Rakuten in the company in August 2007 and, in 2010, it announced a joint venture with Baidu in China (Lekutian). In June 2011, Rakuten acquired Brazilian e-commerce firm Ikeda — since renamed Rakuten Brazil. In July, it bought German e-commerce start-up Tradoria and rebranded it Rakuten Deutschland, and in September UK online retailer and e-commerce marketplace Play.com for £25 million (almost $41 million), which was converted into the points-based loyalty program Rakuten.co.uk. In September 2011, Rakuten took a minority equity stake in Russian online retailer Ozon.ru, dubbed "Russia's Amazon", which had reported 2010 sales worth US$137 million. A four-company-strong consortium, led
Online book rental in India Online book rental in India Online book rental refers to a service wherein users rent books via the internet. Users browse books online and have their choices home-delivered, rather than physically visiting a library to borrow a book. This e-commerce model is very similar to the popular video rental service provided by the California-based Netflix. Online book rental is gaining popularity in India, with a number of websites offering free doorstep delivery for a small monthly fee. The popularity of such websites can be attributed to increasing internet usage in the country; India is expected to have the third-largest number