NEWSWORTHY
A brand-new store opened in Tokyo's Harajuku fashion district on Friday, walls lined with clothes, shoes and handbags — and with a twist: shoppers will walk away empty-handed. The GU Style Studio store — opened by Fast Retailing Co., Asia's largest clothier and the operator ...
EBay CEO aims to turn Japan operations into a multibillion-dollar business
The chief executive of eBay Inc. said Tuesday the U.S. e-commerce giant aims to turn its Japan operations into a multibillion-dollar business by offering a range of foreign items at competitive prices. Devin Wenig, president and CEO of eBay, also said in an interview in ...
Cyber Monday set to become record U.S. online shopping day, ringing up $7.8 billion
Cyber Monday was on track to bring in a record $7.8 billion in U.S. online sales but will also test the limits of retailers' e-commerce operations as millions of shoppers scour for steep discounts on everything from Lego sets to big-screen TVs. Target Corp. and ...
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma confirmed as a Chinese Communist Party member
Jack Ma, co-founder of China's most valuable company, was officially confirmed as a member of the Communist Party in a state-backed newspaper recognizing business leaders for their contributions to the country's development. Ma, co-founder and chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is one ...
China's Alibaba nets record $30 billion in Singles' Day sales extravaganza, but growth rate plunges
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. cashed a record 213.5 billion yuan ($30.7 billion) in sales Sunday during its 24-hour online retail frenzy Singles' Day, but the event's annual growth dropped to its slowest rate. Shoppers in China and across the world snapped up ...
Startup bets it can end Japan's love affair with cash payments
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash is still king. Now, as the country's biggest web companies race to capture the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a ...
Amazon and Alphabet growth engines sputter, while spending surges
The growth engines of Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc., the world's largest internet companies, sputtered last quarter, and after weeks of stock market jitters, investors were in no mood to give them a pass. Amazon, the biggest online retailer, on Thursday reported a second consecutive ...
WWF urges Yahoo Japan to restrict ivory trade on auction site
The Japanese arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature urged Yahoo Japan Corp. on Thursday to impose tighter restrictions on sales of ivory items on its auction site, saying it serves as a major platform for the ivory trade and encourages poaching. Among the ...
Alibaba founder Jack Ma to step down in 2019, pledges 'smooth transition'
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma announced Monday he would step down as leader of the pioneering Chinese e-commerce giant one year from now, but insisted that a planned leadership transition would not break the company's stride. Ma will stay on as executive chairman until Sept. 10, ...
Shibuya109 eyes bigger reach through partnership with South Korea e-commerce site Cafe24
The operator of South Korea's cross-border, multilingual e-commerce platform Cafe24 and Tokyo's Shibuya109 shopping mall have joined forces to invigorate global clothing exports of the two countries' fashion brands. Cafe24 Corp. said it signed a memorandum of understanding in Seoul on Monday to partner with ...
SoftBank's Masayoshi Son in his own words — all 303,513 of them
Masayoshi Son has a lot going on these days. The SoftBank Group Corp. founder oversees the largest technology fund in history and is putting money into ride-hailing, e-commerce, digital payments, satellites, semiconductors, agriculture and cancer detection — just for starters. How to make sense of it ...
E-commerce giant Rakuten ties up with restaurant finder Gurunavi
E-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. says it has reached a capital alliance agreement with restaurant search business Gurunavi Inc. as it looks to strengthen its foothold in the growing online reservation market. Rakuten said Monday it will buy Gurunavi shares worth ¥4 billion currently held by ...
