Rakuten Asia Exec: Rakuten Commits to Continue Its Business in Indonesia

A month ago, we covered the story about MNC Group’s plan to sell its stake on joint venture with Japan e-commerce giant, Rakuten. At that time, people began wondering whether Rakuten, through eits subsidiary Rakuten Belanja Online (RBO), will continue doing business in Indonesia. Today we get confirmation from Rakuten exec that the company commits to continue its business in Indonesia.

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MNC Confirms Joint Venture Split-up, Plans To Sell Its 49% Stakes Back To Rakuten

Local conglomerate corporation MNC Group finally confirms the termination of their RBO (Rakuten Belanja Online) joint venture with Rakuten Japan. Quoted from Kontan, MNC Director David Audy confirms the principal difference of future vision as the root of the problem for the joint venture. MNC is said to seel its 49% ownership in the joint venture to Rakuten Japan. Continue reading MNC Confirms Joint Venture Split-up, Plans To Sell Its 49% Stakes Back To Rakuten

MNC Konfirmasi Perpisahan dengan Rakuten, Jual Kembali Seluruh Saham Perusahaan Joint Venture

Perusahaan konglomerasi raksasa MNC Group akhirnya mengkonfirmasi pecah kongsinya dengan Rakuten. Dikutip dari Kontan, Direktur MNC David Audy mengakui adanya perbedaan prinsip yang besar yang mendasari perpecahan joint venture PT Rakuten-MNC — yang dikenal sebagai Rakuten Belanja Online (RBO). MNC disebut akan menjual kembali 49% saham RBO ke Rakuten yang berasal dari Jepang.

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Rakuten Acquires Digital Book Company Kobo

Rakuten Ichiba recently announce the acquisition of Kobo, a Canada-based ebook vendor, with a full cash 100% acquisition. This is the first time a Japanese-based marketplace company buy a content company. It’s been a while since Rakuten enables merchant to sell stuff using their platform, this time around Rakuten decided to sell their own things on their own platform. Kobo itself sells ebooks online and they also have an Android-based e-reader product called Kobo Vox which (somewhat) competing with Amazon Kindle.

Rakuten also has presence in Indonesia and I sincerely hope that Rakuten can bring Kobo to Indonesian market. Why am I so excited about this? So far it seems easy to buy Kobo’s digital products compared to other competitors especially for Indonesian market. Kobo also supports Paypal which makes it easier for Indonesian early adopter market to buys their products. Another thing that makes Kobo suitable for Indonesian market is their multiplatform support – Blackberry, iOS and Android – pushing their chances even further to expand in Indonesia.

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Rakuten Akuisisi Kobo dan Peluangnya di Indonesia

Rakuten Ichiba mengumumkan pengakuisisian Kobo — penyedia layanan e-book dari Kanada — dan pengambilalihan kepemilikan 100% dengan pembayaran secara cash. Ini merupakan pertama kalinya situs marketplace asal Jepang membeli layanan konten. Setelah lama berkutat di penjualan berbagai macam barang, sekarang saatnya Rakuten menjual dagangannya sendiri. Kobo sendiri selain berjualan ebook secara online juga memiliki produk E-Reader, seperti halnya Amazon Kindle — dengan produk andalannya Kobo Vox yang berbasiskan Android.

Mengingat Rakuten Ichiba memiliki franchise di Indonesia, Rakuten Belanja Online (RBO), tentu saja saya berharap bahwa RBO bakal membantu Kobo memperluas pasarnya di Indonesia. Kenapa saya nampak excited dengan Kobo? Sejauh ini memang Kobo yang nampak dengan mudah dibeli produk-produknya di Indonesia, ketimbang Amazon. Apalagi Kobo juga melayani pembelian dengan PayPal. Dengan ketersediaan di berbagai platform — termasuk BlackBerry, iOS, dan Android — Kobo memiliki peluang memperoleh pasar yang lebih besar di Indonesia.

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Rakuten Offers Cash on Delivery (COD) Option

If you’re hear “e-commerce website”, the first thing that cross your mind will be everything electronic. Payment method is usually by credit card or debit card using Internet banking. Even so, most of Indonesian people by nature has less faith towards online shopping. Rakuten Belanja Online (RBO) offers other alternative, Cash On Delivery (COD) that enables customers to pay AFTER the goods is delivered, not before.

This method is at the moment available for Jakarta area and yet to be applied by all merchants, we haven’t find out what mechanisme needed for merchant to use this method as well. Unlike regular transaction where delivery is done by each merchants, COD delivery will be done by Rakuten themselves. Rakuten will collect goods from merchant and deliver them to buyer.

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Rakuten Tawarkan Opsi Cash on Delivery (COD)

Ketika Anda berpikiran tentang suatu situs e-commerce, tentunya yang ada di kepala adalah segala sesuatu yang serba elektronik. Pembayarannya pun biasanya menggunakan kartu kredit atau setidaknya debit menggunakan Internet Banking. Meskipun demikian, karena sifat konsumen di Indonesia yang sayangnya secara mayoritas masih cenderung belum percaya benar dengan prinsip jual beli secara online, Rakuten Belanja Online (RBO) berusaha menawarkan alternatif dalam pembelian secara online ini. Cash On Delivery (COD) memungkinkan pelanggan untuk membayar setelah barang sampai, bukan sebelum diantarkan.

Prinsip COD yang ditawarkan oleh RBO sementara ini berlaku untuk kawasan Jakarta dan nampaknya belum berlaku untuk semua merchant. Tidak semua merchant menawarkan hal ini dan kami belum mengetahui mekanisme untuk merchant supaya dapat menggunakan skema COD ini. Berbeda dengan transaksi reguler yang pengantarannya dilakukan oleh masing-masing merchant, pengiriman via COD akan dilakukan oleh pihak Rakuten sendiri. Rakuten akan mengambil barang dari merchant dan selanjutnya mengantarkannya ke konsumen.

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Rakuten Indonesia Grand Launching June 1, 2011: A Merchant’s Opinion

Rakuten Belanja Online – RBO (official name of Rakuten Indonesia) is a joint venture between Rakuten Japan and MNC Group which will officially (ceremonial wise) operate in Indonesia by having Grand Launching this June 1, 2011. Since its soft launching on March 1, 2011 RBO has managed to attract a lot of merchants in different sectors despite the fact that they have monthly fee (with the first year commitment) to be listed. I happened to have small store there and will try to share my experience during my 3 months membership.

I listed my store to RBO the moment the launching in Indonesia was announced. There was no information whatsoever on the registration requirement. One thing I am certain is that RBO has the best experience in e-commerce in Japan and they have expanded to other countries. I think RBO will have competitive offer to compete with existing e-commerce portal like Juale, Tokopedia, TokoBagus or Plasa.

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Rakuten Indonesia Grand Launching 1 Juni, Opini Seorang Pemilik Merchant

Rakuten Indonesia, atau dengan nama resmi Rakuten Belanja Online (RBO) yang merupakan joint venture antara Rakuten Jepang dan MNC Group, akan resmi beroperasi di Indonesia (secara seremonial) dengan mengadakan Grand Launching tanggal 1 Juni ini. Sejak soft launching-nya tanggal 1 Maret yang lalu, RBO telah menjaring begitu banyak merchant di berbagai sektor. Padahal, ketimbang yang lain, RBO mensyaratkan suatu pembayaran bulanan (dengan komitmen satu tahun pertama) untuk bisa listing di dalamnya. Saya pribadi kebetulan memiliki lapak kecil-kecilan di tempat tersebut dan akan coba berbagi pengalaman selama 3 bulan menggunakan layanan ini.

Saya mendaftar untuk menjadi merchant di RBO sejak pertama kali RBO diumumkan peluncurannya di Indonesia. Saat itu bahkan belum ada informasi apapun tentang persyaratan pendaftarannya. Yang saya yakini adalah RBO memiliki pengalaman yang baik di bidang e-commerce sebagai yang terbaik di Jepang dan sudah merambah ke sejumlah negara lain. Saya berpendapat bahwa RBO akan memiliki penawaran yang kompetitif untuk bersaing dengan portal e-commerce yang sudah ada sebelumnya, macam Juale, Tokopedia, TokoBagus ataupun Plasa.

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Rakuten Belanja Online Officially Launched Their Beta Version

Rakuten Belanja Online (RBO) announced through their Twitter account that Rakuten Belanja Online (Rakuten Online Shopping) service beta version is now launched and ready. This release became the first official access after early December last year they announced their official website address for Indonesian users and invited online sellers to join them.

Rakuten Belanja Online is a joint venture between Rakuten (Japan) with PT Global Mediacom Tbk. Rakuten is a market leader and the biggest online shopping center in Japan, while PT Global Mediacom Tbk (MNC Group) is the biggest media company in Indonesia.

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