Rakuten, Inc. is a Japanese electronic commerce and Internet company based in Tokyo, Japan.
Its B2B2C e-commerce platform Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and
among the world’s largest by sales.
Hiroshi Mikitani founded the company in February 1997 as MDM, Inc., and is still its chief
executive.
Rakuten Shopping Mall started operations in May 1997.
In June 1999, the company changed its name to Rakuten, Inc.
The Japanese word rakuten means optimism.
In 2012, the company's revenues totaled US$4.6 billion with operating profits of about US$244
million.
In June 2013, Rakuten, Inc. reported it had a total of 10,351 employees worldwide.
In 2005, Rakuten started expanding outside Japan, mainly through acquisitions and joint
ventures.
Its acquisitions include Buy.com, Priceminister, Ikeda, Tradoria, Play.com, Wuaki.tv, and Kobo
Inc..
The company has investments in Pinterest, Ozon.ru, AHA Life, and Daily Grommet.
Lines of business The Rakuten Group consists in total of around
forty businesses & services such as - Online retail: Operation in a number of countries
outside Japan; Banking, Credit and Payments: Offering personal
consumer credit services including card loans, mortgages, and other banking services;
Portal and Media: Managing portal sites acting as gateways to the internet, and performing
other activities; Travel: Operating hotel booking and other
travel-related websites and providing other services;
Securities: Providing services such as online securities brokerage;
Professional Sports: Managing a professional baseball team, planning and selling related
merchandise and performing other activities; Entertainment: Online video club.
The group's 2010 annual report shows that its online shopping business, Rakuten Ichiba,
was Japan's largest online shopping mall, offering customers more than 95 million products
from about 40,000 merchants.
It also had 6 million credit card customers and more than 75 million users in Japan.
As part of the group's globalization initiative, Rakuten Ichiba started offering international
shipping.
Developments In October 2005, Rakuten bought a 15% stake
in Tokyo Broadcasting System, raising its stake in the broadcaster to 19%.
Rakuten later withdrew its bid and sold its shareholding back to Tokyo Broadcasting.
Global expansion 2005
Rakuten bought New York City-based Linkshare - since rebranded "Rakuten Linkshare" - offering
performance-based online sales and marketing programs.
2010 To increase its global competitiveness, Rakuten
decided to adopt English as the company’s official language from mid-2012.
That year, Rakuten also bought French online retailer Priceminister for €200 million
and US-based Buy.com for US$250 million.
The group had been a significant shareholder in Ctrip, a Chinese travel site until it sold
its stake in the company in August 2007 and, in 2010, it announced a joint venture with
Baidu in China.
2011 After launching Indonesia's Rakuten Belanja
Online, a joint venture in June the group continued its global growth the same month,
snapping up Brazilian e-commerce firm Ikeda — since,renamed Rakuten Brazil.
In July, it bought German e-commerce start-up Tradoria and rebranded it Rakuten Deutschland,
and in September UK online retailer and e-commerce marketplace Play.com for £25 million.
After a 2010 UK government decision to impose Value Added Tax on UK-based companies' sales
from the Channel Islands - until then exempt from the tax on shipments of goods worth less
than £18 - Rakuten closed one of three Play.com warehouses on the island of Jersey.
In September, Rakuten took a minority equity stake in Russian online retailer Ozon.ru,dubbed
'Russia's Amazon', which had reported 2010 sales worth US$137 million.
A four-company-strong consortium, led by the Japanese group, invested US$100 million.
Rakuten's stake was not revealed.
2012 Rakuten bought Canadian e-book reader company
Kobo in January.
- a deal not finalized until January 2012.
On 17 May, Rakuten announced that it was leading consortium investing $100 million in the Pinterest
picture sharing social network — its partners were existing investors Andreessen Horowitz,
Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, and a number of investment 'angels'.
That investment marked the start of a drive to expand Pinterest's presence in Japan and
Rakuten’s 17 other global markets.
“While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe
it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and
curate to make the experience more entertaining," said Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten chief executive.
On 13 June, Rakuten bought Wuaki.tv, a Spanish video on demand service/company that is one
of the largest in Europe and the market leader in Spain, where it has over 600,000 registered
users.
That opened new opportunities, directly challenging Amazon, Netflix and others for domination
of the VOD market — at first, in Europe and, later, elsewhere.
In November, Rakuten bought French online retail delivery company Alpha Direct Services.
"Speed and quality of delivery is at the heart of any solid e-commerce proposition," said
the Japanese group's Hiroshi Mikitani.
By late 2012, Rakuten had also moved into online retail in Austria, Canada, Spain, Taiwan
and Thailand and into the online travel markets in France — with Voyager Moins Cher.com —
and China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan — with its Tokyo-based international Rakuten
Travel platform.
In North America, Rakuten Golf made booking tee time online possible.
2013 In May 2013, Rakuten acquired a majority share
in “citizen commerce” site, Daily Grommet, since rebranded as The Grommet.
In June 2013, Rakuten announced its acquisition of U.S.-based logistics and services company
Webgistix.
specializing in fulfillment technology for e-commerce retailers.
The acquisition is Rakuten’s second logistics investment outside of Japan and enables prompt
fulfillment in the U.S.
In September 2013, Rakuten acquired Singapore-based Viki.
The initiative Choice in eCommerce was founded on May 8, 2013 by several online retailers
in Berlin, Germany.
The cause was, in the view of the initiative, sales bans and online restrictions by individual
manufacturers.
The dealers felt cut off from their main sales channel and thus deprived them the opportunity
to use online platforms like Amazon, eBay or Rakuten in a competitive market for the
benefit of their customers.
2014 On February 13, 2014, Rakuten announced they
have acquired Viber for $900 million.
In late 2013, Rakuten Ichiba Japan launched a new scheme that allows US-based e-tailers
to sell on Rakuten's Japanese E-commerce marketplace without a local address, bank account, or
an entity based in Japan.
In an effort to globalize the marketplace, Rakuten Ichiba is expected to welcome more
international sellers in fiscal year 2014.
On May 29, 2014, Rakuten Marketing acquired DC Storm, a UK-based technology company which
specializes in marketing attribution modeling and data-driven marketing.
In September 2014, it was revealed that Rakuten would acquire US rebate site operator Ebates
Inc. for around $1 billion.
Selected subsidiaries (source Rakuten Inc.)
Aquafadas Alpha Direct Services
Dot Commodity, Inc.
Fusion Communications Corp.
Keiba Mall, Inc.
Kenko.com. Inc.
Kobo Inc.
LinkShare Japan K.K.
Net's Partners, Inc.
O-net, Inc.
Play.com Priceminister S.A.S
PT.Rakuten-MNC Rakuten Auction Inc.
Rakuten Austria GmbH Rakuten Baseball, Inc.
Rakuten Bank, Ltd.
Rakuten Brasil Internet Service Ltda.
Rakuten Card Co., Ltd Rakuten Deutschland GmbH
Rakuten Edy, Inc.
Rakuten EMOBILE, Inc.
Rakuten Enterprise Inc.
Rakuten Insurance Planning Co., Ltd.
Rakuten Investment Management, Inc.
Rakuten Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
Rakuten Linkshare Rakuten Logistics, Inc.
Rakuten Loyalty Rakuten Malaysia Sdn.
Bhd.
Rakuten MediaForge, Inc.
Rakuten Research, Inc.
Rakuten Securities, Inc.
Rakuten Shashinkan, Inc.
Rakuten.com Shopping Rakuten ShowTime, Inc.
Rakuten Spain, SL Rakuten Travel, Inc.
Shareee, Inc.
Signature Japan Co., Ltd.
Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba, Inc.
TARAD Dot Com Co., Ltd.
TicketStar Inc.
Wuaki.tv Viber
Viki Webgistix
Credit card fraud In 2013, hundreds of Rakuten customers reported
fraudulent credit card charges after making purchases from the site.
New Jersey police confirmed at least eight victims who were defrauded of $10,000 and
had their social security numbers exposed and used to open accounts at online suppliers.
See also Vissel Kobe
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Japan Open Tennis Championships
Rakuten Institute of Technology Yukihiro Matsumoto
References
Further reading "Stepping out: New Japan v old Japan", The
Economist, June 23, 2011 "Rakuten /Buy.com Fraudulent Use of Credit
Card Info within Company", slickdeals.com, May 9, 2013
External links Rakuten Ichiba
Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba Rakuten Germany
Rakuten company info Indonesian Rakuten review
Rakuten.co.id: Toko online murah, serba ada Barang unik Jepang
Rakuten Singapore Rakuten Malaysia