Rakuten, Japan's Number 1 E-commerce company, walks the talk. Management had stated their bullish stance in cryptocurrencies last year 2018. Preceding the statement, Rakuten went ahead to purchase Everybody’s Bitcoin Inc. for $2.4 million last August. Considering Rakuten has a global user base of 102 million, ranked 14th amongst internet companies by annual revenue, and $8.8 billion in cash and cash equivalent, the acquisition price of $2.4 million is pocket change to transform and align with the future.
Rebranding
Rakuten Wallet will contribute to the sound growth of the market as a virtual currency exchange company and will further enhance security and provide enhanced services so that more customers can use it safely and with confidence.
Win-Win
By acquiring a crypto exchange (Everbody's Bitcoin) and receiving approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) to operate a crypto exchange, Rakuten has positioned itself to heavily profit from the cryptocurrency payments & transactions it processes on customers' Rakuten Wallet.
Similarly by by-passing a partnership/integration with a third party to process cryptocurrency transactions on the their platform, Rakuten stands to save on these service provider fees and pass these savings to customers. A win-win all round.
Government & Corporate Adoption
The Japan government has done well in encouraging adoption by passing sound laws regarding cryptocurrencies. They had to. They needed immediate and affirmative action after the two biggest exchange hacks in history - Mt. Gox and Coincheck - made Japan notorious to the crypto world.
China is the quickest to adopt new technologies, as evident by their cashless society, demonstrating the powers of WeChat Pay & AliPay, cryptocurrencies will be next for them.
Will Japan be next in line, with the crypto friendly laws? . Will the actions of Rakuten also push the biggest e-commerce giant Amazon to do like-wise?