Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Japanese technology conglomerate Rakuten Group Inc. has launched a new company in Hangzhou, China, to strengthen efforts to encourage more Chinese businesses to open shops on its e-commerce marketplace, Rakuten Ichiba.

Founded on Aug. 24, the firm assists Chinese companies with setting up a store and promoting sales on Rakuten Ichiba. Rakuten Group aims to enhance the marketplace's competitiveness, in terms of price and product variety, by attracting Chinese firms seeking to enter the Japanese market through cross-border e-commerce.

The new company will also hold seminars on consumer trends and business practices in the Japanese market. It will support Chinese companies even after they open by assigning dedicated staff who offer advice on suitable wording in Japanese and sales strategies.

In 2025, the number of overseas merchants with stores on Rakuten Ichiba exceeded 1,000, with Chinese companies accounting for more than half of that number. Over the five years leading up to 2025, overseas merchants' gross merchandise value achieved an average annual growth rate of over 30%.

Hangzhou is located in Zhejiang Province in eastern China. Many e-commerce companies are headquartered in the city, such as the major Chinese tech company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Rakuten Group has previously worked on attracting Chinese companies from Shenzen -- a city located in southern China's Guangdong Province -- to its e-commerce marketplace. Now, the Japanese company aims to use Hangzhou as a foothold to attract major Chinese companies and name-brand products to Rakuten Ichiba to expand the use of its service and acquire new users.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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