Tokyo’s Rakuten, an internet player with a focus on e-commerce, finance, and digital content has began taking Bitcoin as a formal payment plan on a number of its global marketplaces beginning from the US, Germany and Austria.
The firm announced this after integrating with Bitnet’s platform whicj allows marketplaces to enable customers to choose bitcoin as a payment option.
According to Yaz Iida, President of Rakuten USA, “Rakuten’s mission is to empower the world through the Internet,” commented. “Not only can bitcoin support this vision by helping our merchants better compete globally, but it also has the potential to benefit society by enhancing the security, privacy, and convenience of financial transactions. This is one of the reasons why we invested in Bitnet last year and we look forward to working with them on our US marketplace.
The Internet services giant will begin accepting the new payment method first on Rakuten.com, Rakuten.de and Rakuten.at.
This move will make Rakuten one of the largest ecommerce companies in the world to begin accepting bitcoin for security, privacy, and convenience, Rakuten merchants will have an instant global reach with no cross-border fees, no price volatility, and no fraud, risk or chargebacks.
In a statement, John McDonnell, Co-Founder & CEO, Bitnet, said: “Rakuten’s global marketplaces are great examples of how digital currencies can impact global commerce. We’re excited to join with Rakuten in helping both merchants and shoppers reap the benefits of this new technology.”