TOKYO, JAPAN, October 11, 2005 ---
Under the agreement, Rakuten will spin off a part of its Internet auction business as the newly established
Rakuten Auction will take over Rakuten's PC-based auction service, Rakuten Flea Market, in which individuals can list items for sale. Rakuten Flea Market will be linked with the parent company's Rakuten Super Auction, in which shoppers can bid for items sold by some 13,800 merchants (as of the end of September) in the Rakuten Ichiba Internet mall.
Rakuten Auction will expand its Internet auction service to allow DoCoMo customers to participate using their mobile phones. The start date of the mobile auction service has not been determined. In addition, Rakuten Auction plans to develop other services in the Internet auction field.
The agreement will enable the companies to mutually leverage complimentary strengths, namely, DoCoMo's expertise in i-mode® and Rakuten's expertise in the Internet auction business. In addition, Rakuten will expand its auction business through mobile Internet phones given increasing demand for DoCoMo's popular 3G service, while DoCoMo will further diversify its revenue streams by gaining a service not tied to communications traffic.
Name of Company | Rakuten, Inc. |
Services | Internet shopping mall operator |
Founded | February 7, 1997 |
Address | Roppongi 6-10-1, Minato-ku, Tokyo |
President | Hiroshi Mikitani |
Capital | 54,059,000,000 yen |
Total Number of Issued Shares | 1,181,674.1 shares |
Employees | 599 |
Name of the Company | Rakuten Auction, Inc. |
Services | Internet auction services for individuals |
To be founded | December 1, 2005 |
Address | Roppongi 6-10-1, Minato-ku, Tokyo |
President | Hiroshi Mikitani |
Capital | 150,000,000 yen (1,650,000,000 yen after capital increase on December 16, 2005) |
Employees | 15 (tentative) |

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i-mode and FOMA are trademarks or registered trademarks of
NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service is only available to subscribers in Japan.