Rakuten

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Rakuten, Inc. (楽天株式会社, Rakuten Kabushiki-gaisha^?) (JASDAQ: 4755) is one of the biggest online shopping mall operators in Japan. The chief executive officer is Hiroshi Mikitani.

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 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 2005 revenues exceeded US$1.1 billion with operating profits of approximately $320M. The company is publicly-traded ((JASDAQ: 4755) with a market capitalization ranging from $5B+ and more than 3,700 employees. Rakuten is among the Top 10 largest Internet companies in the world (along with Amazon, InterActive Corporation (IAC), Expedia, etc.)

1 Lines of Business
2 Rakuten auction incident
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Lines of Business

The Rakuten Group is a diversified Internet services group with business activities divided into six businesses: (1) E-Commerce Marketplace, managing an 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 18 million products from over 18,000 merchants.

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 now plans to form an alliance with TBS.

In recent years, Rakuten has broadened its business interests outside of the Japan. Rakuten is a significant shareholder in Ctrip, the leading Chinese travel site. In addition, Rakuten acquired LinkShare (www.linkshare.com), a New York-based company, which is the leader in the growing market for performance based marketing services such as affiliate marketing.

[edit] Rakuten auction incident

In 13, November 2006, Rakuten had stopped Furima (Free market) auction and started anonymous auction, tie-up with NTT DoCoMo. It made a lot of trouble for auction users. Although its sales point is high anonymity, it becomes cause of swindle. Its auction system is complicated and difficult. Shipping is only You-pack　ゆうパック, Pospaketポスパケット, Registered You-pack　書留ゆうパック are only allowed by Rakuten. It's too limited choice of transportation and add extra cost 150 Yen. Therefore least shipping cost is 550 Yen that is too high cost for transportation. All users have to follow Rakuten Anshin Torihiki (Rakuten safety trade) rule except shops that pay monthly rent to Rakuten.

Rakuten auction is totally different system from average internet action as Yahoo auction, eBay and doesn't have any proof to prevent illegal copy products and bootlegs. Evenryone can get Rakuten ID by free mail as hotmail or Yahoo mail and there is not any confirmation of users plus anonymity cause it became "nest of swindlers". And Rakuten keeps money from buyers for a month so suspected plunder and Money laundering.