Mercari HD (Mercari, Inc.)

Wiki route

This entry sits under payment-firms INDEX. Read it against Monex Group for peer / contrast context and banking index for the broader system / regulatory boundary.

TL;DR

One of Japan’s largest C2C flea-market app + payments + crypto-asset vertically integrated ecosystems. Founded 2013-02-01 by Shintaro Yamada; TSE Mothers IPO 2018-06-19 (moved to PRIME in 2022 ; TSE PRIME 4385). The 4 axes of Mercari (flea market) + Merpay (payments / deferred payment) + Mercoin (Bitcoin) + Mercard (JCB partnership). Domestic MAU 2,304 万 (FY2025.6 4Q), Marketplace GMV 1.12 兆円 (FY2025.6 full year), Mercard issuance over 300 万, Mercoin accounts over 200 万. In FY2025.6 full year, revenue 1,926 億円 (YoY +3%), net income 261 億円 (YoY +94%, 3 consecutive periods of record profit), and the US business achieved its first full-year profitability (US GMV 728 百万 USD ≒ 1,091 億円). It holds no bank license (a funds-transfer operator). Unlike megabank-affiliated mufg / smfg, its feature is becoming a “marketplace-origin” financial platform.

1. Company overview

Legal name: 株式会社メルカリ (English: Mercari, Inc.) Securities code: TSE PRIME 4385 (2018-06-19 Mothers listing → 2022-04 moved to PRIME) Established: 2013-02-01 (former name: 株式会社コウゾウ → renamed Mercari in 2013-11 ) Head office: Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Roppongi 6-10-1 , Minato-ku, Tokyo Founder / representative: Shintaro Yamada (Representative Director & CEO, former founder of Unoh) Business type: C2C marketplace + payments + deferred payment + credit card + crypto assets + spot work

Note: Mercari holds no bank license; it is an e-commerce-origin group that develops financial businesses through Merpay (a funds-transfer operator) and Mercoin (a crypto-asset exchange operator). Its classification treatment within this wiki/JapanFG (whether or not to treat it as an “EC / Bank integrated” vertical-integration example) is an editorial judgment, so refer to .opinions/JapanFG/mercari-hd.md.

Main subsidiaries / new businesses

Mercari, Inc. (holding function + flea-market operation; listed 4385)
  ├── Merpay, Inc. (100%, established 2017-11 ) ── payments / deferred payment / code payment
  │     ├── Merpay Smart Payment (started 2020-04 ) ── deferred payment / credit
  │     └── Mercard (issued 2022-11 , JCB partnership) ── plastic / virtual
  ├── Mercoin, Inc. (100%, established 2021-04 ) ── crypto-asset exchange business
  │     └── Bitcoin trading service (started 2023-03 )
  ├── Mercari Hallo (started 2024-03 , new business) ── spot work / gig
  ├── Mercari, Inc. (US) (US entity) ── US flea market (FY2025.6  full-year profitability)
  ├── Souzoh, Inc. (former subsidiary, dissolved) ── new-business lab history
  └── Kashima Antlers FC (acquired management control 2019-08 ) ── sports business

Key chronology

2. Business segment map

Characteristics of service linkage

• Mercari sales proceeds → Merpay balance → Mercoin purchase / Mercard payment: vertical integration in which e-commerce, payments, crypto assets, and credit are completed within a single wallet (the regulatory executing entity for payments / deferred payment is the funds-transfer operator Merpay)
• Merpay Smart Payment: a credit model utilizing a “pseudo income proof” via Mercari sales proceeds
• Mercard: a JCB brand, but screening / credit use Merpay’s own criteria
• Fintech receivables balance: about 2,000 億円 in scale (as of the FY2025.6 4Q presentation materials) ── accumulation of credit from deferred payment + Mercard

Vertical-integration strategy

• Marketplace + payments + credit + crypto assets: becoming a financial platform completed within a single app
• Mercoin: unlike Rakuten Wallet / SBI VC Trade / bitFlyer, etc., its strength is the “flea-market sales proceeds → crypto assets” funnel
• Mercard: with the JCB partnership, supporting both physical and virtual, able to instantly allocate Mercari sales proceeds

Overseas strategy

• **The US business (Mercari US) turned profitable for the first time on a full-year basis in FY2025.6 **: GMV 728 百万 USD, segment profit 737 百万円
• Shifting to a phase aiming to entrench profitability in parallel with restructuring / cost-reduction measures
• Avoiding direct competition with global e-commerce (Amazon / eBay), shifting to domestic deepening + maintaining US profitability

Bank license (current status)

• Current status: does not hold its own bank; Merpay operates as a funds-transfer operator (Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau 第 00058 号) + a prepaid-payment-instrument issuer
• Scenarios for future bank-license acquisition and strategic observations on BaaS partnership vs. in-house acquisition are separated into .opinions/JapanFG/mercari-hd.md (not finalized in public materials)

Competitive landscape

4. Regulation / policy

• Competent authorities:
  • Mercari proper: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Act on Specified Commercial Transactions)
  • Merpay: funds-transfer operator (Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau 第 00058 号, Payment Services Act) + prepaid-payment-instrument issuer
  • Mercoin: crypto-asset exchange operator (Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau 第 00029 号, Payment Services Act)
• JVCEA (Japan Virtual and Crypto assets Exchange Association) membership: Mercoin is a regular member
• JADA (Japan Payment Service Association) membership: Merpay
• Recent policy issues:
  • 2023〜 development of crypto-asset staking regulation → watching the impact on Mercoin
  • 2024〜 BNPL (deferred-payment) regulatory debate → impact on Merpay Smart Payment
  • Act on the Protection of Personal Information / Secondhand Articles Dealer Act → listing management of Mercari proper

Management figures (public materials, FY2025.6 full year)

MAU quarterly trend (FY2025.6): Q1 2,251 万 → Q2 2,279 万 → Q3 2,291 万 → Q4 2,304 万. Having emerged from the growth-slowdown phase of the first half of FY2024 , from Q3 onward it returned to a gradual upward trend.

Related

• paypay-fg · rakuten-fg · au-fh · sbi-hd
• mufg · smfg · mizuho-fg · ndfg
• mercari-bank-license-stack · minna-bank-baas-model

Sources

• Wikipedia: 株式会社メルカリ (https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/メルカリ, extracted 2026-05-19)
• Mercari official IR site (https://about.mercari.com/ir/, extracted 2026-05-19)
• FY2025.6 full-year financial summary [IFRS] (consolidated), disclosed 2025-08-05 (via pdf.irpocket.com/C4385/bffO/gPP8/tY1k.pdf)
• FY2025.6 4Q earnings presentation materials, disclosed 2025-08-05 (disclosing that Mercard membership surpassed 500 万. Via nikkei.com/nkd/disclosure/tdnr/20250804529612/ / original https://finance-frontend-pc-dist.west.edge.storage-yahoo.jp/disclosure/20250805/20250804529612.pdf)
• Merpay official service overview (https://www.merpay.com/, extracted 2026-05-19)
• Mercoin official service overview (https://www.mercoin.com/, extracted 2026-05-19)
• Mercard issuance-count press (jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/89238 and other 2024-03 reporting, surpassing 300 万)
• MAU quarterly trend (trail-numbers.jp/mercari-mau/ aggregation, based on IR disclosures)
• JVCEA member roster (https://jvcea.or.jp/, confirmed 2026-05-19)
• Kanto Local Finance Bureau crypto-asset exchange operator registration list (confirmed 2026-05-19)

[!info] Verification status confidence: likely (reflecting the v1.1 FY2025.6 full-year results disclosed 2025-08-05, edited 2026-05-19). GMV / MAU / revenue / net income are highly reliable on a full-year-summary basis. The “over 300 万” Mercard / “over 200 万 accounts” Mercoin figures in the body tables are values as of the 2024-03 press release (the 2024-03 surpassing report). Subsequently, the FY2025.6 4Q earnings presentation (2025-08-05) disclosed that Mercard membership surpassed 500 万, so note that the body’s 2024-03 figures are older point-in-time values (the FY2025.6 updated value for the Mercoin number of accounts has not been individually confirmed in public materials). Scenarios for bank-license acquisition, entrenchment of US-business profitability, and Mercoin expansion plans are not finalized in public information (see .opinions).