| Rakuten.com/shop was a San Mateo, California-based e-commerce marketplace. Scott Blum created the company, which was previously known as Buy.com, in 1997. It was purchased by Rakuten, a Japanese corporation, in 2010 and relaunched as Rakuten.com. Rakuten shut down this business in 2020.
Buy.com began by selling computers at a discount, with the intention of generating money from advertising and supplementary services like warranty sales and equipment leasing, before expanding into a variety of other categories such as software, books, films, and games. In its first full year, the company sold $125 million in goods and services, breaking Compaq's 1984 record for highest first-year sales.
Scott Blum sold a portion of his stake to SoftBank in 1999, just before Buy.com's $195 million first public offering in early 2000, after raising $120 million from Japanese tech company SoftBank in 1998 and 1999. Buy.com went public on February 8, 2000, at a price of $13 per share, rising to $37.50 per share the next day, its peak price. At the time of the IPO, Mr. Blum still held roughly 48 percent of the company. After failing to maintain a stock price above $1 per share in the year after its initial public offering, Buy.com was delisted from the NASDAQ Stock Market.
The UK arm of buy.com was sold to John Lewis, a British department store.
The UK arm of buy.com was sold to John Lewis, a British department store, in February 2001, and the technology was repurposed to create a new transactional website for the John Lewis group. Blum repurchased Buy.com in November 2001 for $23.6 million (about 17 cents per share) and took the company private.
In 2002, Buy.com expanded its product line beyond electronics, movies, and music to include soft goods such as sports equipment, apparel, shoes, and health and beauty products. Blum ran a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal at the time, guaranteeing Amazon.com shoppers that Buy.com would be the better buying alternative. This statement came after Buy.com announced a 10% discount off Amazon.com on all books sold on the site, as well as free shipping with no minimum purchase. Amazon had 25 million consumers at the time, roughly five times that of Buy.com.
In April 2008, Buy.com announced a partnership with eBay, agreeing to sell millions of products on the auction site. Buy.com would rapidly overtake eBay as the largest seller. Unlike other vendors, Buy.com was permitted to sell on eBay without paying listing fees, which angered many independent sellers.
Rakuten.com informed its clients on August 12, 2020 that it would be ceasing operations in the United States on September 15, 2020: "Rakuten's United States marketplace service located at Rakuten.com/shop will stop taking orders on September 15, 2020."
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