Rakuten Sees Net Loss for 2019, Securities Unit Revenues Drop

Rakuten, Inc. has published its consolidated financial results for its fiscal year ended December 31. 2019, revealing an overall difficult year for the and online retailing company.
During the year, revenue came in at ¥1.263 trillion ($11.5 billion). When measuring this against the same period of the previous year, which posted revenue of ¥1.101 trillion, revenue has increased by 14.7 per cent year-on-year.

Operating income didn’t manage to perform as solidly. During the 2019 fiscal year, Rakuten achieved an operating income of ¥72.745 billion. This is lower than last year’s operating income by 57.3 per cent.
Income before income tax also dropped on a yearly comparison. In fact, the Japanese company reported a loss for the year of ¥44.558 billion, against the ¥165.423 billion achieved in fiscal 2018.
Rakuten Securities revenue and income fall
Taking a look at the company’s fintech segment, which includes revenues from Rakuten Securities, a , revenues have remained sturdier for the year.
Specifically, revenue for the segment was ¥486.372 billion. This is higher by 14.6 per cent from the segment revenue noted in 2018, which was ¥424.488 billion.
Profit for the segment managed to increase slightly on a yearly comparison, with the Japanese company noting a 2.1 per cent yearly growth, reaching ¥69.306 billion in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.
Although the segment as a whole managed to post an uptick for revenues and profit, for Rakuten’s securities service, revenue and income declined on an annual comparison. This was due to reduced commissions weighed down by a sluggish domestic market.
As , Rakuten also reported a loss for the third quarter of its fiscal year. This is because during the period the company recorded an impairment loss on its investment in Lyft, a ride-sharing company, due to significant falls in the share price since the listing. In particular, the company wrote off ¥111.2 billion during the quarter. This is likely to have had an impact on the company’s performance for the whole year.