Japanese company Rakuten is embarrassing eBay

Japanese company Rakuten is embarrassing eBay

Rakuten is the biggest e-commerce company in Japan. It's not an Amazon or an eBay, instead it has its own unique B2B2C model. Basically, existing shops, sellers and companies can set up storefronts on Rakuten.
Because it doesn't own inventory, it can post reliable 20% net margins, giving it a huge war chest as it seeks to expand into e-commerce in other categories. And expand it has. Rakuten built a partnership with Baidu in China, a very smart idea as Baidu needs commerce expertise and Rakuten needs a Chinese partner, and it has acquired Buy.com in the US, and in Europe PriceMinister, the biggest e-commerce site in France. Clearly Rakuten has global ambitions, and it shouldn't be discounted.