Rakuten purchase and rebranding (2010–2020)
In May 2010, Buy.com was acquired by Rakuten, Inc., the largest e-commerce retailer in Japan,[3][15] for $250 million in cash.[16][17] This was considered Rakuten's attempt to enter the American e-retail market,[16] and to compete globally with e-commerce competitors such as Amazon.com and eBay.[3] At the time, Rakuten in Japan had 64 million members,[16] and Buy.com had 14 million customers, mostly located in the US and Europe. Half its products were sold directly to customers and half were sold through other e-commerce businesses using its online store.[3][16]
On January 10, 2013, Rakuten announced the official rebranding of Buy.com to Rakuten.com Shopping,[18] which became effective on January 31, 2013.[19] On the site, rebranded as Rakuten.com, there were a series of unique virtual storefronts for shoppers to browse and connect online,[17] with the focus on providing high quality, unique merchandise, and a shopper- and merchant-friendly experience.[15] Each seller within Rakuten.com's marketplace could customize their page's layouts, photos and promotions, and can communicate with customers directly.[15] With the rebranding, the site was populated entirely by individual merchants, whereas previous iterations of Buy.com had just a portion of the site devoted to independent sellers.[20] Rakuten also launched e-commerce sites in Germany, Brazil, France, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Austria, Russia, Canada and the United Kingdom.[15]
On September 9, 2014, Rakuten announced the purchase of San Francisco–based online rebate site Ebates.com for $1 billion in cash. The acquisition of Ebates, a website that allows customers to earn cash back when shopping online with over 2,600 retailers, gave Rakuten.com additional presence in the US e-commerce market, as well as a way to offer items such as online e-coupons.[22][23]
In March 2015, Rakuten.com partnered with Bitnet to accept bitcoin as payment.[24][25]
On August 12, 2020, Rakuten.com sent an email to its customers stating that it would be closing its US operations as of September 15, 2020: "Rakuten's United States marketplace service located at Rakuten.com/shop will stop taking orders from September 15, 2020".
