In June 2012, Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten announced the acquisition of 100% of the Barcelona-based video-on-demand startup Wuaki.tv. Eleven years later, the multinational reaffirms its commitment to this operation with the opening of a brand new corporate headquarters in Barcelona's 22@ district for Rakuten TV, the brand under which the former Wuaki now operates and which has expanded to 43 European countries. The business model, however, has been mutating from the original, adapting to market changes and the new competitive environment, until this year it made the decision to terminate subscriptions or the payment of a monthly fee and opt for a streaming model of audiovisual content with advertising.
Rakuten TV's new headquarters is located at number 60 Badajoz Street, opposite Glovo's new headquarters, and has an area of almost 2,000 square meters spread over three floors, featuring a spectacular terrace. It is a newly constructed building with the highest level of sustainability certification, the LEED Platinum seal, and which this year was acquired by the Spanish real estate investment group GMP in alliance with GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund.
Rakuten, which is the first tenant of the property, occupies the top three floors, from the 7th to the 9th, making the new offices a privileged viewpoint offering 360º views over the city of Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia, the Torre Glòries, and the Hotel Arts are some of the icons visible from the new headquarters, which also has the sea in a straight line and, more specifically, the regatta course where the America's Cup will be held, where sailboats are currently already training.
In Rakuten's newly opened corporate headquarters in the Catalan capital, 200 people of 19 nationalities work, of whom 180 belong to Rakuten TV and the rest to other subsidiaries of the Japanese multinational, which is one of the world's leading internet services companies, with businesses in e-commerce, fintech, digital content, and communication, and a turnover of 15 billion dollars in the last fiscal year.
From 22@, Rakuten TV manages all its operations in Europe, which is why it has employees dedicated to both the technical part, that is, engineering and product development, as well as commercial and other corporate services, such as legal, finance, and human resources. In the technical floor ---equipped with a hundred screens--- facilities such as the TV Labs stand out, rooms where engineers test the operation and adaptation of the Rakuten TV application on the different models and brands of smart televisions on the market, which are stored in a curious TV library. In parallel, in the Picture & Sound room, completely soundproofed and without windows, the quality of the sound and the sharpness of the image of the films and television channels broadcast by the platform are checked.
Designed by the consultancy CBRE, the new offices have 13 meeting rooms ---named after movies and Japanese cities--- and 140 workstations, a figure lower than the number of employees, as the company has established a hybrid model that sets three days a week of in-person work and two of teleworking. "This new headquarters is not just a change of offices, it is a radical change in the way of working," highlights the CEO of Rakuten TV, Cédric Dufour, who emphasizes that "physical presence" is key for the company. "We need to be together to be effective, creative, and innovative, which is why we have invested in these new offices," he explains.
According to the executive, the new headquarters is also a tool for attracting and retaining talent, which is why one of the floors has been almost entirely dedicated to socialization spaces, with a large canteen, a ping-pong table, and a spectacular terrace that, without a doubt, helps employees prefer to go to work rather than stay at home. "We couldn't just give them a desk and a computer; we had to offer something different to boost motivation and engagement. We care about the well-being of our employees and, for that reason, we have promoted flexibility and a good balance between socialization spaces and workstations," says the French executive, who has been in the position for two years. The staff was involved in the design of the corporate headquarters and asked, for example, for a maternity room and a silent room where they could rest or even meditate.
Agreements with operators like Orange
Rakuten TV's audiovisual platform receives 35 million visits every month and reaches more than 140 million homes thanks to the button on TV remote controls and its application, pre-installed on Smart TVs from major manufacturers, such as Samsung, and also on Playstation and Amazon Fire TV player. Another of its growth strategies has been to partner with telephone operators such as Orange, to whom it provides the entire streaming television package for its customers. Rakuten is already negotiating similar agreements with an operator in Luxembourg and another in Germany.
In total, the service is available in 11 languages in 43 European countries, offering three streaming products: rental or purchase of new release movies (TVoD) ---the company's original activity---; viewing a wide catalog of free movies with embedded advertising (AVoD or Advertising-based Video on Demand); and an offer of one hundred free, ad-supported streaming television channels (FAST, according to industry jargon), 15 of which are proprietary channels.
The company also produces its own content (Rakuten TV Originals), especially sports documentaries ---it has just launched a documentary about Spanish karateka Sandra Sánchez--- and now also reality shows, such as Discovering Canary Islands and, soon, a makeup talent show hosted by Pilar Rubio.
Initially, when Rakuten bought Waki.tv, its idea was to turn the platform into an alternative to Netflix, that is, it wanted to be a prominent global player in the subscription streaming platform business. However, the company's CEO, Cédric Dufour, has just announced that this business model has been definitively shelved and now, Rakuten is no longer a platform that requires paying a monthly fee to watch its content, but has opted for free content with advertising, a formula it began to introduce four years ago. According to the executive, competing with Netflix, Apple TV, Disney + or Amazon Prime required a very high investment in original production and, furthermore, he believes that consumers "are reaching a limit" and are getting tired of having to pay fees.
"From now on, our motto will be Discovering Streaming Freedom, because we give freedom to customers, who can choose what they want, without commitment. We are the only platform that offers the three services TVoD, AVoD and FAST in an integrated way," says the CEO, who highlights the great success they experienced this summer by offering the rental of the movie Barbie for 12.99 euros. "We have managed to create a virtuous circle: offer better content, attract more audience and, consequently, greater advertising investment," he noted.
Among the projects on the table for the technicians at the Barcelona headquarters, the use of artificial intelligence to improve movie search and recommendation tools stands out. Rakuten TV, Dufour advances, is also considering licensing its technology as a white label, that is, ceding it to other companies and manufacturers.
Objective: achieve profitability
Rakuten TV, which does not disclose its turnover, has not yet reached break-even, but its CEO assures that they are on "the right track" to achieve profitability thanks to the double-digit growth in revenues experienced in 2022 as a result of this new strategy and the increased advertising investment they are receiving. "This 2023 we also expect double-digit growth," he advanced. "In Japan, they highly value the efforts we are making, and these new offices are an excellent demonstration of the group's commitment to Rakuten TV and its confidence that we will be able to build a sustainable model that creates value," concludes Cédric Dufour.