Rakuten Trade - Malaysia’s First fully Online Broker

November 04, 2020

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd (Rakuten Trade)  is Malaysia’s first fully online or digital equity broker. Business started on 19th May 2017 and exponential growth was experienced when the lockdown began in March 2020. In March alone, 11,000 retail accounts were opened with Rakuten Trade. As of March 31, 2020, Rakuten Trade  generated close to RM11 billion in trading value on Bursa Malaysia and activated almost 70,000 trading accounts. The company is a joint venture between Japan’s Rakuten Securities Inc, and Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd. Besides its easy to open accounts and convenient to trade platform, Rakuten Trade also provides free market analysis and research reports covering listed companies on Bursa Malaysia to its retail investors. It does so through the Kenanga Group’s research team reports. It is to be noted that since 2018 Rakuten Insight Malaysia (RIM)  has also set up office here to serve as an off-shore market research hub to provide multi-lingual and multi-functional operational support for clients based across Southeast Asia. RIM is part of Rakuten Insight Global, Inc., a wholly owned online market research subsidiary of Rakuten, Inc. 

Within 3 years Rakuten Trade has not only garnered the FinTech Company of the Year 2018 award by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission but has also turned profitable. Kaoru Arai, Rakuten’s Managing Director since May 2017 was recently promoted to Director of International Business to take charge of regional expansion. The new CEO of Rakuten Trade is Kazumasa Mise who took office from 16 October 2020.

Rakuten Founder 

The Rakuten Group was founded in 1997 by Japanese digital entrepreneur Hiroshi Mikitani. Today Rakuten is a global leader in internet services with more than 1.2 billion members. The group’s services spans e-commerce, fintech, digital content, and communications. Besides that Rakuten launched its 5G mobile network in October 2020. In healthcare, Rakuten Medical, Inc., is a global biotechnology company that is developing cancer therapies with a mission to conquer cancer. Hiroshi Mikitani’s father died of cancer and he was determined since to find a treatment or cure that would target cancer cells without damaging the rest of the body because he personally witnessed the suffering his father went through from conventional cancer treatment. In 2012, Mikitani was awarded the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award,  and he also received France’s Legion of Honour, awarded by the French government. Mikitani is also the Chairman of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In July 2017, Rakuten became the Main Global Partner and first-ever Official Innovation & Entertainment Partner of FC Barcelona, and in September of the same year, became the first ever jersey partner for NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors, an American professional basketball team.  Rakuten also owns its own soccer team, Vissel Kobe and baseball team, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.  


Read more 

  1. The Mobile Network. TMN. 1 October 2020. Keith Dyer. Getting the latest on Rakuten’s 5G rollout. https://the-mobile-network.com/2020/10/getting-the-latest-on-rakutens-5g-rollout/ 
  2. About Rakuten Trade. https://www.rakutentrade.my/about 
  3. The Malaysian Reserve.19 October 2020. Rakuten Trade names New CEO.
    https://themalaysianreserve.com/2020/10/19/rakuten-trade-names-new-ceo/ 
  4. MyPF. Interview with Malaysia’s Rakuten Trade’s MD. https://mypf.my/2018/12/10/interview-with-rakuten-trade-malaysias-md/ 
  5. The Malay Mail. 8 April 2020. Rakuten Trade activates 11,000 new accounts during MCO. Bernama. The Malay Mail. https://www.malaymail.com/news/money/2020/04/08/rakuten-trade-activates-11000-new-accounts-during-mco/1854665 
  6. The Edge Markets. 13 May 2020. Yasmin Syazwina. Rakuten Trade makes maiden profit after three years in operation.  
  7. Rakuten.Today. Official blog of Rakuten group. 
  8. Kenanga. Rakuten Trade is licensed by the Securities Commission Malaysia.
    https://kenanga.com.my/news/articles/rakuten-trade-is-licensed-by-the-securities-commission-malaysia/ 
  9. Alain Elkann Interviews. 2 June 2019. Hiroshi Mikitani. https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/hiroshi-mikitani/ 
  10. Hiroshi Mikitani. 2013. Market Place 3.0. Rewriting the Rules of Borderless Business. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.