Rakuten Group, Inc.

Rakuten Group, Inc. is a global technology company founded in Tokyo in 1997 as an online marketplace. It now operates a membership ecosystem of more than 70 businesses spanning e-commerce, fintech, digital content, communications and professional sports, with services used by roughly 1.7 billion people across 30 countries. The company employs nearly 32,000 people.

Its technical footprint is largely self-built. Rakuten develops its own mobile network infrastructure, payment and fintech platforms, and AI systems in-house rather than adopting off-the-shelf products - a build-it-yourself engineering approach applied across domains that include e-commerce platforms, fintech and payment systems, mobile networks, AI systems, digital content and communications. The founding marketplace has since been joined by services designed to work together across the ecosystem.

Among its consumer-facing products, the Cash Back programme has returned more than $4.6 billion to members since 1999. The company's name means 'optimism' in Japanese, a meaning it cites as shaping its philosophy; its stated mission is contributing to society through innovation and entrepreneurship. From a single marketplace launched in Tokyo, the business has grown into a portfolio of over 70 companies.