Pros
The Rakuten of today is an amazing growth opportunity that allows talented, creative and career minded professionals the opportunity to grow and flourish. One of the top five e-commerce companies in the world, it's US headquarters is based in San Mateo - a nice middle point in the Valley between San Jose and San Francisco. Once was a somewhat scattered collection of several seperate e-commerce companies, there is a new Rakuten One strategy being implemented globally - including re-branding and building synergies across all companies - whether its Viber (the WhatsAp of EMEA ), consumer e-commerce sites, financial tech, e-commerce data services, Rakuten Coin, AI, travel, fashion, Lyft (we have a piece of that market too), e-books, mobile...too many e-commerce growth opportunities to name. Rakuten is also making acquisitions (three since I've been here - just less than a year). It's a great environment for someone who wants to learn how to scale businesses, create and solidify customer offerings, build and unite businesses, and grow. If your talented, you will be recognized and move to the top of the line. This is truly an global company with worldwide opportunities. Rakuten is a $12 billion plus high growth company - there are only a few companies if the Valley at Rakuten's size with Rakuten's global growth opportunities.
Cons
The Rakuten One strategy is not for everyone. Some employees of acquired companies wish to keep their old ways, resist change, dig in. Hence natural conflict takes a high degree of collaboration to resolve. As a company born in Japan, Rakuten has certain cultural ways that are not for everyone (or new the the Valley). Some employees make fun of our weekly all hands (conducted globally), our inspirational comments from the CEO and other founders, the respect and care for our workplace, and our willingness to help non-performing employees a chance to hang-on a little longer and try to improve rather than your too typical Valley company cut and run approach. The Rakuten One strategy also means changes - reorganizations, consolidations, new training programs, new ways of recruiting, common ways of paying and measuring performance. Change is sometimes difficult for some people. And some people are afraid they will be passed by with this movement. Our co-workers from Japan are sometimes slow to adapt to Valley/US tech norms, and often break the rules with side bars conversations in Japanese (where an English speaking/writing company). This makes some people uncomfortable, especially those with less experience working in culturally diverse environments. Transparent and far-reaching communication is in it's just beginning stage (as before individual companies did not uniformly share information or opportunities between themselves).