USEN CORPORATION (E04479) Stock Price

USEN is a company whose core business is providing music distribution services to commercial establishments. The company delivers music broadcasts to restaurants, retail stores, beauty salons, medical facilities, and other businesses nationwide through dedicated cable lines, communication satellites, and internet connections. By leasing tuner equipment to stores, USEN operates a BGM service essential for creating store atmosphere, and also offers smartphone music streaming services for individual consumers.

The company's primary customers are commercial establishments, with particularly strong usage in the food service, retail, beauty and wellness, medical, and office sectors. USEN serves chain store operators ranging from national-scale to regional businesses, and secures revenue by providing comprehensive support that includes music distribution, store opening assistance, and sales promotion services. Additionally, system development and sales for individual and corporate customers represent an important revenue stream.

The company operates four business segments, with music distribution as its core. In the commercial systems business, subsidiary Almex develops and manufactures automated payment systems for hotels and hospitals. The information and communications technology business sells internet lines and cloud services to corporate clients. USEN is also diversifying through other businesses including "Hitosara," a restaurant customer acquisition support service, electric power retail operations, and music copyright management services.

USEN aims for sustainable growth by expanding its business portfolio centered on music distribution services for retail stores. Leveraging its overwhelming customer base of approximately 480,000 stores nationwide, the company is transitioning into a "total store service provider" that offers comprehensive solutions for store operations beyond its existing music distribution business. The company has identified as a key strategy the development of integrated support systems for major customer segments—including restaurants, retail shops, and beauty salons—that extend from BGM provision to customer acquisition support, payment systems, and energy services.

In priority investment areas, the company is focusing on developing new services using digital technology and maximizing synergy effects from existing operations. Through subsidiary Almex's automated checkout systems and ticketing machine business, the company is strengthening cashless payment capabilities and expanding multilingual features to differentiate offerings in anticipation of inbound demand recovery. Additionally, the gourmet website Hitosara is intensifying marketing support specialized for high-end restaurants, aiming to increase revenue through cross-referrals with music distribution customers.

For new market development, the company plans full-scale entry into healthcare and nursing care sectors and accelerated overseas expansion. Domestically, against the backdrop of an aging society, the company intends to expand music therapy services and monitoring systems for hospitals and care facilities, positioning them as new revenue sources. In overseas markets, particularly across Asia, the company is exploring store solution deployments through local partnerships, aiming to expand business by exporting store management expertise developed in Japan.

In technology innovation, the company is advancing AI-driven optimization of music distribution and IoT-enabled enhancement of store operation support services. The company is developing AI functions that automatically select optimal music based on customer industry, time of day, and customer demographics, while strengthening operational efficiency support through sensor-based customer traffic analysis and sales forecasting services. Through these technology investments, the company aims to simultaneously achieve higher unit prices and improved customer satisfaction, establishing long-term competitive advantage.