Rakuten Group Q3 FY2023 Financial Results Highlights

・The Rakuten Group recorded its highest revenue ever for the third quarter of a fiscal year with consolidated revenue reaching 518.4 billion yen, achieving double-digit growth of 10.1% year-on-year (YoY) in Q3 FY2023. 

・The Rakuten Group recorded Non-GAAP operating losses of 41.0 billion yen in Q3 FY2023. This significant improvement of 42.0 billion yen YoY was the result of decreased operating losses in the Mobile business and expanded revenue growth in core domestic e-commerce businesses such as Rakuten Travel, as well as Rakuten Bank and Rakuten Securities. The Rakuten Group’s consolidated Non-GAAP EBITDA was profitable, recording 35.6 billion yen, an improvement of 50.4 billion yen YoY.

・In Q3 FY2023, the average number of monthly active users across the Rakuten Group in Japan^*1 reached 40.9 million, up 7.2% YoY. The Rakuten Ecosystem customer base continues steadily expanding, with 76.5% of all users using two or more services over the past 12 months. 

・Revenue in the advertising business in Q3 FY2023 grew to 51.0 billion yen, achieving double-digit growth of 15.3% YoY^*2. The business is on track to reach 200.0 billion yen in revenue for FY2023.

・Revenue for the Internet Services segment in Q3 FY2023 reached 301.2 billion yen, achieving double-digit growth of 13.9% YoY. In this segment, domestic e-commerce revenue was 224.9 billion yen, up 14.9% YoY, while domestic e-commerce gross merchandise sales (GMS)^*3 reached approximately 1.6 trillion yen, up 15.7% YoY, for the quarter.

・Average purchase price per user on Rakuten Ichiba increased significantly due to a surge in demand driven by rule changes for Japan’s Furusato Nozei “hometown tax” program from October 2023. Rakuten Travel continued to grow at a high rate by capturing demand during the summer season with gross transaction value (GTV) for domestic accommodations on a checkout basis growing by 39.6% compared with Q3 FY2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

・Rakuten’s overseas businesses continued to steadily expand their customer bases in Q3 FY2023, especially its digital content businesses, with the total number of Rakuten TV users and registered Rakuten Viki users reaching 84.4 million, up 42.1% YoY, and 78.4 million, up 23.9% YoY, respectively.

・The FinTech segment achieved significant growth in both revenue and profit for Q3 FY2023, with revenue of 184.6 billion yen, up 13.6% YoY, and Non-GAAP operating income of 28.6 billion yen, up 35.8% YoY.

・The number of credit cards issued by Rakuten Card reached 29.54 million as of the end of September 2023, up 7.4% YoY. Rakuten Card’s shopping gross transaction value (GTV) for Q3 FY2023 grew to 5.3 trillion yen, up 17.4% YoY, driving shopping GTV to exceed 20 trillion yen for the most recent 12-month period^*4.

・Rakuten Securities reached 9.68 million customer accounts as of the end of September 2023, up 15.8% YoY. In addition, the number of Rakuten Bank customer accounts (non-consolidated) totaled 14.37 million as of the end of September 2023, up 10.3% YoY, as the customer bases of these services continue to steadily expand.

・Rakuten Payment revenue rose to 20.0 billion yen in Q3 FY2023, up 37.4% YoY. The cashless payment service Rakuten Pay ranked first in all six major indicators in the 2023 Japanese Customer Satisfaction Index Survey of QR code payments^*5.

・The Mobile segment achieved revenue of 88.7 billion yen, up 5.0% YoY. Non-GAAP operating losses for the segment improved to 81.2 billion yen, an improvement of 36.4 billion yen YoY, continuing to contract from their peak in Q1 FY2022.

・Driven by increased subscriber numbers and ARPU (average revenue per user), Rakuten Mobile, Inc. recorded revenue of 55.7 billion yen, an increase of 21.6% YoY. Non-GAAP operating losses of 76.7 billion yen were recorded, an improvement of 35.1 billion yen YoY.

・The total number of MNO subscriptions (both individual and business) reached 5.22 million as of the end of September 2023, up by 410,000 subscriptions quarter-on-quarter (QoQ). As of the end of October 2023, the total number of subscriptions reached 5.42 million (preliminary figures), an increase of 192,000 subscriptions^*6 over the previous month, as net growth in subscribers begins to accelerate.

・On October 23, 2023, Rakuten Mobile received approval from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for its special base station deployment plan in the 700 MHz “platinum band” frequency spectrum, and the company will aim to create an even higher-quality mobile network.

・In Q3 FY2023 MNO ARPU (individual and business) increased to 2,046 yen, an increase of 590 yen YoY^*6,*7.

Notes
*1 Number of active users in September 2023. Figures are for Rakuten members who earned at least 1 Rakuten Point in the relevant month.
*2 Total sum of advertising sales in Japan recorded in each segment (Internet Services, FinTech and Mobile). Includes internal Group transactions.
*3 Domestic e-commerce GMS = Rakuten Ichiba, Rakuten Travel (GTV on checkout basis), Rakuten Books, Rakuten Books Network, Rakuten Kobo (domestic), golf business, Rakuten Fashion, Rakuten Dream businesses, Rakuten Beauty, Rakuten 24 and other first-party daily necessities shops, Rakuten Car, Rakuten Rakuma, Rakuten Rebates, Rakuten Seiyu Netsuper, Rakuten Ticket, cross border trading, etc. Excludes some tax-exempt businesses and includes consumption tax.
*4 For the period from Q4 FY2022 to Q3 FY2023.
*5 According to the Service Industry Productivity Council.
*6 Excludes Rakuten Mobile business plans sold for use as business continuity plans (BCP).
*7 Sales of each service divided by the average of the number of subscriptions at the end of the most recent quarter and the number of subscriptions at the end of the previous quarter.