Rakuten Plans to Become Japan’s 4th Wireless Carrier

Rakuten, Japan’s largest internet retailer, confirmed on Thursday that it was considering becoming Japan’s fourth wireless carrier following local media reports to that effect.

The Japanese e-commerce firm said it would apply for a 4G mobile license, aiming to become the country's fourth major wireless carrier in a strategic shift that had analysts warning of an uphill battle to gain customers.

The company said in a short stock exchange statement that it “is true that Rakuten, Inc. is considering to enter” Japan’s mobile network operator business, which is currently dominated by the likes of NTT DoCoMo and Softbank.

The statement came after Nikkei reported Rakuten was planning to apply by as early as January to the Japanese government to enter the sector and intended to invest as much as ¥600bn ($5.3bn) in mobile network infrastructure.

The statement on Thursday, however, did not address the details of the Nikkei report, saying only that “if there are facts needed to be disclosed, Rakuten, Inc. will do so in a timely and appropriate manner.”

Rakuten, which operates one of Japan's most popular shopping websites, said it hoped to gain a new engine of growth, adding that having a mobile license would complement its e-commerce, streaming and fintech services such as online securities trading.

"There is no doubt that mobile devices are the most important user touchpoint for the expansion of existing services and new service development," it said in a statement.

Rakuten said it aims to start offering mobile services in 2019 and wants to secure at least 15 million subscribers.

That would be a major jump up from the roughly 1.4 million customers it has through its mobile virtual network service where it rents network space from companies holding licenses.

Shares in Rakuten slid to be down 4.7 percent in afternoon trade by those of Japan's biggest carriers NTT Docomo Inc, KDDI Corp and SoftBank Group all lost more than 2 percent on the prospect of more competition.

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