Japanese billionaire Maezawa pulls out of dating show that promised the moon
30/01/2020 04:24
By Sam Nussey
TOKYO, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Japanese fashion billionaire
Yusaku Maezawa has pulled out of a documentary search for a
girlfriend to take on his voyage around the moon with Elon
Musk's SpaceX, citing his "mixed feelings" about participating.
This month, the 44-year-old announced he was seeking single
females over 20 willing to vie to become his girlfriend for a
documentary to be aired on streaming service AbemaTV. Almost
28,000 people applied. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N29H057
Maezawa said he is "extremely remorseful" about the decision
to pull out, apologizing to the applicants and AbemaTV staff in
posts to Twitter, where he is Japan's most followed account with
more than 7 million followers.
Maezawa, the founder and former CEO of online fashion
retailer Zozo 3092.T , which he last year sold to SoftBank
Group Corp 9984.T , is known for launching big ideas with much
fanfare - though some of them don't pan out as planned.
As CEO, he launched the Zozosuit, a polka-dot bodysuit that
allowed users to collect body measurements to order custom-made
clothes but which did not work well in practice. He also
outlined an ambitious overseas expansion plan that wildly
undershot targets, leading to a crash in the company's stock
price.
Maezawa has pledged to give away $9 million to his Twitter
followers in what he says is a "social experiment" to see if the
payment boosts their happiness. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N29D1X1
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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