Rakuten is continuing its global downsizing by announcing that it will be shutting down its Spanish and UK sites. After a decision at the start of this year to streamline the business by pulling out of South East Asia, the company is also closing down its offices in Cambridge and Barcelona. In a statement, the company said that “the cost of growth relative to the size of the businesses has led to plans to close these operations”. As Japan's top e-commerce business, Rakuten will continue to focus its efforts on other nations such as Brazil and France, but will carry on its retrenchment in countries like Germany and Austria where a closure of offices there is expected to start in August. Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani announced that it will be looking to remove less profitable arms of the business and invest in new mobile opportunities, like the US discount store Ebates.Â
