Company Profile Rakuten is an e-commerce company founded by Hiroshi Mikitani. Based in Tokyo, Japan, and founded in 1997 as MDM, INC., the company altered its name to Rakuten in 1999 to reflect one of its core values—optimism. Six years later, Rakuten has grown in size and had established itself as an e-commerce giant. It soon began a series of acquisitions of large online retailers in the United States, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Spain. But online retail wasn’t the only business that Mikitani set his eyes on. He also purchased a banking company that specialized in credit cards and loans, an enterprise that could directly contribute to sales through consumer purchases. Other business ventures Mikitani sought out include an online travel agency, which provides customers with hotel and airfare bookings, and an online video entertainment group, which offers video on demand (VOD) services. Due to the company’s successes, Mikitani and Rakuten show no signs of slowing down.