Conglomerate / Trading HouseJapan
← Sticker Wall
JOURNEY · DETAIL
Rakuten, Japan's Largest E-commerce Ecosystem Group
Founded: Hiroshi Mikitani (Born March 11, 1965, in Kobe; Graduated from Hitotsubashi University, Faculty of Commerce; MBA from Harvard Business School; Former employee of the Industrial Bank of Japan) · Rakuten Group, Inc.
JOURNEY
Key Fields
FIELD STAMPSIndustryConglomerate / Trading House
RegionJapan
ScaleGiant
ChannelOther
Origin
Following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake that devastated Kobe, Hiroshi Mikitani witnessed the widespread destruction and resolved to help revitalize the Japanese economy through business, resigning from the Industrial Bank of Japan after eight years. In 1996, after researching various internet business models, he decided to build an online shopping mall. On February 7, 1997, he and several partners invested 250,000 USD to found MDM, Inc. On May 1, 1997, they launched Rakuten Ichiba. Initially starting with only 13 shops and 6 employees, it was positioned as a B2B2C merchant-hosted mall, sitting between eBay and Amazon. Renamed Rakuten in 1999, it went public on JASDAQ in 2000. This origin defined Rakuten not as a direct-to-consumer retailer, but as a platform model, with its membership loyalty point ecosystem as its core.
Milestones
1997
Rakuten's Inception Growth
On February 7, 1997, Hiroshi Mikitani and his partners invested 250,000 USD to establish MDM, Inc. On May 1, they launched Rakuten Ichiba, a B2B2C merchant-hosted mall. Starting with only 13 shops and 6 employees, they maintained cash flow through a 5,000 JPY monthly merchant fee model. The company was renamed Rakuten in 1999.
2000
JASDAQ Growth
Rakuten went public on the JASDAQ market, raising approximately 18 billion JPY and becoming one of Japan's first internet companies to list. Following the valuation surge, Mikitani was hailed as a pioneer of the Japanese internet, and a market cap of around 200 million USD began supporting his ambitions for diversification into finance, travel, and sports.
2010
Englishnization Turning Point
In 2010, Mikitani announced 'Englishnization,' a policy to make English the company's official working language within two years. Despite public ridicule from veteran Japanese entrepreneurs like the president of Honda, he persisted, and the case was later featured in the Harvard Business Review. During this period, the company began acquiring overseas e-commerce firms like Buy.com and PriceMinister to drive global expansion.
2014
Acquisition of Viber Inflection Point
Rakuten acquired the Cyprus-registered instant messaging app Viber for 900 million USD. This was seen as a major step away from pure e-commerce toward becoming a social communication empire. However, post-acquisition, Viber struggled in competition with WhatsApp and LINE, with user growth and monetization failing to meet expectations.
2018
Mobile Commercialization Growth
Rakuten Mobile officially launched as Japan's fourth mobile operator, introducing a fully cloud-native Open RAN network. It entered a market dominated by the 'Big Three' (NTT Docomo, KDDI, SoftBank) with a low-price strategy. While initial coverage was poor and outages frequent, it was recognized as the world's first fully virtualized mobile network experiment.
2020
Full Mobile Commercialization Turning Point
Rakuten Mobile launched nationwide, offering free unlimited data plans to capture users. However, construction costs and roaming payments to KDDI skyrocketed. Between 2020 and 2024, the business accumulated over 1 trillion JPY in EBITDA losses, becoming the primary source of the group's overall deficit, with the stock price falling over 70% from its 2020 peak.
2025
Mobile Profitability Growth
In Q2 FY2025, Rakuten Mobile recorded its first quarterly positive EBITDA of approximately 5.6 billion JPY (38 million USD). Full-year FY2025 EBITDA turned positive for the first time, and FY2026 Q1 continued this trend. Macquarie upgraded the stock based on these results, signaling that the mobile business had finally reached a turning point after years of losses.
2025
Sale of JCOM Turning Point
Rakuten sold its cable TV operator JCOM to the private equity firm KKR for approximately 660 billion JPY to raise capital to cover mobile losses and maturing debt, while retaining a virtual mobile (MVNO) partnership with JCOM. This asset disposal marked a strategic move to cut losses under financial pressure.
Turning Points
- After the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, Mikitani left banking to start a business, launching Rakuten Ichiba in 1997 with 13 shops, establishing the foundation for an 'enchanted' platform.
- In 2010, Mikitani announced 'Englishnization' and initiated global acquisitions of Buy.com, PriceMinister, and Ebates to pivot toward internationalization.
- In 2014, the 900 million USD acquisition of Viber marked a shift into social communication, though integration failures left Viber struggling against WhatsApp and LINE.
- Starting in 2018, Rakuten Mobile entered the market as the fourth operator with a fully cloud-native Open RAN network, with cumulative losses exceeding 1 trillion JPY over five years, weighing down the entire group.
- In Q2 2025, Rakuten Mobile's EBITDA turned positive for the first time, and the March sale of JCOM for 660 billion JPY provided a capital injection, signaling a turning point for the mobile strategy.
Failures & Pitfalls
- The 900 million USD acquisition of Viber in 2014 failed to compete with WhatsApp and LINE, suffering from stagnant user growth and disappointing monetization, becoming a classic case of a failed overseas acquisition.
- Rakuten Mobile's cumulative EBITDA loss of over 1 trillion JPY between 2018 and 2024 caused the stock price to drop over 70% from its 2020 peak, placing a heavy burden on the group's finances.
- Many overseas e-commerce acquisitions, such as Buy.com, Ebates, and PriceMinister, failed to meet expectations due to integration difficulties, with some being sold or merged out of existence.
- Overseas businesses like Viber and Kobo remained disconnected from the core Japanese e-commerce business, with global ecosystem synergies falling far short of Mikitani's vision.
关键成功要素
- Rakuten Ichiba's B2B2C platform model, utilizing a monthly merchant fee system, created stable cash flow and avoided the risks of heavy asset-based inventory.
- After the 2000 IPO, Rakuten used its loyalty point system to integrate malls, credit cards, banking, securities, and travel, creating a membership ecosystem flywheel.
- Japanese e-commerce users show high loyalty; Rakuten points and membership cards drive high-frequency usage among over 100 million members, with average annual spending per member exceeding 200,000 JPY.
- Rakuten Mobile broke the myth of the capital-intensive telecom industry by using the world's first fully cloud-native Open RAN network, reducing technical costs to less than 50% of traditional networks.
- Rakuten Symphony packages self-developed Open RAN solutions for global telecom operators, turning the technology accumulated from telecom losses into a new B2B growth engine.
Lessons
- Cross-industry expansion from e-commerce to telecommunications is a high-risk endeavor; the long-term, capital-intensive losses of a mobile business can consume years of group profits, requiring extreme caution.
- Overseas acquisitions require genuine local integration capabilities; purely financial acquisitions struggle to overcome the moats of local leaders like WhatsApp and LINE.
- Although mocked, the decision to implement 'Englishnization' ultimately provided Rakuten with a global talent pool, proving that domestic reform requires top-level resolve.
- While Open RAN technology incurs massive short-term losses, it can become a long-term, disruptive strategic asset, with global exports allowing for the recovery of initial investments.
- The point ecosystem and membership system are the roots of platform stickiness; once users form habits across multiple services, a strong competitive moat is built.
Core Data
- 创立时间：February 1997 (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 上市年份：2000 (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 2023年集团成交额：7.5 trillion JPY (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 集团经营亏损(2023年)：Approx. 300 billion JPY (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 乐天移动累计亏损：Over 1 trillion JPY (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 集团员工数(2017)：14,000 (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 会员数(2017)：100 million (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 乐天市场店铺数(2017)：42,000 (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- JCOM出售金额：660 billion JPY (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 股价跌幅(高点到2025)：Over 70% (Based on public data, not independently verified)
- 乐天Viber收购金额：900 million USD (Based on public data, not independently verified)
Competitors / Peers
In the domestic Japanese e-commerce market, Rakuten's most direct competitor is Amazon Japan. As of 2025, Amazon is narrowing the GMV gap with Rakuten, while the company also faces pressure from new Chinese entrants like SHEIN and Temu in cross-border trade. In the financial sector, Rakuten Securities competes in a three-way race with SBI Securities and Monex, while Rakuten Bank competes with SBI Shinsei Bank and Sony Bank. As the fourth mobile operator, Rakuten Mobile competes against the 'Big Three' (NTT Docomo, KDDI au, SoftBank), capturing approximately 5% market share through its cloud-native architecture and low-price strategy. Globally, Viber competes with WhatsApp, Telegram, and LINE, and is clearly at a disadvantage. Rakuten Symphony competes with Open RAN vendors like Mavenir and Parallel Wireless in the global next-gen telecom infrastructure market, where cloud giants like AWS and Microsoft are also entering.