It would be no exaggeration if one calls the international e-commerce market a wild jungle – a myriad of creatures of different sizes populate the sector, fighting for survival in a brutal environment. Many are born daily, but only a handful could survive to see the next spring.

China offers the best example of this savagery. It is home to 731 million people with access to Internet, who have grown accustomed to fast online services provided by tech companies. Those that cannot deliver the best services will be devoured or vanish to oblivion.

The three largest predators, known as the BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent), threaten any potential rival with nothing less than total annihilation.

If the Chinese market has reached maturity, some overseas markets may still offer more opportunities. Latin America, where e-commerce is still in its early stages and the number of players is less threatening, is a good option.

The region has 631 million Internet users, according to Internet World Stats, but its e-commerce is well behind advanced economies in many aspects.

The percentage of Internet users grew 10.6 percent on an annual basis between 2010 and 2015, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC). It is expected to grow 18 percent annually in the next years; but only two percent of the world's total retail market is in the region.

As a way to narrow the distance between China and Latin America, the Asian country is pouring money in the region: Chinese development banks have more financing available to the region than the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the Andean Development Corporation together.

Investment and trade have been increasing in the region with China since the recession of 2008. Between 2015 and 2019, China would have 250 billion US dollars invested in Latin America and 500 billion US dollars in trade. In 2016 alone, Chinese venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) accounted for 265 projects, with around 31.7 billion US dollars and five billion US dollars respectively, according to Zero2IPO, a consultant company.

Aimed to grasp the niches in the market, Alibaba signed three memorandums of understanding (MOU) with local governments in the previous years. 

The first one was in 2014 with the Brazilian Postal Services (Correios, in Portuguese) to facilitate the purchase process and logistics from China to Brazil. The second MOU was signed in early 2017 with the Argentine government to try to solve the problems involving the exportation of food and wine from Argentina. The third MOU in September 2017 with the Mexican government aimed at sharing logistics and online payment expertise with local companies.

The adventures in Latin America have been fruitful and helped create the first unicorn in the Brazilian market: early this year, Brazilian ride-hailing app 99 was bought by China's Didi Chuxing for over one billion US dollars. Didi also plans to expand its operation in Mexico, continuing its global hunt against Uber.

Another beast, part of the Chinese tech savvies, is Beluga Global, which helps Chinese companies explore overseas markets. Last year, in an event in Beijing organized by them and China-Brazil Internet Promotion Agency (CBIPA) the CEO of Baidu Brazil, Yan Di said now is the perfect time for Chinese companies to invest in Brazil, as the country's currency is under-evaluated and the economy is recovering from a severe economic crisis.

But these explorations have some challenges: few people in China speak Portuguese or Spanish, making communication between the teams difficult. Markets are smaller and e-commerce practices are in early stages: clients and stores have to be educated in several aspects.

The capital market is another problem as it is not stable and there may be huge losses due to exchange rate fluctuations. But the main problem is the high taxation and costs of e-payments, logistics and customs.

The time seems perfect for the Chinese tech companies to explore Latin America's e-commerce jungle. But it is necessary to keep in mind that there is no El Dorado in the region's sector and those entering it will need patience, knowledge and persistence to carve their place.

(Diego Vinicius Martins is a Brazilian political analyst. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the view of CGTN.)