Tokyo: Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is in the final stage of talks to buy Ebates, a US cash-back shopping service provider, and boost its business abroad, a report said Saturday.
Rakuten is expected to acquire a majority stake in the San Francisco-based company at an estimated price of more than 100 billion yen (USD950 million), the business daily Nikkei reported.
Rakuten has a credit-card-linked reward points system in Japan to help retain its customer base.
Lacking a similar setup in the United States, it decided to acquire Ebates instead to lead shoppers looking for cash-back deals to the Rakuten virtual mall, the report said.
Ebates operates in such markets as North America, China and South Korea, running websites which offer rebates and coupons for shopping from 1,700-plus partner retailers, including Amazon and eBay, according to Nikkei.
Since launching its business in Taiwan in 2008, Rakuten has expanded to more than 10 markets, encompassing the US, Europe and Asia, the report said.
But its overseas e-commerce transactions, totalling slightly less than 100 billion yen a year, pale beside its 1.7 trillion yen in domestic annual transactions.
Rakuten has bought US video-streaming provider Viki for about USD200 million last year and messaging app provider Viber for USD900 million this past February.
By gaining a solid foothold in the US e-commerce market through the latest deal, Rakuten seeks to better compete against Amazon and China`s Alibaba, Nikkei said.
