[January 22, 2014]

Rakuten LinkShare Reports Double-Digit Growth for 2013 Holiday Season and Unprecedented Rise in Mobile Commerce

Rakuten LinkShare today announced strong growth in its global performance marketing network for the 2013 holiday shopping season, which runs from November 1 through December 31. Along with double-digit growth for goods purchased on desktops, the company also reported unprecedented growth in sales of goods transacted through smartphones and tablets.

Specifically, the performance marketing network's 2013 holiday shopping season results were as follows:

• A 30 percent increase in same store sales in the U.S. year-over-year (YOY) and a 31 percent increase in same store sales in the U.K. YOY.
• Sales transacted on desktops increased by 24 percent YOY in the U.S. and 10 percent YOY in the U.K.
• Sales on mobile devices, which include smartphones and tablets, increased 68 percent YOY in the U.S. and 52 percent YOY in the U.K.
• Tablets accounted for 70 percent of mobile sales in the U.S. and 81 percent of mobile sales in the U.K.

"During the holidays, affiliates help us drive online traffic and sales for consumers," said Cassie Colletti, director of e-commerce, Lacoste. "With the continued growth of mobile commerce, we needed the assurance that transactions on every device would be securely and accurately attributed. Rakuten LinkShare gave us that peace of mind and enabled us to reap the benefits of a record-breaking holiday shopping season."

Additionally, several new advertisers joined the Rakuten LinkShare performance marketing network in the fourth quarter. These include: Shoebuy.com, Hugo Boss and Lacoste in the U.S., Big Cup Little Cup Coffee and Crabtree & Evelyn in the U.K, Lacoste Canada and Crocs Australia and Bonds in Australia.

"On the heels of another successful holiday season, strong year-over-year growth, and being named the top performance marketing network for the third consecutive year, we're poised for continued growth in the coming year," said Yaz Iida, chief executive officer, Rakuten LinkShare. "We enter 2014 with even higher goals to ensure we're exceeding the expectations set by our growing network of advertisers and publishers."

About Rakuten LinkShare Corporation

Rakuten LinkShare Corporation provides online retailers and other businesses with expert online marketing services and solutions. Rakuten LinkShare's cost per action (CPA) affiliate network and lead generation campaigns can acquire new customers, increase revenue and drive overall results while achieving target return on ad spend. Rakuten LinkShare clients are Fortune 500 and other prominent companies doing business online, including J.C. Penney, 1-800-Flowers.com, American Express (News - Alert), Avon Products, and The Body Shop. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Tampa, London, Tokyo, São Paulo, and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.linkshare.com. Rakuten LinkShare is part of Rakuten Marketing's integrated marketing solutions, which include affiliate marketing, retargeting and display, search marketing, and product and data feeds.

About Rakuten

Rakuten, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4755), is one of the world's leading Internet service companies, providing a variety of consumer- and business-focused services including e-commerce, e-reading, travel, banking, securities, credit card, e-money, portal and media, online marketing, logistics and professional sports. Selected by Forbes as 7th among the World's Most Innovative Companies of 2012, Rakuten is expanding globally and currently has operations throughout Asia, Western Europe, and the Americas. Founded in 1997, Rakuten is headquartered in Tokyo, with over 10,000 employees worldwide. For more information, visit http://global.rakuten.com/corp/.

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