BUENOS AIRES, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Marcos Galperin, chief

executive of Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre Inc ( MELI )

- already the region's most valuable listed firm - says

the company is just getting started.

He wants to triple the number of users, expand online

payments, leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and use drones

to reach more shoppers. The company is increasingly pushing

loans to consumers and sellers on its platform, in turn driving

sales.

"We have a lot of room to continue growing in e-commerce,"

Galperin told Reuters at the firm's offices in Buenos Aires,

saying he wanted to boost users from around 100 million now to

300 million, without giving a specific time frame.

"On our FinTech platform, Mercado Pago, we're really just

scratching the surface of all that we can do. I think Mercado

Pago has enormous opportunities ahead."

MercadoLibre ( MELI ), Latin America's answer to Amazon ( AMZN ) or

China's Alibaba ( BABA ), has already become the most valuable

listed company in the region, with a market cap over $100

billion. Its share price is up some 1,600% in ten years and 26%

this year.

Galperin, however, said he was not "losing much sleep" over

the stock price, but focusing on growing the business in the key

markets of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and increasingly Chile. He

wanted to expand organically rather than through acquisitions.

"We don't like buying market share, we like building market

share," he said. MercadoLibre ( MELI ) doubled its profits in the last

quarter from a year earlier, which helped to propel its

valuation past Brazilian state energy producer Petrobras in

August.

ARGENTINA ECONOMY 'TURNING AROUND'

MercadoLibre's ( MELI ) headquarters are in an industrial district of

Buenos Aires only a few blocks from the original garage where

Galperin, now a dotcom billionaire and one of the region's most

influential entrepreneurs, co-founded the company 25 years ago.

The country, however, has struggled through repeat economic

crises, with rampant inflation - now over 250% - periods of

capital controls, sovereign defaults, and regular recessions

weighing down the domestic market.

Galperin, though, said he had renewed optimism, citing

market-oriented policies brought in by new libertarian President

Javier Milei, who last week visited the firm to mark a new $75

million logistics center investment.

"We are optimistic about the economy in Argentina in the

medium term. So that has led us to invest again," he said,

citing a surge in credit and slowing monthly inflation helping

boost consumer sentiment and sales.

"In Q2 we saw growth in terms of transactions and items

sold. So the economy is turning around," he said, though adding

that the recovery would take time.

Analysts have pointed to concerns over credit quality as

fintech unit Mercado Pago has issued more loans and uncertainty

builds over potential interest rate hikes in Brazil.

Non-performing loans in Q2 were down but still at a high 18.5%.

Galperin, however, said he was "very happy" with the way the

firm was managing risk in Brazil and around the region, as it

taps into the millions of unbanked Latin Americans.

"As long as the non-performing loans are under control, and

they have been, I think we're going to be OK."