Today in the Connected Economy: Uber Teams up With Japan’s Rakuten

Today in the connected economy, Uber Eats partners with Japan’s Rakuten Group to give customers an extra payment option online.

Also, global payments platform 2C2P joins forces with Ant Group to promote digital payments and innovation in Southeast Asia, and Branch Co-founder and CEO Greg Hayes discusses the post-pandemic office.

Rakuten Teams With Uber Eats Japan for Digital Payments

Uber Eats in Japan has joined forces with Rakuten Group to provide users with an additional online payment option.

Rakuten Pay, the Rakuten Group’s online payment service, processes payments with cards linked to the Rakuten ID system. Rakuten Pay will be available to all customers ordering food and groceries on Uber Eats by the end of April.

“Current users of both services will be able to log in to Uber Eats using their Rakuten ID, while new Uber Eats users will have the convenient option of creating an account through a simplified registration system using their Rakuten ID,” the companies said in a news release.

2C2P Teams With Ant Group to Advance Digital Payments in Southeast Asia

Global payments platform 2C2P is working with Ant Group to promote digital payments and innovation in Southeast Asia.

When the partnership concludes, Ant Group will become a majority shareholder of 2C2P. The collaboration connects 2C2P’s merchants with Alipay+, adding to its offering of 250 payment options to include more eWallets and local methods of payment.

“Digital payment adoption has accelerated rapidly in recent years, spurred by the pandemic, with mobile wallet payments widely gaining momentum across Asia,” said Aung Kyaw Moe, 2C2P’s founder and CEO. “Through this complementary partnership with Ant Group, 2C2P will be connected to a much larger merchant base and be well-positioned to advance our international expansion strategy.”

The Office Redux: WeWork Concepts Get Another Look as Businesses Rethink Design

The office as we knew it before the pandemic is — in many ways — a thing of the past. Many companies are now envisioning a new kind of post-pandemic workplace and a return to work that makes WeWork-style concepts more relevant than ever.

Among the companies supplying furniture for the work from home (WFH) crowd and slowly refilling office locations is Branch, which saw its business boom during the remote shift and is now capitalizing on outfitting the post-pandemic office, as Co-founder and CEO Greg Hayes said in an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster.

“When the pandemic hit, we flipped almost a full 180,” said Hayes, who noted that 99.9% of the company’s pre-COVID revenue came from outfitting offices. “About 97% of our revenue went to work from home eCommerce.”