Have you heard about Rakuten TV? Would you like to give it a try? But is Rakuten TV better than Google Play, or Apple Store, or Netflix and similar streaming services? Here I will give you the information you need to know what to do!
Maybe you have heard of Rakuten after watching a football match with FC Barcelona. Rakuten is one of their main sponsors (formerly Wuaki), and so they get a lot of attention. For a long time, Rakuten was about streaming content, but it has now removed the streaming service, and it is entirely a platform for buying and renting movies. So, is Rakuten TV worth using, or is it more than enough to use Google Play Store or Apple Store for renting and buying movies?
Price comparison of Rakuten TV and Google Play Store
At the time I am writing this article, the 2019 movie Aladdin starring Will Smith has been released on DVD’s and Blu-Ray worldwide. But, if you want to watch it online and buy it online, what will the cost be?
- Currently, the Aladdin price at Rakuten TV is 14 Euro (15,3 USD), while the price for purchasing the title at Google Play Store is 15 USD. In other words, the Google Play Store is a bit cheaper.
Let us check some other titles as well. Maybe you want to watch The Dark Phoenix, the most recent X-Men movie. What’s up with this movie?
- Currently, the price of The Dark Phoenix on Rakuten TV is 17 Euro (18,68 USD), while the price at Google Play Store is 20 USD. This time, Rakuten TV ended up being a bit cheaper.
What if you want to watch an old classic, the original Lion King movie from Disney? Let us do a quick price comparison.
- Currently, the price of the original Lion King movie is 14 Euro (15,3 USD) at Rakuten TV. The traditional price is 20 USD at Google Play Store, but it is currently discount and can be bought for 13 USD.
Maybe it is useful to have a Rakuten and a Google Play account?
These are just some examples. As you can see, there are minor differences in prices between the platforms, meaning that you can save money having accounts on both places, and compare the prices before you purchase movies online.
But, what I have noticed is that Google Play have a rental option on almost all their movies. Rakuten TV has this option for some movies, but not at all for all of them. So, while I could rent all the three mentioned movies that we compared earlier in the article at Google Play, I couldn’t rent any of those at Rakuten TV. That is clearly a lack for their platform, as many people only want to watch a movie once and never again. And for such people, the rental option which normally only costs about 1/3 of the price, serves as a much better option.
Is there content available on Rakuten TV that cannot be found on Google Play?
When the prices are similar and you already have a Google account… why register on Rakuten TV? Do they have any special content available only at their platform? What are the reasons for using Rakuten TV?
To be honest, I cannot find many reasons for using Rakuten TV. If you don’t want Google to gather all your information and details, using Rakuten TV might keep your movie preferences at distance from Google. But, most people don’t really care about that.
I have found one thing that I consider to be an advantage for Rakuten TV. Often, their movies come with many more languages included and more subtitles. As a result, you will easier find a movie with subtitles in your local language or some other language at Rakuten than you will at Google Play. But, that is mostly it!
Your thoughts on Rakuten VS Google Play Store?
I have concluded with the fact that there are few things about Rakuten TV that makes it better than the Google Play Store. It isn’t cheaper, they don’t have more movies, nor do they have anything that makes the platform very special.
Do you agree with me? Or are you convinced that Rakuten TV is a better platform than Google Play Store? Write a comment and let me know your thoughts!
