Rakuten, Marubeni Power Retail enhance partnership in electricity retail business for low-voltage users

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Rakuten Inc and Marubeni Power Retail Corp have entered a comprehensive business alliance agreement on the promotion of purchases and utilization of electricity and other commodities for low-voltage power.

Through the agreement, the areas of the partnership will be expanded into the various services offered by the Rakuten Group. In addition, by leveraging the over 50 years of knowhow of the electricity business that Marubeni Power Retail has cultivated within the Marubeni Group and the strengths of Rakuten Group, such as its experience in internet services, the Rakuten Super Points loyalty program and the broad Rakuten membership base, the two companies aim to enhance their services for low-voltage power users

Rakuten and Marubeni Power Retail will launch a campaign in which users who simultaneously sign up for both Rakuten’s low-voltage power supply service, Machi Denki, and Rakuten Mobile, will receive 3,000 Rakuten Super Points. In addition, users who sign up for “Machi Denki” during the campaign period can receive up to 2,000 Rakuten Super Points. In order to make payment more convenient, users will have the option to pay monthly fees using Rakuten Super Points beginning with their payment for March 2017.

Since Rakuten and Marubeni Power Retail launched a business alliance in the power retail business for low-voltage users in September 2015, the two companies have been expanding the scope of their services, including power supply services under brokerage arrangements, mainly to Rakuten Ichiba merchants and low-voltage non-residential users, such as corporations contracting with Rakuten Communications Corporation. The two companies also began accepting credit card payment for low-voltage residential users from November 30, 2016, and carried out a special campaign aimed at users of Rakuten Card*5. These activities have proved that the Rakuten Ecosystem model, with its single membership shared between each its services, can also be effectively utilized in the power retail market, and have prompted the two companies to conclude an agreement today to further accelerate efforts to acquire customers towards April 2017, when the gas retail market is set for liberalization, one year after the full liberalization of the power retail market.