Rakuten

Rakuten

URL	global.rakuten.com/group/
Launched	1997
Current status	Active

CEO Hiroshi Mikitani

Rakuten, Inc. (楽天株式会社, Rakuten Kabushiki-gaisha^?) (JASDAQ: 4755) is the biggest online shopping mall operator in Japan^[1] with over 72 million registered users. The chief executive officer is Hiroshi Mikitani. The company has its headquarters in the Shinagawa Seaside Rakuten Tower (品川シーサイド楽天タワー, Shinagawa Shīsaido Rakuten Tawā^?) in Higashi Shinagawa, Shinagawa, Tokyo.^[2][3]

The company was founded in February 1997 as MDM, Inc. Rakuten Shopping Mall (楽天市場, Rakuten Ichiba^?) started operations in May the same year. In June 1999 MDM, Inc. changed its name to Rakuten, Inc. By June 2004 it was the second ranking site in Japan, as measured by unique audience, with only Yahoo! having more monthly visits.

Rakuten's 2010 revenues exceeded US$4.2 billion (JPY 346.1 billion) with operating profits of approximately US$782M (JPY 63.7 billion). The company is publicly-traded (JASDAQ: 4755) with a market capitalization exceeding US$10 billion (JPY 1 trillion) and more than 10,000 employees worldwide as of December 2010. Rakuten ranks amongst the top 10 Internet companies in the world (along with Google, Amazon, eBay, Baidu, Yahoo, etc.).

Lines of business

The Rakuten Group is a diversified Internet services group with business activities divided into six businesses:

1. E-Commerce Marketplace, managing Japan's largest online retail marketplace;
2. Credit and Payments, offering personal consumer credit services including consumer loan card payment and loans
3. Portal and Media, managing portal sites—which act as the gateway to the internet—and performing other activities;
4. Travel, operating hotel booking and other travel-related websites and providing other services;
5. Securities, providing services such as online securities brokerage; and
6. Professional Sports, managing a professional baseball team, planning and selling related merchandise and performing other activities.

The company holds a leadership position (#1 or #2, based on key industry metrics) in each of the businesses within the core segments.

Rakuten's online shopping business, Rakuten Ichiba, is the largest online shopping mall in Japan, and allows customers to shop more than 85 million products from over 36,000 merchants. As part of its Internationalization efforts, Rakuten Ichiba has started offering international shipping.

Recent developments

In October 2005, Rakuten surprised the business world by buying a 15.46% stake in Tokyo Broadcasting System, raising their ownership to over 19%, and they also planned to merge with the broadcast company. Rakuten eventually withdrew its bid and divested its shareholdings.^{[citation needed]}

In recent years, Rakuten has broadened its business interests outside of Japan. Rakuten was a significant shareholder in Ctrip, a Chinese travel site. In August 2007, Rakuten sold their shareholding in Ctrip. In addition, Rakuten acquired Linkshare, a New York-based company, dealing in sales and marketing performance analysis.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010, in an effort to increase its global competitiveness, Rakuten announced its intention to make English the company’s official language by mid-2012.^[4][5] That year, Rakuten also acquired top French e-commerce site Priceminister for €200 million^[6] and US-based Buy.com for US$250 million.^[7] The company also announced joint ventures with Baidu in China (Lekutian) and with MNC Group in Indonesia (Rakuten Belanja Online).

After launching Rakuten Belanja Online service on June 1, 2011, Rakuten began to speed up its global expansion efforts, starting with its acquisition of Brazilian e-commerce firm Ikeda (now Rakuten Brazil) that same month. In July, it acquired e-commerce startup Tradoria in Germany and in September purchased UK e-commerce pioneer Play.com for £25 million.^[8]

In September 2011, Rakuten purchased a minority equity stake in Russian online retailer Ozon.ru. The total infusion of capital was US$100 million divided between four buyers, of which Rakuten was one. Rakuten's stake is unknown. ^[9]

In November 2011 Rakuten signed an agreement to purchase the ebook company Kobo.^[10]

See also

• Vissel Kobe
• Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
• Japan Open Tennis Championships
• Rakuten Institute of Technology
• Yukihiro Matsumoto

References

1. ^ 「中信、楽天と業務提携 出店希望の融資先を紹介」Kyoto Shimbun Web News、2008年12月4日。
2. ^ "Company Overview." Rakuten. Retrieved on February 3, 2011. "”Rakuten Tower” (Headquarters) Shinagawa Seaside Rakuten Tower, 4-12-3 Higashishinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 140-0002 (MAP)."
3. ^ "Rakuten Tower." (Direct map image link) Rakuten. Retrieved on February 3, 2011.
4. ^ "Rakuten to hold all formal internal meetings in English | The Japan Times Online". Search.japantimes.co.jp. 2010-05-18. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100518a3.html. Retrieved 2011-10-04. 
5. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
6. ^ Wauters, Robin (2010-06-17). "Rakuten to acquire France’s PriceMinister for approximately €200 million". Eu.techcrunch.com. http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/06/17/rakuten-to-acquire-frances-priceminister-for-approximately-e200-million/. Retrieved 2011-10-04. 
7. ^ posted on May 20th, 2010 (2010-05-20). "Buy.com Gets Acquired By Japanese E-Commerce Giant Rakuten For $250 Million". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/20/buy-com-gets-acquired-by-japanese-e-commerce-giant-rakuten-for-250-million/. Retrieved 2011-10-04. 
8. ^ Published Wednesday, Sep 21 2011, 12:43 BST (2011-09-21). "Play.com bought by Japanese firm Rakuten for £25m - Media News". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/news/a341548/playcom-bought-by-japanese-firm-rakuten-for-gbp25m.html. Retrieved 2011-10-04. 
9. ^ "японская школа торговли". Expert Magazine, Russia. http://expert.ru/expert/2011/37/yaponskaya-shkola-torgovli/. 
10. ^ http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/08/rakuten-signs-agreement-to-purchase-kobo/

External links

• Rakuten Ichiba (Japanese)
• Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba (Chinese)
• Rakuten company info