2. 1. Introduction about Rakuten
● Website: rakuten.co.jp
● Founded in February 7,1997
● The largest e-commerce site in Japan
● Revenue: 4.7billion$ in 2011
● Employees: 7119 in 2011
3. Business and Development
● Main Businesses:
○ E-commerce marketplace
○ Credit and Payment
○ Portal and Media
○ Travel, securities, professional sport and Banking
● Development:
○ October 2005, bought a 15% stake in Tokyo
Broadcasting System
○ In 2010, announced about the intention of making
English as its official language
○ In November 2011, purchased the ebook company
named Kobo.
4. 2. English as official language
decision
● announced in 2010 and making by mid-2012
● an effort to infiltrate the foreign market like American,
United Kingdom...
● The next step to make Rakuten becoming the world's
largest Internet service company
5. 3.Strategies
● All the employees( about 7000 peoples)
requires to have English communication
ability
● The TOEIC score level is set for each the
member levels
● English has been used is meeting and is
encouraged to use in common
communication
6. Current status
● The company supports the employees to take English
class
● Board members meeting and meeting material use
English
● The workers seem to support this descision
7. 4. Comparing with other company
● Rakuten is one of very little number of company in
Japan decide to make English as the official language
● Recently, Rakuten bought the two large online shopping
company in US and FR.
● With attempting to extend its market, English is required
as the main factor.
8. 5.Conclusion
● The decision open a new thinking also method for
Japanese company.
● Also having the suspension from the observes, at least
Rakuten has achieved some results.
● It is a good example for the popularity of English today
also the importance of it in today business
