80+ SoftBank Statistics to Know (2023 Market Share)
Do you know tech investment giant SoftBank? You may recognize their bold moves like a $100 billion Vision Fund or early bets on startups like Alibaba. But behind those flashy headlines lies a fascinatingly complex organization with surprises at every turn. How vast is their empire? How risky are their strategies, really? How influential are these Japanese monsters stacked against rivals like Berkshire Hathaway or BlackRock? We dare you to glimpse the giants through a wider lens, revealing jaw-dropping SoftBank statistics spotlighting their towering triumphs and place-rattling pitfalls during an unimaginably vast ascendancy to the top. Let the number dive begin.
Softbank is a multinational investment Japanese company that prioritizes investments above any other business strategy. They focus on searching for business ideas with the potential to be profitable, becoming stakeholders in such brands.
This could be achieved through bonds or buying shares in the other organization once they go public. We must point out they have a thing for the internet and technologically related business opportunities, especially in tech automation. Their fund's venture is known as the VISION FUND, which existed in 2017. The funds have gathered much revenue since its creation, with more than $100 billion as capital, making it the biggest capital in the world for technology.
The group's founder is Mr Masayoshi Son, who also happens to be the company's biggest shareholder, with a bit of a controversial nature, we might add. The company has come a long way, branching out its tentacles into various business opportunities, including software, AI(artificial intelligence), robotics, information technology, and biotechnology.
Despite technology being their forte, they have diversified to other genres like real estate, finance, hospitality, media, and marketing, amongst other things.The company was so successful that in 2017, Forbes Global ranked the company as the second-biggest public organization in Japan, bested by Toyota only, and the 36th biggest public company globally, according to a report by Wikipedia.
General Statistics on Softbank
- Since its inception, SoftBank has made investments in 333 companies.
- Minato, Tokyo, is the headquarters of Softbank.
- The biggest shareholder and the founder of Softbank is Mr Masayoshi Son.
- Entrepreneurs in technology are constantly scrutinized by Mr Son from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
- There is a 300-year plan by Mr Son for Softbank, turning the platform into the most valuable brand globally.
- Line Mobile, together with Y! Mobile, is operated by Softbank, according to a report by ThriveMyWay.
- According to a report by SimilarWeb, Softbank has 10,001 employees on their payroll as of September 2023.
- Softbank company has an annual revenue of $1 billion.
- With interest in Korean internet companies, Softbank created Softbank Ventures Asia in February 2000.
- On January 25, 2005, Softbank bought a Japanese baseball team, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
- Softbank publicly announced on March 17, 2006, its purchase of Vodafone Japan to hold a $78 billion mobile market in Japan.
- Softbank bought a 23% share of Betfair, an international gambling outfit, in April 2006.
- SBI GROUP, a holding company, became independent when Softbank sold shares it bought from the company to one of the subsidiaries of the company in August 2006.
9. The founder of the Softbank group, Mr Son, invested in internet protocols known as TCP/IP that were used to establish a communication network between computers and the internet in the nineties.
10. The company invested in a service-based economy popularly called the New Economy, which involves developing the US-based economy. The project is ongoing as we speak and is aided by innovations and technology.
11. On April 1, 1995, Softbank purchased COMDEX, one of the biggest shows in the world for computers, for $800 million.
12. Softbank ended up selling COMDEX in 2001 to Key3Media.
13. Softbank bought the Zero Day Initiative(ZDI), a cyber security outfit. The Internet security company is known to compensate people who research vulnerabilities in software, including going as far as paying hackers to seek out possible breaches of security protocols.
14. An alliance was made between Softbank and a US-based internet company popularly known as Yahoo. This led to a hybrid company called Yahoo! Japan that became a thriving platform in Japan, one of the most dominant sites in the country.
15. Having observed that Kingston Technology, a memory card manufacturing company, had potential, Softbank purchased 80% of its shares in 1996.
16. Two years later, in 1999, Softbank sold Kingston Technology to David Sun and John Tu, the former owners and founders, for one-third of the previous sum, a significant loss.
17. Softbank established itself as a holding company in October 1999. It means the company took hold of interests from the security of other organizations.
18. The most lucrative investment by Softbank was made in 2000 by pledging $20 million to Alibaba, a Chinese internet platform. The investment turned out to be $60 million when Alibaba eventually went public in September 2014.
Acquisition Statistics of Softbank
19. Popularly known as IBM Watson Media, Softbank acquired Ustream by 13% on February 3, 2010.
20. Ayumi Hamasaki, a Japanese songwriter and model, was appointed the commercial spokesperson for Softbank on October 1, 2010.
21. On December 6, 2016, Masayoshi Son, the founder and chief executive of Softbank Group, made a public announcement after a meeting with the then-president of America of the company's intentions to invest $50 billion in the US to bring about the creation of 50,000 new jobs in the country.
22. On October 3, Softbank publicly announced taking over one of its competitors, eAccess, a Japanese mobile phone operator.
23. In July 2016, the Softbank Group announced its intentions to buy Arm Holdings, a British semiconductor company, which was eventually completed on September 5.
24. On July 1, 2013, Softbank publicly declared that Willcom had become a company subsidiary, followed by a merger of Willcom and eAccess that gave birth to a new subsidiary called Ymobile Corporation.
25. Softbank announced that the company was renamed from Softbank Corp, the previous name, to Softbank Group as of July 2015.
26. In July 2015, Softbank renamed its mobile platform Softbank Corp.
27. On October 15, 2012, Softbank announced plans to buy 70% shares of Sprint Nextel, an American telecommunication company with plans to take over the company.
28. Softbank eventually bought 78% of Sprint Nextel and 2% more shares from the company, giving Softbank 80% control of the company as of August 6, 2013.
29. As of March 31, 2016, Softbank publicly stated the company's intentions to sell $7.9 billion worth of their shares from their security stake in Alibaba Group.
Statistics on SoftBank Traffic
30. A total of 29.8 million visits to Softbank cyberspace came from both desktops and mobile devices from August to September 2023, according to a survey by SimilarWeb.
31. The traffic on the Softbank website increased by 3.35% from August to September 2023.
32. The bounce rate of the Softbank website is 39.29% (the percentage of people who view only one page of the website and exit the platform).
33. The average number of Softbank website pages viewed in one visit is 4.62.
34. The average time spent on one visit to the website is 2 minutes and 23 seconds.
35. The platform is ranked number 2 in Japan for the technology and computer electronics category.
36. The Softbank website is the 133 most visited site in Japan collectively.
37. The website has a global rank of 1,554 in terms of visits.
38. 84% of Softbank's shares of Supercell worth $7.3 billion were sold to Tencent, a Chinese multinational technology company, as of June 21, 2016.
39. Softbank decided to sell roughly 23.47% of GungHo Online Entertainment worth about $685 million on June 3, 2016, making the company lose its grip as a major shareholder. The transaction concluded on June 22.
40. 51% of Supercell, a mobile game company in Helsinki, was acquired by Softbank and is worth $2.1 billion as of October 2013.
41. On October 25, 2014, Softbank invested in OlaCabs, a multinational ridesharing company in India, worth $210 million.
42. Softbank bought 30% shares of Snapdeal, an e-commerce platform in India, for $627 million.
43. As of November 2014, SoftBank invested $100 million in Housing.com, a real estate search portal in Mumbai that gave them ownership of the company by 30%.
Softbank Statistics by Country
44. Japan makes the top list. The country experienced a growth of 5.58% in traffic, with a massive 97.64% of Softbank website traffic coming from there.
45. America comes second with 0.69% of the company's traffic. It should be noted the country had a drop in traffic by - 8.75%
46. China is third on the list with 0.25% traffic, increasing by +166.4%.
47. Taiwan commands 0.17% of the traffic, with +10.82% growth.
48. Vietnam controls 0.1% of the traffic, with a growth of 31.31%, the least for the top five countries with the highest Softbank traffic.
49. Softbank, in 2015, acquired a video streaming website previously belonging to Warner Bros known as DramaFever.
50. Nikesh Arora, a business executive, was announced by Mr Son as SoftBank's president and Representative Director.
51. Softbank went further to buy more shares from Supercell, an addition of 22.7%, bringing the company's total shares to 73.2%, making Softbank a major shareholder.
52. Softbank announced plans to invest $1 billion in Coupang, an e-commerce company based in South Korea, to spread its tentacles overseas.
53. Aldebaran Robotics was renamed SoftBank Robotics in 2013 after Softbank acquired part of its controlling shares.
54. Pepper, a humanoid robot, was created with the help of teams from both Aldebaran Robotics and Softbank Robotics in 2014.
55. Softbank increased its shares of Softbank Robotics to 95% in 2014.
56. Softbank purchased $300m worth of shares of WeWork as of March 20, 2017.
57. As of December 2018, Softbank stated they plan to invest $1 billion in Grab, a multinational technology company in Singapore. According to reliable sources, the deal reached $1.5 billion.
58. Softbank Group decided to purchase Fortress Investment Group LLC, an investment management company in New York, for $3.3 billion on February 14, 2017.
Softbank Traffic Demography Statistics
59. Males are responsible for 70.26% of people who visit the site.
60. 29.74% of internet traffic is from Women.
61. People between the ages of 18 to 24 years make up 11.82% of the age group
62. Folks from 25 to 34 years old are responsible for 23.59% of the group.
63. 35 to 44 years old comprise 24.91% of the age group.
64. 45 to 54 years old command 20.14% of the group.
65. 55 to 64 years old are 11.42% of the age group.
66. The elderly aged 65 and above comprise 8.12% of the group.
Additional Softbank Statistics
72. Vodafone Japan was renamed Softbank" on October 1, 2006.
73. On May 18, 2017, Softbank invested $1.4 billion in Paytm, a multinational financial technology company, making it the biggest investment by Softbank in India.
74. Softbank invested $2.5 billion in Flipkart on August 10, 2017.
75. Softbank Vision Fund, the biggest private equity fund in the world with $93 billion in capital, was founded through a partnership with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a wealth fund in Saudi Arabia, and Softbank occurred on May 27, 2017.
76. On the Softbank Vision Fund, Softbank's contribution is $28 billion, with $8.2 billion coming from the 25% sale of the British multinational Arm Holdings shares.
77. As a sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia contributed more to the funds by investing $45 billion within 5 years, becoming the fund's biggest investor.
78. Mubadala, Sharp, Foxconn, Apple, and Qualcomm are some companies that invested in the Softbank Vision Fund. Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle Corporation, also invested in the fund.
79. Mubadala, a holding company owned by an Emirate, invested $15 billion in the Softbank Vision Fund with interests in robotics and mobile computation, financial technology, Artificial intelligence, and communications.
80. The founder of Softbank, Mr Masayoshi Son, stated plans to use the Softbank Vision Fund to support all companies in technology with a keen interest in artificial intelligence, followed by transportation in 2017.
81. An announcement by Alphabet Inc. on the sale of Boston Dynamics, a robotic design and engineering company in America, to Softbank groups for a sum not made public on June 8, 2017.
82. Softbank completed its investment plans on WeWork with $4.4 billion on August 25, 2017.
Ranking Softbank With Other Competitors Through Website Visits
The table below gives us the Softbank statistics on rankings in the world's technology and computer electronics category. Let's check it out:
| Website | Visits per month | Loyalty by percentage | Ranking |
| Docomo.ne | 1.7 billion | 95 | Number 1 |
| Au.com | 21.8 million | 100 | Number 22 |
| Ymobile | 16.7 million | 100 | Number 32 |
| Uqwimax | 5 million | 77 | Number 145 |
| Linemo | 4.3 million | 85 | Number 154 |
| Ntt.com | 2.9 million | 76 | Number 223 |
| Sumaho-susume | I million | 69 | Number 662 |
| Kashi-mo | 1.9 million | 79 | Number 405 |
| Softbank | 92,700 | 73 | Number 3,314 |
| White-panda9911 | 23,300 | 68 | Number 6,544 |
Softbank is a viable option when seeking investors in your business proposal to expand your operations. However, from the statistics, it becomes obvious that the platform is not that popular outside Japan. That shouldn't discourage you if your business idea or brand revolves around technology. Since Softbank is very much interested in technology, visiting their website could stir their interest in your project.
Frequently Asked QuestionsHow does the Softbank Vision Fund function?The platform has an investment team tailored to look deeply into and make decisions on companies that meet their investment criteria. Most often, the company invests in private equity or venture categories. Ensure your company follows either for selection.
Has Softbank Vision Funds lost funds before?Yes, they have, and it was up to $32 billion, according to a report from CNBC. It has been terrible for the platform in 2023, including the previous year, 2022.
How can one apply for funding from Softbank?Map out a convincing proposal. Take time to go through Softbank investments to know what they are looking for. Find a way to get an introduction. Involvement with the platform ecosystem. Find out what their official channels are and get in touch with Softbank. Please pay close attention to their fund platform. Keep trying, and don't relent.
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