In July 2020, Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten announced it was shutting down its U.S. online retail marketplace, originally known as Buy.com, leading to layoffs of 87 employees at its U.S. headquarters. The decision to wind down operations over two months came after years of struggle in the competitive U.S. market, where aggressive competition from Amazon, a rebranding from the well-known Buy.com name, and declining business made the venture unsustainable. Rakuten, which had acquired Buy.com for $250 million in 2010, emphasized that its profitable cash-back rewards business (Rakuten.com, formerly Ebates) and other divisions like Kobo were unaffected. This move reflected Rakuten's broader diversification, as the marketplace closure, while a setback, had limited impact on the larger corporate bottom line.
