How does Rakuten make money

Rakuten began in 1997 as a small online shopping mall in Japan. Today, it’s a global brand with over 2 billion members, more than 70 online services, and a record 2024 revenue of ¥2.3 trillion (around $15 billion).

Outside Japan, most people know Rakuten for its cash-back shopping portal. Inside Japan, it dominates e-commerce through its flagship marketplace, Rakuten Ichiba, and has expanded into financial services, advertising, and mobile communications.

Rakuten is a highly diversified company that extends far beyond an online marketplace, but its evolution offers valuable insights even for early-stage marketplace founders. Studying its business model can reveal strategies and principles you can adapt to grow your own platform.

In this guide, we’ll explain exactly how Rakuten makes money, break down its main revenue streams, and explore the strategies that helped it scale. We’ll also highlight lessons you can apply to your marketplace, no matter what stage of the journey you’re in.

Rakuten, which means “optimism” in Japanese, launched in Tokyo in 1997 as an online shopping mall with just 13 merchants.

The goal was to empower small and medium-sized businesses to sell online by giving them the same digital storefront capabilities as large retailers. From these modest beginnings, Rakuten has grown into one of the world’s largest e-commerce and internet services companies.

In 2014, Rakuten acquired U.S.-based cash-back pioneer Ebates for $1 billion, rebranded it as Rakuten.com, and integrated its rewards program into the broader Rakuten ecosystem. This move gave Rakuten a strong foothold in the North American market and expanded its loyalty-driven business model beyond Japan.

Today, its operations are organized into three main segments:

1. Internet services: Includes the Rakuten Ichiba marketplace, travel booking, cash-back rewards, and digital content platforms
2. Fintech: Encompasses Rakuten Card, Rakuten Bank, Rakuten Securities, and other payment and financial services
3. Mobile: Operates Rakuten Mobile, Japan’s fourth major mobile network, along with MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) services

This combination of marketplace operations, loyalty programs, and cross-sector expansion has allowed Rakuten to embed itself deeply in the daily lives of millions of users, both in Japan and internationally.

To understand how Rakuten earns revenue through its marketplace, it’s helpful to understand how the platform operates for both buyers and sellers.

The company’s ecosystem connects millions of consumers with thousands of merchants through its marketplace, affiliate network, and other services. In addition to facilitating these transactions, Rakuten layers on loyalty programs, advertising, and financial tools to generate multiple income streams while keeping users engaged across its diverse offerings.

• Free membership: Shoppers can join Rakuten at no cost and start earning Rakuten Points or cash-back offers immediately.
• Partner store network: Over 3,500 partner retailers and Rakuten Ichiba merchants participate in the program.
• Simple purchase process: Browse Rakuten offers on the website or app, click through to an online store, and complete a purchase.
• Mobile and browser extensions: Users can install the browser extension (available in Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari) to get automatic notifications about available rewards.
• Flexible rewards: Points can be redeemed across Rakuten’s services or converted into cash.

• Marketplace access: Merchants can sell via Rakuten Ichiba or join the affiliate network.
• Fee structure: Options include a one-time registration fee or a monthly subscription, plus transaction commissions and optional ads.
• Sales tools: Built-in analytics dashboard, coupon engine, and integration with Rakuten Points.
• Performance-based affiliate model: Sellers pay only when referred customers make a purchase.

• Universal loyalty currency: Points can be earned through shopping, card spending, banking, and mobile services.
• Cross-platform use: Points are redeemable across Rakuten’s ecosystem, encouraging users to engage with multiple services.
• Promotions and bonuses: Regular campaigns, such as double points or birthday bonuses, drive repeat purchases.
• Customer retention driver: The more users interact across services, the more valuable their accumulated points become. This creates a strong incentive to stay within Rakuten’s network.

• Seller ratings and reviews: Each listing displays ratings based on delivery speed, product quality, and customer service.
• Escrowed payments: Funds are held until transactions are confirmed, protecting both buyers and sellers.
• Strict merchant onboarding: To maintain marketplace quality, businesses undergo verification, including regulatory compliance and credit checks.
• Anti-counterfeiting team and algorithms: In France, Rakuten’s dedicated anti-fraud unit scans and removes over 99% of counterfeit listings before they're published to prevent fraud on the marketplace.

Rakuten’s revenue comes from a mix of transaction fees, advertising, financial services, and mobile operations. While its portfolio is broad, many of its most profitable channels are tied to its marketplace and the ecosystem it has built around it.

Let’s take a closer look at the main revenue streams that power Rakuten’s growth.

Rakuten’s affiliate cash-back portal is the brand’s most recognized offering outside Japan. The model is straightforward: when a shopper clicks through Rakuten to make a purchase from one of over 3,500 partner stores, the online retailer pays Rakuten a commission.

Commission rates vary widely by category. They are typically smaller for low-margin goods like electronics and increase for high-margin categories like fashion flash sales.

Rakuten shares part of this commission with the shopper, either as cash or as Rakuten Points, and keeps the remainder as profit. The appeal for buyers is clear: they earn rewards for online purchases they were already planning to make. The combination of an extensive partner network and a loyal user base creates steady transaction volume for Rakuten, which ensures profitability even at lower margins.

This model offers a valuable lesson: you can build a revenue engine without charging upfront fees to sellers. A success-based commission structure is simple to launch, low risk for your merchants, and scalable as your platform grows.

Rakuten Ichiba is Japan’s largest e-commerce marketplace with 27% of the market share and nearly ¥6 trillion in domestic gross merchandise sales.

Instead of a pure commission model, Ichiba blends fixed fees with variable transaction costs. Merchants can pay a one-time registration fee (around ¥60,000, or about $552) to list up to 20,000 SKUs. They can also add a monthly subscription starting at around ¥50,000 (or $460), plus a 2–5% commission on each sale. Optional ad credits and premium placement packages allow sellers to boost visibility.

This hybrid pricing keeps seller economics attractive because merchants pay enough to commit to the platform but still retain healthy margins per sale. The model also aligns Rakuten’s success with that of its sellers: when merchants sell more, Rakuten earns more from commissions and ad spend.

Advertising is one of Rakuten’s highest-margin businesses, built on the back of its vast first-party shopper data.

Through the Rakuten Advertising network, brands can purchase display, programmatic, and connected TV (CTV) ads across Rakuten-owned properties like Rakuten TV, Rakuten Viber, and the cash-back portal itself. Merchants on Rakuten Ichiba can also pay for sponsored placements, banner ads, and product boosts to gain visibility within the marketplace.

Because Rakuten sits at the center of millions of transactions, it can offer highly targeted campaigns based on purchase history, browsing behavior, and loyalty engagement.

This increases return on ad spend (ROAS) for advertisers and deepens seller investment in the platform. And for Rakuten, it creates a scalable revenue stream with minimal physical overhead compared to traditional e-commerce operations.

Beyond e-commerce, Rakuten operates one of Japan’s largest integrated financial ecosystems, the FinTech Group Company. This organization includes Rakuten Card, Rakuten Bank, Rakuten Securities, and payment solutions like Rakuten Pay.

Each service generates revenue while feeding into Rakuten’s loyalty flywheel:

• Rakuten Card earns interchange fees every time a cardholder makes a purchase, along with interest from revolving balances.
• Rakuten Bank generates income through deposit spreads (the difference between interest paid on deposits and interest earned from lending) and account fees.
• Rakuten Securities brings in trading commissions and margin interest from retail investors.
• Rakuten Pay earns merchant transaction fees on every payment processed and encourages consumers to keep spending within Rakuten’s ecosystem to earn and redeem points.

This is a powerful example of how Rakuten takes the basic marketplace principle of “owning the transaction” a step further. For early-stage marketplaces, you must start by ensuring your payment process is seamless, secure, and happens on-platform. This prevents leakage (where users complete deals off-site), which will ensure you capture your commission reliably, build trust between buyers and sellers, and get valuable transaction data to guide growth.

Once this foundation is in place, you can explore complementary services (like financing, insurance, or loyalty rewards) that deepen engagement and extend customer lifetime value.

By connecting services, creating high-margin upsells, and partnering strategically instead of owning everything outright, Rakuten has built a scalable, resilient business model. For marketplace founders, understanding these tactics can reveal practical ways to grow your platform without overextending resources.

At the center of Rakuten’s growth strategy is its loyalty program, Rakuten Points. Members earn points from shopping on Rakuten Ichiba or its cash-back portal, using Rakuten Card, paying bills through Rakuten Bank, booking travel, or subscribing to Rakuten Mobile. Those points can then be redeemed across the entire Rakuten ecosystem or with participating partners.

This process creates a powerful feedback loop: the more services a customer uses, the faster they accumulate points, and the more likely they are to keep their spending within Rakuten’s network. Frequent promotions, like double points during special campaigns or birthday bonuses, maintain high engagement and prevent churn.

Rakuten has layered a range of high-margin services on top of its core marketplace and cash-back business. For merchants, these include:

• Self-serve ad placements
• A coupon engine to drive time-sensitive sales
• Analytics dashboards that help sellers optimize performance

Because these tools directly impact sales, merchants are willing to pay extra for them. Plus, the costs to deliver them are relatively low compared to physical infrastructure.

Rakuten also monetizes its shopper audience through the Rakuten Advertising network by selling display, programmatic, and connected TV (CTV) inventory across properties like Rakuten TV, Viber, and Viki. Thanks to its first-party purchase and browsing data, Rakuten can target ads with high precision, which boosts return on ad spend for advertisers and strengthens merchant loyalty.

One of Rakuten’s core strategic choices has been to scale without heavy investment in inventory or logistics infrastructure.

On Rakuten Ichiba, all products are supplied by third-party merchants, and order fulfillment is typically handled by the sellers themselves or through partnerships with logistics providers like Japan Post. For international orders, Rakuten works with a network of shipping and warehousing partners rather than building and operating its own facilities.

This asset-light approach lets Rakuten focus on its strengths: building the platform, driving traffic, and deepening customer engagement.

The business can avoid the high capital costs and operational complexity of managing warehouses or stocking inventory. It also makes the marketplace more resilient, since merchants bear the inventory risk.

Here’s what works (and what doesn’t) about Rakuten’s business model, so you know what to expect if you want to build a similar marketplace.

Pros

• Low-friction monetization: Rakuten primarily earns through commissions and fees without holding inventory or purchasing goods upfront. This model lowers operating costs and reduces financial risk.
• Built-in loyalty engine: The Rakuten Points program connects shopping, financial services, and mobile usage into a single rewards system that drives repeat purchases and long-term engagement.
• Scalable partner network: With over 3,500 partner stores and thousands of marketplace sellers, Rakuten can grow its offerings and revenue without directly managing products or fulfillment.
• Data loop for upsells: Rich first-party data from millions of transactions powers targeted advertising, premium placements, and merchant tools, creating additional high-margin revenue streams.

Cons

• Lower commission rates require high volume: With commission percentages often in the low single digits for some categories, Rakuten’s model depends on a massive transaction volume to generate significant profit.
• Merchant-dependent revenue: Earnings are tied to seller participation and spend. So if merchants reduce affiliate rates, scale back ad budgets, or leave the platform, Rakuten’s revenue can take a hit.
• Coupon fatigue risk: Users may become desensitized to offers in a crowded cash-back and rewards market. Without strong niche positioning or trust-building features, platforms risk a race to offer the highest rebate, eroding margins.

Before Rakuten became a multi-billion-dollar ecosystem, it was a niche online marketplace. Many of the strategies that fueled its growth can be adapted for smaller platforms at any stage.

The lessons below highlight actionable ways to build trust, drive loyalty, and unlock new revenue streams in your own marketplace.

Rakuten’s reputation is built on strict merchant vetting and transparent quality signals. Every seller on Rakuten Ichiba must pass regulatory and credit checks before joining.

Once approved, merchants are publicly rated on delivery speed, product quality, and customer service. Each listing displays these metrics alongside buyer protection guarantees to give shoppers the confidence to purchase from new or unfamiliar sellers.

Rakuten also strengthens this trust with escrowed payments (where funds are released only after the buyer confirms receipt) and zero-liability fraud protection for Rakuten Card users.

For early-stage marketplace founders, you can implement a similar trust infrastructure from day one without the scale or budget of a company like Rakuten, with features like:

• Verified profiles: Require ID or business verification before sellers can list.
• Secure payments: Use escrowed transactions through platforms like Stripe Connect to protect both parties.
• Automatic reviews: Prompt buyers to review transactions as soon as they’re complete to build credibility faster.
• Simple trust signals: Display average response time, on-time delivery rate, or order success rate badges to reassure hesitant buyers.

Our guide on building trust in two-sided marketplaces will walk you through practical steps for creating this foundation. You can also learn from Upwork’s VP of Product Management, Jessica Tiwari, about how trust became the competitive edge for their platform.

Rakuten’s monetization starts small by charging a success-based commission on each transaction. Part of that commission is then returned to buyers as Rakuten Points, which encourages repeat purchases. The more buyers spend, the more points they earn, and the more likely they will stay in Rakuten’s ecosystem.

For early-stage marketplace founders, a tiered commission structure can achieve a similar balance between earning revenue and incentivizing loyalty. Here’s an example of how you might do this:

• Bronze sellers: 10% commission at $0–1,000 GMV
• Silver sellers: 8% commission at $1,000–5,000 GMV
• Gold sellers: 6% commission after $5,000 GMV

This approach rewards sellers for hitting sales milestones, which motivates them to stay active and grow their business on your platform. And since you’re reducing commission only for high performers, your total revenue can still grow as transaction volume increases.

Make the loyalty component clear from the start, whether it’s points, discounted fees, or marketing perks. Then, sellers will see the direct benefits of scaling with you. Even a lightweight system, like tracking loyalty milestones in a spreadsheet or simple CRM, can validate the concept before you invest in custom development.

For more ideas, see our guide on choosing the right business model for your marketplace.

Rakuten didn’t launch all its revenue streams at once. After Ichiba reached significant traffic and transaction volume, the company introduced self-serve “boost” ads, a coupon engine, and advanced merchant analytics.

In 2024, for example, Rakuten rolled out its RMS AI Assistant, an AI-powered tool that helps merchants manage product descriptions, promotions, customer inquiries, and analytics. These capabilities directly improve sales performance, so merchants are willing to pay extra to access them.

Add-ons like these give sellers more ways to drive sales while generating high-margin, recurring revenue for Rakuten without the heavy costs of physical infrastructure.

For early-stage marketplace founders, the lesson is to build your marketplace iteratively. Start with essentials, build liquidity, and improve your user experience as you learn what works and what doesn’t.

Always validate demand for extras before investing heavily in building them. You can start with low-tech, low-cost experiments, such as:

• Offering a $10–20 “featured listing” slot on your homepage or category pages
• Creating a simple seller performance dashboard using exported sales data
• Bundling basic marketing perks, like inclusion in a newsletter or social media shoutout, as a paid add-on

If sellers are willing to pay for these small boosts, you have a strong signal to develop them into fully integrated tools later. Platforms like Sharetribe make it easy to run these experiments.

For instance, you can collect payments for promoted placements through Stripe (and manually add them to your desired content page) without adding new infrastructure. Or you can use third-party tools like Lemonado to add sales dashboards with minimal coding.

For inspiration, check out our guide on essential marketplace website features that can grow with your platform.

Rakuten doesn’t just use its transaction data for advertising—it also turns insights into merchant-facing products. Sellers on Rakuten Ichiba can access analytics tools that reveal performance metrics, conversion rates, and customer behavior trends.

More advanced merchants can tap into detailed dashboards, seasonal trend forecasts, and category benchmarks to guide their inventory and pricing decisions.

For marketplace founders, this highlights a different monetization path: selling information, not just exposure. You can start small by:

• Creating a “Marketplace Trends” report: Aggregate anonymized data (e.g., most-viewed categories, fastest-growing search terms) and share it with sellers. This positions you as a thought leader in your niche.
• Offering retargeting campaigns: Use buyer activity to send follow-up emails or notifications, such as when they abandon carts or view listings without purchasing. Then, charge sellers a small fee for these campaigns.
• Selling performance insights: Provide sellers with premium analytics that compare their performance to marketplace averages. Be sure to include actionable steps to improve.
• Sharing seasonal data analysis: Create category-specific data reports before peak seasons, like Black Friday, summer vacation, and back-to-school. Consider charging extra for access, since sellers will likely pay for these resources to prepare better for these sales opportunities.

Remember to keep privacy and compliance in mind from the start. Use only anonymized, aggregated data until you have the proper legal and technical safeguards to offer more granular targeting.

Rakuten continuously optimizes its search algorithms, improves mobile app speed, and personalizes product recommendations to increase conversion rates and customer satisfaction. These upgrades keep both buyers and sellers engaged and make the marketplace harder to leave.

For early-stage marketplace founders, committing to regular UX improvements can be a competitive advantage, even on a small budget. Here are some suggestions for where to start:

• Talk to your users: Identify the top friction points for your most active buyers and sellers by simply contacting them and asking them about their experience. Then prioritize fixes that will have the widest impact.
• Get back to users when a feature they requested is available: Following up personally shows your community you’re listening and builds relationships with your users..
• Track UX metrics over time: Monitor bounce rates, conversion rates, and time-to-purchase so you can measure the impact of changes and adjust your roadmap accordingly.
• Dedicate a fixed portion of monthly revenue: For example, commit 10% of earnings to UX improvements like faster page load times, better mobile layouts, or streamlined checkout flows.

Early wins might include iterating on your value proposition, refining search filters, rethinking your matching process, or simplifying the checkout process. Or perhaps you need to adjust your pricing, help sellers make more engaging listings, or provide more trust signals to buyers.

Over time, these iterative improvements compound to boost retention and word-of-mouth growth.

Check out our guide on designing your marketplace’s transaction flow for more ideas on where to start.

Rakuten’s journey from a small online mall in Tokyo to a global e-commerce and loyalty powerhouse shows how a marketplace can evolve far beyond its starting point. Its mix of commission-based monetization, loyalty programs, and high-margin add-ons has created a business that’s both diversified and resilient.

For early-stage marketplace founders, the key takeaway isn’t to copy every revenue stream Rakuten operates today. Instead, adopt the principles that made those streams possible.

Start by building trust, validating your revenue model, and focusing on user retention. Then, layer on new services and data-driven monetization only after your core marketplace is running smoothly.

If you’re ready to put these lessons into practice, you can launch your own marketplace in just a few days with Sharetribe’s no-code platform. Our marketplace builder includes all the essential features you need from day one, including listings, secure payments, messaging, reviews, and more.

And when you’re ready to grow, Sharetribe scales with you. Add custom features, integrate new tools, or work with one of our Expert developers to bring your vision to life.

Get started with a free trial of Sharetribe today.

Here are the answers to some of the most common questions about Rakuten’s business model.

When a shopper clicks through Rakuten to make a purchase from a partner store, that store pays Rakuten an affiliate commission. Rakuten then gives a portion of that commission back to the shopper as cash back or Rakuten Points, keeping the remainder as profit.

The “spread” is the difference between the retailer’s commission and the amount returned to the customer. The bigger the spread, the more money Rakuten makes from that transaction.

Affiliate commission rates vary by retailer and category. For Rakuten’s cash-back offering, low-margin goods like electronics might generate around 1% commission, while high-margin categories like fashion flash sales can approach 20%.

On Rakuten Ichiba, sellers typically pay a combination of fixed fees and transaction commissions of 2–5%, plus optional advertising or promotional spend.

Rakuten doesn’t always break down its financials in public reports by each segment’s exact revenue share. However, “Internet Services,” which includes Rakuten Ichiba, is consistently one of its largest segments and generated more than ¥1.2 trillion in revenue in 2024. This makes Ichiba a major driver of overall revenue, alongside FinTech and Mobile.

Rakuten does not sell personally identifiable customer data. Instead, it uses aggregated and anonymized data to power its Rakuten Advertising network, which allows brands to target ads based on shopping behavior, purchase history, and loyalty program engagement. This keeps user information private while still enabling targeted marketing.

Rakuten Points function as both a loyalty incentive and a marketing cost. When Rakuten awards points, it records the cost as an expense, but the program drives higher purchase frequency, larger basket sizes, and cross-service engagement. Points indirectly boost transaction volume and long-term revenue by encouraging users to keep spending within the Rakuten ecosystem.