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Rakuten and Baidu open online shopping mall
22
Oct
Oct
Japan's top eCommerce site Rakuten and Chinese search engine Baidu have opened an online shopping mall.
The B2B2C (business to business to consumer) platform, named Lekutian, was previously open to vendors for registration. Now, there are currently more than 2,000 registered sellers.
The objective of the site is to become China's top eCommerce platform. Alibaba's marketplace Taobao currently holds 75% of all online transactions operated in China in Q2, according to Beijing-based consulting firm Analysys International.
Products sold on the platform mostly come from Chinese and foreign SMEs. Lekutian will help businesses to market their products.
Rakuten's CEO expects that revenue generated by Lekutian will overtake Rakuten's revenue in Japan. Latest June, Rakuten bought French eCommerce site Priceminister.com for about 200 million euros.
Lekutian must benefit of Priceminister's experience in eCommerce, notably with tools to monitor vendors and detect counterfeit goods.
Rakuten acquires French eCommerce leader PriceMinister
18
Jun
Jun
Japan's online mall giant Rakuten acquires French number one online eCommerce platform PriceMinister for about 200 million euros.
Rakuten buys France's biggest eCommerce platform
Rakuten which is Japan’s biggest online shopping mall operator will acquire the entire stake in PriceMinister which is France's biggest online shopping platform in terms of monthly visitors.
The 200 million euro acquisition is expected to be finalized in July.
Launched in 2000, PriceMinister had 10 million registered members and revenue of 40 million euros in 2009. The Paris-based company also provides services in the UK and Spain.
Rakuten wants to be a global company
With this acquisition, Rakuten enters the European eCommerce market after it recently bought US online retailer Buy.com for approximatively the same price ($250M).
In addition, the Chinese online shopping market is also part of Rakuten's plans: the Japanese company established a joint venture with the Chinese search engine Baidu to launch an eCommerce platform in China.
Moreover, Rakuten also signed a deal with Indonesian media conglomerate PT Global Mediacom to launch a local eCommerce network through a joint-venture in the second half of 2010.
With these several acquisitions and partnerships, the Japenese company clearly wants to expand internationally since Japan's eCommerce market is mature.
World eCommerce market on the move
At the same time, Rakuten's rivals, China's largest e-retailer Taobao and Yahoo! Japan, have joined forces to launch the world's largest cross-border e-Commerce platform.
World e-Commerce market is undergoing moves, especially in Asia where growth is driven by countries such as China (see our previous post about statistics of China's e-Commerce).
US actors like Ebay and Amazon have been rather discrete till now but they will have to react if they want to be still parts of the worldwide eCommerce race.
Baidu and Rakuten launch their e-Commerce platform 'Le Ku Tian'
11
Jun
Jun
The Chinese search engine company Baidu and the Japanese online retailer Rakuten opened their e-Commerce platform Rakuten.com.cn, named 'Le Ku Tian'. Vendors can now register on the website.
The B2B2C joint venture between the two companies who invested USD 50 million in the establishment, was announced last January, Rakuten owning 51% and Baidu owning 49% of the venture.
The online service platform was given the Chinese name 'Le Ku Tian'. The reasons for adopting it were because its pronunciation is similar to Rakuten, and it is also a Chinese name representing happiness, Koichi Nakamura CEO of Rakuten.com.cn explained.
The Baidu-Rakuten joint venture wants to serve small and medium sized enterprises to take advantage of the Chinese e-Commerce market. To attract more partners, several business promotion campaigns will take place soon in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Chengdu, and Qingdao.
Le Ku Tian online service is expected to become one of China's biggest e-Commerce platforms in the long run. Chinese e-Commerce market is undergoing tremendous growth (see our previous post about statistics of China's e-Commerce) and some other actors have gathered: Taobao and Yahoo! Japan have recently joined forces to create the world's largest cross-border e-Commerce platform.
