Rakuten : Announces Management Team for New Group Company System

Tokyo, April 19, 2016 - Rakuten, Inc. today announced the management team to take the lead of the organization with the introduction of an internal Company System. The introduction of the new structure is currently underway and is planned to be complete by the end of June this year.

Since its founding in 1997, Rakuten has grown into a global Internet services company with operations in 25 countries and regions around the world and a workforce of approximately 13,000 employees. As the company has expanded and the employee base has diversified, Rakuten has strived to establish an organizational structure that encourages an entrepreneurial spirit through a variety of measures, including the adoption of English as the company's official language, and office design aimed at fostering open communication at its new global headquarters, Rakuten Crimson House.

The appointment of the new management team in the Company System will optimize the deployment of organizational and human resources and clarify the division of responsibilities between the Group and respective companies, as well as drive accountability of the leaders of each company. By fostering entrepreneurship within each of the 13 companies, Rakuten aims to further promote creative innovation and maximize customer satisfaction through the agile development and delivery of services.

With the establishment of a development team positioned to accelerate rapid response to the needs of customers and ensure provision of high quality services, Rakuten will continue to work to maximize customer satisfaction and to achieve the objectives outlined its mid-term strategy Vision 2020, as announced in February 2016.

Note on introduction of a Company System (excerpted from April 1, 2016 release)

In order to strategically realign the many diverse services within Rakuten, over 60 business units will be reorganized into 13 companies and divided between two main segments, Internet Services and Fintech.

By placing service development and web design resources within each company and closer to customers, each service will be empowered to accelerate development speed and respond with speed and flexibility to changing user needs, further contributing to the maximization of customer satisfaction.

At the same time, development and design of common group platform functions such as Rakuten IDs, points, and checkout payment will continue to be managed by a group-wide team, in order to further enrich the customer benefits offered by the Rakuten Ecosystem.

URL: http://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2016/0401_01.html

New Group Structure

Group Headquarters
Corporate	Development (Platform functions)	Web Design (Platform functions)	Governance	Marketing
Chairman and CEO		Hiroshi Mikitani
Vice-Chairman		Masayuki Hosaka
Group Executive Vice President		CFO Yoshihisa Yamada COO & CMO Kentaro Hyakuno CIO Yasufumi Hirai CPO Akio Sugihara
Group Managing Executive Officer		Koji Ando
EU Headquarters		Managing Executive Officer Kenji Hirose
Asia Headquarters		Managing Executive Officer Masatada Kobayashi
Americas Headquarters		Senior Executive Officer Yasuhisa Iida

Company Structure

	Company name	Company head	Main services/business areas
Internet Services	E-Commerce Company	President Hiroshi Mikitani	Rakuten Ichiba, Rakuten Books, logistics, overseas EC
	Life & Leisure Company	President Kazunori Takeda	Rakuten Travel, Rakuten GORA, Rakuten Wedding
	Communications & Energy Company	President Yasufumi Hirai	Rakuten Mobile, energy
	Investment & VC Company*	President Yoshihisa Yamada	Rakuten Ventures, Rakuten FinTech Fund
	New Service Development Company	President Koji Ando	Rakuma, Rakubin, drones
	Digital Contents Company	President Takahito Aiki	Viber, Kobo, OverDrive, video streaming
	Open EC, AD, Affiliate Company	President Hiroshi Mikitani	Rakuten Marketing, Ebates, Slice
	Education & Talent Company	President Masatada Kobayashi	e-education business
	Sports Company	President Yozo Tachibana	Professional Baseball, Professional Soccer

FinTech	Card & Payments Company	President Masayuki Hosaka	Rakuten Card
	Securities Company	President Yuji Kusunoki	Rakuten Securities
	Bank Company	President Hiroyuki Nagai	Rakuten Bank
	Insurance Company	President Hiroshi Takasawa	Rakuten Life Insurance, insurance agent

*The development team for Investment & VC Company is attached to the Group Headquarters

About Rakuten

Rakuten, Inc. (TOKYO: 4755) is one of the world's leading Internet services companies, offering a wide variety of services for consumers and businesses with a focus on e-commerce, finance, and digital content. Since 2012, Rakuten has been ranked among the world's 'Top 20 Most Innovative Companies' in Forbes magazine's annual list. Rakuten is expanding worldwide and currently operates throughout Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania. Founded in 1997, Rakuten is headquartered in Tokyo, with over 12,000 employees worldwide.

For more information visit http://global.rakuten.com/corp/.