Rakuten, Inc. (“Rakuten,” Chairman and CEO: Hiroshi Mikitani, Head Office: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo) and booklista Co., Ltd. (“booklista,” President: Toshihiro Konno) have reached an agreement to cooperate on improving the standard of e-book services in Japan.
booklista is an application service provider (ASP) that currently provides e-book service platforms for the “ReaderTM Store” managed by Sony Marketing (Japan) Inc. and the “LISMO Book Store” managed by KDDI Corporation. In the near future, the company will also work together with Rakuten on an e-book store Rakuten is considering launching.
Specifically, there are plans for Rakuten to provide user contents via booklista, as well as to make use of the platform operated by booklista.
booklista also plans to help build an environment that facilitates mutual connection and use among the various e-book stores. Additionally, such an environment would provide ranking information on e-book titles, and personalized and centralized library information to manage e-books purchased from various stores, while other services are also under consideration.
Under this cooperative agreement, Rakuten and booklista will work hand-in-hand toward providing a space where even more users can discover e-books that can meet their lifestyle needs.