Rakuten Group Posts Net Loss of 177.8 B. Yen

Tokyo, Feb. 12 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Rakuten Group Inc. said Thursday that it logged a consolidated net loss of 177.8 billion yen in the fiscal year ended December 2025, marking the seventh consecutive year of red ink. The result was worse than the previous year’s net loss of 164.2 billion yen. The group is struggling with the burden of investments to increase mobile base stations, although losses in its mobile phone business narrowed due to a rise in the number of subscribers. The absence of an appraisal gain that was booked in the previous year after a U.S. satellite communication services company was removed from equity-method affiliate status was also a negative factor. For fiscal 2025, the group’s operating profit stood at 14.3 billion yen, down 72.9 pct from the previous year. Sales rose 9.5 pct to a record 2,496.5 billion yen, driven by the strong performance at the Rakuten Ichiba online marketplace and Rakuten Travel, a travel booking site. At an online earnings briefing, Rakuten Group Chairman and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said the operating profit was largely driven by increased use of online shopping and financial services by mobile phone subscribers. He added that improvements in work efficiency through the use of artificial intelligence also helped the group secure the profit. The company did not disclose earnings forecasts for fiscal 2026. The group plans to make capital investments of about 200 billion yen for its mobile phone business in the year started last month, compared with the previous year’s 62.9 billion yen, with the aim of improving communication quality. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]