Rakuten sharpens its focus on China, Alibaba to float

Rakuten has entered into a partnership with Alipay, the Alibaba payment platform, to enable its Chinese customers to buy more easily
from its global site, Rakuten Global Market. There are 42,000 sellers signed up to Rakuten Ichiba of which some 10,000 sell internationally and significant growth is forecast. Meanwhile, Alibaba, China’s answer to eBay is poised to float (in the USA) and pundits expect the business to achieve a value in excess of £50 billion. Alibaba is understood to be behind more than 80 per cent of web sales in China, a market which is set to expand rapidly and has already attracted the likes of ASOS.