Rakuten India Opens New Office, The Group’s Largest Outside Japan

Representational (File photo- facebook.com/RakutenIndia)

• Inaugurates its new office building in Bengaluru, Rakuten Group’s Largest outside Japan
• Rakuten India’s new office is a 20-storeyed, state-of-the-art, modern premise with around 3 lakh sq ft of space
• Creates an inspiring space for growth and innovation in the Asia-Pacific region
• Strategically located in the heart of the city near Cubbon Park, Bengaluru, it is one of the largest office spaces for a technology company in the central business district

Rakuten India today announced the formal opening of their new office Rakuten - Crimson House Bengaluru in the city. The Product, Engineering, and Advanced Research facility represents further expansion of the company’s global technology footprint and will focus on developing and delivering a wide range of cross-industry deep technology solutions to help drive digital transformation and innovation for customers and partners.

Located at Cubbon Park, popularly referred to as the 'lung space’ of Bengaluru city, Rakuten - Crimson House Bengaluru is a 20 storeyed state-of-the art, modern building and is the company's largest outside of Japan. Strategically located in the city's central business district, it is the largest building by a tech company in the area. With a capacity for housing 3000+ employees, it currently accommodates 2000 employees with room to grow.

The inauguration of the new office is a momentous occasion for Rakuten India and underlines Rakuten’s commitment to making India its global innovation centre. The new office will further enhance the company’s capability for deep-tech innovation and R&D in areas such as e-commerce, fintech, content and entertainment, as well as AI in computer vision, speech, and natural language processing (NLP). Rakuten ‘SixthSense’, the company’s first B2B SaaS product, an all-in-one observability intelligence and software testing automation platform, hit the market last year.

Sunil Gopinath, CEO of Rakuten India

The building was inaugurated today in the presence of global leaders from Japan led by CIO and CISO, Group Executive Vice President of Rakuten Group, Inc., Mr. Yasufumi Hirai, along with the India CEO, Mr. Sunil Gopinath, Chief People Officer, Ms. Nalini George, as well as employees, partners, and customers from across the region.

“India is and has been central to our growth strategy. Our new R&D centre will build on the high value-added engagements that Rakuten has been delivering from India on deep tech and product innovation. Our modern and environment friendly facility provides a perfect environment to return to office post pandemic and is designed to foster collaboration and innovation”, said Yasufumi Hirai, CIO and CISO, Group Executive Vice President of Rakuten Group, Inc.

With employee expectations and the nature of work itself having undergone a shift in the last few years, Rakuten India’s new building is built keeping in mind the need for safe, fluid spaces that allow for creativity, collaboration, and innovation . The facility boasts of 3 lakh sq ft of office space, and includes cafeterias, meeting and breakout rooms, a creche, a gym, and a dedicated floor for health and wellness.

“We are delighted to showcase our growth ambitions in India with the opening of our new office building”, said Sunil Gopinath, CEO of Rakuten India. “Coming together in person to collaborate and build community will remain an important part of our future work. We are excited to welcome employees back to the workplace where teams can collaborate, engage, and socialise in ways that we have missed during the pandemic”, he added.

About Rakuten India Enterprise:

Rakuten India is the global product and innovation centre for Rakuten Group, Inc. Rakuten India enables global businesses in the areas of e-commerce, fintech, advertising, mobile, content and entertainment with deep expertise in the areas of data science and engineering, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud, security, distributed systems and more.
With around 2000 employees and growing, Rakuten India is housed in Crimson House Bangalore.

For more information, visit https://corp.rakuten.co.in/

Japan's Rakuten Social Accelerator to Launch in India

Rakuten, Inc., a global leader in internet services headquartered in Tokyo, today announced that its social innovation initiative, Rakuten Social Accelerator, is expanding globally with the launch of the program at its Development and Operations Center in Bengaluru, Rakuten India.

Drawing on the success of the program launched in Japan during 2018, Rakuten India selected three local non-profit organizations, Robin Hood Army, Wildlife SOS and Samarpana Charitable Trust for The Disabled, as inaugural partners for 2019. By working with Rakuten, these partners will be able to make full use of the company’s global portfolio of online services and brand visibility, as well as gain access to industry talent to move their business plans forward at a previously unattainable scale.

“I’m thrilled with the launch of Rakuten Social Accelerator in India,” said Narendra Narayana, Chief Operating Officer, Rakuten India. “Rakuten is built on a philosophy of empowering society and through this program, our aim is to solve crucial social challenges by partnering with entrepreneurs who are passionate about creating tangible impact. I am delighted to welcome Robin Hood Army, Wildlife SOS and Samarpana Charitable Trust as our first partners in India.”

Robin Hood Army comprises of a group of working professionals, students, home makers connected on a common platform that works towards creating awareness around food wastage and eliminating hunger, while Wildlife SOS aims to protect wildlife and conserve habitat by creating alternative and sustainable livelihoods for poacher communities that depend on wildlife for sustenance. Samarpana Charitable Trust for The Disabled (R) Tumakuru works for the visually disabled and aims to empower them to use their talent to live independently.

First launched in Japan during 2018, Rakuten Social Accelerator is a collaboration program that brings together social entrepreneurs, not-for-profit organizations and Rakuten employees, each with a social mission to tackle critical issues facing society today using technologies and business assets.

Over the next 5 months of the program in India, a team of 20 Rakuten employees will volunteer their time and technical expertise to develop comprehensive applications that will help these organizations expand and scale their operations.

Since its founding in 1997, Rakuten has strived to grow its business with its mission to “contribute to society by creating value through innovation and entrepreneurship” based on the philosophy of advancing and enriching society through high-quality services that help its users and partners grow. In its sustainability efforts, Rakuten also promotes various activities both in Japan and abroad to realize a sustainable society based on the shared values of the Rakuten Group.

About Robin Hood Army

Robinhood Army is a group of working professionals, students and home makers connected on a common platform that works towards creating awareness around food wastage and eliminating hunger. The Rakuten team will work with Robin Hood Army to develop a comprehensive application with quick communication tools that will connect donors, beneficiaries, and volunteers (clusters) to effectively avoid wastage and serve food to the needy on time. For more information please visit https://robinhoodarmy.com/.

About Wildlife SOS

Wildlife SOS aims to protect wildlife and conserve habitat by creating alternative and sustainable livelihoods for poacher communities. The team of volunteers at Rakuten will work together with Wildlife SOS to scale their operations and connect poacher communities, animal welfare ambassadors, government agencies, all on one platform. For more information please visit https://wildlifesos.org/.

About Samarpana Charitable Trust for The Disabled (R) Tumakuru

With an aim to empower the visually disabled to live independently, Samarpana Charitable Trust for The Disabled and Rakuten employees will come together to develop a customized application that will connect the disabled community and showcase their talent to event organizers across the country.

Partner organizations collaborate with Rakuten employees and together spend 6 months developing technology-based solutions to further accelerate and scale their businesses. Social entrepreneurs participating in the program benefit from Rakuten’s broad-ranging experience in internet-related services. To read more about the success of Rakuten Social Accelerator, visit https://rakuten.today/blog/rakuten-social-accelerator.html.

Rakuten India Enterprise Private Limited, established in 2014 in Bengaluru, is a key product research and development center in the Rakuten Group network. It provides e-commerce related engineering and mobile developmental initiatives along with innovative data and insight products for Rakuten’s global ecommerce operations. It also manages Rakuten’s global network and security operations to provide secure global cloud and network infrastructure services.

Last December, Rakuten opened its India research and development (R&D) institute in Bangalore to focus on deep learning, computer vision and robotics for warehouse logistics applications.

Rakuten, Inc. is a global leader in internet services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Founded in Tokyo in 1997 as an online marketplace, Rakuten has expanded to offer services in e-commerce, fintech, digital content and communications to more than 1.2 billion members around the world. The Rakuten Group has over 17,000 employees, and operations in 30 countries and regions.

Source - Business Wire India feed

Japan's E-Commerce Giant Opens R&D Centre in India for Research in Deep Learning, Computer Vision

Tokyo, Japan-based e-commerce and internet giant Rakuten, Inc., has opened its India research and development (R&D) institute here to focus on deep learning, computer vision and robotics for warehouse logistics applications.

At its operations centre in Bengaluru, the company has opened Rakuten Institute of Technology (RIT) as its research centre in India that will combine creativity and innovation with emerging technologies to fuel the growth of e-commerce. The centre is Rakuten's sixth R&D centre across the globe as its five other research centres are in Tokyo, Paris, Singapore, Boston and San Mateo in the US.

AT RIT Bangalore, the applied research on deep learning will be to detect and predict financial fraud, developing applications in computer vision for e-commerce and medical imagining and advancement of automation to improve efficiency in warehouse robotics and logistics.

The Bangalore R&D facility will also be a hub for collaboration with Indian universities to provide researchers opportunities to study internet technologies and develop services for the Rakuten group companies the world over.

The company has appointed Sunil Gopinath as the Institute's first Chief Executive. Gopinath was earlier working at Flipkart and eBay.

"India has a large technical talent and its researchers have an understanding of combining academic research with business domain applications to deliver pioneering business solutions," said Gopinath.

The RIT also partners with Hidehiko Masuhara of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Ruby computer programming language creator Yukihiro Masumoto serves as a fellow.

The RIT's first centre was set up in Japan in 2006 to keep pace with the evolution of the cyber world and the rapid growth of internet services globally.

Masaya Mori, who is global head at RIT, said, "India has a vibrant computer science research community in Bengaluru and we look forward to collaborate with academic researchers to discover and develop new technology applications."

Rakuten is looking to move the centre of gravity of its technology operations to India and seeking to grab a share of Indian e-commerce industry that has been growing at an average annual rate of 34% since 2009.

Notably, Flipkart's parenr Walmart on other hand has had also partnered with Rakuten, earlier this year. As part of the deal, Walmart will start selling Aura-branded e-readers made by Kobo, a division of Rakuten, in stores and online at Walmart.com. Kobo is one of the Amazon Kindle's competitors.

Source - Yahoo Finance

[Top Image - New Straits Times]

Japanese E-Commerce Behemoth Rakuten To Enter Indian Market

Japanese E-Commerce Behemoth Rakuten may enter India in the next six to eight months, and is seeking a strategic alliance to tap rapid growth in the country’s Rs.62,000 crore e-commerce market.

Rakuten, the owner of chat app Viber, is exploring the possibility of starting a travel and hospitality portal in India.

According to Economic Times, The Tokyo-based company is also actively exploring getting into back-end solutions such as logistics, through an acquisition.

Rakuten's spokesperson in an email to ET said, "India is a vibrant growth market and a great source of talent and ideas for us at Rakuten. We are always interested in new global opportunities for growth but we don't have any comments on developments in India at this time," According to research firm eMarketer, Ecommerce sales in India are expected to grow from $14 billion in 2015 to $55 billion in 2018.

India has seen the fastest growth in retail ecommerce among Asia-Pacific countries, surging 133.8% in 2014 and 129.5% in 2015.

Rakuten is seeking to grab a share of an e-commerce industry that has been growing at an average annual rate of 34% since 2009, and had been estimated to touch $13 billion by end 2013, according to a 2013 report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and audit firm KPMG. According to the report, travel operators (rail and air tickets and the like) were expected to account for 71% of this, with sales of other goods accounting for the rest.

India already hosts the world’s largest e-commerce firms such as Amazon.com Inc., eBay Inc. and China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, which offers its marketplace platform only for businesses now.

The company runs Buy.com, online cashback company Ebates Inc. in the US and also has interests in ride-hailing app Lyft and Pinterest. Rakuten also connects over 10,000 online specialty stores from all over Japan to 170+ countries in the world.

Apart from Japan and the US, the company also has interests in UK, Brazil, Spain, Malaysia and Indonesia. In fact, about 60 percent of its revenue comes from its business abroad. In 2012, the company’s revenues totaled US$4.6 billion with operating profits of about US$244 million.

Now the competition looks interesting , as we will await to see whether three of world’s biggest ecommerce firms — Amazon from US, Alibaba from China, and now Rakuten From Japan take the lead in the Indian market, or our Indian poster boys — Flipkart, Snapdeal and Paytm take away the glory.

The sudden interest in India may have been prompted by the surging e-commerce niche in the country along with an increasing facilitation of outside entry. Indian Government’s recent decision to allow upto 100% foreign direct investment in online marketplaces is obviously the cherry on the cake.

Experts say that since Rakuten’s strength lies in its online shopping business, it would make sense for the company to eventually enter that segment.

What's your opinion on Rakuten's this move to enter Indian Market?