Rakuten Advertising, formerly known as Rakuten Marketing, is an affiliate marketing service provider. The company, in 2005, claimed it was the largest pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet.[1][2] In 2005, Rakuten acquired LinkShare for US$425 million in cash,[3] making LinkShare a wholly owned U.S. division of Rakuten, Inc., a Japanese shopping portal.[4] Rakuten LinkShare was re-branded to Rakuten Affiliate Network in 2014. In 2020, Rakuten Marketing was renamed as Rakuten Advertising.[5]
