Rakuten Inc, a leading Japanese internet company, has acquired a controlling stake in Thailand's largest e-commerce portal to cash in on the growing local market.
Rakuten has completed the acquisition procedure to take a 67% in TARAD Dot Com Co Ltd. Established in 1999,TARAD.com is an online shopping service with about 160,000 participating merchants offering 1.4 million products, from fashion items to electronics.
The website claims to have a mem-bership of 2 million users.
Rakuten plans to use its experience and management style to expand TARAD.com by introducing new functions and services for both merchants and users from early 2010.
Three senior Rakuten executives will manage the Thai operation.
"We selected TARAD.com because it is a suitable partner for pursuing growth opportunities in the Thai e-commerce market," said Hiroshi Mikitani, the founder, chairman and CEO of Rakuten.
In Japan, Rakuten operates the portal www.rakuten.co.jp and has approximately 60 million registered members. The site offers more than 40 million products from some 30,000 merchants. Last year sales totalled US$2.7 billion.
It has set itself the ambitious goal of becoming the world's leading internet service company.
The Thai acquisition is its second move in the international market after last year forming a joint venture with Taiwan's President Chain Store Corp.
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