The language program is another vertical of Rakuten Institute of Technology. This group comprises of AI researchers who are specialized in natural language processing techniques. The goal of this group is to convert the vast unstructured data of Rakuten into structured one. The focus lies with catalog data primarily. Benefits of structured catalog data are numerous, ranging from better product search in Rakuten Ichiba, effective filtering for products, quicker understanding of demand of products, to superior product matching and recommendation. Key techniques used for converting unstructured data to structured ones include attribute extraction for must-have attributes, attribute normalization for critical attributes to ensure consistency, key-word extraction, and others to name a few. We also have a dedicated Machine Translation team on a mission to help Rakuten strengthen its global presence and lower language barriers by developing language translation solutions for Rakuten’s portfolio businesses.
