Rakuten reviews

3.6

71% would recommend to a friend

(3,547 total reviews)
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Hiroshi Mikitani

77% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

Rakuten has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 3,547 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Rakuten employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
3.0
Feb 11, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Caveat: I was there before and after the acquisition of Buy.com by Rakuten. Good learning opportunity. In my time there, I was able to learn a lot about how ecommerce sites operate, including managing manufacturer and merchant partnerships. Decent perks. Company used to provide lunch everyday, and then it became twice a week (not sure what it is anymore). They would also have an In N Out truck that came out once a month, which was nice. Nice people. For the most part, people are nice and genuine.

Cons

Lack of/Bad Direction. The CEO of the parent company, HIroshi Mikitani, is busy running a global company, of which Buy.com is a very small part. He seems to determine major strategy decisions based on a couple of his "liaisons" stationed in the company. Being on the front lines, there seemed to be a disconnect between "Mickey's" decisions and the actual US Market (Yes, Mr. MIkitani actually prefers to be addressed as "Mickey") Weird culture. The company is a mix of OC culture (pretty fair on work/life balance) and Japanese culture (late hours, put in your face-time, don't leave til your boss leaves, etc). It partially depends on which group you're in. Business is tough. Buy.com doesn't have much a differentiation from Amazon (1st party business) and eBay (marketplace business), and they definitely don't do either as well as the other guys. It's a difficult market to compete in. Lots of turnover. Plenty of people moving on to greener pastures. If you stick around long enough, and have some talent/skill, you got a good chance of progressing. There's some politicking involved, but probably not more than the average company of similar size.

2.0
Dec 11, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to work on cutting edge technology and tools. There is good documentation and constant review of standards and processes. Location is great. The NY office is located by Union Square park and there are lots of great places to eat nearby. You get to work on interesting projects and industry leading products, platforms as well as with project teams that are comprised of smart and motivated co-workers.

Cons

Management is constantly scolding staff in front of other co-workers during and after meetings. There is too much micromanagement from leadership. Promotions are limited within the tech teams. There is a high turnover rate due to employee dissatisfaction and ability of staff to find better opportunities elsewhere. Salary is below industry standards although it has improved recently due to improved IT market conditions.

2.0
Apr 11, 2010

Corporate culture changing

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The employees at Linkshare make the best of the workplace and there is a real sense of camaraderie. The workload can be challenging and its always busy.

Cons

I don't believe that Rakuten truly views their employees as people or has respect for them. People are boiled down to KPI's and this reflects in the compensation and morale at the company.

Viewing 178 - 180 of 3,547 Reviews

Glassdoor has 4,201 Rakuten reviews submitted anonymously by Rakuten employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Rakuten is right for you.