Rakuten Group: Striving to be the Leading Internet Services Company Worldwide

Rakuten Group has launched Rakuten Ichiba as an online shopping mall that pioneered the B2B2C marketplace. It is a virtual marketplace where retailers can offer their products and consumers can place orders. Since its founding in 1997, Rakuten Group has strived to empower people and be the leading internet services company in the world.

At the time of Rakuten’s founding, online retailers looked like web catalogs. Few people believed that consumers would purchase their stuff online. Rakuten believed otherwise. In spite of the negative opinions about internet shopping sites, Rakuten Ichiba was launched to provide a platform for ordinary people who are skilled with retailing to open their own internet shopping sites. This platform is user-friendly and devoid far from being a savvy online shopping platform. The traffic and expertise provided by the platform is empowering small scale online retailers to become successful in their businesses.

Rakuten had a noble mission: to let consumers experience the “joy of discovery” by way of online shopping. That’s why Rakuten created an environment where personal, informative, exciting and engaging interaction similar to the real life marketplace can happen between retailers and consumers.

Aside from Rakuten Ichiba which is the Group’s flagship e-commerce business, expansions to diverse businesses were also undertaken such as pro sports, online marketing, portal media, e-money, credit cards, securities, banking, travel, and e-Books and e-Reading. These businesses are integrated through the Group’s loyalty membership programs.

Rakuten Group is also going global with its Rakuten Ecosystem. The Group’s travel, e-Books and e-Reading, and e-commerce businesses are entering the marketplaces of Asia, Europe, Oceania and Americas. With its entrance in the global markets, Rakuten Group holds on to its business philosophy of empowering people through the internet so that Rakuten Group would indeed become the leading internet services company in the world and realize the dream of a global Rakuten Ecosystem.