Mercari

Mercari, Inc. (TYO: 4385) is a Japanese e-commerce company founded in February 2013 and currently operating in Japan and the United States.[1]

Mercari
Traded asTYO: 4385
Founder(s)Shintaro Yamada, Ryo Ishizuka, Tommy Tomishima
IndustryMarketplace, App
URLmercari.com
LaunchedJuly 2013 (2013-07)
Native client(s) oniOS and Android

Their main product, the Mercari marketplace app, was first launched in Japan in July 2013, and has since grown to become Japan's largest community-powered marketplace with over JPY 10 billion in transactions carried out on the platform each month.[2][3] Among those Japanese users utilizing one of the country's many community marketplace apps, 94% were found to be using Mercari.[4] Features such as Mercari Channel (live streaming e-commerce) and the Mercari NOW service, which allows users to instantly receive cash for their items, have contributed to the app's widespread success.[5][6] Mercari expanded to the United States in 2014 and the United Kingdom in 2016.[2][7] The Mercari app has been downloaded over 100 million times worldwide (as of 16 December 2017) and the company is the first in Japan to reach unicorn status.[3][8]

History
Current Japanese logo, former United States logo from July 2013 to March 2018

Kouzoh, Inc. (currently Mercari, Inc.) was founded by Shintaro Yamada, a Japanese serial entrepreneur in February 2013, and the Mercari app was launched for iOS and Android devices in July of that same year.[9][10] Within a year of its release, Mercari had accumulated over one million individual listings on its platform.[11]

Mercari has been through five rounds of funding with investments coming from such institutions as UNITED, Inc., Development Bank of Japan Inc., World Innovation Lab (WiL), Global Brain Corporation, MITSUI & CO., LTD., and GLOBIS Capital Partners & Co.[12] The USD 75 million raised in Mercari's Series D round was set aside by the company for the purpose of further expansion in the US and UK, according to Chief Financial Officer Kei Nagasawa in a March 2016 interview.[2]

In 2014, the company opened an office in San Francisco in preparation for the launch of its app in the United States, which took place in September of that same year.[13][14] In the three years since its initial launch in the US, the Mercari app has been downloaded over 30 million times and has risen as high as number 3 on the US App Store rankings.[15] There are currently around 100 employees located between Mercari's Palo Alto and Portland offices.[16]

It was announced In June 2017 that John Lagerling had joined Mercari from Facebook's management team and would be assuming the title of Chief Business Officer.[16] He has also since been named the US CEO of Mercari, Inc.[17]

In January 2016, Mercari opened their first European office in London.[7] In December 2018, Mercari announced it will dissolve the European branch as a "temporary retreat".[18]

Products and services

Mercari's main product is the Mercari marketplace app, which allows users to buy and sell items quickly from their smartphones. In Japan, the app is known for its ease of use and unique shipping system, which allows users to ship items anonymously from local convenience stores through agreements with Yamato Transport and Japan Post. In the United States, Mercari collaborates with USPS, UPS and FedEx to let users print shipping labels, in addition to allowing sellers to use a separately purchased label for larger items.[2]

Mercari shares its Tokyo offices with its wholly owned subsidiary Souzoh, Inc., which operates several other C2C applications in Japan.[19]

Awards
  • Awarded "Best Shopping App" by Google Play in 2013[20]
  • Awarded "Best App" by Google Play in 2014 and 2015[21][22]
  • Awarded "Best Local App" by Google Play in 2016[23]
  • Awarded "Forbes Japan’s Startup of the Year" in 2014, 2015, and 2016 (inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017)[24][25][26]
  • Awarded "Special Jury Award (Global Expansion)" by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) at the Second Nippon Venture Awards (part of the Prime Minister's Awards) in 2016[27]
  • Awarded the "Emerging Leader Award" at the 2016 Japan-US Innovation Awards Symposium[28][29]
  • Awarded "Best Commercial" for "The Bride" at the LA Film Awards 2017[30]

References
  1. Littler, Julian (4 November 2016). "Amazon's Newest Rival is a Japanese Start-Up You Need to Know About". CNBC. NBCUniversal. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  2. "Marketplace app Mercari nabs $75M to become Japan's first startup unicorn – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  3. "Shopping App Mercari Becomes First Japanese Unicorn". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  4. 和章, 渡部. "最も利用されているフリマアプリは？ 「メルカリ」が利用率94%で他を圧倒 - ネットショップ担当者フォーラム". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  5. Okuma, Nozomi. "メルカリがライブコマースに参入――まずは芸能人やタレントが登場、順次対象ユーザーを拡大予定 - TechCrunch Japan". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  6. Kimura, Takuya. "メルカリが「メルカリNOW」を発表、CASHが先行する即時買い取り市場に参入 - TechCrunch Japan". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  7. "メルカリ、イギリスでサービス提供開始 - TechWave（テックウェーブ） #WAVE". 16 March 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  8. "メルカリ、累計ダウンロード数１億超え". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  9. "Buying and Selling by Smartphone: Mercari App Shakes Up Japan's Consumer Spending". 9 November 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  10. Mercari. "Japan's Mobile Marketplace Giant Mercari Launches in the US". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  11. "After Leaving Zynga, This Founder Ditched the Gaming Business for Online Shopping". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  12. "Mercari - Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  13. Team, OBM. "Oregon Business - News release: Japan's Mercari expands into Portland". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  14. "Japan's Mobile Marketplace Giant Mercari Launches in the US". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  15. "メルカリが米国iOSランキングで3位に、その躍進の理由は - THE BRIDGE（ザ・ブリッジ）". 29 July 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  16. "Mercari hires John Lagerling from Facebook's management team to guide its U.S. strategy – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  17. "Neymar Jr. Official". Neymar Jr. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  18. "Mercari Calls It Quits in Europe as Losses Mount". asia.nikkei.com. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  19. "About". Souzoh.com (in Japanese). 2015. Archived from the original on 2018-03-11. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  20. "Android Apps on Google Play". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  21. "Best Apps of 2014 - Android Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  22. "Best Apps of 2015 - Android Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  23. https://play.google.com/store/info/topic?id=merch_topic_b0000b2_apps_TopicPage_bestof2016&hl=en
  24. "メルカリついに殿堂入り！「日本の起業家ランキング」3年連続トップの秘密". 26 November 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  25. "日本の起業家ランキング｜Forbes JAPAN（フォーブス ジャパン）". Forbes JAPAN（フォーブス ジャパン）. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  26. "日本の起業家ランキング、メルカリ山田社長が3年連続1位に輝き殿堂入り". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  27. "Announcement of the Winners of the Second Nippon Venture Awards（METI）". meti.go.jp. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  28. "2016 Japan-US Innovation Awards Symposium". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  29. "Stanford Features Japan's Most Innovative Startups". techinasia.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  30. "Winners – October 2017". Los Angeles Film Awards. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
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