Letter from the Founder / Shintaro Yamada to Everyone (on IPO of Mercari)

I’m a big fan of Nomo Hideo. I remember clearly that the severe bashing occurred all over in Japan when Nomo announced that he was going to challenge to Major League.However, defying everyone’s expectation, he got to win the Rookie of the Year and strikeout leader. What he always kept in his mind was the very simple thing; “Throw a good ball”. By focusing on what he’s got to do and improving his skills, he was able to accomplish excellent results.

We Mercari are also continuing to challenge to accomplish the mission "Create value in a global marketplace where anyone can buy & sell". "GO BOLD" represents our value. Since foundation, Mercari has been investing in “people” and “technology” and improving the product. We take pride in having accomplished more than normal because we challenge beyond theory, which we are not going to change even after IPO. We are not afraid of failures, because we believe that we are able to keep learning from mistakes. We keep “improving our products” by “Go BOLD” attitude.

Now is the time when we can create value by connecting. Mercari will keep proposing new-consuming style/ecosystem where value circulate among people. In order to do so, we will invest in 3 fields aiming to accomplish long-term growth, not the short-term revenue.

1. Investment in people
   Mercari is willing to invest in people. Many professionals in different fields and great engineers are currently working in Mercari. Upon IPO, Mercari will hire professionals domestic and international more than ever and try to grow more. We aim to keep being the technology company which can create innovation one after another.

2. Investment in technology
   As the competition becomes more severe, it is getting harder for the product to survive when the product can not be differentiated by technology. Mercari will aggressively keep investing in technology(AI, blockchain, VR/AR, quantum computer, IoT) such as improving exbition-rate and sell-rate by machine-learning, automation of customer support, maximization of cross-language transaction by automatic translation.

3. Investment in global market
   International market has more than 10 times as large as domestic market just by looking at auction market. In order to make the world more convenient, we want to be helpful to as many people as possible. We will provide service not only in Japan but globally. Especially succeeding in the US means that our product becomes universal because different kind of race and culture are mingled in the US. We aim to become more easy, convenient and fun “global marketplace” starting in the US.

As Nomo entertained the world by “Throwing a good ball” with putting his heart and soul, We Mercari pursue to create “great product” where everyone can easily enjoy. We will become a great company representing Japan. We will face the social responsibility with sincertity and try to enhance the corporate value in the long term. I would appreciate your continuous support.

Don’t be afraid of failures, GO BOLD