Japan programmers to travel around the world at the age of 34, after 4 years the company valued at $ 1 billion-programmer, to travel around the world, e-commerce-IT information

Then in 2012, Shintaro Yamada 34 years old still single, career is not smooth. Bored, he left Tokyo, determined to see the world.

He decided the poor tour, spend the least amount of money directly to local families. Only for $ 5 a night, rooms did not even provide hot water. He was by way of a lift and transfer to bus travel. In 6 months time, he went through 23 countries, had been to Bolivia, the world′s largest salt plant, local herdsmen had been lived in the Sahara tent, in Ecuador on the islands of catching turtles, have been to India at a Buddhist.

Shintaro Yamada walked more, experience more, the more eager to do something to people in different countries around the world. He noted that even the poorest people in the world are using smart phones, even if they lack substance can be as developed as mobile Internet users to browse for information. Shintaro Yamada thought, why not create a platform to connect people all around the world, allows users from different national backgrounds to free trade. Mercari was born. This is an e-commerce site, set individual buyers and sellers all over the world, currently valued at more than 1 billion dollars.

"My experience broadened my horizon, I am hoping to do something of value to the world," Yamada told reporters. Yamada is now 38 years old, likes to wear a Red Sweater, his company is located in the downtown area of Tokyo. "So I consider to be a platform, allows users with mobile cash, goods, or services. "Yamada in 2013, combined with two other partners, founded Mercari language education attempts had been done before, but prior to the project did not go smoothly, until Mercari this project better.

Shintaro Yamada interview

This month, Mercari successfully raised $ 74 million, valued at $ 1 billion. Company headquarters is located in central Tokyo, there are Google and Goldman Sachs. $ 1 billion valuation is not only a milestone in Mercari, to the Japan Special. Japan is the world′s third-largest economy, and prior to that no one valued at more than $ 1 billion in local Internet companies. Level 155 Unicorns are there in the world of non-listed companies, including 92 in the United States, 25 of them in China, and 7 in India. Japan has been criticized because of capital less active and culturally conservative, Japanese don′t like to take risks, most commonly the most sensible option is to go to a bigger company and then for life.

Yamada believe there is no so pessimistic on the surface, many of Japan′s listed long before technology company valued at $ 1 billion. Because Japan for small growth companies, regulatory threshold is very loose, the Tokyo Stock Exchange listing requirements are just US $ 10 million in total, have no desire for revenue. This condition is even lower than the NASDAQ′s listing requirements. Of course, he shared the view that Japan needs more entrepreneurial role models, Apple founder Steve jobs, and Facebook (Facebook), founder Mark Zuckerberg (Zuckerberg). "Too few people who dare to try," Yamada said, "perhaps after I, there will be more people believe that apart from the lifetime consumption in large companies there are other ways to be successful. 」

Yamada has long been accustomed to off the beaten path. He graduated from Japan′s Waseda University math major, Waseda University in Japan is renowned all over the world, he can go to the Bank or the world′s top consulting firms, but he didn′t, but during college intern for a company called Rakuten, a small e-commerce Web sites. He saw the company as a small workshop, the founder of small business step by step to create an adult e-commerce giant of the $ 14 billion in sales.

Yamada graduated in 2001 did not remain in the company, but direct business. He started a game development company called Unoh, a company that has build several explosive game, until 2010, the acquisition by Zynga. He had helped the San Francisco company localization App, stood up for 18 months, but Yamada on tired, he wanted to do something more global business. So it only took 6 months to travel around the world, returned and Waseda Alumni Tommy Tomishima, and Ryo founded Mercari Ishizuka.

Main mobile end application

Mercari′s advantage lies in its experiences specifically optimized for mobile applications, users can easily browse the goods or sold their goods. Clothes, electronics, or is the Games tickets. According to Ymada, this App has been downloaded 32 million times, monthly turnover to 10 billion yen. From Mercari charged trading commissions. "B2C business is already quite saturated right now, but there are some C2C business space," analyst Tomoaki Kawasaki says, "begin layout C2C operations because of the already Mercari, which has been in Japan occupy a distinct advantage. 」

Yamada′s current strategy is to push your business to the United States market, direct competition with Amazon and Ebay. United States version of Mercari launched in September 2014, mobile phone has downloaded more than 7 million times. Get users for greater heart, Mercari have transaction fees drop 10%, and plans more C2C transactions via social media to promote their own products.

For now, Mercari progress fairly smoothly, according to App Annie figures,iOS version of the App in the last month has climbed to download top 10 business class. Yamada said, never in front of what was a tough battle, but won the United States market for a global company, is an essential part of.

"If not us, there will be others in the occupied United States market to Japan to seize our market. Instead of standing still rather than pre-emptive strikes. "Yamada told reporters.

日本程序员34岁时环游世界，4年后公司估值10亿美元 - 程序员,环游世界,电商 - IT资讯

当时还是2012年，34岁的Shintaro Yamada还是单身，事业上也不顺利。百无聊赖的他离开了东京，决心去看看世界。

他决定穷游，花最少的钱，直接住到当地人家里。一晚上只花5美元，房间甚至不提供热水。他通过搭便车和转乘公交的方式到处旅游。在6个月的时间里，他走遍了23个国家，曾经到过玻利维亚世界上最大的盐场，也曾经在撒哈拉住过当地牧民的帐篷，在厄瓜多尔的群岛上抓过乌龟，也曾去过印度瞻仰佛像。

Shintaro Yamada走的越多，见识的越多，就越是渴望能给全世界不同国家的人做点什么。他注意到，即便是全世界最穷的人也在用智能手机，即便他们物质匮乏也可以像发达国家用户那样手机上网浏览各种资讯。于是Shintaro Yamada就想到，为何不创立一个平台把全世界所有的人都联系到一起，让来自不同国家背景的用户可以自由贸易。所以Mercari就诞生了。这是一家电商网站，撮合全世界的个人买家和卖家，目前估值已经超过10亿美元。

「我旅行的经历开阔了我的视野，我期望能做点对全世界都有价值的事，」Yamada告诉记者。Yamada如今已38岁，喜欢穿着一件大红色卫衣，他的公司位于东京繁华地带。「所以我考虑做一个平台，可以允许用户借助手机交换现金、物品或者服务。」Yamada在2013年联合另外两名合伙人创办Mercari之前曾经做过语言教育方面的尝试，但是在此之前的项目并不顺利，直到Mercari这个项目才有所起色。

Shintaro Yamada接受专访

这个月，Mercari成功融资7400万美元，估值达到10亿美元。公司总部坐落于东京市中心，附近有Google和高盛集团。10亿美元估值不仅是Mercari的里程碑，对于整个日本也意义非凡。日本作为世界第三大经济体，在此之前竟然没有一个估值超过10亿美元的本土互联网公司。目前全世界有155个独角兽级的非上市公司，其中有92个在美国，25个在中国，以及7个在印度。日本一直以来都因为资本不够活跃以及文化保守而饱受诟病，日本人不喜欢冒风险，最普遍最明智的选择就是进入一家大公司然后干一辈子。

Yamada认为其实没有表面上这么悲观，许多日本的科技公司在估值达到10亿美元之前早就上市了。因为日本对于小型快速增长的公司，监管门槛很宽松，东京股票交易所的上市条件只是总产达到1千万美元，对于收入都没有要求。这个条件比纳斯达克的挂牌要求还要低。当然，他同样认为日本需要更多的创业模范，比如苹果创始人乔布斯以及脸书（Facebook）创始人扎克伯格（Zuckerberg）。「敢于尝试的人太少了，」Yamada说道，「也许在我之后，会有更多的人相信除了在大公司耗一生还有别的方式获得成功。」

Yamada早已习惯了不走寻常路。他毕业于日本早稻田大学数学专业，早稻田大学无论在日本还是全世界都享有盛誉，他本可以去银行或者顶尖级的咨询公司，但是他没有，而是在大学期间在一家叫Rakuten的电商公司实习，做一款小型电商网站。他亲眼看见这家公司的创始人把一个小作坊一样的小公司一步一步打造成年销售额140亿美元的电商巨头。

Yamada在2001年毕业后没有留在这家公司，而是直接创业。他创办了一家游戏开发公司叫Unoh，这家公司曾打造过好几个爆款游戏，直到2010年被Zynga收购。他曾经帮助旧金山的公司本地化各种App，坚持了18个月，但是之后Yamada就厌倦了，他想做点更加全球化的业务。所以才花了6个月时间环游世界，归来之后和早稻田的校友Tommy Tomishima、Ryo Ishizuka创办了Mercari。

主打手机端应用

Mercari的优势在于其面向移动应用的体验经过专门的优化，用户可以轻松浏览商品或者转手自己的商品。可以是衣服，可以是电子产品，也可以是运动会门票。据Ymada称，这款App被下载了3200万次，月交易额达到100亿日元。Mercari从中收取交易佣金。「现在B2C业务已经相当饱和了，但是C2C业务还有一定的空间，」电商分析师Tomoaki Kawasaki说道，「由于Mercari很早就开始布局C2C业务，其已经在日本占据明显优势。」

Yamada目前的策略是把业务推进到美国市场，与亚马逊和Ebay正面竞争。美国版的Mercari在2014年9月上线，手机端下载次数已经超过700万次。为更大限度获取用户芳心，Mercari已经把交易手续费降了10%，并计划更多地通过社交媒体推广自己的C2C交易产品。

目前来看，Mercari的进展还算顺利，据App Annie数据，iOS版的App在上个月已经爬升到电商类下载排行榜的前10名。Yamada表示，没有想过前方究竟是一场怎样艰难的战役，但赢得美国市场对于一家全球化的公司而言，是必不可少的一部分。

「就算不是我们，也会有别人在占据美国市场后去日本抢占我们的市场。与其坐以待毙，倒不如先发制人。」Yamada告诉记者。