After almost four years in existence, Rakuten Malaysia will be closing its door very soon alongside its counterparts in Singapore and Indonesia. According to its Japanese parent company, the closure will take place by March 2016.
While the clousure announcement has yet to be officially made by Rakuten Malaysia itself, we noticed that the company’s Facebook page and Twitter account have been deactivated. At the same time, we also have yet to see any advisory notice for Rakuten Malaysia’s customers and merchants although we believe that it will be quite identical to Rakuten Singapore and Indonesia.
Meanwhile, this doesn’t mean the end of Rakuten’s activity in Malaysia though. The company apparently will be launching its consumer-to-consumer marketplace app called Rakuma – which is similar in nature to Carousell – in place of the e-commerce site.
This was actually mentioned in its Vision 2020 (not to be confused with Malaysia’s own Vision 2020) targets. It is hard to guess if Rakuten’s second attempt in Malaysian e-commerce space through Rakuma will fare better than its online mall but all the best of luck to them indeed.
[Source: Tech In Asia. Additional image: Rakuten]
