A few days ago, the affiliate marketing industry was rocked by major news: Rakuten and impact.com announced “a strategic alliance to modernize the affiliate and performance marketing ecosystem.â€

Long story short, the world was told that Rakuten Advertising will now focus solely on affiliate program management, while all Rakuten-based affiliate programs will migrate to impact.com‘s technology for tracking, reporting, and handling payments.

First off, if you are reading this as an advertiser with a Rakuten-based affiliate program and need a hand with this migration, AM Navigator does all affiliate program migrations free of charge on all of our management contracts. So, do contact us if you need help. We have decades of experience in migrating affiliate programs, and we are here to help you.

Secondly, as someone who has been around the (affiliate marketing) block for nearly three decades, I’d like to share my thoughts on the Rakuten impact.com announcement. Here are my ten thoughts, in no particular order:

This wraps it up for me. Though much more is to follow; and, as always, the comments under this article are wide-open, and I invite you to share your thoughts on this Rakuten impact.com deal, its immediate and long(er)-term implications, and anything else you believe should be highlighted in this regard.