Rakuten Auction to Launch Anonymous Auctions for PCs and Mobile Phones

TOKYO, JAPAN, November 13, 2006 --- Rakuten, Inc., a leading Japanese e-commerce company, and NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Japan’s largest mobile operator, announced that their joint-venture company Rakuten Auction, Inc. is launching an auction service that does not require sellers or winning bidders to divulge private information to one another. The service will be available to PC users from today and will be listed in the i-mode™ portal from November 20.

Compatible handsets for the new service, dubbed “Rakuten Auction,” will be FOMA™ models sold since the launch of the 900i series (with some exceptions).

As part of the service, a social networking site linked to the auction site will enable “Rakuten Auction” users to communicate with others who share a common interest in auctions.

Rakuten Auction will handle deliveries and payments without requiring auction participants to reveal user information, and will provide easy guidance to using the system, taking part in auctions and viewing details of transactions.

“Rakuten Auction”, the first customer-to-customer trading service in the i-mode portal, will be available to approximately 22 million Rakuten members (as of the end of June) and about 29 million i-mode users with compatible FOMA handsets (as of the end of October).

About Rakuten Auction
Name of Company Rakuten Auction, Inc.
Services Operation of Internet auction site
Founded December 1, 2005
Address Roppongi 6-10-1, Minato-ku, Tokyo
President Yuji Hirao
Capital 1.65 billion yen
Ownership 60% Rakuten, Inc. and 40% NTT DoCoMo, Inc.

About Rakuten
Name of Company Rakuten, Inc.
Services Internet service provider
Founded February 7, 1997
Address Roppongi 6-10-1, Minato-ku, Tokyo
President Hiroshi Mikitani
Capital 107.2 billion yen
Total Number of Issued Shares 13,009,666 shares
Employees 4,075 (consolidated base)

About NTT DoCoMo
NTT DoCoMo is the world’s leading mobile communications company. DoCoMo serves more than 52 million customers, of which more than half subscribe to FOMA™, launched as the world’s first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA in 2001. DoCoMo also offers a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services, including i-mode™, the world’s most popular mobile e-mail/Internet service, used by more than 47 million people. With the addition of credit-card and other e-wallet functions, DoCoMo mobile phones have become highly versatile tools for daily life. NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges.
For more information, visit www.nttdocomo.com.

i-mode and FOMA are trademarks or registered trademarks of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan and other countries.
NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA service is only available to subscribers in Japan.

Contact Information

Takuya Ori

International PR, Public Relations Department

NTT DoCoMo, Inc.

Contact via E-mail