Good place to learn and move on - Category Manager Rakuten Employee Review

3.0
11 Feb 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.

Explore other reviews about Rakuten

5.0
25 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Rakuten Rewards has great life balance. Too bad the economy was getting rocked.

Cons

Don't really have any cons. I understand that the market's been hard so had to downsize the force, so that was kinda challenging. Hopefully AI will increase everyone's output.

4.0
22 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible Hours, Benefits, Pay, lunch provided 3 days per week,

Cons

There were no cons while I was there

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