Akiko Naka Reveals Why She Left Facebook and Started Wantedly Entrepreneurship Wantedly Interview with Akiko Naka (Part 1) | Business + IT

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Ms. Akiko Naka Reveals Why She Left Facebook to Start Wantedly

Interview with Akiko Naka of Wantedly (Part 1)

Ms. Akiko Naka of Wantedly, who operates Wantedly, one of the largest business SNS in Japan, which is used by 600,000 people a month, and develops business centered on matching excellent human resources and companies. After working at Goldman Sachs Securities and Facebook Japan, Mr. Naka has a unique career, having officially launched Wantedly.com in 2012. We interviewed a notable person who has created a new service that maximizes individual potential by connecting people, about the history of the company's establishment, corporate philosophy, business goals, strengths and characteristics.

(Interviewed by the editorial department)

Our corporate philosophy is to “increase the number of people who work hard”

──Please briefly introduce your background. Mr. Naka: Since I was a student at Kyoto University, I have taken on various challenges, such as producing free papers and planning beauty pageants. After joining Goldman Sachs Securities, I was lucky enough to join Facebook Japan as an early member. So we sensed that the social media wave was coming, and in September 2011, we managed to release a prototype of Wantedly. Related articles

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──Why did you decide to start a business with a social network at its core? Mr. Naka: Timing was a big factor. Looking at the world, there was a period of about 10 years when the means of information transmission changed dramatically.　In the 1990s, search sites like Yahoo! In the 2000s, Google appeared, and people who can create content optimized for Google's search engine can now earn PV. Since the 2010s, SNS has developed, and regardless of whether it is a person or a bot, we have entered an era in which content that end-users sympathize with is shared with "likes." In other words, we have entered an era in which the intrinsic goodness of content functions as the power to spread information. Game changes are made in each era, and innovation occurs when starting from zero. I felt that the moment was 2011 and decided to launch Wantedly. ──It has been 5 years since the company was established, and the business is growing. Please tell us about your corporate philosophy again. Mr. Naka: Our corporate philosophy is to “increase the number of Kokoro Odol people through work.” It means to be happy at work, but I think there are two major poles in work. One is a state of pleasure. The other is a state where you can forget about sleeping and eating and immerse yourself in it, even if it is hard. Wantedly aims to increase the number of people like the latter. As a result, we believe that creativity and productivity will increase, and more people will be excited at work. Currently, about half of our approximately 8,000 customers (as of April 8, 2015) are startups. I would be happy if our service eventually grows to about 12 million users. Japan has a working population of 60 million people, so we are aiming for 20% of that. ──I see. Please tell us about the specific business of Wantedly. Mr. Naka: What we provide as a service is “Wantedly,” a business SNS that utilizes Facebook. This SNS has two major functions: "connection management" and "matching" between people. First of all, each profile is well-developed in the SNS, and there is a function that allows people in the community to connect with each other and manage it. For example, even if you meet someone and lose your business card, you can still be connected with a career within that community. Another function is matching. Users may visit companies they care about (feel free to visit) or be approached, and eventually change jobs. Since Facebook's human relationships are the foundation, the company can grasp the applicant's personality and friendships more than the resume. As a business model, we make money from matching, and we receive about 30,000 yen per month from companies looking for human resources. [Next page] What are the reasons why other companies in the same industry do not last long and what are the strengths of Wantedly?

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