In this series, we report on venture companies attempting to innovate in the fashion industry using ever-evolving IT technology. In the second part, we spoke with Tsuruoka, focusing on BASE's future business development.

Currently, of the 10,000 stores registered with BASE, 2,000 to 3,000 are active. It's estimated that many members are just starting their own businesses after registering a domain. For future developments, the key will be to encourage these registered users to more actively use BASE's services and to further develop the service beyond its current role as a web service for creating online shops.

Prior to starting BASE, Tsuruoka interned at Hyper Internet, Inc., where Ieiri is the CEO. He previously worked on the crowdfunding service campfire. This service allows creators to raise funds from fans through pre-orders for their work. It was there that he developed his interest in using web services to create new economic trends and connect them to product development. "Liberty is like a treasure trove to me, where I learned everything about business, including how to advertise, programming, the importance of teamwork, and meeting people. BASE was the first project to be incorporated at Liberty. It's a place where young people gather, and I want to show even younger people the many possibilities," says Tsuruoka. Incidentally, Tsuruoka laughs, "I later realized that the domain name for BASE, the base.in, comes from the combination of 'base,' which also means 'house,' and 'in,' which means 'enter,' so it means 'house entry' in Japanese." Coincidentally, the young entrepreneur, just 23 years old, shares the same birthday as Ieiri. Armed with strong backing and a free-thinking approach, he is ushering in a new era of e-commerce. [Profile of Yuta Tsuruoka] Representative Director of BASE, Inc. Currently 23 years old. Born in Oita Prefecture. His hobby is the internet. He attended high school and university, both of which are information-related. Both of his parents are business owners. After working as an engineering intern at Hyper Internet, the company that runs the crowdfunding site campfire, he started the manufacturing group Liberty with Kazuma Ieiri, founder of paperboy&co. (who also runs Hyper), and directed and did back-end programming for projects such as face advertising, which uses people's faces as advertising space, and the tuition support platform studygift. He then launched the BASE project in November 2012.