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Farfetch is an international fashion website that stocks products from 300 independent boutiques around the world. The website was founded in 2008 by the Portuguese entrepreneur José Neves with the headquarters based in London, and subsidiary offices based in New York, Los Angeles, Guimarães, Porto, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo. Farfetch works on a commission based model with its partner boutiques, which see an average of 30 per cent of their sales driven by the website. The company operates bespoke, local-language websites for international markets in English, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Korean, German, Russian and Spanish. As of May 2015, Farfetch has over 600 global employees. ==History== Farfetch was founded in 2008 by José Neves,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Jose Neves )〕 a Portuguese entrepreneur who has been involved in the world of fashion start-ups since the mid-1990s, when he launched the shoe design business SWEAR. In 2001 he created B Store, a fashion licensing and wholesale company selling a niche range of up-and-coming designer labels in a physical boutique store. During a trip to Paris Fashion Week in 2007, when Neves was wholesaling for his B Store brand, the idea for a virtual boutique market-place came into fruition.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Farfetch Fashion Curators )〕 A 2013 interview in The Daily Telegraph details the moment when Neves realised the need to give independent fashion boutiques an online retail presence: “Dozens of boutique owners had been through our doors and what they were saying was really sobering. Business was bad, they couldn't rely on local custom any more but they didn't have the experience to do e-tailing either. They had amazing taste levels but they were having to play it increasingly safe."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=What if the internet turns out to be the saviour of the high street? )〕 It was this reason that Neves decided to set up the Farfetch website, to enable small, independent boutiques to compete in the marketplace while retaining their ‘bricks and mortar’ stores and their own visual identity. A 2013 article in ''The Economist'' summarises this: “Farfetch emphasises its ‘bricks and mortar roots,” allowing independent retailers to “keep their identity, while boosting their position in the market.”〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=High end fashion online )〕 Initially, the business secured $4.5 million in growth equity from Advent Venture Partners in July 2010 to help it expand its presence into Brazilian, North American and European markets. Following this, Farfetch raised a second round of $18 million in funding from Advent Venture Partners, Index Ventures and eVenture Capital Partners collectively. In March 2013, a further $20 million investment was announced〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Conde Nast International buys stake in Farfetch.com )〕 from global publishing house Conde Nast International, which was supported by subsequent funding in May 2014, totalling $66 million,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Farfetch, an Online Boutique, Enjoys Its Moment )〕 from additional investment sources including Conde Nast International. A key milestone for the business was then reached in March 2015, when Farfetch gained a further US$86 from a group of investors led by the software company DST Global. Former investors also contributed to this Series E funding round, which took the total investment pot to over US$195 million. Such investors included Advent Ventures Partners, Condé Nast International, Index Ventures, Novel TMT, eVentures and Vitruvian Partners. Following on from this, Farfetch announced the acquisition of iconic London-based boutique retailer Browns in May 2015. 〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Farfetch Buys Browns )〕 In May 2015, ''Private Eye'' noted that Farfetch had become a so-called Unicorn company. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Farfetch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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