Rakuten France, previously often known as PriceMinister, is searching for a purchaser for its market. The platform has misplaced visitors and lively prospects within the final 10 years. If nobody comes ahead, {the marketplace} shall be closed earlier than the top of this yr.
PriceMinister was a French on-line market, based in 2000. It grew to become a big participant within the French ecommerce market, dethroning eBay for a number of years. In 2010, it was acquired by the Japanese Rakuten Group for 200 million euros.
Valued at 65 million euros in 2016
Rakuten was imagined to grow to be a fundamental competitor of Amazon in Europe. Nevertheless, by 2016, the French market had already been revised downwards to 65 million euros, a few third of the acquisition worth. And in 2018, the PriceMinister model was disbanded utterly, changed by Rakuten.
In that very same yr, Rakuten additionally launched its Membership R cashback program, together with Membership R In all places. With that, Rakuten prospects obtained a 5 p.c low cost on purchases at associate manufacturers. This didn’t appear to assist, because the variety of lively prospects has fallen by 33 p.c since 2016. On the similar time, visitors has decreased by 42 p.c.
Visitors has decreased by 42% since 2016
Lower in guests
In accordance with French on-line information outlet Journal du Geek, Rakuten France attracted a mean of 9.5 million distinctive guests monthly within the third quarter of 2025. In that very same interval, Amazon had a mean of 38.8 million distinctive guests, whereas Cdiscount had 15.5 million. This means that there’s a giant hole in market share.
Potential closure in third quarter
In April this yr, worker representatives already heard that the corporate is searching for a purchaser. Final week, it was additionally confirmed to information retailers. If {the marketplace} doesn’t discover a purchaser, it should begin closing down within the third quarter of this yr. This could have an effect on 180 workers.
Funding financial institution Carlsquare shall be managing the gross sales course of. Reportedly, it has already acquired expressions of curiosity. A number of names have been cited, like Fnac-Darty, Leclerc, Auchan and Cdiscount.
Closures of different Rakuten marketplaces
It isn’t the primary time that the Rakuten Group decides to shut its marketplaces. In 2020, Rakuten Germany introduced that it might shut its doorways. The corporate’s marketplaces in Spain, the UK and Austria have additionally closed. Rakuten France was the final to stay open.
