Special 10th anniversary website published focusing on the concept “Unleash,” with a letter from the CEO and a look back at the company’s first 10 years
Mercari, Inc. (“Mercari”) is pleased to announce that today, the 10th anniversary of its founding on February 1, 2013, it has unveiled a new Group mission. To commemorate this, Mercari has published a special website centered on the concept of “Unleash,” taken from its new Group mission. This site contains a letter from the CEO on Mercari’s 10th anniversary, as well as infographics showcasing events of Mercari’s first 10 years.
Group mission
“Circulate all forms of value to unleash the potential in all people”
Special 10th anniversary website
https://about.mercari.com/unleash/
■ About Mercari Group
Mercari was established on February 1, 2013. Following the launch of the marketplace app Mercari in Japan in July 2013, the company decided that success in the US was an essential step to becoming a global marketplace and officially released the US version of Mercari in September 2014. Since then, Mercari has boldly expanded its business offerings, including Merpay, a mobile payment service launched in February 2019, and Mercari Shops, an e-commerce platform launched in October 2021 that allows users to establish their own online shop using just a smartphone.
Currently, the Mercari marketplace has more than 20 million users per month1, more than 3 billion listings to date2, and an annual GMV of 881.6 billion JPY3. The US version of Mercari also continues to show strong growth, with a total of 4.93 million MAU1 and a yearly GMV of more than 1.1 billion USD3. Furthermore, the Merpay mobile payment service is now in the hands of 13.94 million users1 and is embarking on new businesses itself, such as services utilizing blockchain and cryptoassets through Mercoin, Inc.
The company has also had a positive impact on the environment4 through its businesses. After calculating CO2 emissions for clothing categories5, as the category type with the largest number of transactions on the service, Mercari found that users’ transactions of clothing on Mercari JP and Mercari US were able to avoid an estimated 480K tons of CO2 emissions in 2021. Additionally, users prevented approximately 42K tons6 of clothing waste (by weight) by listing items on Mercari instead of throwing them away; this is approximately 8.8% of the total 480K tons7 of clothing thrown away yearly in Japan. This positive impact shows that Mercari’s business growth helps to solve environmental issues and contributes to the creation of a circular economy where the earth’s limited resources are treated with care.
Mercari Group aims to build a globally competitive organization, and has over 2,200 employees, including nationals of more than 50 countries.8 In its first 10 years, the company has taken on various initiatives to achieve its mission, such as strengthening proactive overseas recruiting efforts and establishing a Center of Excellence in India, as well as promoting diversity and inclusion9. It has also established internal policies such as the Merci Box benefits package10 and the new work style policy “Your Choice”11 to create an environment that empowers a diverse workforce.
■ Background behind the new Group mission
To date, Mercari has aimed to become a marketplace that uses the power of technology to enable people around the world to easily connect and enjoy the experience of buying and selling with each other, under its mission of “Create value in a global marketplace where anyone can buy & sell.”
As its business has expanded beyond just the marketplace app in the 10 years since its founding in 2013, Mercari Group has realized that in order to become a more essential part of society, it needs to clearly define what value it should aim to contribute to society. To do so, it launched discussions about creating a new Group mission in the fall of 2021, led by an internal project team. After over a year of deliberations among leadership and multiple opportunities for feedback and ideas from all employees, this new Group mission was born.
The mission of “Create value in a global marketplace where anyone can buy & sell” will remain within Mercari Group as the company mission for the Mercari marketplace app.
■ Mercari’s first 10 years by the numbers
Mercari will continue to take on bold challenges under its new Group mission: “Circulate all forms of value to unleash the potential in all people.”
1. As of FY2023.6 Q1 closing
2. As of November 27, 2022 (Mercari Marketplace App Reaches 3 Billion Cumulative Listings)
3. As of FY2022.6 Q4 closing
4. The amount of contribution to the environment created through Mercari’s business activities
5. Includes secondhand items that had been sold under the Women’s, Men’s, and Kids’ categories for both Mercari JP and Mercari US over the three years from April 2019 to March 2022. Calculations looked only at the clothing categories as a first survey, since clothing makes up the largest volume of transactions on Mercari and the data was readily available. (Supervised by: Moon Dami, Project Researcher at the University of Tokyo’s Value Exchange Engineering Social Research Division) As a long-term project, we plan to continue to research the environmental impact of secondhand item use for each manufacturing category.
Source: FY2022 Sustainability Report
6. Calculated based on the number of items listed in the Women’s, Men’s, and Kids’ categories for both Mercari JP and Mercari US from April 2021 to March 2022. Weight of clothing taken from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s data. (Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry “Survey on Measures to Revitalize the Textile and Clothing Industry”)
7. Source: Ministry of the Environment, “Sustainable Fashion” ( https://www.env.go.jp/policy/sustainable_fashion/ )
8. Number of nationalities held by Mercari employees registered under the Tokyo office as of FY2022.6 Q4 closing
9. See here for more information on D&I-related initiatives at Mercari: https://careers.mercari.com/diversity/
10. See here for more information on Merci Box: https://careers.mercari.com/benefits/
11. Mercari Introduces New Normal Work Style “Your Choice”
Please note that we will not be accepting flowers or other gifts. Thank you for understanding.