CEO Message

Before founding Mercari, I took a trip around the world and felt that due to our planet’s limited resources, it would be difficult to create a world where people in developing countries could enjoy the same standard of living as those in developed nations. But when I returned to Japan and saw the rapid growth in popularity of smartphones, I started to wonder if technology could play a role in circulating the planet’s limited resources. By leveraging technology, could we help people all over the world thrive and expand what is possible? That simple concept led me and the other founding members to a small corner of a shared office, where Mercari was born.

Mercari has come a long way since then. On our first day, the Mercari marketplace app was downloaded by just a few hundred people. Now, I am proud to say that our marketplace app is used by more than 25 million people across Japan and the US every month. We’ve created a seamless way for people to buy and sell items no longer being used, so those items can find a new home with someone else and be useful once again. In addition to Mercari’s marketplace business in Japan and the US, we’ve taken on many new challenges in line with our value of “Go Bold” such as the mobile payment service Merpay, the B2C marketplace Mercari Shops, the cryptoasset trading service Mercoin, various overseas investments, and more.

In February 2023, our tenth anniversary, we announced a new Group mission: “Circulate all forms of value to unleash the potential in all people.” I have always believed that people’s potential is infinite. The combining of diverse abilities and perspectives can bring forth great and enormous differences to your life. If each person born were able to unleash the diverse potential inside of themselves, everyone would be able to live a life worth living.

The mission that Mercari has chosen to undertake is truly tremendous. To achieve this mission, we must first make Mercari into a service used by people worldwide. There’s a mountain of work ahead of us, but it’s not impossible. Many companies have done the same before us, taking on the world stage and growing into a global company. This endeavor naturally entails countless difficulties and many failures. However, I believe that each of these difficulties and failures will make us stronger and help the company grow.

Our goal is to create a world in which anyone, regardless of their background, can realize their dreams, contribute to society and their communities, and thrive. Join us as we Go Bold without fear of failure to achieve Mercari Group’s mission: Circulate all forms of value to unleash the potential in all people.

Shintaro Yamada
Representative Executive Officer and CEO
Mercari, Inc.