電子商務的全球化策略─以樂天公司為例

Globalization strategies of e-commerce: A Case Study of Rakuten, Inc.

何祖慧(Tsu-Hui Ho)

指導教授 ： 任耀庭

淡江大學/國際研究學院/亞洲研究所碩士在職專班/碩士(2012年)

https://doi.org/10.6846/TKU.2012.00041

摘要

樂天公司為日本當地最大電子商務集團，其事業涵蓋範圍包含金融、運動、休閒、旅遊、網路開店平台等。自2008年開始，以台灣為海外發展市場的第一站開始後，便積極開始一連串的投資與併購，其海外市場涵蓋美洲、歐洲與亞洲三大區塊，目標在2012年底海外投資範圍要達到27個國家。
一般而言，提供電子商務服務的平台，本來就不受國界的限制可以提供跨海的服務，為什麼這些網路業者卻要紛紛往海外設點提供服務，這也引發了本研究想要探討樂天公司的海外發展策略與進入市場的模式，以便深入了解電子商務業者進行海外投資的目的與策略。
本研究是探討樂天公司的全球化策略，內容包含探討其核心服務內容為何與其具備的條件，以便界定樂天海外市場進入策略，其次探討樂天與海外電子商務業者的合作模式，最後藉由次級資料的整理與台灣樂天市場人員的訪談，整理歸納樂天的全球化策略。
本研究發現，樂天捨棄了在海外自行設立公司的做法，而是採用併購或是合資方式進入海外市場。這主要因為藉由網路銷售的電子商務業者，本身乃屬零售業的特點，必須了解市場的需要提供適切的服務，才有可能獲得當地消費者的青睬。另外，樂天公司藉由與當地既有電子商務業者合作的過程，可快速獲取網路業者當地化經營所需具備的資源，這比自行新設立海外公司更具有效率亦可避免與當地業者的競爭。
另外，樂天在海外投資的網路公司的經營型態甚廣，並非屬於單一類型的電子商務型態。其中包含提供音樂下載的play.com、經營電子書的KOBO、經營C2C的TARAD.COM與B2C的Buy.com等，這都是樂天為了展開其核心服務--樂天市場(Rakuten Ichiba)的開店服務所做的先期投資。主要是方便將來其海外市場開始提供開店平台的服務，與目前電子商務經營型態作區隔，以避免市場的直接競爭，亦能與海外合作對象產生互補性。
然而，在研究的過程中，樂天公司在中國市場卻遭到挫敗，原與百度合資的樂酷天(中國樂天)，卻因為市場模式無法獲得當地消費者的認同，而於2012年4月底宣布關閉。這也顯示出，樂天在海外市場採取高度控制權的進入模式，雖可以掌控當地經營的主導權，卻不一定代表營運模式就一定可以獲得當地市場的認同。這也是針對樂天全球化模式後續可以研究的方向。

關鍵字

全球化策略 ； 樂天公司 ； 電子商務

並列摘要

Rakuten, Inc. is the largest local E-commerce enterprise (or corporation) in Japan.
Its business covers broadly from Finance, Sports, Leisure, Tourism, and e-Business. Rakuten, Inc. started a series of oversea investments and acquisitions throughout the countries in America, Europe and Asia after the successful start-up in Taiwan market and is aiming 27 countries by the end of 2012.
Generally speaking, an online business can provide services everywhere without the limitation of regions. However the online enterprises are eager going abroad to open international service branches. The motive of the study is to understand the international business strategies and market entry models of Rakuten, Inc., from where we can have a better understanding of the e-commerce industry.
This study is to explore Rakuten, Inc.’s recent globalization strategies. The content includes discussions of its main service details and its qualifications to go global with international e-commerce strategy. By the collation of secondary data and interviews of Taiwan Rakuten employess, we expect to find a reasonable explanation of Rakuten, Inc.’s business strategy of globalization.
During the course of study, I found that Rakuten, Inc. chose to use merges or joint ventures to enter the overseas markets, instead of opening its own companies. It highlights the characteristics of the e-companies still being a retail business. It must be in a close relationship to the target markets and to provide appropriate services so that the e-commerce company can obtain local consumers’ trust and business opportunity; In addition, Rakuten, Inc. gained quick access to the resources it needs by working with local existing e-businesses, more efficient and avoided the competition in local market.
Moreover, study found that instead of just single e-commerce structure, Rakuten, Inc.’s internal investments involve a wide verity of business types which includes music downloads” play.com”, business e-book “KOBO”, operating the C2C “TARAD.COM” and B2C, “Buy.com”. All of these are the upfront investments as a platform for its core business Rakuten Ichiba, to differentiate its segments of e-commerce business types, to avoid direct competition in the market and to complement the oversea partners.
However, in the course of the study, Rakuten, Inc. has failed the investment in the Chinese market. Because Baidu’s join venture, Rakuten, CN’s(Rakuten in CHINA) business model can not be recognized by local consumer, Rakuten, CN announced the closure of business at the end of April 2012. This also shows that Rakuten, Inc.’s high degree of control over their organization, although it can dominate the local businesses, is not necessarily accepted by local market, which is also another subject for further study of Rakuten, Inc.’s success of globalization.

並列關鍵字

Globalization strategies ； Rakuten, Inc. ； E-commerce

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