Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc is closing its local joint-venture online business by selling its entire shareholding stake in Tarad.com, Thailand’s largest e-commerce company.
The closure is part of its Southeast Asian strategic overhaul designed to focus on consumer-to-consumer and mobile business models for e-commerce and other businesses, said Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, founder and managing director of Rakuten Tarad.com.
Rakuten previously focused on business-to-business and business-to-consumer models allowing online merchants to post their products selling directly to consumers.