How Japan's Biggest E-Commerce Company Plans To Take Over The World (AMZN, EBAY)
Japan hasn't had a single Internet company breakout to become a global success story.
Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of e-commerce site Rakuten, is hoping to change that.
He's gone on a shopping spree in the last few years to make it happen. He bought Buy.com in the U.S. for $250 million, Play.com from the UK for $38 million, and e-reader company, Kobo for $315 million. (There are other acquisitions, but the company was particularly excited about these three.)
To make all of these acquisitions work, Rakuten is forcing all of its employees in Japan, and elsewhere around the world to speak English. The idea is that one common language will united the company as it tries to expand internationally. It calls the program "Englishnization".
No comments:
Post a Comment