Rakuten Purchases The Name Of Miyagi Baseball Stadium For Kobo

NHK reported that Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, who owns a professional baseball team Tohoku Rakuten Goleden Eagles in the top leagues, purchased the naming right of the home stadium in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture. Wikipedia: Jet-0 The Miyagi Stadium, which name has been Kleenex Stadium Miyagi, will be changed to Rakuten Kobo Stadium. It must be… Continue reading Rakuten Purchases The Name Of Miyagi Baseball Stadium For Kobo

Japan’s 4th Largest Convenience Chain-store To Use Rakuten Super Points

According to Sankei reported [J], Circle-K-Sunkus, the 4th largest convenience chain-store, announced on November 17th that it would replace its own reward points system with e-commerce giant Rakuten’s Rakuten Super Points. Sales ranking of convenience store chains (2011) These 4 groups occupied nearly 90% of domestic market. chains sales(billion yen) Seven Eleven 3281 Lawson 1826… Continue reading Japan’s 4th Largest Convenience Chain-store To Use Rakuten Super Points

Nisshin Cup Noodle’s New TVCM Cynical About (Presumably) Rakuten

Rakuten’s Englishnization has been causing wide repercussions among Japanese business people. Nisshin’s new commercial film “Survive! Globalization” depicts a Japanese company whose head forces his guys to work in English in cynic tone. # Nisshin’s special site seems to have its own video player and no official uploaded video are on YouTube. There are some… Continue reading Nisshin Cup Noodle’s New TVCM Cynical About (Presumably) Rakuten

Rakuten’s New Grocery Delivery Service Expantion Troubled In Poor Operation

Rakuten Mart, a new online grocery delivery service run by Japan’s giant e-commerce mall company Rakuten, expanded its delivery areas in Greater Tokyo on March 11, is failing to deliver the ordered foods, lots of bad reviews start circulating on the web. Rakuten’s own review service is getting harsh reviews, many tells that their ordering… Continue reading Rakuten’s New Grocery Delivery Service Expantion Troubled In Poor Operation

Rakuten Starts Featuring Pinterest On Its Japanese Marketplace And Other Properties

Japan’s biggest e-commerce company Rakuten (US$15 billion market cap, about 80 million user accounts in Japan) has started featuring Pinterest on some of its biggest websites yesterday. Big R caused a major splash in back in May when it led a massive US$100 million investment in the American startup. Rakuten CEO Mikitani was quoted as… Continue reading Rakuten Starts Featuring Pinterest On Its Japanese Marketplace And Other Properties

Rakuten Announced Kobo Touch For Japan, Priced 7980 Yen(US$99)

Rakuten is having a press conference now, just announced that they release Kobo Touch e-book reader for Japanese market, with a price 7,980 yen ($US 99). Rakuten, and its e-commerce/e-book rival Amazon announced their e-book readers coming to Japan on the last Tuesday, June 26th. The sales will start on July 19, pre-order starts today… Continue reading Rakuten Announced Kobo Touch For Japan, Priced 7980 Yen(US$99)

Rakuten Launches Teaser Site For Kobo e-Book Reader In Japan

Some time on the exact same day when Amazon Japan informed its customers Kindle coming to Japan market, Rakuten, the nation’s largest e-mall platform, is turned out to launch an information site of its e-book reader Kobo, which Rakuten bought November 2011. The site has a single page with Kobo Touch eReader image, which has… Continue reading Rakuten Launches Teaser Site For Kobo e-Book Reader In Japan

LinkedIn Chairman-Rakuten CEO Talk Livestreamed Soon

LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman is visiting Tokyo to promote his book “The Start-up of You” Japanese version (“Staato Appu!”). Ustream announced [J] that they are to broadcast Hoffman and Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani’s talk tonight soon from 19:00 (Japan Standard Time). The talk theme is “Startup in Japan”. There are English channel and Japanese channel… Continue reading LinkedIn Chairman-Rakuten CEO Talk Livestreamed Soon

Rakuten To Purchase 51% Of Online Pharmacy Kenko.com

On the same day when Rakuten’s investment on Pinterest reported (Rakuten announced it officially on today May 18.), the Japan’s largest online mall also announced another domestic investment. On May 15, Rakuten and Online pharmacy company Kenko.com (kenko = health in Japanese) jointly announced [J, pdf] that they agreed on business alliance, as well as… Continue reading Rakuten To Purchase 51% Of Online Pharmacy Kenko.com