Rakuten Ichiba is not only Japan’s largest online shopping mall, but also it is one of the top 10 online ecommerce companies of the world. Since its inception in February 1997, Rakuten has grown to a current 50 million plus registered memberships. At present Rakuten is listed at the 2^nd position in the global B2C ecommerce companies. The item categories at Rakuten are extensive and comparable only to Yahoo! Japan auctions. However, unlike the auctions site, Rakuten is not only limited to online selling of items. Instead, this company owned by Hiroshi Mikitani offers extensive financial services, travel services, professional sports sponsorship and internet media services. Rakuten ichiba also offers international shipping services as a part of its international expansion plans.

As a testimony to the international expansion plans of the company, very recently on 27^th January 2010, Rakuten confirmed in a press release that they have agreed to open a partnership company based in China. The Chinese partner of Rakuten in this recent venture is Baidu, Inc. The new online internet mall in China will presently only sell Chinese and other global brands, and will later let Japanese merchants participate in it through a tie up with Rakuten Ichiba. MAilorderjapan can assist international buyers to make the article purchases and have them shipped at any valid given address.