Rakuten Sees Huge Growth in Malaysia
(Updated on June 24th: We’ve corrected the spokesperson name in this article. We apologize for the inconvenience.)
Today DigitalNewsAsia reports that Japan-based e-commerce site Rakuten (4755:JP) is making solid progress in Malaysia. Not only is the company recording strong growth on its Rakuten.com.my site, but they also revealed their plans in the Asia-Pacific region.
(6月24日更新:記事中のスポークスマンの氏名を修正しました。ご不便をお詫びします。)
今日のDigitalNewsAsiaでは、マレーシアで堅実に前進を続ける、日本のE-コマースサイト楽天(JP4755)を取り上げる。同社はRakuten.com.myで驚異的な成長を記録しているだけでなく、アジア太平洋地域における自社計画を明らかにした。
Since opening its shopping platform in Malaysia in November last year with 11,000 goods, the Rakuten Malaysia site now boasts 40,000 products with a 30 percent monthly total product growth. The site now has 130 merchants using the open platform, and is seeing a 25 percent monthly member increase. When it comes to online orders, the site has surpassed 400 percent growth.
What are Rakuten’s strategies inside the Malaysian market? The same report cites Toru Shimada, senior executive officer and director of Rakuten Inc., as saying that they are investing most of their resources to educate the merchants and bring them seamlessly into the digital commerce world. For example, Rakuten has a team of in-house consultants dedicated to help merchants set up their stores on Rakuten Malaysia.
The team is now looking for more strategic partnerships to help its marketing effort in Malaysia. Some of them include an official Rakuten Malaysia account on messaging app Line, and buddying up with Malaysian telco Celcom. Rakuten targets 50 percent growth to its merchant acquisition as well as nailing its target growth in 2013.
Asia-Pacific adventures
The report also talks about Rakuten’s plans in Asia-Pacific as a whole. After making its presence felt in Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as setting up its headquarters in Singapore, Rakuten is now focusing on strengthening its financial and human resources. The acquisition of more payment partners is also on the roadmap.
記事はまた、アジア太平洋地域一帯におけるRakutenの計画を話題にしている。シンガポールに本社を設立するのと同時に、タイ、台湾、インドネシア、マレーシアにおける存在感を強めて以降、現在のRakutenは財力と人材の強化に努めている。提携する決済業者のさらなる獲得もロードマップに含まれている。
The company has had a rather more unstable presence in neighboring country Indonesia with a reported split up with its joint venture partner MNC. But Rakuten has since dismissed that claim and told everybody that they’re doing fine in Indonesia as well. Besides Southeast Asia, the e-commerce company is also pushing its e-store platform in the US having recently changed its name from Buy.com.