Free information distribution and BCP support in response to COVID-19

「The number of messages distributed also progressed favorably as local governments and others increasingly used the service to communicate COVID-19 PCR test results and check the health status of people recuperating at home.」

「Regarding the impact of COVID-19 on results for the cumulative second-quarter period, there is currently no material impact. However, if the spread of the infection does not subside and economic activity remains stagnant for an extended period, this could affect our business development, including trends among our customers, so we will closely monitor developments.」

「Since February 2021, we have linked SMS and ＋Message to the AI chatbot 「Truffle AI forアルバイト採用」 for restaurant staff recruitment to support responses to labor shortages caused by COVID-19. Since March of the same year, we have also offered 「ＳＭＳ送信コネクトｆｏｒＬＧＷＡＮ」, which enables SMS transmission over LGWAN, the Local Government Wide Area Network, actively developing services to support companies, local governments, and others responding to the spread of COVID-19 from a business continuity planning perspective.」

「Our customer base spans a wide range of industries, including IT-related services, call centers, mail-order businesses, human resources services, retail, restaurants, and entertainment facilities. While the number of messages distributed has declined in some industries because of deteriorating business performance, it has increased in others because of strong performance. As a result, our company as a whole has continued to grow steadily, and we believe that the impact of COVID-19 on our operating environment is limited.」

「During the cumulative period of the third quarter, even industries whose performance had deteriorated significantly, such as restaurants and entertainment facilities forced to close temporarily or shorten their operating hours in response to requests to refrain from going out and the declaration of a state of emergency as measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, showed signs of recovery as operations resumed. Across the domestic market, delivery volumes and the number of corporate customers performed steadily, and domestic revenue increased significantly year on year.」

「During the cumulative second-quarter period, although the company was affected by industries such as restaurants and entertainment facilities whose business performance deteriorated significantly after being forced to close temporarily or shorten operating hours due to requests to refrain from going out and the declaration of a state of emergency as measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the overall domestic market remained steady, supported by the expansion of the SMS distribution market and increased SMS distribution by human resources services companies and major domestic IT companies, among others, with the number of messages distributed and the number of client companies progressing favorably.」

「We are also actively developing services to support companies, local governments, and others responding to the spread of COVID-19 from a business continuity planning perspective, including the temporary free provision of an information distribution service using an SMS distribution system.」