Japanese tech giant GMO just paid $6.8M for ‘Z.com.’ Here’s why.

GMO Internet is a classic case of a wildly successful Japanese tech company largely unknown outside the island nation. The online infrastructure company is essentially a one-stop shop for establishing an online presence.

Enjoying a market cap of over US$1 billion has made GMO Internet one of the top dogs in Japan’s tech scene but the firm is largely absent from the world stage. Even its strongest overseas acquisition, the security firm GlobalSign, arguably has a stronger individual brand than its powerful parent.

Today, GMO Internet announced its intention to become a global player with the unveiling of its new international branding – Z.com. A company spokesperson tells Tech in Asia that Z.com will soon roll out forex trading, domain, and hosting services for overseas markets, particularly the UK and Southeast Asia. At this time, global assets like GlobalSign will retain their original branding.

The new brand, one of only three single-letter “.com” domain names, was not cheap to acquire. Nissan North America, the previous owner, started shopping it around in June and ultimately GMO Internet paid out JPY 800 million (US$6.7 million).

It is difficult to predict whether or not Southeast Asia will embrace Z.com the way that Japanese consumers have come to rely on GMO Internet. Clouding the issues is the fact that international users will have to go to z.com/en if they want to access the site in English. The original z.com, the focus of the global branding effort, is entirely Japanese.

This hiccup aside, the Japanese company knows that winning those new users is essential for its future.

“The Japanese speaking market is 120 million people, the English speaking market is 14 times larger and can pay a corporate tax that is half of [Japan’s 35.64 percent] in some places,” founder and CEO Masatoshi Kumagai told Tech in Asia during an interview earlier this year.

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