A classified app that handles payment and delivery has become the new threat to publishers in a hot marketplace.
AIM Group's Classified Intelligence Report says that Japanese-owned Mercari has moved to third place in the US mobile classified market in two years and unlike others, is funding its own growth.
Analyst Brian Blum says Mercari plans a strong single-channel mobile offering in the US and is already looking at the UK market. Its focus is on small inexpensive items which can be mailed to purchasers. Included is "a lot of women's fashion", accounting for 60 per cent of the site, according to US chief executive Ryo Ishizuka.
Founded by Ishizuka with Shintaro Yamada and Tommy Tomishima, Mercari targets eBay with what it says is a better user experience.
Mercari is the top classified app in Japan, and profits from this are funding plans to create a global marketplace. At a TechCrunch event in Tokyo last month, Yamada described the US as its "jumping off point for taking on the rest of the world".
Blum says international success will also depend on Mercari's understanding of its US users, comparing Japan's low-crime environment with the US, where Mercari suffers ten times more fraud. Japanese buyers also rarely return items.
The UK is likely to be "the next destination in the race for global reach", Blum adds.
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