Rakuten Announces 2018 First Half Rankings

Tokyo, July 2, 2018 - Rakuten, Inc. today announced the Rakuten 2018 First Half Rankings for its main internet services. The report includes rankings for Rakuten Ichiba, Rakuten Books, Rakuten Kobo, Rakuma, Rakuten GORA, and Rakuten TV.

Details of the first half rankings are below.

Rakuten Ichiba - Ranking of Top Sellers in the First Half of 2018
- Water and color contact lenses take the top rankings with their persistent popularity! -
URL： https://event.rakuten.co.jp/rankinghalfterm/

Tabulation Period： November 1, 2017 – April 30, 2018
Tabulation method： Tabulated using a proprietary method based on sales amounts and volumes within Rakuten Ichiba, data from merchants and trend information.

Observations
Crystal Geyser mineral water took the No. 1 spot, continuing on from last year’s rankings. Consumable goods, such as daily necessities and drinking water, ranked among the top ten, with Botanist botanical shampoo and treatment at 8^th place and KUOS Strong Sparkling Water at 9^th place. This is indicative of how deeply online shopping has become a part of users’ everyday lives. What is more, products popular with users interested in beauty, such as ReVIA One Day COLOR colored contact lenses (2^nd place) and EverColor One Day Natural colored contacts (7^th place), also ranked in among the top sellers. Aside from these, products new to the rankings include the Merci Pot (4^th place) from the baby products category, an electric nasal aspirator for babies that has won childcare-related awards, and from the home electronics category there was the Sharp Humidified Air Cleaner (10^th place), indicating that Rakuten Ichiba users enjoy shopping on the site for a wide variety of purposes.

Rakuten Books – Ranking of Overall Top Sellers in the First Half of 2018
- Kenshi Yonezu’s Lemon over took the artists who are ordinarily popular to rank in the top -
URL： https://books.rakuten.co.jp/event/firsthalf-ranking/

Tabulation Period： January 1, 2018 – May 31, 2018
Tabulation method： Tabulated using a proprietary method based on sales volumes within Rakuten Books

Observations
The steadfastly popular comic ONE PIECE ranked in both the No. 1 and No. 4 spots. Kimitachi ha Dou Ikiruka, the manga based on the historical masterpiece first published 80 years ago, has gained a lot of popularity since it first went on sale, taking 2^nd place. Kenshi Yonezu’s Lemon over took the artists who ordinarily take the top spots to rank in 3^rd place. This song was penned for the TBS serialized television drama Unnatural, earning it popularity not only among his existing fans, but also from viewers of the television show as well. It has seen a deluge of orders from a broad age-range since the time it went up for preorder. This product has received numerous reviews with comments like: “I decided to buy it because I watch the show and wanted the bonus footage” and “It’s an incredible song to say the least!” Of these, more than 90% of the reviews gave it a perfect overall rating. Monster Hunter: World, the latest entry in the Monster Hunter series released for years after the previous entry, has shot past the 8 million total units shipped mark worldwide. Rakuten Books has been no exception, as it has enjoyed enormous popularity there as well.

Rakuten Kobo - Ranking of Overall Top Selling eBooks in the First Half of 2018
- Comics dominated the top ten spots, with works for women making rapid advances as well -
URL： https://books.rakuten.co.jp/event/firsthalf-ranking/?junle_id=3

Tabulation Period： January 1, 2018 – May 31, 2018
Tabulation method： Tabulated using a proprietary method based on sales volumes within Rakuten Kobo eBooks Store

Observations
Comic books held all of the top ten spots in the latest rankings, with the No. 1 spot going to the latest volume in the Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) series. A third season of the animated version is scheduled to be broadcast in July 2018, maintaining the momentum of the series. For 3rd-place HUNTER×HUNTER Black and White Edition (Vol. 35), the latest edition went on sale after a more than seven-month gap since the previous edition. It was also extensively covered on television programs in May of this year, drawing attention to the series, including previously published volumes. In 8^th place was Nagi no Oitoma, a comedy title about a 28-year old woman who is overly-sensitive to her surroundings and goes out of her way to accommodate others, but resets her life by taking some time off from work and love. As it has joined the ranks of titles being turned into multimedia productions, it has ranked on this list for earning the sympathies of women who are of the same age as the protagonist. Otaku ni Koi ha Muzukashii in 9^th place is a work that was turned into an anime after being created on a free comic website, resulting in a work that is symbolic of the recent trend whereby web comics gain word-of-mouth popularity that turns them into hits.

Rakuma – Ranking of Popular Brands in the First Half of 2018
- A wide range of brands made the rankings,including everything from high fashion brands to fast fashion brands -
Service top URL： https://fril.jp/

Tabulation Period： January 1, 2018 – May 31, 2018
Tabulation method： Tabulated using a proprietary method based on the number of transactions by registered brand on Rakuma

Observations
Fashion brands accounted for nine of the top ten brands. First place was Nike, for which most of the transactions involved clothing like sneakers, T-shirts, cut and sewn clothing, nylon jackets, and more. Supreme, a street style fashion brand, ranked in 2^nd place. The rankings covered a wide range from high fashion brands like CHANEL (3^rd place), which saw a large number of transactions for its flagship shoulder bags as well as perfume and cosmetics, LOUIS VUITTON (7^th place) featuring popular wallets and bags, and COACH (9^th place), to fast fashion brands such as UNIQLO (4^th place), ZARA (6^th place), and GU (10^th place). The only non-fashion brand to rank was Apple (8^th place), which saw thriving transactions for devices like the iPhone and iPad.

Rakuten GORA – Ranking of Popular Golf Courses in First Half of 2018 on Rakuten GORA
- Sano Golf Club took the top spot -
URL： https://gora.golf.rakuten.co.jp/doc/special/2018/rank/

Tabulation Period： January 1, 2018 - May 31, 2018
Tabulation method： Tabulated based on the number of customer referrals between January 1 – May 31, 2018 and the estimated number of referrals for the duration of June 2018 as of May 31, 2018 that take place over Rakuten GORA

Observations
Sano Golf Club (Tochigi Prefecture), which took 5^th place in the rankings for the first half of last year, took 1^st place this time. It gained popularity due to its great access from downtown Tokyo as well as its excellent value for money. Higashi Tsukuba Country Club (Ibaraki Prefecture), which took 2^nd place nationwide in the Best Food Category by online ratings for the First Rakuten GORA AWARD announced last year, maintained its 2^nd place position thanks to the golf course’s delicious food and high overall ratings. Aside from these, in this year’s first half of the year rankings, golf courses around the Kanto Region were highly popular users. Examples of this include Kazusa Country Club (Chiba Prefecture / 3^rd place), which was highly praised for its course maintenance and full lineup of facilities, and Chiba Shinnihon Golf Club (Chiba Prefecture / 4^th place), which rose in the ranks from 8^th place last year to 4^th place.

Rakuten TV - Ranking of Popular Video Contents in the First Half of 2018
- Rankings topped by overseas TV dramas -

Tabulation Period： January 1, 2018 – May 21, 2018
Tabulation method： Tabulated using a proprietary method based on sales volumes (individual episodes) on Rakuten TV

Observations
The top-ranked spot was occupied by Supernatural, an action-horror-suspense drama about two brothers who battle supernatural phenomena. The show has been a massive hit worldwide since it first went on the air in 2005, with every episode up to Season 13 (the latest season) available on Rakuten TV. In 2^nd place was General & I, a large-scale love-romance drama based off of an online novel. This show has been played back more than 18.8 billion times in total via online distribution, with most of this coming from China, and its ranking here reflects this enormous popularity. In addition, the Korean first-love comedy Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo which was available exclusively via Rakuten TV, was highly popular, ranking in at 6^th place, and has had a strong showing as an Asian-region drama genre, which is one of the most popular genres on the service. Many viewers purchased multiple episodes, resulting in this foreign drama ranking in one of the top spots. Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the latest entry in the Kingsman series after a three-year break from the previous entry, was the only film to make the rankings.

* For rankings by genre, visit the URL below. (Japanese)
https://tv.rakuten.co.jp/static/cpn/spl000041/