Circulating Knowledge

Humans have the innate ability to create new value by simply linking individual knowledge pools. However, much of this knowledge remains untapped, hidden within individuals and inaccessible on the internet. Imagine a world where such rich insights are freely shared and circulated—wouldn’t this indeed awaken a world of play in business?
At Uzabase, we are committed to sparking this exchange of knowledge, both within our organization and beyond. Our goal is to foster interactions between Uzabase members and external business professionals while creating a fitting environment and enough opportunities for members to offer their own expertise to others as a side career parallel to their roles at Uzabase.
Through these initiatives, we believe that we can enhance the overall exchange of knowledge in our society, where more people will be exposed to a diversity of opinions, recognize the value of their own knowledge, and, in turn, contribute meaningfully to society using that knowledge.
In FY 2023, we achieved significant strides in integrating Speeda and MIMIR, which has allowed us to deliver the value of knowledge through our products to a wider audience of corporate clients. At the same time, we have also been developing a platform for experts to share their insights via NewsPicks. While both of these initiatives are in their early stages, I’m excited about the potential they hold and committed to their continued growth and evolution in the future.

We Need What You Bring

Uzabase upholds “we need what you bring” as one of our 7 Values and as a key material issue to be addressed.
Our DEIB initiatives started as an internal D&I project back in 2020, later evolving into the DEIB Committee. I am very proud of the growth and development we have achieved over these three and a half years. Through the dedicated efforts of approximately 40 members, we have undertaken a variety of initiatives through both top-down and bottom-up approaches.
In 2023, we forged ahead with Diversability recruiting (the recruitment of members with disabilities) and launched two new communities: one for supporting LGBTQ+ allies and another focused on menopause and well-aging. One of the most profound impacts of our DEIB activities has been the internal cultural shift, a metric that does not easily translate to numbers: our first internal survey since the launch of the D&I Project three and a half years back showed a significant improvement in the perception of equal opportunities within the company.

A World of Play in Business, for Everyone

Towards achieving our Purpose to “awaken a world of play in business, with our insights,” Uzabase aims to eliminate generational and regional gaps in the provision of information, creating new opportunities for people to experience high quality business content.
By allowing those who achieve Play Business to broadcast their knowledge to others, we create a cycle of knowledge that brings us one step closer to the sustainable sharing of business content across society.
Centered on social business media platform NewsPicks, our goal is to collaborate with a wide range of communities and age groups to deliver high-quality content, creating chances to provide insights and new opportunities to those who truly need them.
Over the last year, we renewed NewsPicks for Kids, a newspaper aimed at schoolchildren, launched Student Picker, a student ambassador system aimed at creating a new generation of businesspeople, in April, and are increasing initiatives targeting specific regional communities.

Becoming a Technology Company

Considering our origins in engineering, we at Uzabase want to remain a technology-focused company that awakens a world of play in business for all while also blurring the lines between business and engineering.
Through our Play Engineering project , launched in April 2022, we continue to foster an environment in which engineers and non-engineers from a diverse range of professions can use their engineering skills more effectively and enjoy taking on new challenges.
At the same time, our product teams are also working to enhance external communications so that they can better contribute to the broader engineering community.

Sustainable Data and Content Management

Since its founding, Uzabase has centered its Purpose and Mission on business insights, driving its continuous growth.
While the proliferation of the internet has made information much more accessible, the sea of available content has made it harder to find the exact information required. That is why we work with our partners to deliver business insights that can be trusted for a range of decision-making processes.
To this end, the act of ensuring and enhancing the quality, coverage, and integrity of data and content that shapes business insights is positioned as a top management priority. Our members, from various backgrounds, work together with numerous stakeholders to tackle these challenges.
As we continue to deliver high value to our users, we also uphold our commitments and rules to partners and society towards developing a relationship of trust. In reality, balancing these aspects can be challenging in times of rapid change and high uncertainty. However, we believe that by sincerely and wholeheartedly addressing even the most complex and difficult issues, we can achieve our goals.
Over 2023–24, we restructured our organization to integrate teams that handle data and content into a single department. This enables faster and more unified decision making for partnerships, our in-house structure, and content creation.
We intend to stay focused on leveraging generative AI and new technologies while strengthening risk management activities, and will take further steps to boost efforts towards data- and content-related compliance.

New Business Model Fusing SaaS and Media

NewsPicks users give rise to Speeda users, as those inspired by NewsPicks content are spurred into action and embrace new behaviors, supporting efforts towards societal change through the Speeda platform.
NewsPicks users can also emerge as experts who share their knowledge with others, building off the expertise and passion channeled through NewsPicks to open paths to new opportunities, creating a world where others can easily tap into these resources as they work to tackle key issues throughout society.
I strongly believe that cementing these two patterns puts us closer to realizing our purpose–“awaken a world of play in business.” Furthermore, by integrating the knowledge shared among people as insights across all services throughout the Uzabase Group, we can achieve a long-term competitive advantage.
Over the last year, the partial merger of Speeda and NewsPicks corporate sales functions has proceeded, providing existing Speeda users with substantial value applicable to personnel development and reskilling. This has also placed us in an optimal position to demonstrate even greater value towards awakening “a world of play in business.”

Addressing Climate Change

A world of play in business awakened through our efforts should be a place of harmony, where the sustainability of society and the fulfillment of individual and business purposes are not mutually exclusive. Protecting the environment, a key issue on a global scale, is of great importance to achieving our Purpose, and we aim to address this issue through our combined efforts across the entire Uzabase Group.
As part of this initiative, we are creating ways to contribute to carbon footprint reduction without interrupting our business activities, whether through office executions, IT tools, or work style changes. In July 2022, our headquarters moved to a new office in Tokyo’s Marunouchi area running entirely on renewable energy, and in 2023 achieved a shift to the exclusive use of clean energy in this location.
Furthermore, as a company providing information services and operating social business media, we are continuing to focus on providing information on global efforts towards environmental protection, including climate change.
Over the past year, we have actively shared content related to climate change through our Speeda and NewsPicks platforms. We hope that such information dissemination and knowledge circulation will serve as a starting point for business professionals to reconsider their approach to this topic, bringing us one step closer to achieving a truly sustainable society.