DeNA, the company behind one of the big three social networking sites in Japan, Mobage-Town (20m users in Japan), cannot be clearer on its current strategy. It’s called international expansion. Everyone is abuzz of today’s acquisition of Ngmoco, an US iPhone game developer for a staggering USD 400m. The big tide in social gaming is… Continue reading Will DeNA Crack The Japanese Code For International Expansion?
Tag: Rakuten
Report: Rakuten To Link Japan And Taiwan Online Malls
Japan’s biggest business daily, The Nikkei, today reports that the country’s biggest e-commerce company, Rakuten, is planning to links its Japanese and Taiwanese online malls so that customers from these countries can order products from both Japan- and Taiwan-based merchants. According to the paper, the integration will take place by the end of this year.… Continue reading Report: Rakuten To Link Japan And Taiwan Online Malls
The 2010 Most Popular Company For Japanese Job Seekers Is Google
Japanese outplacement firm Intelligence [J] released their research of what companies people want to join next [J], done on 5,000 of office workers between age 25 to 34. On the ranking, Google jumped up from 2009’s third position because of good feeling to their “innovation” and “potential”. 2010 Rank in 2009 Company 1 3 Google… Continue reading The 2010 Most Popular Company For Japanese Job Seekers Is Google
Rakuten Subsidizes French No.1 E-Commerce Company PriceMinister
Rakuten has just announced [J, pdf] that they bought 100% of French E-commerce company PriceMinister S.A. The purchase is planned to done in July 2010 for 200 million Euro (22.5 billion yen). Rakuten established their European branch S.a.r.l. in Luxembourg in 2008. That company will handle this acquisition. Rakuten has been actively adding its oversea… Continue reading Rakuten Subsidizes French No.1 E-Commerce Company PriceMinister
Rakuten Announced Its Chinese Brand Name
Japanese e-shopping mall colossus Rakuten, who are cooperating with China No.1 Search Engine Baidu to open joint e-mall in Chinese web, disclosed their Chinese name [J]. The three Chinese letters, pronounced the same “Rakuten” are consist of original “Rakuten” in Japanese two letters and a new letter at the middle of original two. The first… Continue reading Rakuten Announced Its Chinese Brand Name
Breaking News: Rakuten To Launch E-Commerce Business With Media Giant In Indonesia
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten just announced today it would launch a joint venture with Indonesian media conglomerate Global Mediacom to run a e-commerce platform service in the country. Rakuten takes 51% stake in the joint venture which is capitalized at USD4.3M. The joint venture will start the service in the latter half of this year… Continue reading Breaking News: Rakuten To Launch E-Commerce Business With Media Giant In Indonesia
English, Please: Rakuten Bans Japanese As Corporate Language From Internal Meetings
I know we’re a tad late on this, but Japan’s No. 1 e-commerce company Rakuten announced earlier this week that all internal meetings will be held in English from now on. To say this is rare move for a Japanese web company (or any kind of company) would be a big understatement. Rakuten has ramped… Continue reading English, Please: Rakuten Bans Japanese As Corporate Language From Internal Meetings
Rakuten To Go Global By Acquiring Buy.com for USD250M
Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten announced today that it would acquire U.S.-based e-commerce portal Buy.com for USD250M. Buy.com will be a subsidiary wholly owned by Rakuten next month. Buy.com has 14 million consumers and more than 1,000 stores in North America. Rakuten is running e-commerce business in Taiwan[C] and Thailand[TH], and also preparing for launching… Continue reading Rakuten To Go Global By Acquiring Buy.com for USD250M
Amazon Envy II: Rakuten now wants to produce hardware (a barcode scanner)
Another case of Amazon envy from Rakuten, Japan’s biggest online shopping “mall”? It seems so. According to various reports, Rakuten is currently pondering the development of a barcode scanner. One of the reason for Rakuten to get into the hardware business – according to a company representative quoted by The Nikkei (“Japan’s Wall Street Journal”)… Continue reading Amazon Envy II: Rakuten now wants to produce hardware (a barcode scanner)
Amazon Envy: Rakuten Builds Own Distribution Centers
Big shake-up in Japan’s $70 billion e-commerce market: Rakuten, Japan’s leading virtual mall (over 30,000 merchants, over 50 million customer accounts), is about to launch an attack against its biggest (yet indirect) rival), Amazon Japan. The biggest difference between the two sites is that Rakuten is a B2B2C platform without a warehousing function. But that’s… Continue reading Amazon Envy: Rakuten Builds Own Distribution Centers