Building a safe, trustworthy, and sustainable used-car distribution system is a challenge shared around the world. In Japan, Car Sensor — part of Recruit's Marketing Matching Technologies — has spent more than 40 years addressing that challenge by connecting individuals looking to buy used cars with business clients looking to sell them. Now, Car Sensor is taking its efforts a step further by transforming its business model.

Car Sensor matches individuals looking for used cars with business clients selling them, using vehicle information as the connecting point.

Car Sensor has built its business around used-car information. According to the Car Sensor Automotive Research Institute, Japan's used-car market grew 10% year on year to ¥5.3194 trillion in 2025 (roughly US$35 billion), its highest level since the survey began in 2019. More than 40,000 used-car dealerships operate nationwide in Japan, and aside from several hundred outlets run by large operators, most are small, locally rooted businesses or independently owned stores.

Car Sensor gathers vehicle listings from these dealerships and makes them available to individual users. Without such a platform, it would be difficult for buyers to collect information from dealerships across the country and compare vehicle condition and price. Because every used car is different, clear and reliable information plays a critical role in giving buyers confidence. As rising new-car prices drive greater interest in used vehicles, creating a trusted system for people to compare and evaluate them will be essential to the market’s continued growth.

What Is Pay-Per-Response Pricing, and How Does It Differ from Pay-Per-Sale?

In April 2026, Car Sensor introduced pay-per-response pricing as an alternative to its long-standing flat listing fees.

Under this new model, business clients are charged only when a listing generates a “response” — an inquiry from a prospective buyer. Fraudulent inquiries and responses unrelated to sales, such as sales calls, are excluded from billing, making return on spend easier to assess. Clients can also continue using the traditional listing-fee model, depending on their business needs.

Across Marketing Matching Technologies, the business aims to evolve toward a “GMV-Linked Model,” in which fees are tied to a client's Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), or the total value of transactions completed through the platform. For Car Sensor, however, a “response” represents the step immediately before a sale. This approach emerged from a pilot with several dozen business clients, which found that response volume was, at this stage, the most practical measurable KPI that both sides could commit to as an indicator closely tied to a completed vehicle sale.
Although the broader direction is from advertising fees toward performance-based pricing, what counts as “performance,” and what unit of measurement clients can reasonably accept, varies by business. For Car Sensor, pay-per-response pricing represents a practical, client-informed step toward solving a market-wide problem, not a one-size-fits-all formula imposed from above.

Recruit's Business Case: From Advertising Media to Marketplace

This marks the first change to Car Sensor's pricing structure since the service launched nearly 40 years ago. What does this shift mean for Recruit?

Under the listing-fee model, business clients pay to advertise vehicles regardless of whether or not those listings generate inquiries. — This can create a disconnect between the interests of clients and Car Sensor's own revenue. Pay-per-response pricing removes that tension. That revenue can then be reinvested in promotion and product development, helping Car Sensor reach more individual users and generate more responses for clients. In turn, this creates further opportunities for investment. Internally, Car Sensor refers to this virtuous circle as its “profit-maximizing cycle,” benefiting all three parties: individual users, business clients, and Car Sensor itself.

Under the listing-fee model, the focus was primarily on how many vehicles were listed. With pay-per-response pricing, revenue is directly linked to the listing-to-response conversion rate, as well as how clients judge the quality of those responses. This represents a fundamental shift from an advertising-media model to a marketplace model, where value is created when a successful match is made.

As Car Sensor accumulates more data, it can better understand which vehicles are likely to sell and what information is most likely to drive inquiries. Vehicle history, maintenance records, and accident or repair history all become valuable assets that can influence response rates. As the use of AI and other technologies becomes increasingly widespread, the importance of data will only continue to grow.

Higher response rates also encourage business clients to list a broader range of vehicles on Car Sensor. For individual users, this increases the likelihood of finding the car they want, which in turn generates more inquiries and sales. As client revenue grows, so does Recruit's, aligning the platform's commercial success with greater transparency across the market.

Recruit's Strengths, and the Potential of Japan's Used-Car Market

Car Sensor's commitment to addressing market-wide challenges can be traced back to its origins. When it launched as a print magazine in 1984, it partnered with JCM, an industry association representing the vast majority of used-car dealers in Japan. As a result, supporting the growth of the industry as a whole has always been a guiding principle in its decision-making.

Car Sensor launched its online service in 1996, when internet penetration in Japan was still below 10%, helping drive the industry's digital transformation. In 1997, it made mileage disclosure mandatory for its listings, a practice that later became an industry standard. In 2010, it partnered with an independent, third-party inspection body to launch “Car Sensor Certified,” a service that gives buyers greater visibility into vehicle quality.

Each of these initiatives was shaped by feedback gathered through Car Sensor's nationwide network of dealer relationships.

The introduction of pay-per-response pricing followed the same approach. Some clients were concerned that they might struggle with a sudden surge in responses, so Car Sensor deliberately kept the listing-fee option in place and rolled out pay-per-response pricing alongside it, rather than replacing it outright.

Market Impact: Lowering Barriers to Listing, and Expanding the Market

Business clients that adopted pay-per-response pricing early say it has changed the way their sales teams operate. A team leader responsible for showroom display and vehicle sourcing at a major used-car dealer with more than 400 locations nationwide explains:

“Since we adopted pay-per-response pricing, we've put even more focus on understanding how customers choose a car, rather than just competing on price. In the past, we often cut prices to generate more responses. Now that we're paying per response, it's become easier to try other approaches, like making a vehicle's condition and history clearer, instead of relying on price alone. That's made customers more comfortable choosing a car, and we're seeing more inquiries as a result. Like the United States, where used-car sales outpace new-car sales, I'd like to see our whole industry grow by building trust.”

The Road Ahead

Several months after the launch of the new business model, Car Sensor continues to refine how it assesses the validity of responses and ensures transparency around billing. The shift has also changed how Car Sensor prioritizes its own product investment, putting more resources into helping individual users search and choose more easily. For example, a search feature for buyers who aren't sure what kind of car they want, and explainer videos covering more than 200 models. These features are already contributing to higher conversion rates, and more are in development.
As Car Sensor continues to evolve, it aims to create new kinds of connections between people and the cars they choose, helping build a world in which everyone can make their own choices from a wide range of options.