In this series of articles, we are focusing on the Japanese startups that recently got in the spotlight, discussing their concepts, goals and activities. Today’s company is Mercari.
Mercari
Overview
The Mercari Group is a Japan-based company in charge of Mercari, the country's largest C2C marketplace app, and Merpay, a smartphone-based payment service.
Mission
Create value in a global marketplace where anyone can buy & sell.
“I want to make society more affluent by ensuring that limited resources are circulated.” This is what founder Shintaro Yamada realized while traveling the world, and what led him to create the C2C marketplace known as Mercari. Thanks to technology, individuals around the world can now easily connect to buy and sell from each other. Through Mercari, we aim to establish a society where resources are circulated and where people can accomplish their goals without limitations.
Values
1. Go Bold
In order to create innovation with a big impact on the world, everyone takes on bold challenges and learns from many failures.
2. All for One
With the whole team working together and all members working to their highest potential, the team can achieve large missions that one person alone cannot.
3. Be a Pro
All members take ownership of their work as professionals in their field, learn every day, and commit to showing results.
Products
The Mercari Group operates 3 services: Mercari, Merpay and Mercoin.
1. Mercari (Japan)
The Mercari app is a C2C marketplace where anyone can buy and sell. By providing unique payment and deposit systems along with AI-based fraud monitoring, we have created a platform allowing for safe and secure transactions.
Service URL: https://www.mercari.com/jp/
Mercari (US)
The Mercari C2C marketplace app is also available in the US. With a mission to make selling easier than buying, Mercari US aims to provide a service where people can easily sell almost anything online.
Service URL: https://www.mercari.com/
2. Merpay
Merpay is a mobile payment service that is integrated within the Mercari app. Users can shop at countless places online and offline using their sales earnings or by charging money from their bank accounts.
Service URL: https://www.merpay.com/
3. Mercoin
Mercoin aims to develop services related to crypto assets and blockchain technologies.
Service URL: https://www.mercoin.jp/
Market Cap
918.141B (JPY) / Bloomberg Markets (as of 07/08/2021)
Investors (Former)
Japan: United, East Ventures, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, GMO VenturePartners, Globis Capital Partners, Global Brain, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Mitsui & Co., Development Bank of Japan
US: World Innovation Lab
(Source: Pitchbook)
Top Message (from Mercari Founder & CEO Shintaro Yamada)
Don’t be afraid of failure - Go Bold.
“Create value in a global marketplace where anyone can buy & sell” In order to achieve this mission, Mercari is continually taking on the world. Since our founding in 2013, Mercari has reached 1,800 employees, with employees from more than 40 countries and regions working in our offices in Japan and the US.
As much as Mercari has grown and changed over the years, there is one thing that hasn’t changed: our constant state of chaos. As our business and organization expands rapidly, we’ve encountered countless challenges no one’s ever dealt with before. But despite this, we enjoy the endless chaos, and take on bold challenges without fear of failure—and by doing so, Mercari moves one step at a time closer to achieving our mission.
Mercari is still a startup. In order to develop Mercari into a service used by people around the world, we need to grow and become a global tech company, where employees from all different countries, languages, and cultures can learn from each other. As many Japanese companies have succeeded on a global scale before us, this is not an impossible goal. We know we’ll face countless difficulties and failures as we get there, but we believe that it will only make us stronger and help us grow.
Do Mercari’s mission and values resonate with you? If you want to take on the world, join us in creating a Japan-based global tech company.
Don’t be afraid of failure—Go Bold.
Web URL
Mercari (Corporate Website)
Mercan (Blog)
https://mercan.mercari.com/en/
