Rakuten is Japan’s largest e-commerce company, with a market capitalization of over $12.5 billion. According to TechChrunch now they are about to introduce their own Rakuten Coin based on blockchain technology.

The company CEO and founder Hiroshi Mikitani made the announcement at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on the 27th of February. He described the coin as a ’borderless currency’ however, there were no clear information on the planned launch of the currency. During his speech, Mikitani made it clear that Rakuten’s main vision is to differentiate itself from their competitors, such as Amazon or eBay.

“Basically, our concept is to recreate the network of retailers and merchants,” he said. “We do not want to disconnect [them from their customers] but function as a catalyst. That is our philosophy, how to empower society not just provide more convenience.”

To fully understand the concept, we must take a look at their loyalty system, called Rakuten Super Points. It was launched in 2003, and it has been a real success since its introduction. Whenever a customer makes a purchase, he is rewarded with points, which could be used as a discount in future purchases. The new idea is to integrate this loyalty program into a blockchain to attract and engage with more customers with the usage of Rakuten coin. The company believes that this can drive more transactions from people internationally, especially since the introduction of such coin could help eliminate some of the exchange rate fees and other issues that may occur when customers buy them with fiat currencies. On the other hand, they might ride the current popularity of the crypto world itself, as the current buzz around digital currencies could be a great unique selling point in general for people interested in cryptocurrencies and also the company issued loyalty points.

Rakuten is not new to the blockchain industry, two years ago they have bought BitNet (a BTC payment processor) and opened the Rakuten Blockchain Lab to explore implementable possibilities for Blockchain in e-commerce.