Dealing with risk on “Mercado Libre”: The venture labor of Latin American third-party sellers

This article examines how Latin American third-party sellers on Mercado Libre—the region's largest e-commerce platform—internalize and manage risk through practices aligned with Neff's (2012) concept of venture labor. Drawing on 17 in-depth interviews with sellers based in Chile, we explore how individuals navigate economic precarity and algorithmic uncertainty by mobilizing specific strategies and resources. We identify three risk management strategies: financial, creative, and actuarial. The financial strategy frames platform work as an investment for achieving economic independence; the creative strategy emphasizes personal reinvention, branding, and visibility; and the actuarial strategy involves anticipating trends and ensuring long-term business viability. These strategies are shaped by platform-specific conditions. Sellers view Mercado Libre as safer and more legitimate than alternatives like Facebook Marketplace, offering formalized transactions and greater visibility—yet also requiring constant adaptation to opaque algorithms and performance metrics. To support these strategies, sellers draw on a mix of formal and informal resources. These include official training programs, YouTube tutorials, peer learning networks, and relationships with intermediaries. Networking—both online and in person—emerges as a key resource, helping sellers exchange knowledge, gain visibility, and mitigate uncertainty. This article makes three contributions to platform labor research. First, it updates the concept of venture labor by highlighting how algorithmic infrastructures shape risk-taking. Second, it shows how risk is being redefined in post-pandemic Latin America. Third, it situates venture labor in the Global South, emphasizing the cultural and institutional specificities that shape entrepreneurial labor on digital platforms like Mercado Libre.