Rakuten Belanja Online to Offer Financial Services

Japanese e-commerce titan Rakuten, and its Indonesian subsidiary Rakuten Belanja Online (RBO), plans to introduce payment solution in Indonesia. Diversification in financial service is a natural thing to do (for Rakuten) as in its home country it offers broad range of financial services, from credit card payment to online brokerage and life insurance.

According to The Jakarta Post, Rakuten global CEO and chairman, Toru Shimada, said Rakuten Belanja Online had now entered the second phase of business, expanding into financial services to guarantee “high quality payment”. RBO CEO Ryota Inaba confirmed that his unit is holding talk with financial regulators regarding payment solutions.

RBO itself currently focuses on growing its e-commerce market in Indonesia after split up from conglomerate group MNC. Owning RBO's total ownership, Rakuten tries to improve its position by introducing e-commerce model to remote area in Indonesia, including Wamena, Papua. RBO admits that its majority customers now came from outside Jakarta (75%) with last report in Q2 revealed about significant growth (165.6%) on order compared to same period last year.

About this move, Inaba said, "Mobile payment in Indonesia is growing, but online has gotten much better too, compared to two years ago, thanks to infrastructure improvement." He added that the online payment ratio now stood at 60 percent.

Previously, Rakuten just submitted investment in Singapore-based marketplace app Carousell that also aim to enter Indonesia's market.

[image credit: Flickr/PriceMinister]