ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the adaptation challenges that companies face – and their critical drivers of success – when establishing operations in the online space in Latin America. In Latin America, the internet is allowing manufacturers and intermediaries to access markets that previously were either difficult or impossible to serve, at least directly and massively, because of institutional voids. The Latin American unicorns all managed to combine the best of both worlds. Among the most salient characteristics of operating in the digital economy are the online transfer of information regardless of physical location and the widespread availability of basic hardware and software at relatively low prices. These conditions open up numerous opportunities for globally minded entrepreneurs with an interest in emerging markets. OLX #8211; short for online exchange – was created in Argentina in 2006 by internet entrepreneurs Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford and initially funded by US venture capital firms, including Bessemer Ventures and General Catalyst Partners.
