Rakuten : +14.7% in sales over nine months

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Nov 7, 2014

The Japanese e-commerce giant has posted a 14.7% increase in sales amounting to 3.1 billion euros (424 billion yen) for the nine month period closed at the end of September. Net earnings went up 16%.

Good results considering Japan has been slow emerging from the crisis. Indeed, the Japanese archipelago is still far from being the group's main source of revenue, a group with a presence abroad through subsidiaries like the French PriceMinister.

An international ambition which is currently aimed at the United States, despite the difficulties encountered in this very competitive market. In search of local growth, Rakuten has recently launched a portal dedicated to clothing sales, in direct competition with eBay, Amazon and the Chinese Alibaba. 

The group also highlights the pursual of its strategic operations, particularly in the communications domain. The most obvious example being the recent acquisition of the telephone App Viber, which will give the group more international legitimacy as well as a jolt to its name.

For its 2013 financial year, Rakuten generated revenue of 3.8 billion euros (518 billion yens). A 29.5% increase over one year. The company employs more than 10,000 people in the world.