What is Barcelona's new global sponsor Rakuten?
What does the Japanese company which will adorn the club's shirts do?
Rakuten was presented as Barcelona’s new global sponsor on Wednesday.
The Japanese company, also known as the ‘Japanese Amazon’, will replace Qatar Airways on the Blaugrana shirt next season. The contract between the e-commerce company and the Catalan club will last four years.
Rakuten explains on its website that it’s been a “major force in bringing internet retail to the world. Rakuten ranks among the top three e-commerce companies in the world with over 90,000 products from 38,500 shop owners.
“Among its numerous online properties, its flagship B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) model e-commerce site Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and among the world's largest by sales.
“Formerly Buy.com, Rakuten.com (www.rakuten.com) will continue its mission to deliver an outstanding shopping experience to over 18 million customers and offering a broad selection of goods and merchants.
“Rakuten.com is a true marketplace which empowers retailers to build individual relationships and go the extra mile for their customers. As opposed to the vast majority of faceless, transactional e-commerce marketplaces which also sell directly to consumers, Rakuten.com is focused on building relationships with merchants and consumers, differentiating on experience and not price alone.”
It continues: “Rakuten.com is a true shopping market that differs from the vending machine model and ‘nameless, faceless’ offerings delivered by other online retail markets and strives to remind its valued customers that there are actual people behind the veil of buying online, emphasising that consumers have a choice about who and where they buy from.
“Fundamentally, consumers should be able to buy from people, not the internet. This approach allows merchants to truly differentiate and succeed in an increasingly crowded online world.”
Rakuten sign up as FC Barcelona’s new main... por fcbarcelona
