Centered around the online retail marketplace Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing Fintech, digital content and communications services such as the messaging app Viber, e-book distributor Kobo, and Japan's fourth-most used mobile carrier, Rakuten Mobile.

[4] Rakuten was the official sponsor of the Spanish football club FC Barcelona from 2017 until 2022,[5][6] and the Golden State Warriors of the NBA as of 2022.

[7] Some past significant investments include Buy.com (now Rakuten.com in the US), Priceminister (France, now Rakuten.fr),[8] Ikeda, Tradoria, Play.com, Wuaki.tv, Pinterest,[9] Ebates, Viki, The Grommet.

The service was offered for a smaller fee than the larger Internet malls were charging, and merchants were given more control, such as the ability to customize their storefronts on the site.

[11][15][16] At the time, the online marketplace had 2,300 stores and 95 million page views per month, making it one of the most popular sites in Japan.

[19] Rakuten card holders are part of a point-based membership programme and can use those points to make purchases on the Internet mall.

[11] Around 2011, Rakuten started heavily expanding outside of Japan, with prominent moves including a stake in Canadian e-book maker Kobo Inc. and an investment in Pinterest.

To increase its global competitiveness, and to better incorporate non-Japanese speakers, Rakuten decided to adopt English as the company's official language starting in 2012.

[25] In September 2014, Rakuten bought Ebates for $1 billion to enter online shopping membership rewards in Canada, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.

[26] In January 2015, Rakuten entered the sport of football by acquiring Vissel Kobe, a top J1 League team formed in 1995.

[28] In 2015, Rakuten relocated its corporate headquarters from Shinagawa to the Tamagawa neighbourhood of Setagaya-ku, to consolidate its Tokyo offices and to accommodate future growth.

The agreement would see Rakuten become FC Barcelona's main global partner beginning with the 2017-18 season, with its name appearing on match-day jerseys.

[31] In February 2017, Ebates and Rakuten acquired Shopstyle and its influencer marketing group, Collective, to extend into fashion curation, discovery and product search.

[33][34] The games are based on HTML5, which can be played across any device and on any platform, and Rakuten will tap into its worldwide database of 114 million online shoppers.

[34] In September 2017, Rakuten signed a three-year, $60 million deal to become the official sponsor for the jersey patch on the front of the uniforms for the Golden State Warriors of the NBA.

[44] The company named its network technology the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) which makes use of cloud computing to lower the price and started sales activity abroad, gaining at least fifteen international customers by the spring of 2021.

[48] In 2023, Rakuten partnered with Supermicro on high-performing Open RAN technologies and storage systems for operators of cloud-based mobile services.

[56] Rakuten introduced the English-only policy, dubbed "Englishnization," as part of Mr Mikitani's push to "globalize" the company and its employees.

[58] While claiming it a success in 2012,[58] it was not until 2015 that the average employee score on the Test of English for International Communication, or TOEIC, reached 802.6 out of a possible 990 points.

"[62] However in opposition on July 27 CEO Hiroshi Mikitani later stated "Bad feedback is misinformation so we'll remove them and reinstate them after close review.

[65] The Kobo e-bookstore also included a repackaged version of 500 Wikipedia articles with a new ISBN in violation of Creative Commons license standards.

[67] Dummy product pages with inflated MSRP's were found to have passed Rakuten's inspection, hypothetically clearing it to be listed for sale.

[68] The Consumer Affairs Agency stated company practices violated product misrepresentation laws and requested the prevention of further incidents.

Curry posed as a team shop employee during the event and helped find sports gear around the store.