1. Assuming eBay decides to go into Latin America, lay out a roadmap for eBay's expansion into this region over the next five years. Specifically, what should be the sequence of entries in the six major Latin American countries in Exhibit 6? Use the relevant facts of the case to support your decision. The six major Latin American countries are Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile. Although eBay was the largest online commerce company thanks to the development of a web-based community in 2001, it was not well recognized in the Latin American region. 'Latin America. Language, currency exchange and lack of knowledge of the region are the main challenges eBay faces. In early 2001, eBay purchased iBazar which allowed them to enter a Latin American market: Brazil. However, the acquisition was driven by the European market. Therefore, Latin America was not the main target of this action. But Brazil was a good start. Brazil was already among the world's top twenty e-commerce markets and accounted for more than half of the region's e-commerce activity. According to an IDC study, Internet users in the Latin American region will grow 40 percent per year between 2001 and 2005. Commerce in Latin America was expected to reach a value of $72 billion by 2005 Mexico and Brazil would be the most dominated countries. I would say Mexico is the second market that eBay will enter. However, eBay did not know much about the region, language and culture. Therefore eBay needed a partner before the second step. MercadoLibre.com and deRemate.com are the two main possible options. In 2001, MercadoLibre.com became eBay's exclusive partner for the Latin America region. MercadoLibre was founded in 1999 in Argentina (Argentina would be the third market) and later expanded to Brazil, Mexico and other South American countries. “MercadoLibre will acquire iBazar Com Ltda., the Brazilian subsidiary of iBazar SA, recently acquired by eBay. In exchange eBay will receive a 19.5% stake in MercadoLibre".