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A Taste of What's in Store

This article is more than 10 years old.

Hiroshi Mikitani conquered Japan's online shopping. He's decided he won't stop there.

Hiroshi Mikitani was supposed to retire soon, all of age 43, to enjoy a private jet and watch his Japanese baseball team, the Rakuten Eagles, and the pro soccer team he sponsors in his hometown, Kobe.

The Internet entrepreneur swore he would step down as chief executive of his online conglomerate, Rakuten, once transaction volume topped a trillion yen, about $9.4 billion. It's now $9.3 billion and climbing, up 17% over a year ago. But Mikitani, worth $3.2 billion and as of May the eighth-richest man in Japan, can't bring himself to quit the company he started 11 years ago, which last year netted $350 million on the $2 billion cut Rakuten takes on those transactions. "Another, higher goal came into my view," he says.



He's referring to Rakuten's push to go global, which Mikitani says will take the company into 27 countries within four years. First up was Taiwan, where Rakuten's marquee shopping mall, Ichiba, launched in May, quickly attracted 100,000 registered users. Next may be Europe. Rakuten opened an office in Luxembourg in March and plans to bring Ichiba to Europeans within three years. Behind the Ichiba vanguard will come Rakuten's myriad related online businesses, including a portal, a travel agency, a private-label credit card, auctions, a discount stock brokerage and Web search.