The streaming service offers a hybrid business model, with free and paid.
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Like Amazon, Rakuten was originally an e-commerce company. An activity that it has kept and which remains its main business, but the Japanese group then launched into other areas such as banking, travel, insurance or video streaming. Rakuten TV was born 12 years ago and is now present in 43 European countries as well as in Japan. Its particularity is to offer different modes of consumption of its content: subscription, pay-per-view (purchase of a film or series) or viewing for free but with advertising (Adverting video on demand – AVOD).
It’s traditional television, except that it is on the internet and therefore available either on connected TVs, or on your phone, your tablet.
Cedric Dufouron franceinfo.
“The fact that it is digital allows for more targeted advertising. And that is of interest to everyone: for advertisers who better target their audience, for viewers because they will see advertisements that concern them, and for us because it also allows us to better monetize our audience”testifies Cédric Dufour, CEO of Rakuten TV since October 2021.
Such a hybrid offer is unique in Europe. This is, according to Cédric Dufour, one of the great strengths of the service: “Unlike our American competitors, we don’t spend billions on content. Our main customer acquisition strategy is rather the partnerships we have forged with TV manufacturers: there is now a Rakuten TV button on most remote controls. It’s a real plus. Thanks to that, we have around 110 million households in Europe connected to Rakuten TV”, he concludes on franceinfo.