The Group's growth and business strategies as Explained by Masatoshi Kumagai

We have been repeating and practicing this GMOism since we started our internet business in 1995. As you can see, 7,800 partners from both domestic and international locations regularly gather to recite it.

The common value foundation of GMOism has allowed all group companies to continue to grow in the same direction. GMOisms are updated every year. We believe that our ability to survive in the internet industry is due to our continuous reading, updating, sharing, and thorough implementation of GMOism across all our group companies. Part of this, the Spirit Venture Declaration, is available to the public, so please take a look at it.

Quantitative Target "55-years plan"

The Spirit Venture Declaration also includes the statement, 'All quantitative goals in the GMO Internet Group are based on the 55-year plan.' This concept has become a common language among the group's partners and serves as a premise for formulating internal annual goals. The year 2023 comes at the midpoint of 55-year plan, and the Internet revolution we are aiming for is in its second half. Achieving our 55-year plan requires sustaining profit growth of more than 15% annually. While we do not disclose earnings forecasts, we have communicated this concept of “15% profit growth” to investors through our IR meetings. We will continue to aim to achieve this goal through sustained growth.

In the latter half of the Internet revolution, AI takes center stage.

Here is a graph of the cycles of past industrial revolutions and the technological innovations that triggered them. We can see that the world economy repeats business cycles of 50 years each. It is now known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and it has been 29 years since Windows 95 became the starting point of the Internet Revolution. In the latter half of the Internet Revolution, we are confident that AI will lead the way in making our world even more convenient.

Become a group that thrives over hundreds of years.

GMO Internet Group has continuously sought the optimal organizational structure to thrive in the rapidly evolving internet industry and consistently create value. In preparation for the latter half of the Internet revolution, our group shifted from its current business holding company structure to a position closer to that of a pure holding company in January 2025. This is the first step towards building a solid management foundation to achieve the goal of “Become a group that thrives over hundreds of years.”
We will continue to enhance our group structure to achieve sustainable growth.

The transition to a holding company structure holds significance for two key reasons.

First, "Promoting independent management."
Our group has long embraced a management approach that delegates authority to each group company, fostering independent management. By further advancing this delegation, we enable more agile decision-making and accelerate operational speed.

Second is enhancing group synergies to their full potential. We believe that the Company will become more similar to a pure holding company and that each group company will be aligned horizontally, enabling smoother creation of ideas and maximization of synergies. With these two points, we will further accelerate the pace of growth and ensure achieving of sustainable growth.

Under this structure, we believe our role as the holding company should focus on the following four functions.

First, enhancing group synergies to their full potential. We will promote projects requiring cooperation across the entire group which will serve as a foundation for the creation of group synergies among companies.

Next, creating new growth drivers. We will provide support for businesses in the Group that are expected to become new growth drivers. Our group has grown as an aggregation of number one services, and we will foster and strengthen new number one businesses. Regarding one and two that I just mentioned, I will present two examples later.

And third, enhancing group structural efficiency. As we develop our group management, we will continue to search for the best formation for sustainable growth of the entire group. Following our transition to a holding company structure, we have encountered new kinds of cases, which I will speak of later.

Finally, serving as a hub for sharing group management expertise. It underpins the management of group companies through know-how on group management, know-how on the use of AI, and the cultivation of group brands.

As of September 2025, our group structure is as follows. Three areas are numbered with red circles. These areas are for increasing the efficiency of the group structure and maximize synergies.

The first initiative of our reformation was the transfer of our business to the former GMO AD Partners. The new GMO Internet, which has inherited our founding infrastructure business, launched under a new organizational structure in January 2025. The second initiative is the business integration of GMO Research & AI and GMO Town WiFi, both listed on the Growth Market. In October of this year, the company plans to change its name to “GMO Product Platform.” The third initiative is the business integration of GMO Internet and 11 overseas Z.com infrastructure companies. We will accelerate the global expansion of our infrastructure business, with GMO Internet at its core. We will continue to drive value creation through strategic organizational restructuring initiatives like these. You may have noticed that some companies in this figure are listed with larger size. GMO Payment Gateway, GMO Internet, and GMO Financial Holdings have each obtained their own issuer ratings and have also raised their own funds, and we expect them to become a larger presence within the Group.

Cloud and Rental Server (Hosting) Business

E-commerce solutions Business

In addition, we support customer acquisition for physical stores. This includes GMO Commerce, which operates a marketing platform that helps enhance customer experience (CX) and promote digital transformation (DX) in retail, and GMO Omakase, which operates a reservation management platform specialized for high-demand restaurants—including Michelin-listed establishments—that are often difficult to book.

Payment and Settlement Business

Internet access (provider) Business

The group listed companies that develop internet infrastructure businesses are as follows. Please see the IR sites of each company for more information.

As previously explained, we have long been committed to promoting and advancing the Internet under our mission: “Internet for Everyone.” At the same time, as the Internet increasingly serves as critical social infrastructure, the threat of cyberattacks has grown more severe with each passing day. Ensuring security has become an urgent priority, and security, alongside infrastructure and finance, is now recognized as a foundational pillar supporting society.

As ensuring Internet security becomes an increasingly urgent social issue, we have formally designated our security business as a top-priority focus area within the Group. To reflect this strategic emphasis, we reclassified the segment—previously included within the Internet Infrastructure business as a standalone unit under the newly established Internet Security business.
The security business consists of three core areas.

• Cryptographic Security – Preventing eavesdropping, data tampering, and impersonation using authentication technology by GlobalSign.
• Cybersecurity – Combatting cyberattacks with top-tier white-hackers from GMO Cybersecurity by Ierae and GMO Flatt Security.
• Brand Security – Providing impersonation monitoring and takedown support by domain and trademark experts.

1. Preventing Eavesdropping, Tampering, and Identity Spoofing. (Cryptographic Security)

Based on the technology of this certification authority, we expand our business since then Covid-19 period with “Electronic Seal GMO SIGN.” Currently, the company has the No.1 market share in Japan in terms of the number of subscriptions and transmissions. Although these services are free of charges, we are also seeing more fee-based services, which we see as a positive factor for stock revenue.

2. Countermeasures against cyberattacks. (Cyber security)

It is hard to find an official data of number of white hackers who are technicians who use their knowledge of cyber security for socially correct purposes, but we believe 40% of the domestic workforce is employed by us. We have excellent partners (employees) who win international hacker contests. In cyber security, not only we have large corporate clients, but also provide training to improve the skills of the Cyber Defense Force in the Self Defense Forces in Japan, and support the Metropolitan Police Department which they called Cyber Investigations. Therefore, we have received several certificates of appreciation and awards.

3. Monitoring and removal support for impersonation threats. (Brand security)

The Internet is full of counterfeit products and spoof sites. We monitor, report, and deal with such counterfeits, and our services are mainly used by companies that take care of their brands. We monitor, report, and deal with such counterfeits, and our services are mainly used by companies that value their brands.

In Feb 2025, launched the "Internet Security for Everyone" project.

In February 2025, We have brought together the technologies of our group’s security-related companies to launch a new project, "Internet Security by GMO," under the slogan "A Safe Future for Everyone."

This project is an initiative aimed at establishing ourselves as the top-of-mind brand in the field of security. To date, it has progressed through seven phases, and what you see here represents the overall framework. The upper section illustrates our ongoing initiatives through continuous provision of products and services, while the lower section highlights initiatives through events such as large-scale conferences. By pursuing both product and service delivery as well as event-based activities, we are steadily strengthening brand recognition.

The third initiative is the launch of “.yourbrand.” A domain name is often compared to a physical address on the Internet. Traditional domains like “.com” or “.co.jp” are akin to renting a single office within a large building. For example, our current domain “gmo.co.jp” can be thought of as leasing a room in the large “co.jp” building. In contrast, “.yourbrand” allows a company to own an entire building under its own name. With a domain like “group.gmo,” a company can secure a premium, exclusive location on the Internet, its own dedicated space.

What is particularly noteworthy is that the application window for this initiative will open in the spring of 2026 for the first time in 14 years with no confirmed schedule for the next round. It is, in effect, a once in a decade opportunity. With growing recognition of brand TLDs, we are seeing clearly stronger demand compared to the previous application round. We will steadily cultivate this business as a new pillar of recurring revenue, characterized by high unit prices and strong retention rates.

This is the fourth initiative, launched in July, called the “GMO Open Source Developer Support Program.” Many of the open source software (OSS) projects that underpin the internet are developed by volunteers, and currently face shortages of funding and talent for security measures. To address this, we are providing open source developers with free access to “Takumi by GMO,” a security diagnostic AI agent developed by GMO Flatt Security. Through this program, we aim both to contribute to enhancing internet security and to strengthen our brand value in the field of security.

Next, as our sixth initiative, we launched in July the “Cyber-Physical Penetration Test,” jointly developed with ALSOK Co., Ltd. While it may sound like something out of a spy movie, there have been actual cases in Europe where criminals infiltrated financial institutions’ offices and connected devices to internal networks as part of cyberattacks. In response, Japan’s Financial Services Agency has issued guidelines requiring penetration tests that also cover such physical intrusions. Against this backdrop, in collaboration with ALSOK, a pioneer in physical security, we are providing the industry’s first comprehensive security assessment service that visualizes unauthorized intrusion risks seamlessly across both physical and cyber spaces.

Finally, as our seventh initiative, we held the “GMO AI & Robotics Conference and Awards 2025” in September. As shown here, the event featured leading figures from both Japan and abroad, making it one of the largest conferences in the country for the AI and robotics industries. Through this conference, we delivered the message: “Industry, government, and academia united to position Japan as a global leader in AI and robotics,” with a focus on addressing social challenges.

For the past 30 years, we have been developing products in the field of internet infrastructure. We now position security as our next foundational domain. Looking ahead, through these differentiated services, we also aim to contribute to solving social challenges in the fields of AI and robotics. We look forward to continuing to deliver on these ambitions.

The following are the listed group companies engaged in the Internet Security business. For more information, please refer to company’s IR website.

The group's listed companies that operate internet financial businesses are as follows.

The group's listed companies that are developing Crypto Assets businesses are as follows. Please see the IR site for more details.