General goods marketplace Mercari has appointed a head of research at its research and development arm, called R4D, which developed the horizontal’s online payment app among other services.
Academician Yoshihiro Kawahara took charge of the new positon earlier this month, joining from School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo.
He’s been on the R4D’s Advisory Board since 2019. Dr Yoshihiro has written hundreds of research papers in journals of international repute, according to a hiring announcement.
Mercari, founded in 2013 in Japan, also operates in the U.S. It established R4D in 2017 to innovate services in facilitating consumer-to-consumer transactions.
Meanwhile, the company also unveiled a new website ai.mercari.com to inform users of activities across all its departments and subsidiaries.