Rakuten Recipe’s Verbal Food Suggestion Service to be Made Available over Google Assistant

TOKYO, October 5, 2017 - Rakuten, Inc. will begin offering its recipe site Rakuten Recipe, newly incorporating a built-in verbal food suggestion service, over Google Assistant (Note 1) from mid-October.

This service from Rakuten Recipe is compatible with Google Assistant, and is therefore available on Android and iPhone devices with Google Home (Note 2), the Google Assistant app or the Google Allo app installed. When users say “OK Google, open Rakuten Recipe” aloud and offer it a keyword such as an ingredient, it will verbally suggest a popular dish associated with that keyword from the more than 1.3 million entries that have been uploaded to Rakuten Recipe (Note 3).

To commemorate the start of this service, Rakuten will hold the Google Home Present Campaign via Rakuten Recipe starting from October 19. Users who download the Rakuten Recipe app for the first time and register as a new member during the campaign period will go into the draw to win one of ten Google Homes.

In addition, Rakuten Books, the online bookstore run by Rakuten, will begin selling Google Home starting from Friday, October 6 (https://books.rakuten.co.jp/rb/15142695/). It will also hold a campaign whereby anyone purchasing a Google Home along with other Rakuten Books merchandise will be given a multiple of five-times the Rakuten Super Points that would normally be provided for the purchase price of the Rakuten Books merchandise purchased at the same time. This campaign will last from 10:00 on Friday, October 6 to 9:59 on Thursday, October 19.

Rakuten will continue working to provide services that bring joy and convenience to our customers’ daily lives in the future.

(Note 1) Google Assistant is Google “for you” that supports users in whatever they would like to know or do. It offers support for your day just by speaking to it as if you were holding a natural conversation. It is available on devices equipped with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and higher or iOS 9.3 and higher.
(Note 2) This is a voice-activated speaker that comes equipped with Google Assistant. By just saying “OK, Google” aloud, it offers support from Google for whatever you would like to know or do. It can play music, search the internet, accomplish minor, everyday tasks, and even operate smart devices within the home. See the Google Japan Blog for specs and details on Google Home products.
(Note 3) The service does not verbally guide users through the steps of a recipe. What it does do is allow users to browse details and recipe steps for their favorite dishes over the Rakuten Recipe website, app, or by email.

■Overview: When users say, “OK Google, open Rakuten Recipe,” aloud and offer it a keyword such as an ingredient, it will verbally suggest popular dishes from among related entries on Rakuten Recipe. The service is available on Google Home and Android and iPhone devices in which the Google Assistant app, or the Google Allo app have been installed. See the service overview page for details on the service.
■Service start date: Mid-October 2017 (scheduled)
■URL: https://recipe.rakuten.co.jp/sp2/assistantapp/