Rakuten to enable sharing via Pinterest

The online retailer has installed a ‘pin it’ button on its ‘Ichiba’ online shopping mall, travel and recipe sites. The move is designed to enable users to collect and share images of their liking on Rakuten directly through Pinterest.

According to a statement from Rakuten, the move is the first in a strategy to deepen the partnership between the two companies and accelerate the rollout of Pinterest’s services in Japan.

Rakuten bought a share in Pinterest with an allocation of US$100 million in new stock in May. Rakuten also hosts buttons from Facebook, mixi, Twitter and Google+, and a one-click button that allows users to post a link to their choice of blog.

Jeff Lippold, digital strategy director at Euro RSCG Tokyo, said that Pinterest was "a natural fit for the Rakuten community", which consists of retailers of varying sizes, and offered a way for Rakuten to become involved in a "different ecosystem".

Lippold added that in the absence of a designated Japanese interface on Pinterest, Rakuten would be likely to use its investment to shape a business model for the social site to cater specifically to the needs of Japanese users, as well as using it as a more overt advertising platform for e-commerce.