December 17, 2008 (Tokyo, Japan)—Acrodea, Inc. (CEO and President: Junya Tsutsumi), headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, and Baidu (Japan), Inc. (President: Toshikazu Inoue), headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, have agreed to an e-commerce website business alliance to distribute Japanese fashion items in the China market. Nutty, Inc. (CEO and President: Koji Mashimo), who is the operator of the top 109-series apparel mail order site “Nutty collection†and headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, will collaborate in the business with the two companies, as a partner providing fashion-related know-how, support, and brand sales.*
In recent years, rapid economic growth in China has led to an increase in the affluent consumer segment and a consequent surge of interest in international fashions, including Japanese fashions, mainly in urban areas. In fact, the market for fashion e-commerce sites is on a rapid growth track, with aggregate 2007 results at RMB 7,520 million, and aggregate 2008 estimates at RMB 17,110 million. E-commerce is steadily establishing itself as a buying channel for new fashions.**
Except for a few major apparel brands, however, Japanese fashion brands have largely been unable to enter the e-commerce channel in China. Differences in language and trading practices are a factor, but numerous facsimile and distinctly similar products to Japanese fashion brands of inferior quality remain in distribution and present the greatest barrier to market entry.
Responding to these circumstances, Acrodea and Baidu plan to open, within China’s largest search portal Baidu.com, a comprehensive site called the “Japanese Fashion Mall†(translation of tentative name), whose concept is to deliver genuine Japanese brands that Japan is proud to offer, from Japan, and to disseminate information from Japan. In addition to the real-time information about Japanese fashions that has been difficult to obtain within China up until now, the website will present fashions available for direct sales to users. Since the site will be opened within China’s largest search engine portal Baidu.com, high visibility and strong customer traffic are expected. Moreover, the EXREGZIO apparel e-commerce site system, developed by Acrodea’s wholly owned subsidiary AMS, Inc. (CEO and President: Tsukasa Kuroiwa; headquarters in Meguro-ku, Tokyo), has been adopted as the backend system. Consequently, the service can launch right away, although the fashion brands do not need to be procured at the company.
With respect to the inventory to be carried at service launch, Acrodea has already made progress in negotiations with multiple companies. For the first round, “Nutty collection,†which offers 109-series fashions that are highly popular in China as well, “Outlet collection,†which offers fashion items at attractive prices, and other sites operated by Nutty, Inc., will comprise the rollout currently determined. This alliance framework with Nutty is expected to successively broaden.
Among the parties involved, Acrodea has identified this business as a key pillar to AMS’s main business operations of e-commerce sites. Exploiting its own mobile telephone expertise, Acrodea intends to drive development actively and handle technical support that will eventually span mobile commerce, under expectations that China’s 3G mobile telephony will develop rapidly.
Next, through participation in the business, Baidu aims to achieve multi-dimensional support, including information services and advertising sponsorships for Japanese companies entering China.
Moreover, by exploiting its accumulated fashion know-how to maximum extent, Nutty is prepared to engage actively towards the success of the business, and to contribute towards fostering greater cultural ties between Japan and China henceforth through new cultural values and noteworthy fashions originating from Japan.
The three companies intend to actively promote the business through utilization of expertise and technologies mutually held, and to study new business possibilities further.
Notes:
* NTT DoCoMo ranked “Nutty collection†first place for the most number of times in 2008 under the i-Menu shopping category of Fashion/Cosmetics (researched by Nutty).
** 2008 China E-Commerce Fashion Business Development Report [trans.] by China research firm iResearch.
Acrodea, Inc., is a software technology R&D firm involved in middleware technology for mobile terminals. The company is particularly focused on interface technologies connecting between the user and terminal, and currently provides UI (user interface) technologies and email enhancement technologies to the market. We are also applying R&D energy towards the enhancement of graphics performance, which is indispensable in facilitating usage of mobile platform interfaces. Our stance and efforts are a continual commitment to superior products and improving technology, for which we have received recognition worldwide. In addition to Japan and Korea, Acrodea is engaged in business on the global market, including China, Europe, and North America. Listed on the Mothers Market (Code: 3823, TSE), Acrodea is headquartered in Tokyo, and maintains an overseas presence in Seoul, Korea; Helsinki, Finland; and Newport Beach, California, U.S.A. For more information, please visit http://www.acrodea.co.jp.
About Baidu
Baidu provides the search service Baidu.com, which commands the world’s third largest share of the search market. Since launch of services in 2001, Baidu’s goal has been the development of the optimum search engine for the China market. Today, a product and engineering team numbering in excess of 1,500 continues to pursue innovation. Baidu (Japan), Inc., was established in December 2006. In January 2008, the company officially launched its service for Japan, “Baidu.jp” (http://www.baidu.jp).
About Nutty
In the women’s fashion e-commerce market expected to show particularly dramatic growth, Nutty, Inc., is a planner and operator of innovative mobile commerce business operations that closely link up to strong apparel brands, women’s fashion magazines, fashion shows, and events. The company was established in September 2007. Current e-commerce site operations include Nutty collection (http://nutty.sc/, compatible for PC and mobile), S’Cawa*Select, Dress collection, and Street*T2GO.
Marketing Department at Acrodea, Inc.
TEL：+81 3-5768-8603 Email: products@acrodea.co.jp
Corporate Communications at Baidu (Japan), Inc.
TEL：+81 3-6811-2080 Email: pr-jp@baidu.com
China Project Team at Nutty, Inc.
TEL：+81 3-5785-6280 Email: info@nutty.co.jp
