later converted into an all-digital publication. On January 25, 2005, Buy.com filed to go public again, before withdrawing those plans in May 2007. Buy.com officially launched a partnership with eBay in April 2008, striking a deal to sell millions of items on eBay. Buy.com would quickly become the largest seller on eBay. Many independent sellers were upset that, unlike other sellers, Buy.com was allowed to sell on eBay without paying listing fees. From 2007 to 2009, the number of products for sale in Buy.com's marketplace grew from 2.3 million to 5 million, positioning it as the number two e-commerce site behind Amazon.com. Rakuten purchase and rebranding (2010–present) In May 2010, Buy.com was acquired by Rakuten, Inc., the largest e-commerce retailer in Japan, for $250 million in cash. This was considered Rakuten's attempt to enter the American e-retail market, and to compete globally with e-commerce competitors such as Amazon.com and eBay. At the time, Rakuten in Japan had 64 million members, and Buy.com had 14 million customers, mostly located in the US and Europe. Half its products were sold directly to customers and half were sold through other e-commerce businesses using its online store. On January 10, 2013, Rakuten announced the official rebranding of Buy.com to Rakuten.com Shopping, which became effective on January 31, 2013. On the site, rebranded as Rakuten.com, there were a series of unique virtual storefronts for shoppers to browse and connect online, with the focus on providing high quality, unique merchandise, and a shopper- and merchant-friendly experience. Each seller within Rakuten.com's marketplace can customize their page's layouts, photos and promotions, and can communicate with customers directly. With the rebranding, the site was populated entirely by individual merchants, whereas previous iterations of Buy.com had just a portion of the site devoted to independent sellers. Rakuten has also launched e-commerce sites in Germany, Brazil, France, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Austria, Russia, Canada and the United Kingdom. On September 9, 2014, Rakuten announced the purchase of San Francisco–based online rebate site Ebates.com for $1 billion in cash. The acquisition of Ebates, a website that allows customers to earn cash back when shopping online with over 2,600 retailers, gave Rakuten.com additional presence in the US e-commerce market, as well as a way to offer items such as online e-coupons. In March 2015, Rakuten.com partnered with Bitnet to accept bitcoin as payment. On August 12, 2020, Rakuten.com sent an