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60-592: Some past significant investments include Buy.com (now Rakuten.com in the US), Priceminister (France, now Rakuten.fr), Ikeda, Tradoria, Play.com , Wuaki.tv , Pinterest , Ebates , Viki , The Grommet . The company also holds and has held stakes in Ozon.ru , AHA Life, Lyft , Cabify , Careem , Carousell and Acorns . Rakuten was founded as MDM, Inc. by Hiroshi Mikitani on 7 February 1997. The online shopping marketplace Rakuten Shopping Mall ( 楽天市場 , Rakuten Ichiba )

120-615: A Rakuten credit card in 2005. By November 2016, the Rakuten card was held by over 13 million people, and nearly 40% of Rakuten's revenue was from financial services, as it was operating Japan's largest Internet bank and third-largest credit company. Rakuten card holders are part of a point-based membership programme and can use those points to make purchases on the Internet mall. In 2016, the company introduced Rakuten Pay, an app-based smartphone payment system. In October 2004, Rakuten Baseball

180-601: A Vissel Kobe sponsor. Kawasaki Steel was eventually sold off to become part of JFE Holdings .) Vissel Kobe began play in 1994 in the Japan Football League , a league below J.League, and the supermarket chain Daiei was slated as the club's primary investor. However, the economic downturn following the Great Hanshin earthquake forced Daiei to pull out and the city of Kobe became responsible for operating

240-484: A hat-trick in the match. The club than managed to have a good run in the competition all the way until the semi-finals facing against eventual winners Korean Ulsan Hyundai however, Vissel was knocked out by the Korean club losing 2–1 in extra time after conceding an unfortunate penalty kick. In 2021, Vissel achieved an historic third place in the table, thus qualifying for the 2022 AFC Champions League yet again in which

300-609: A library of 30,000 Japanese titles when in reality only 19,164 were available. On July 27 2012, after criticism about Kobo's available book selection, Mikitani vowed to "exceed 30,000 (books) within July" and "make 60,000 available by August." In reality, those marks were met on August 27 and September 24, respectively. In response, the Consumer Affairs Agency stated that Mikitani's promises and company marketing violated product misrepresentation laws and exerted pressure on

360-597: A monitoring team to prevent similar incidents. In March 2014, the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) named the company as the world's biggest online retailer of whale meat and elephant ivory, calling on the company to stop selling the items. As a result of this, in April 2014, Rakuten announced that it was ending all online sales of whale and dolphin meat by the end of the month. In July 2017, Rakuten announced that it

420-448: A portion of his stake to SoftBank in 1999 shortly before Buy.com's $ 195 million initial public offering in early 2000. On February 8, 2000, Buy.com went public at $ 13 per share and rose to $ 37.50 per share that day, its peak price. Mr. Blum still owned approximately 48% of the company at the time of the IPO. Stock values dropped in the year following Buy.com's initial public offering, and it

480-845: A stake in Canadian e-book maker Kobo Inc. and an investment in Pinterest . In 2011, Rakuten launched Indonesia's Rakuten Belanja Online. By late 2012, Rakuten had moved into online retail in Austria, Canada, Spain, Taiwan and Thailand and the online travel markets in France—with Voyager Moins Cher.com—and China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan—with its Tokyo-based international Rakuten Travel platform. In North America, Rakuten Golf made booking tee times online possible. To increase its global competitiveness, and to better incorporate non-Japanese speakers, Rakuten decided to adopt English as

540-527: A strong supporter of Bitcoin's potential and was one of the first major companies to accept Bitcoin for payment. In 2015, Rakuten relocated its corporate headquarters from Shinagawa to the Tamagawa neighbourhood of Setagaya-ku , to consolidate its Tokyo offices and to accommodate future growth. In 2016, Rakuten shut down retailing websites in the UK, Spain, Austria, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. In that year,

600-532: A success in 2012, it was not until 2015 that the average employee score on the Test of English for International Communication, or TOEIC , reached 802.6 out of a possible 990 points. A score above 800 indicates advanced proficiency. TOEIC does face criticism, though, concerning its validity. An example of official meetings held in English is "Asakai". It is a morning company-wide meeting that started on Saturdays but

660-872: A three-year, $ 60 million deal to become the official sponsor for the jersey patch on the front of the uniforms for the Golden State Warriors of the NBA . Rakuten partnered with Walmart for a late push on e-books in January 2018. The company announced plans to launch its cryptocurrency in March. In May 2018, Rakuten announced the fourth wireless mobile network in Japan, named Rakuten Mobile. In June 2018 Ebates and Rakuten acquired Curbside to accelerate its online-to-offline offering to members and merchants. In September 2019, negotiations successfully closed to acquire

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720-774: A website that allows customers to earn cash back when shopping online with over 2,600 retailers, gave Rakuten.com additional presence in the US e-commerce market, as well as a way to offer items such as online e-coupons. In March 2015, Rakuten.com partnered with Bitnet to accept bitcoin as payment. On August 12, 2020, Rakuten.com sent an email to its customers stating that it would be closing its US operations as of September 15, 2020: "Rakuten's United States marketplace service located at Rakuten.com/shop will stop taking orders from September 15, 2020". In May 2013, some users started complaining about alleged fraudulent charges on credit cards after using their cards on Rakuten.com. In some cases, it

780-610: Is a Japanese professional football club based in Kobe , Hyōgo Prefecture . The club plays in the J1 League , which is the top tier of football in the country. They are currently the J1 League champions . The club's home stadium is Noevir Stadium Kobe , in Hyōgo-ku , though some home matches are played at Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium in Suma-ku . The club was founded in 1966 as

840-583: Is now on Monday mornings at 8:00 am (JST). On July 17 2012, the Kobo Touch eReader was launched in Japan to widespread criticism. The client app and networking were inoperational and devices could not be activated after purchase. A wave of 1-star reviews on Rakuten such as "my expectations were betrayed" were posted by angry consumers, after which the company disabled product reviews for the first time in its history. A Rakuten spokesman stated "In order to avoid confusion we will re-enable reviews after this issue

900-517: Is resolved. We do not plan to delete negative reviews. As a special case out of special cases, it was unavoidable that we took this action." However in opposition on July 27 CEO Hiroshi Mikitani later stated "Bad feedback is misinformation so we'll remove them and reinstate them after close review." укЙИ On July 19 2012, the Kobo e-bookstore launched. Advertising pamphlets for the Kobo Touch claimed

960-634: The MSRP of items. During sales e-commerce consultants reported that high numbers of consumers took advantage of sales and coupons. In turn, they recommended "multiply the MSRP" and have a 50% off sale to appeal to consumers. A drinks vendor was reportedly told to hike prices by 5x. Dummy product pages with inflated MSRP's were found to have passed Rakuten's inspection, hypothetically clearing it to be listed for sale. The Consumer Affairs Agency stated company practices violated product misrepresentation laws and requested

1020-518: The Prince Takamado U-18 Premier League , the top-flight league for U-18 clubs in the country. Only the registered players for the competition will be displayed. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules . Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Club officials for 2024. Total (as of 2024): 26 seasons in the top tier, 11 seasons in the second tier, 2 seasons in

1080-550: The promotion/relegation play-offs . During the period of 2007 to 2011 Vissel finished in the bottom half of the table each year. In 2012 they finished 16th, third from last, and were again relegated to J2. In 2013, Vissel finished in second place, 4 points behind Gamba Osaka , which secured their return to J1 for the 2014 season. On 6 December 2014, Rakuten Inc. bought the team from the Crimson Group. In 2017, Vissel signed 2014 FIFA World Cup winner Lukas Podolski . He

1140-410: The 20 offending vendors were given 1-month suspensions. They however remained anonymous and when asked if Rakuten would name vendors Mikitani stated, "1 month of suspension is too strict (for sellers) We're not the police and we think we do not have that right" 18 Rakuten employees were later revealed to have pressed the idea of inflated prices to vendors. The company issued an apology and vowed to create

1200-559: The President of Japan Post Holdings that Rakuten would allot more than 8 per cent stake to Japan Post Holdings for 150 billion yen, accepting Japan Post Holdings as the third-largest shareholder after the Mikitani family in the first-ever major capital tie-up for Rakuten, to be financially equipped to spend billions on installing telecommunications infrastructure across Japan in competition with rival Amazon Japan. Tencent and Walmart ,

1260-729: The Taiwanese baseball team, the Lamigo Monkeys . With the sale, Rakuten became the first foreign company to own a Chinese Professional Baseball League team. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The team name was formally changed to the Rakuten Monkeys on 17 December 2019. New uniforms, similar in design to those of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles were released. In July 2020, Rakuten announced that it would be closing its online shop/marketplace in

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1320-599: The United States, which formerly went under the name Buy.com. The marketplace closed to new orders on 15 September and shut down after all remaining orders had been fulfilled. In September 2020, Rakuten launched its wireless carrier service's 5G network in some areas of Japan after it started 4G services in April. The company named its network technology the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) which makes use of cloud computing to lower

1380-480: The club had another good run in the campaign before losing to Korean Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 3–1 in the quarter-finals. On 3 September 2023, Vissel signed former Spanish international midfielder, Juan Mata but, while the players and the fans benefited from his presence (players said he was amazing to train with, fans loved seeing him, he again raised the profile of the club) injuries kept him from playing much at all in meaningful games. On 25 November 2023, Vissel Kobe

1440-550: The club to file for bankruptcy protection . In January 2004, Vissel was sold to Crimson Group, parent company of online merchant Rakuten , whose president is Kobe native Hiroshi Mikitani . Vissel's first signing under the Mikitani regime, İlhan Mansız , who was acquired partly to capitalize on his popularity during the 2002 FIFA World Cup hosted in Korea and Japan, but the Turkish forward played just three matches before leaving

1500-500: The club. Despite finishing 2nd in the JFL in 1996, Vissel was promoted to the J.League (the champions, Honda FC , refused to abandon their corporate ownership and become a professional club) and began play in the top division of Japanese football in 1997. However, due to mismanagement, including the inability to secure investors and sponsors, Vissel was unable to contend for the league title. In December, 2003, mounting financial losses forced

1560-719: The clubs will also extend to first team level, with the exchange of technical knowledge and coaching methodology together with collaboration in the areas of performance, scouting & recruitment, data analysis and overall squad management". Since 2003, the home stadium is Noevir Stadium Kobe . The stadium has a capacity of 30,132. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules . Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules . Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. The main U-18 team of Vissel Kobe currently plays in

1620-497: The company and its employees. The new policy resulted in the resignation of some staff. Eventually, Rakuten decided to provide free English classes, offered time to study, and made clear that learning English was a part of employees' jobs. In light of Japan ranking 14th globally with "moderate proficiency" in the global English Proficiency Index behind South Korea and ahead of Portugal, it also introduced difficulty in hiring staff with both Japanese and English skills. While claiming it

1680-545: The company lost its long status as the largest e-commerce site in Japan to Amazon Japan. On November 16, 2016, Rakuten announced it had agreed to a four-year partnership with the La Liga football club FC Barcelona , one of the most successful football teams in Europe. The agreement would see Rakuten become FC Barcelona's main global partner beginning with the 2017-18 season, with its name appearing on match-day jerseys. The deal

1740-763: The company's official language starting in 2012. By 2016, nearly 40% of the company's engineers in Japan were non-Japanese. In September 2014, Rakuten bought Ebates for $ 1 billion to enter online shopping membership rewards in Canada, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. In January 2015, Rakuten entered the sport of football by acquiring Vissel Kobe , a top J1 League team formed in 1995. In March 2015, Rakuten announced that it would begin accepting Bitcoin across its global marketplaces, shortly after investing in San Francisco–based Bitcoin payments-processing startup Bitnet Technologies. Rakuten has been

1800-486: The company. Rakuten issued an apology shortly after. The Kobo e-bookstore also included a repackaged version of 500 Misplaced Pages articles with a new ISBN in violation of Creative Commons license standards. Mikitani's tweet announcing its inclusion attracted criticism on the internet. The ISBN was later changed to a product code and the DRM was removed. On 3 2014 it was reported that Rakuten was ordering vendors to artificially hike

1860-549: The e-commerce field but made acquisitions in the fields of sports, banking, and insurance. Rakuten, Inc. has more than 70 services operating via the three segments: Internet Services, FinTech, and Mobile. The services constitute the Internet Services segment are as follows: The FinTech segment operates the following businesses: The services operating under the Mobile segment are: Rakuten Mobile Phones In 2010,

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1920-606: The founder and CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani , mandated that all business, from official meetings to internal emails, be written in English. Corporate officers that do not become proficient in English in two years were to be fired. At the time, only an estimated 10% of the Japanese staff could function in English, with the mandate facing criticism from other CEOs at the time. Rakuten introduced the English-only policy, dubbed "Englishnization," as part of Mr Mikitani's push to "globalize"

1980-476: The international network and player development pipeline which is part of this exciting step forward for both clubs, Villa and Vissel are working to create a bilateral development framework for players and staff which will enhance youth development, alongside the cooperative sharing of ideas, techniques and best practice. The partnership looks to further open up pathways for talented Japanese players to play in Europe and, ultimately, at Aston Villa. This synergy between

2040-524: The largest seller on eBay. Many independent sellers were upset that, unlike other sellers, Buy.com was allowed to sell on eBay without paying listing fees. From 2007 to 2009, the number of products for sale in Buy.com's marketplace grew from 2.3 million to 5 million, positioning it as the number two e-commerce site behind Amazon.com. In May 2010, Buy.com was acquired by Rakuten, Inc. , the largest e-commerce retailer in Japan, for $ 250 million in cash. This

2100-476: The latest electronic devices and computers, with four issues per year and a circulation of five million. The magazine was later converted into an all-digital publication. On January 25, 2005, Buy.com filed to go public again, before withdrawing those plans in May 2007. Buy.com officially launched a partnership with eBay in April 2008, striking a deal to sell millions of items on eBay. Buy.com would quickly become

2160-603: The most popular sites in Japan. In March 2001, the online hotel reservation service Rakuten Travel was launched. In April 2002, a new system was introduced for merchants, combining monthly fixed fees with commissions on sales. That November, the Rakuten Super Point Program, a membership loyalty program, was introduced. In September 2004, Rakuten grew its financial services businesses by acquiring consumer finance company Aozora Card Co., Ltd., later renaming it Rakuten Card Co., Ltd. The company began offering

2220-460: The newly revamp 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite tournament. On 23 of November 2024, Vissel won the second Emperor's Cup of the club history, after a victory over they regional rivals Gamba Osaka in the Kansai Derby . On 19 October 2023, English Premier League club, Aston Villa announced a collaborative partnership with Vissel Kobe - so said the press release: "further strengthening

2280-507: The official rebranding of Buy.com to Rakuten.com Shopping, which became effective on January 31, 2013. On the site, rebranded as Rakuten.com, there were a series of unique virtual storefronts for shoppers to browse and connect online, with the focus on providing high quality, unique merchandise, and a shopper- and merchant-friendly experience. Each seller within Rakuten.com's marketplace could customize their page's layouts, photos and promotions, and can communicate with customers directly. With

2340-512: The prevention of further incidents. Rakuten later issued an apology. On 11/3 2017 to commemorate a Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles championship win Rakuten initiated a site-wide sale, with some vendors advertising 77% off their products. The company had claimed the sale would be a heavy financial burden but would consider it a "marketing cost." By 11/7 2013, it was revealed that 20 vendors and up to 1000 products were implicated in artificial price hikes. Products included iPhone 4S whose pre-sale price

2400-577: The previous owners of Seiyu Group , now partially owned by Rakuten, also took stakes of 3.65% and 0.9% respectively. In February 2022, Rakuten founder Hiroshi Mikitani donated ¥1 billion ($ 8.7 million) to humanitarian actions in Ukraine amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . In 2023, Rakuten partnered with Supermicro on high-performing Open RAN technologies and storage systems for operators of cloud-based mobile services. Rakuten has made several acquisitions since its inception in 1997. It began in

2460-482: The price and started sales activity abroad, gaining at least fifteen international customers by the spring of 2021. On September 24, 2020, Rakuten announced that they would shut down their online marketplace in Germany. As of October 15, 2020, they no longer accept new orders while all orders before that date were to be fulfilled. In March 2021, Rakuten announced at a joint press conference attended by CEO Mikitani and

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2520-577: The rebranding, the site was populated entirely by individual merchants, whereas previous iterations of Buy.com had just a portion of the site devoted to independent sellers. Rakuten also launched e-commerce sites in Germany, Brazil, France, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Austria, Russia, Canada and the United Kingdom. On September 9, 2014, Rakuten announced the purchase of San Francisco–based online rebate site Ebates.com for $ 1 billion in cash. The acquisition of Ebates,

2580-507: The same colours. Vissel finished 11th in the league in 2004, the same position as the previous year, and finished 18th and last place in 2005, resulting in relegation from J.League Division 1, or J1, to J2. During the two-year span, Vissel had five different head coaches. 2006 was Vissel's first season in J2 after nine years in the top division of soccer in Japan. They finished 3rd in the 2006 season and returned to J1 after beating Avispa Fukuoka in

2640-760: The semi-professional Kawasaki Steel Soccer Club in Kurashiki , Okayama Prefecture . It was first promoted to the Japan Soccer League Division 2 in 1986, and stayed there until the JSL folded in 1992. As their performance in the old second tier had been in the bottom nine clubs, they were put into the Japan Football League Division 2 (new third tier overall in the Japanese football league system ) and stayed there until

2700-530: The team because of a knee injury. At the time of the purchase, Mikitani alienated supporters by changing the team uniform colours from black and white stripes to crimson , after his Crimson Group and the colour of his alma mater, Harvard Business School . The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles , a baseball team also owned by Rakuten but based in Sendai and Rakuten Monkeys , a baseball team in Taoyuan, Taiwan , wear

2760-495: The tiers were reunited into a single second tier for 1994. In 1995, the city of Kobe reached an agreement with Kawasaki Steel , the parent company, to move the club to Kobe and compete for a spot in the professional J.League as Vissel Kobe . Vissel is a combination of the words "victory" and "vessel", in recognition of Kobe's history as a port city. (Owing to its importance to the city of Kobe, Kawasaki Heavy Industries , parent company of former team patron Kawasaki Steel, remains

2820-458: The virtual storefront. The service was offered for a smaller fee than the larger Internet malls were charging, and merchants were given more control, such as the ability to customize their storefronts on the site. The company went public through an IPO on the JASDAQ market on April 19, 2000. At the time, the online marketplace had 2,300 stores and 95 million page views per month, making it one of

2880-454: Was alleged that the victims' names, social security numbers, dates of birth and credit card information were used to open accounts at other online vendors. In response, Rakuten.com issued a statement that the company had undertaken significant measures to validate the security of the site, and that a third-party technical forensics investigation found no wrongdoing on their end. Vissel Kobe Vissel Kobe ( ヴィッセル神戸 , Visseru Kōbe )

2940-548: Was also Spanish striker David Villa 's last professional match. Vissel also qualified for the 2020 AFC Champions League for the first time. On 8 February 2020, Vissel beat Yokohama F. Marinos in which the scoreline was 3–3. Vissel Kobe eventually won 3-2 on penalties to win their first Japanese Super Cup title and their second national title ever. On 12 February 2020, Vissel played their first AFC Champions League match against Malaysian league champions, Johor Darul Ta'zim at home winning them 5–1 in which Keijiro Ogawa scored

3000-945: Was also banning ivory sales on its sites. Rakuten.com Rakuten.com/shop was an e-commerce marketplace based in San Mateo, California . Previously known as Buy.com , it was founded in 1997 by Scott Blum. In 2010, it was purchased by Japanese company Rakuten , and rebranded as Rakuten.com. This business was shut down by Rakuten in 2020. Buy.com originally sold only computers, at below cost, intending to bring in revenue through advertising and ancillary services such as sales of warranties and equipment leases, before expanding into numerous other categories, including software, books, videos and games. The company sold $ 125 million worth of goods and services in 1998, its first full year, beating Compaq 's 1984 record for most first-year sales. After raising $ 120 million from Japanese tech company SoftBank in 1998 and 1999, founder Scott Blum sold

3060-611: Was at this time that Blum placed a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal promising Amazon.com customers that Buy.com would prove to be the better buying option. This statement came shortly after Buy.com announced a 10% below Amazon.com cost on all books sold on the site and free shipping site-wide, with no minimum purchase required. At the time, Amazon had 25 million customers, approximately five times as many as Buy.com. In March 2002, Buy.com announced its first issue of Buy.com Magazine , providing information about

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3120-584: Was confirmed as the 2023 J1 League champions for the first time in history, following a 2–1 win over Nagoya Grampus in the second last week of the season. Kobe thus became the first Japanese football champions to be promoted to the top tier after the J.League era started, as well as the first to play third division football (the old Japan Football League Division 2) before winning the title. On 17 February 2024, Vissel played their second Japanese Super Cup appearance against 2023 Emperor's Cup winner, Kawasaki Frontale but lost 1–0. Vissel also qualified directly to

3180-513: Was considered Rakuten's attempt to enter the American e-retail market, and to compete globally with e-commerce competitors such as Amazon.com and eBay. At the time, Rakuten in Japan had 64 million members, and Buy.com had 14 million customers, mostly located in the US and Europe. Half its products were sold directly to customers and half were sold through other e-commerce businesses using its online store. On January 10, 2013, Rakuten announced

3240-853: Was created, and the baseball team Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles was formed and joined Nippon Professional Baseball . In 2005, Rakuten started expanding outside Japan, mainly through acquisitions and joint ventures . In December 2005, Rakuten established the Rakuten Institute of Technology in Tokyo as its department in charge of research and development. In a joint venture in February 2008, Rakuten and President Chain Store established Rakuten's first e-commerce site outside of Japan with Rakuten Ichiba Taiwan. Around 2011, Rakuten started heavily expanding outside of Japan, with prominent moves including

3300-733: Was delisted from the NASDAQ Stock Market for failing to maintain a stock price above $ 1 per share. In February 2001, the UK arm of buy.com was sold to the UK department store John Lewis , and the technology was repurposed to create a new transactional website for the John Lewis chain. In November 2001, Blum reacquired Buy.com for $ 23.6 million (about 17 cents per share), and took the company private. In 2002, Buy.com went beyond selling solely electronics, movies and music, adding more soft goods to their catalog, such as sports equipment, apparel, shoes, health and beauty products. It

3360-410: Was listed as 43,3915 yen. A 10-pack of cream puffs previously sold for 2525 yen was advertised as 12,000 yen but 77% off (2500 yen). Under Consumer Affairs Agency standards such pricing was illegal. Rakuten initially denied liability and stated it was the actions of individual vendors but 3 of the 20 who had hiked prices were revealed to have received checks and approval from Rakuten employees. 17 out of

3420-532: Was officially launched on May 1, 1997. The company had six employees and the website had 13 merchants. The name was changed to Rakuten in June 1999. The Japanese word rakuten ( 楽天 ) means 'optimism'. Harvard -educated former banker Mikitani envisioned the site as an online shopping mall, offering the opposite of what the larger companies like IBM were trying to do with similar services, by offering empowerment to merchants rather than trying to tightly control

3480-404: Was the first prominent international player Vissel had been able to sign since Michael Laudrup in 1996. Shortly after, in May 2018, Vissel signed another World Cup winner, Andrés Iniesta , from FC Barcelona . In December 2018 Vissel Kobe managed to sign also David Villa from New York City . The Spanish striker scored 13 goals in 28 games. Alongside Sergi Samper and Andrés Iniesta , Villa

3540-457: Was the third Spaniard in the team in that season in which they guided Vissel Kobe to win the 2019 Emperor's Cup . On 1 January 2020, first time finalist Vissel beat Kashima Antlers in the 2019 Emperor's Cup final at the recently opened New National Stadium to win the first title in the club history. The furthest Kobe had been in the Emperor's Cup was the semi-finals of 2000 and 2017. This

3600-760: Was worth at least €220 million and includes an option for a one-year extension. In February 2017, Ebates and Rakuten acquired Shopstyle and its influencer marketing group, Collective, to extend into fashion curation, discovery and product search. Rakuten partnered with California-based Blackstorm Labs to launch an online social gaming platform called R Games in April 2017, going live with 15 free games optimized for smartphones, including Pac-Man and Space Invaders . The games are based on HTML5 , which can be played across any device and on any platform, and Rakuten will tap into its worldwide database of 114 million online shoppers. Rakuten plans to integrate R Games into its messaging app Viber . In September 2017, Rakuten signed

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