Mercari, The Selling App, today announced the opening of engineering offices in Cambridge, MA, advised by two renowned professors at the adjacent Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Mercari is the number-one marketplace in Japan. Since entering the U.S. in 2014, more than 45 million Americans have downloaded the app.

At the moment, Mercari’s team in Cambridge is focused on better understanding sellers and buyers, and predicting their intentions ahead of their actions. This helps Mercari deliver a more personalized experience using its recommendation engine. The team is applying machine learning on massive amounts of data to better personalize the user experience based on their preferences, history and interactions.

More broadly, this team is pursuing applied research projects in machine learning, computer vision and other emerging technologies that can help Mercari to make selling even easier than buying.

“Opening the Mercari engineering offices in Cambridge is an important addition to our global technology centers in Palo Alto and Tokyo,” said Dr. Mok Oh, chief technology officer for Mercari U.S. “The expectations of Mercari sellers and buyers are always evolving, so it’s vital that we harness emerging technologies to continuously improve our app and services.”

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Advising the team are Dr. Frédo Durand and Dr. Wojciech Matusik of MIT.

Dr. Frédo Durand is a renowned researcher and professor in computer vision and computational photography. He is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a member of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Dr. Wojciech Matusik is widely-recognized professor and entrepreneur in machine learning, 3D vision, and 3D fabrications. He is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, where co-directs the Computer Graphics Group and teaches machine learning courses

Mercari is looking for talented people to join its technology teams in Palo Alto and Cambridge. A list of all current U.S. openings is here.

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SOURCE Mercari