• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, 4 hours ago

Rakuten Group released earnings for the second calendar quarter, reporting the first net income in six years. It attributed the growth to advertising and artificial intelligence. 

The advertising business achieved high growth with revenue reaching 65.6 billion yen, up 15.6% year-over-year (YoY), driven by AI-powered search and targeted banner ads on Rakuten Ichiba and Rakuten Travel, the company wrote in its earnings statement.

What makes this so unusual is that Rakuten credited its AI services for encouraging users to spend more. Its chatbot helped to shorten the purchase time, and increased the average order amount on the Rakuten Ichiba shopping mall, Rakuten said. 

AI shortened the path by eliminating keyword. Traditionally, online shopping requires users to type specific keywords, navigate multiple category menus, and apply filters to find what they want.

Rakuten deployed "Rakuten AI," a conversational agentic AI concierge built directly into its mobile app, which shortened the time from the moment the consumer found the item to checkout. 

Overall, Rakuten's online shopping mall reported a net income of 7.7 billion yen in the three months that ended in June, up from a loss of 50.96 billion Yen a year ago. 

Other standouts included the Internet Services segment achieved growth in revenue and profit in Q2 FY2026, with revenue of 338.1 billion yen, up 4.2% YoY, and Non-GAAP operating income of 23.1 billion yen, up 68.6% YoY.

The company's domestic ecommerce gross merchandise sales for the quarter reached 1.53 trillion yen, up 5.3% YoY. Non-GAAP operating income increased significantly to 29.7 billion yen, up 30.8% YoY, driven by steady growth in core businesses including Rakuten Ichiba and Rakuten Travel, which successfully captured demand from leisure-seeking customers, alongside improved profitability in growth investment businesses, the company noted.

Rakuten Card shopping gross transaction value, representing the total value of sales through a platform, reached 7.1 trillion yen in Q2 FY2026, up 9.4% YoY. Revenue and profit increased due to more members and higher spending per customer, although the company did not state how much more spend.

Rakuten Advertising in June released new research uncovering what it called a "bifurcation gap" in AI shopping behavior, where casual use is declining while a smaller group of power users has become increasingly reliant on AI for complex, high-value purchase decisions.

As it turns out, the core AI shopping audience is not Gen Z -- it is consumers ages 36 to 55.

Power users are 6.5x more likely to bypass traditional search, and consumers trust AI recommendations more but are simultaneously verifying them through reviews and affiliate content.

The data also showed that AI adoption is weakest in high-stakes categories like travel, financial services, and software, where human-led affiliate content matters most, but Rakuten managed to increase revenue during the quarter even in these areas.