是，他們重視數量。

If you look at pricing, I think we have a solid pricing for merchants that reflects the value we add to them. I think we've never been price followers; we've typically been price leaders. But the quality of the service and the volume that we offer, I think, allows us to charge what we charge without seeing significant churn to other merchants. So at the end of the day -- sorry, to other platforms. Merchants will be multi-platform, we're not seeing churn, and we're seeing a consistently better experience being delivered to our buyers. And we think that, that's what is the most relevant element in the competitive dynamic.

如果你看定價，我認為我們為商家提供了一個可靠的定價，反映了我們為他們增加的價值。我認為我們從來都不是價格追隨者。我們通常是價格領導者。但我認為，服務質量和我們提供的數量使我們能夠收取我們收取的費用，而不會看到其他商家的大量流失。所以在一天結束時——對不起，其他平台。商家將是多平台的，我們沒有看到客戶流失，而且我們看到為我們的買家提供持續更好的體驗。我們認為，這是競爭動態中最相關的元素。

Marvin, with regards to credits, I agree with you. Definitely, open banking is a significant upside. First of all, we believe there is a huge opportunity to expand credit throughout the region, and we are already doing that. And open bank will allow us to get more information from our users and also to initiate payment transactions. Actually, Mercado Pago is among the first institutions that have been issued a payment initiation transaction license, and we are already testing that product with a few users.

馬文，關於學分，我同意你的看法。毫無疑問，開放式銀行業務是一個顯著的優勢。首先，我們認為在整個地區擴大信貸存在巨大的機會，我們已經在這樣做了。開放銀行將使我們能夠從用戶那裡獲得更多信息，並啟動支付交易。實際上，Mercado Pago 是首批獲得支付啟動交易許可證的機構之一，我們已經在與少數用戶一起測試該產品。

Our next question comes from Trevor Young with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Trevor Young。

Two, if I may. First, you saw a nice reacceleration in unique wallet payers and the strongest net adds in quite some time. Can you help us understand what drove that reacceleration? Was it the crypto rollout, or something else? And then second question, on the consumer credit side, could you comment on average loan size and delinquency rates for loans originated within marketplace app versus the Mercado Pago app? Is there any notable difference as you mix shift more originations to the Pago app?

二，如果可以的話。首先，您看到獨特的錢包支付者出現了很好的重新加速，並且在相當長的一段時間內最強勁的網絡增加了。你能幫助我們了解是什麼推動了這種重新加速嗎？是加密貨幣的推出，還是其他什麼？然後是第二個問題，在消費者信貸方面，您能否評論來自市場應用程序與 Mercado Pago 應用程序的貸款的平均貸款規模和拖欠率？當您將更多來源混合到 Pago 應用程序時，是否有任何顯著差異？

Trevor, let me start with the first one regarding unique wallet payers. I think we have seen strong trends in all 3 countries. Particularly in Argentina, we have seen a reacceleration towards the end of last year. But also, we have seen strong numbers coming from both Brazil and Mexico.

Trevor，讓我從第一個關於獨特錢包付款人的內容開始。我認為我們在所有三個國家都看到了強勁的趨勢。特別是在阿根廷，我們在去年底看到了重新加速。而且，我們也看到來自巴西和墨西哥的強勁數據。

Crypto definitely is another net positive, but it's still early. We only launched crypto in mid-December. So there's very little effort in the fourth quarter coming from crypto.

加密絕對是另一個淨積極因素，但還為時過早。我們僅在 12 月中旬推出了加密貨幣。因此，第四季度來自加密貨幣的努力很少。

And with regards to the second question, I'd say that, increasingly, what we are seeing is a shift -- actually, not a shift. But as we rolled out lending in the Mercado Pago app that has been gaining share, and in some countries, it already represents over 50% of the personal loans we give -- of all the consumer loans that we give, so far, we have not seen a very significant profile between one and the other, yellow app loans and blue app loans. Although we do have this concern that you have that they-- are deemed to be a little bit more risky because it's money that the users can withdraw from an ATM or from their bank account and not necessarily buy something we did. However, so far, we have not seen very different numbers.

關於第二個問題，我想說的是，我們越來越多地看到的是轉變——實際上，不是轉變。但是，隨著我們在 Mercado Pago 應用程序中推出貸款，該應用程序的份額越來越大，在一些國家，它已經占我們提供的個人貸款的 50% 以上——在我們提供的所有消費貸款中，到目前為止，我們有在黃色應用貸款和藍色應用貸款之間沒有看到非常顯著的特徵。儘管我們確實擔心您會擔心他們 - 被認為風險更大，因為用戶可以從 ATM 或他們的銀行賬戶中提取資金，而不必購買我們所做的東西。然而，到目前為止，我們還沒有看到非常不同的數字。

I think on the second question, we don't really disclose any data on the differentiating profiles of credit on-marketplace versus off-marketplace. The comments in the prepared remarks, I think, aimed at disclosing how our credit business is not any longer primarily an on-marketplace credit business, but it's actually a credit business that can aspire to the entire TAM away from the MELI marketplace.

我認為關於第二個問題，我們並沒有真正披露任何關於市場上與市場外信貸差異化概況的數據。我認為，準備好的評論中的評論旨在披露我們的信貸業務如何不再主要是市場上的信貸業務，而實際上它是一個可以向整個 TAM 遠離 MELI 市場的信貸業務。

If you look at the size of our credit book and the potential size of the credit book, you'll see it's still a drop in the ocean in what the overall demand for credit is among these consumer segments that we're operating in. So the size of the addressable market is enormous. And I would even venture to argue that it can accommodate for many quality players without affecting the growth of any of them. So this is far from a zero-sum game once we move into the open Mercado Pago app and away from marketplace consumers. And obviously, on the marketplace, we have significant advantages over any other credit offering, whether that be through a credit card. So I think that's what we were trying to disclose, how much of the credit origination already occurs away from marketplace and how that sets us up for significant long-term growth. We don't give any granularity on how those consumer profiles or books defer.

如果您查看我們的信用賬簿的規模和潛在的信用賬簿規模，您會發現在我們經營的這些消費群體中，對信貸的總體需求仍然是滄海一粟。所以潛在市場的規模是巨大的。我什至敢爭辯說，它可以容納許多優質玩家，而不會影響他們中的任何一個人的成長。因此，一旦我們進入開放的 Mercado Pago 應用程序並遠離市場消費者，這遠非零和遊戲。顯然，在市場上，無論是通過信用卡，我們都比任何其他信貸產品具有顯著優勢。因此，我認為這就是我們試圖披露的內容，有多少信貸來源已經發生在遠離市場的地方，以及這如何讓我們實現顯著的長期增長。我們沒有詳細說明這些消費者資料或書籍是如何延遲的。

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. Just a couple of ones. So first, Pedro, a large portion of the volume is already on 1-day and 2-day shipping windows. Where do you aim to take these service levels maybe in the next like 12 to 24 months? I mean I'm asking this because shipping and career cost is still delevering gross margins. But curious how we should think about the growth in these expenses?

偉大的。就幾個。所以首先，佩德羅，很大一部分交易量已經在 1 天和 2 天的運輸窗口中。您打算在接下來的 12 到 24 個月內將這些服務水平提高到哪裡？我的意思是我問這個是因為運輸和職業成本仍在降低毛利率。但好奇我們應該如何看待這些費用的增長？

And then another question on the credit business. Clearly, you're integrating these into various products. But how should we kind of think about the sustainability of this in the next few quarters? Do you think whether any external factors like tightening credit maybe for cash advances and some of the other places outside of your platform that's helping it? Or like you said, is this still kind of like in early innings for you?

然後是關於信貸業務的另一個問題。顯然，您正在將這些集成到各種產品中。但在接下來的幾個季度中，我們應該如何看待這種情況的可持續性？您認為是否有任何外部因素（例如收緊信貸）可能是為了現金墊款以及您平台之外的其他一些地方對它有幫助？或者像你說的那樣，這對你來說仍然有點像早期的一局嗎？

Deepak, so let's start with the second question with regards to credit. I think that despite the tightening environment, I think that we are seeing improving NPLs, and we are comfortable we'll continue growing the business. What we have been doing is increasing the part of the portfolio, which is securitized or funded by third parties at the beginning of last year, that was roughly 25%. And by the end of the year, it was more like 45%. So our share of the portfolio is diminishing, but we are comfortable that we can continue growing all of the credit products.

迪帕克，讓我們從關於信用的第二個問題開始。我認為，儘管環境趨緊，但我認為我們看到不良貸款有所改善，我們很高興我們將繼續發展業務。我們一直在做的是增加去年年初由第三方證券化或資助的投資組合的一部分，大約是 25%。到年底，這一比例接近 45%。因此，我們在投資組合中的份額正在減少，但我們對可以繼續增長所有信貸產品感到滿意。

So Deepak, a couple of things. If you look at annualized gross profit evolution, so first point here is, yes, you do see compression. But when we actually look at the shipping piece, we see some interesting improvements in margin structure despite the significant improvements you mentioned in terms of percentage of total shipments delivered same day and next day. So we're at nearly 30% same day, another 31% next day, which is really very, very solid execution on the network, and that's for the entire region. Individual markets are even stronger than that. And shipping costs, when we compare to Q4 of last year, actually scaled positively. A lot of the gross margin pressure you see is coming more from the scale-up and the build-out of the 1P business and a few other line items.

所以迪帕克，有幾件事。如果您查看年化毛利潤的演變，那麼這裡的第一點是，是的，您確實看到了壓縮。但是，當我們實際查看運輸部分時，我們看到利潤率結構有一些有趣的改進，儘管您提到的當天和次日交付的總出貨量百分比有顯著改善。因此，我們當天接近 30%，第二天又達到 31%，這在網絡上的執行非常非常可靠，這是針對整個地區的。個別市場甚至比這更強大。與去年第四季度相比，運輸成本實際上呈正增長。您看到的許多毛利率壓力更多來自擴大規模和擴大 1P 業務以及其他一些項目。

So very encouraged with shipping. I think we continue to look to follow that same pattern. How can we continue to drive faster shipping? We're seeing some really, really interesting results from our crowd-sourced shipping solutions that we've launched in Brazil and Mexico recently. So I wouldn't attribute the gross margin pressure entirely to the evolution of shipping, that actually, if we look at Q4 of last year to Q4 of this year, scaled despite the improvements in delivery times.

所以非常鼓勵運輸。我認為我們繼續尋求遵循同樣的模式。我們如何才能繼續推動更快的運輸？我們最近在巴西和墨西哥推出了眾包運輸解決方案，我們看到了一些非常非常有趣的結果。因此，我不會將毛利率壓力完全歸因於航運的發展，實際上，如果我們看一下去年第四季度到今年第四季度，儘管交貨時間有所改善，但仍會擴大規模。

Our next question comes from Richard Cathcart with Bradesco.

我們的下一個問題來自 Richard Cathcart 和 Bradesco。

So just a question here on direct costs in Brazil. If we look at kind of quarter-on-quarter was a pretty large increase in direct costs in Brazil. So perhaps you could just give us a little bit of information about what was exactly driving that and whether it was more on the COGS or in the SG&A or a combination of the 2?

所以這裡只是一個關於巴西直接成本的問題。如果我們看一下，巴西的直接成本環比增長相當大。所以也許你可以給我們一些關於究竟是什麼推動了這一點的信息，以及更多的是關於 COGS 還是 SG&A 或兩者的組合？

Yes. So Brazil has, I think, I've mentioned some of them in the previous question, but just to give you greater detail. If you look at the evolution of the Brazilian P&L, first of all, if you just look at cost, you will see an increase in the provisions for bad debt from the credit book. Now remember that, that's more than offset by credit revenues. So in terms of net contribution at the EBIT level and net income level, the credit books are positive, but they do generate significant increase in sales and marketing year-on-year because of how much the credit books have grown.

是的。因此，我認為，巴西已經在上一個問題中提到了其中一些，但只是為了給你更多細節。如果你看一下巴西損益表的演變，首先，如果你只看成本，你會看到信用簿中的壞賬準備金有所增加。現在請記住，這不僅僅是被信貸收入所抵消。因此，就 EBIT 水平和淨收入水平的淨貢獻而言，貸記賬簿是正數，但由於貸記賬簿的增長幅度，它們確實使銷售和營銷同比顯著增長。

Second factor there is the first-party business. That has grown a lot versus prior year. But even sequentially, when you get into Q4, typically, we lean into the 1P business more aggressively during the holiday season, and that business is still subscale, and therefore, drives a lot of margin compression.

第二個因素是第一方業務。與去年相比，這一數字增長了很多。但即使是連續的，當你進入第四季度時，通常我們會在假期期間更積極地傾向於 1P 業務，而該業務仍然是次規模的，因此會導致大量的利潤率壓縮。

And then the third area that we continue to invest aggressively in and also generates some of the compression is the Q4 promotional season. So just if you compare it to Q3, there's clearly incremental marketing spend during Q4. That makes for the fourth quarter a seasonally weaker quarter than the prior 3. And those 3 items explain most of the sequential compression in margins at a Brazil level, but also at an aggregate level.

然後我們繼續大力投資並產生一些壓力的第三個領域是第四季度促銷季。因此，如果將其與第三季度進行比較，第四季度的營銷支出顯然會增加。這使得第四季度的季節性弱於前三個季度。這三個項目解釋了巴西利潤率的大部分連續壓縮，但也解釋了總體水平。

Our next question comes from Stephen Ju with Crédit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Stephen Ju。

Okay. So Pedro, I think in your prepared remarks, you talked about units per buyer continuing to improve year-over-year. And maybe this is cutting things a little bit too fine, but can you talk about the behavior of your newly onboarded users versus existing users? And where you are getting most of this bump in transaction velocity from?

好的。所以佩德羅，我認為在你準備好的評論中，你談到了每個買家的單位數量繼續同比增長。也許這有點太精細了，但是你能談談新加入的用戶與現有用戶的行為嗎？您從哪裡獲得大部分交易速度的提升？

And secondarily, now that Envios is handling the vast majority of shipped units, the optimist in me wants to start thinking about what you might do to combine deliveries over time to take down the shipping costs even further. So you saw this with other global operators. You used to ship one order per box. And over time, you start to get multiple orders in the same box. So how far away do you think you are in terms of getting such a move implemented? Do you need greater order density to get that done?

其次，既然 Envios 正在處理絕大多數已發貨的產品，我內心的樂觀主義者想開始考慮您可能會做些什麼來隨著時間的推移結合交付以進一步降低運輸成本。所以你在其他全球運營商那裡看到了這一點。您曾經每箱運送一份訂單。隨著時間的推移，您開始在同一個盒子裡收到多個訂單。那麼，您認為在實施這樣的舉措方面還有多遠？您是否需要更大的訂單密度才能完成這項工作？

Thanks, Steve. Great question. So look, we don't share cohort analysis. We did -- we do show, and you can back into the math, right, the buyer frequency for the first time ever in the fourth quarter of '21 surpassed 7 purchases per buyer in the quarter. That's up from almost a whole 1 unit less per buyer per quarter a year ago. So even within 2 pandemic-influenced years, I would say this one less so because reopenings are much more widespread. And the successful items per buyer are up quite nicely versus fourth quarter of last year. Implicit in that is that there isn't any material change in cohort behavior that's worth disclosing.

謝謝，史蒂夫。好問題。所以看，我們不分享隊列分析。我們做到了——我們確實展示了，你可以回到數學上，對，21 年第四季度的買家頻率首次超過該季度每位買家的 7 次購買。這比一年前每個買家每季度少了幾乎整整 1 個單位。因此，即使在受大流行影響的 2 年內，我也會少說這一年，因為重新開放的範圍要廣泛得多。與去年第四季度相比，每位買家的成功商品數量都有相當大的增長。其中隱含的是，隊列行為沒有任何值得披露的重大變化。

Second piece on Envios, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I think your readout is accurate. We are now very focused on interface and products that will help us drive larger baskets. That comes with tweaks to the interface, probably with certain monetization incentives for users to place more items into a basket. And it also requires that we get very good at where we route inventory from given the growing number of warehouses that we have that split inventory. But that will be a significant focus during this year. And hopefully, we can see results in terms of greater items per order.

關於 Envios 的第二篇文章，我不想超越自己，但我認為你的讀數是準確的。我們現在非常專注於幫助我們推動更大籃子的界面和產品。這伴隨著對界面的調整，可能有一定的貨幣化激勵措施，讓用戶將更多物品放入購物籃。鑑於我們擁有拆分庫存的倉庫數量不斷增加，它還要求我們非常擅長從哪里分配庫存。但這將是今年的一個重點。希望我們可以看到每個訂單更多商品的結果。

Our next question comes from Ed Yruma with KeyBanc.

我們的下一個問題來自 KeyBanc 的 Ed Yruma。

Just 2 quick ones for me. I guess, first on the NPLs. Obviously, some nice improvement quarter-on-quarter there. But bad debt expense is still higher. I guess, do those overtime converge, i.e., bad debt expense comes down as NPL comes down? Was there some kind of expensing that allowed you to pull the NPLs down?

對我來說只有 2 個快速的。我想，首先是 NPL。顯然，那裡有一些不錯的季度環比改進。但壞賬費用仍然較高。我想，這些加班是否會收斂，即壞賬費用會隨著不良貸款的下降而下降？是否有某種費用可以讓您減少不良貸款？

And then as a follow-up, just Pedro, on your prepared comments, you talked about kind of earnings, modest earnings growth. Are you talking about margin or earnings dollars? Hello?

然後作為跟進，佩德羅，在你準備好的評論中，你談到了收益，適度的收益增長。你說的是保證金還是收益美元？你好？

Yes. No, we're here. Sorry, we were just caucusing on your first question. So I'll tackle the second one first. Yes. So look, at the end of the day -- first of all, certainly, we would like to manage the financial model for incremental EBIT power in dollars and earnings per share. To accomplish that, I think it would be ideal if we can drive enough operational leverage in the financial model, so that, that also means modest margin gains.

是的。不，我們在這裡。抱歉，我們只是在討論你的第一個問題。所以我會先解決第二個問題。是的。所以看，歸根結底——首先，當然，我們希望管理財務模型，以美元和每股收益增加息稅前利潤。為了實現這一目標，我認為如果我們能夠在財務模型中推動足夠的運營槓桿，那將是理想的，這也意味著適度的利潤增長。

Now we're operating across multiple product lines with significant and different competitors across many of these in many different regions. And because we don't give specific guidance, I want to be cautious. What we're saying here is there's a strong commitment on our part to increase our earnings capacity given the size and scale of our business. We believe that there are continuous operational efficiencies that if we focus on, we can deliver that growing earnings power.

現在，我們在多個不同地區的眾多產品線中與重要且不同的競爭對手開展業務。而且因為我們沒有給出具體的指導，所以我要謹慎。我們在這裡要說的是，鑑於我們業務的規模和規模，我們堅定地承諾提高我們的盈利能力。我們相信，如果我們專注於持續的運營效率，我們可以提供不斷增長的盈利能力。

If that also means margin increases consistently over a multiyear period, excellent. But the first order of priority is to secure that we're increasing our earning power, whether that comes through margin increases or potentially flat or down margin. But given the scale of our top line, that still means incremental EBIT dollars and net income dollars, then I think that still accomplishes the overarching goal that we're shooting for.

如果這也意味著利潤率在多年期間持續增長，那就太好了。但首要任務是確保我們正在增加我們的盈利能力，無論是通過利潤率增加還是潛在的持平或下降利潤率來實現。但考慮到我們收入的規模，這仍然意味著增加的 EBIT 美元和淨收入美元，那麼我認為這仍然可以實現我們所追求的總體目標。

With regards to NPLs and bad debt provisions, let's start with NPLs. The numbers are still high at 24%. But you have to bear in mind that the duration of our loans is pretty short, typically consumer loans having a duration of 3 months. So the denominator, the portfolio we have is rather short. However, the bad debt stays there for a year.

關於不良貸款和壞賬準備，讓我們從不良貸款開始。這個數字仍然很高，為 24%。但是您必須記住，我們的貸款期限很短，通常是為期 3 個月的消費貸款。所以分母，我們擁有的投資組合相當短。但是，壞賬會在那裡停留一年。

Now when it comes to bad debt provision, I think it's mostly related to the credit card business, which have been growing very fast. Since we only started that business 6 months ago, we don't still have enough track record and are being cautious in the provision of potential bad debt.

現在說到壞賬準備，我認為主要與信用卡業務有關，信用卡業務增長非常快。由於我們在 6 個月前才開始這項業務，因此我們仍然沒有足夠的業績記錄，並且在提供潛在壞賬方面持謹慎態度。

Got it. So just I'm clear, there wasn't any change in how you classify nonperforming? Because I think you changed it a couple of quarters ago. So that treatment is still the same as how you had previously treated it?

知道了。所以我很清楚，您對不良行為的分類方式沒有任何變化？因為我認為你在幾個季度前改變了它。所以那個治療還是和你之前治療的一樣嗎？

Right. So we've only changed it once, and we haven't changed that again.

正確的。所以我們只改變了一次，我們再也沒有改變過。

And this concludes the Q&A portion of today's call. I'd like to turn the call back over to our host for any closing remarks.

今天電話會議的問答部分到此結束。我想將電話轉回給我們的主持人，以獲取任何結束語。

Great. Thanks, everyone. A lot of great questions. We apologize we weren't able to get to everyone, but we'll make sure to cycle back. And we look forward to being able to speak again in a few months and report the beginning of the year that we are very enthused about and where a lot is going on at MELI. So we will speak again in 3 months. Thank you.

偉大的。感謝大家。很多很棒的問題。很抱歉，我們無法聯繫到所有人，但我們會確保返回。我們期待能夠在幾個月後再次發言，並報告我們非常熱衷的年初以及 MELI 正在發生的很多事情。因此，我們將在 3 個月後再次發言。謝謝你。

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.

女士們，先生們，今天的演講到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接，度過美好的一天。