RPT-Rakuten, President Chain in Taiwan online shopping JV

(Repeats for wider distribution)

TAIPEI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - President Chain Store Corp (2912.TW), Taiwan's biggest convenience store operator, said on Thursday it will form a T$174 million ($5.4 million) online retailing joint venture with Japan's Rakuten (4755.Q).

President Chain, operator of the 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan, will hold 49 percent of the venture and Rakuten, one of Japan's top Web-based shopping mall operators, would hold the rest.

The companies said they expect the online mall to officially launch in the second quarter of 2008, and to have 3,000 e-shops within its third year.

It is taking aim at a Taiwan online shopping market valued at near T$180 billion, and the new venture should turn profitable in its second year, President Chain Store said in a statement, without giving dollar estimates.

"This will give traditional Taiwanese businesses, large and small, more opportunities to make sales on the Internet," the Taiwan company said in the statement.

"Consumers will also have more choices on the Web, expanding the overall scope of Taiwan's online shopping sector."

The online shopping mall marks the first venture of its kind for Rakuten outside its domestic market, and is also President Chain's first online retailing joint venture with a major foreign partner from that space. (US$1=T$32.3) (Reporting by Baker Li; writing by Doug Young, editing by Ken Wills)