Rakuten Taiwan partners recipe sharing site iCook

Rakuten, a Japanese electronic commerce and internet company based in Tokyo, has just announced a partnership with Taiwan’s largest recipe social sharing network site, iCook.

According to BNext, the partnership will see iCook adding a new Rakuten e-commerce channel in its iOS app, providing limited edition promotional deals on utensils and food ingredients for its users. The revenue from the sales will be split between both companies.

We spoke to Fox Hsiao, co-founder of iCook with regard to the partnership:

“Rakuten Taiwan is trying to expand their presence on mobile commerce because they see huge potentials and great opportunities in this space in the near future. They have also worked with mobile IM app LINE last year and it worked really well for them. Because of that, they decide to have similar partnerships here in Taiwan.”

Fox also shared with us that the iCook mobile app has garnered more than 300,000 downloads from the iOS app store in Taiwan since their launch four months back in September. The company is also growing fast on the mobile web. Its online web app is showing great traction: since its launch in November 2011, there are currently more than 12,000 food recipes shared on the site. With great traction, iCook managed to secure a funding round from CyberAgent Ventures last October, and attracted a partnership deal with one of the largest e-commerce giant in Japan.

Other than its efforts or iOS and the web app, iCook also have plans to release its Android App on Google Play after the Chinese New Year (mid-February).