Local Commerce on Social Networks in Mexico and its Regulations

The Internet is a double-edged weapon whose effects depend on the intervention of the Government and its regulations. The e-commerce is not an exception and Mexico is making continuous efforts to make the Internet a safe virtual space for the Mexican consumer who spent 9.2 thousand million dollars via the Internet in 2013. The same applies to traditional commerce where trades are regulated by the Law and in order to exist they need their corresponding license. The Local Governments are to regulate this situation, but, as any Government, they are limited by their territorial jurisdiction. Thus, even though citizens are willing to use social networks as ad spaces for local commerce, not even the City Halls of the largest metropolis in Mexico have inspectors or tools capable of supervising local commerce through social networks, which makes the consumers vulnerable to frauds and affects the formal merchants. Due to the efforts of the Mexican government within the Telecommunications reform, the number of the Internet users will increase, along with the number of social network users, thus resulting in altered Internet habits of the Mexican Society and the evolution of local laws.