Strategy – New-business
New Initiatives to Create the Next Stage of Growth
Yoshimasa Kasuya
Director
In charge of Business Development
General Manager of Business Development Office
Promoting Businesses in New Domains and Accumulating Know-How
In 2025, we continued to work with a range of external companies to develop new businesses and support the future growth of ValueCommerce from a medium- to long-term perspective. In particular, we advanced initiatives on two fronts, identifying new partner companies and promoting businesses in new domains together with partners in which we had already invested.
Some businesses have achieved steady progress, while others have faced challenges and have not advanced as expected, resulting in increasingly varied progress across our initiatives.
For example, in the domains of Web 3.0 and AI agents, we introduced an ambitious solution developed jointly with a partner company on a trial basis for a major hotel chain customer. We will continue to refine this solution with the aim of developing it into the next stage of its growth.
We have faced challenges in our first step in developing overseas businesses. At the same time, through local sales activities, we have been steadily accumulating insights into the conditions that lead to successful results. Going forward, we aim to apply these insights in our next initiatives and increase the likelihood of success.
Continuing to Take on Challenges with Speed and Agility
In new business development, the process before a business is able to contribute meaningfully to revenue is a medium- to long-term process. We value taking small steps to test ideas, verifying results, adjusting course, and steadily moving closer to our goals. Through this process, we seek to identify patterns that lead to results.
Together with the teams driving these initiatives, we have come to recognize that the key is to keep this cycle of taking on new challenges moving with speed and agility.
Paving the Way to the Future with Strong Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is essential in new business development. We are a listed company, but we have continued to take on a wide range of challenges without fearing change. To date, we have accelerated our efforts by pushing forward with innovation internally while also collaborating with external entrepreneurs, including startups with expertise and resources in related domains. Our commitment to being a pioneer in unexplored fields is not something that began only recently.
We recognize that the changes significantly impacting our business have made new business development even more important in 2026. Looking ahead, we will continue to take on challenges more strategically and boldly than ever before.