Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
Rakuten Mobile launched mobile services on its own network and put them at the heart of its e-commerce ecosystem, providing customers with innovative UN-LIMIT plans and a unique digital lifestyle experience. Based on TM Forum’s Digital Maturity Model and Customer Experience Management Solution Suite, and elements of the Open Digital Framework.
ANNIE TURNER 07 OCT 2023
https://inform.tmforum.org/research-and-analysis/...s-to-five-minutes
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DUBLIN, Oct. 5, 2023
The small cells segment is projected to achieve a remarkable 13.9% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), reaching $14.6 billion by the end of the analysis period.
Key Market Players (Total 64 Featured):
Artiza Networks, Inc.
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compal Electronics, Inc.
Fujitsu Limited
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Intel Corporation
NEC Corporation
Nokia Corp.
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Rakuten Symphony Singapore Pte. Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
VMware, Inc.
ZTE Corporation
https://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2023/10/05/9894006.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQqrw2e9MaM&t=333s
The Kobo Libra 2 is an excellent alternative to an Amazon ebook reader, especially for readers outside the US. It’s just as nice as the Paperwhite, with many of the Paperwhite’s standout features, like waterproofing, USB-C support, and a 300ppi display. It doesn’t work as well with Amazon’s ecosystem, of course, but it offers a few extra perks that make the e-reader, in some ways, even more enjoyable to use.
or one thing, it supports more file formats, including EPUB. It’s also much easier to directly borrow books from the Overdrive library system, while native support for Pocket means you can read your saved articles offline. The Libra 2 also comes with easy-to-use physical buttons and starts at 16GB of storage, double the capacity of the base Paperwhite. There are no annoying lockscreen ads to contend with, either. Plus, instead of a flat-front screen, the display is slightly recessed into the frame. I loved that as it meant I didn’t accidentally tap the screen and skip a page, as I often did with the Paperwhite. It also kept the screen cleaner and — combined with the wide side bezel — made the Libra 2 more comfortable to hold.
https://www.theverge.com/23769068/best-ebook-readers
Senior Vice President – Radio Access Network and Portfolio & Strategy Office , Rakuten Mobile
Puneet is an accomplished business leader with a disruptive mindset shaping business strategy at Rakuten Mobile. In his current role, he leads Rakuten Mobile’s open and interoperable RAN solutions strategy and roadmap, collaborating with a diverse ecosystem of telco and enterprise vendors and partners to create and deliver customized RAN products and solutions. He also leads a diverse strategic portfolio to maximize customer experience, budgeting, costs optimization and end-to-end portfolio management for Rakuten Mobile’s network division.
Throughout his career, Puneet has achieved significant milestones, leading impactful 2G, 3G and 4G business and technology transformations for Nokia/Alcatel Lucent, and Airspan. His leadership style is collaborative, inclusive, and empowering, encouraging teams to take calculated risks and bring forth innovative ideas to advance Open RAN technology and enhance customer experience.
He holds a master’s degree in international business and is currently based in Tokyo.
https://futurenetworld.net/profile/puneet-handa/
October 4, 2023
Bloomberg Intelligence’s webinar ‘Is Open RAN living up to its disruptive potential?’ gave Rakuten Symphony Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Hollingworth the chance to share his thoughts on how operators can look beyond Open RAN to transform their network deployment, operations and TCO using Automation and AI.
Open RAN has the ability to deliver a wide variety of previously unrecognized benefits to telecom, asserts Rakuten Symphony’s Chief Marketing Officer.
Speaking on a recent Bloomberg Intelligence webinar, Geoff Hollingworth emphasized how Open RAN has already been proven as a means to deliver greater customization in the way networks are deployed and operated, but operators are only beginning to realize the extent of its potential to drastically lower total cost of ownership.
“I can't stress enough that the automation and operational perspective is the driving force for adopting open interfaces; this is exactly the same as what happened with hyperscalers and internet companies,” said Hollingworth. “One of the main things that needs to be transformed in telecom is how we operate our business. Programmable interfaces allow machines to direct the network performance in a very horizontal way. That is what accelerates speed to market for the telecom industry. It allows us to run with a completely different model; you can move into a software-driven operation. That's much more like an internet company than a traditional network company.”
Is time the biggest unit of cost in telecom?
As a highly regulated industry, telecom has traditionally been deploying new services at a relatively slow pace but that could be remedied by Open RAN, Automation and AI, Hollingworth said. “Quite often, the biggest unit of cost in telecom is time,” he said. “When things take a long time, that creates an operational debt. From an asset ownership and supply chain point of view, that’s significant. Telecom can't compete if it moves that slowly. Open RAN moves control from the equipment providers to the people running the network.”
Hollingworth highlighted the operational success of Rakuten Mobile’s network in Japan, which he believes has set a global precedent for effective adoption. The network’s more than 350,000 cells are managed, life-cycled, upgraded and monitored in exactly the same fashion, he said. “There were two aspects of the rollout that are very important to understand. From a time-to-market and an investment perspective, building the network in a traditional manner would not have met our requirements. The decision to go with an open interface-driven deployment came from forcing the speed of rollout. In a very rapid period of time, we saw that if your blueprint is automation-first, by using those open interfaces, you can very quickly deploy, upgrade and roll out networks. You can also start to digitalize all of your processes - data then becomes available to continuously improve how you are running an operation.”
"Automation and operational perspective is the driving force for adopting open interfaces; this is exactly the same as what happened with hyperscalers and internet companies.”
- Geoff Hollingworth, Chief Marketing Officer, Rakuten Symphony
Rakuten Mobile’s willingness to adopt Open RAN has already been a success where it matters most, Hollingworth said. “The biggest impact we've had in Japan is our production costs are significantly lower. We’ve also brought down the cost of telecom services in the market; Japanese consumers are now spending a lot less for their connectivity.”
Those learnings are now being applied to great effect in the ways that Rakuten Symphony supports international operators, Hollingworth said, specifically by replicating the Rakuten Mobile blueprint building Europe’s first Open RAN network in Germany. “Open RAN has gone through another maturity level. For the first time, telecom is actually keeping up with the developments of the outside technology world.”
How brownfields can successfully adopt Open RAN
The panel discussion turned to the ways brownfield operators can successfully adopt Open RAN, and Hollingworth stressed his belief that the industry is now reaching a crucial junction for widespread adoption. “We’ve observed two main approaches within brownfields,” he said. “One is where they want to go completely open with different vendors from day one; they don't want to compromise on that because they are very principle-driven. Others are demanding that the interfaces are open, but they will still source from a ‘familiar’ supply chain, but those interfaces have to be verified; at some point those operators will require those interfaces to be opened once the operational maturity has lifted. I think we are now reaching an inflection point with Open RAN adoption.”
Hollingworth rounded off the session by stressing that Open RAN can also help to alleviate challenges around network performance, namely through the customization of components that can address specific issues. “Nomadic and indoor traffic needs to be addressed,” he said. “When you move nomadic and indoor, you need completely different innovation and solutions around providing coverage. You need a diversity of suppliers that can actually target those different niche deployment areas. ”The global digital world is moving through yet another inflection point as AI matures and secure, privacy centric data will design the next world we live in, Hollingworth added. Telecom is an essential enabler in that journey and by adopting the latest open technologies and approaches it can compete, add value, and general new revenue streams.
https://symphony-rakuten-com.translate.goog/blog/...amp;_x_tr_pto=sc#
10 OCT 2023
Rakuten Mobile’s 5G tech road map. Rakuten as a disruptive player – how have you grown over the last 2 years – network, services, customers. What is the plan for 5G? Where are you at with 5G roll out plans? What does your team look like – how does your operating model underline your plan?
Sharad Sriwastawa Co-CEO Rakuten Mobile
Mark Newman Chief Analyst TM Forum
https://inform.tmforum.org/videos/rakuten-mobiles-5g-tech-road-map
By Jessica Gibson October 09, 2023
Rakuten Symphony explains how its radically different approach – combined with in-depth knowledge & proprietary architecture – benefits private networks
Rakuten Symphony is a company that truly lives up to the moniker ‘innovative revolutionaries’.
Often, you find that companies spot a gap in the market and then idealise the fastest, cheapest way of filling that gap – but not Rakuten Symphony, which is taking a new technology approach, proven by Rakuten Mobile in Japan, and delivering it globally. The company has married its knowledge with an automated approach that can be leveraged by any mobile operator, creating unique opportunities for its Symworld Cloud offering, including for private 5G deployments.
“Private 5G needs to be looked at from the perspective of connectivity as well as the use cases that it serves, explains Partha Seetala, President of Rakuten Symphony’s Unified Cloud Business Unit
“By combining innovations in storage, networking, computation and application management into a cloud-native Kubernetes-based architecture, Symworld Cloud provides the highest-performing, most cost-efficient solution.
“From a use case perspective, once a connectivity issue is solved, enterprises want to deploy more domain-centric workloads, like video analytics or apps churning a lot of data. That's where Symworld Cloud shines – it addresses network and storage-based workload needs.
https://technologymagazine.com/articles/...d-capabilities-at-the-edge
12 hours ago
In an era where personalized customer experiences reign supreme, Rakuten Viber has taken a significant leap forward in its global strategy by launching a new suite of business tools. The latest offering marks an expansion of Viber’s capabilities, positioning the app as a communications hub for a wide range of businesses.
Today, nearly 60% of online shoppers express their willingness to abandon brands that fail to personalize their content. To meet these evolving expectations, businesses are increasingly turning to customers’ preferred messaging apps to deliver tailor-made experiences. Viber, with over one billion downloads on Android alone, has recognized this demand and responded by expanding its suite of tools. The new toolkit will provide businesses with the means to reach new customers, build and retain loyalty, and drive sales effectively.
The first solution to roll out on this platform is a free, self-serve communications hub designed specifically for small and micro businesses. This hub allows businesses to seamlessly engage with local customers, manage incoming queries, enhance their discoverability and, most importantly, drive sales. Viber has additional value-added services in the pipeline for medium-to-large business accounts, promising a comprehensive suite of tools that cater to businesses of all scales.
Elevating customer engagement: A look at Viber’s latest business tools
Viber’s inspiration for the free offering to small and micro businesses stems from the success of its Viber Business Accounts product for enterprise-level companies. In 2023, Viber recorded a 26% increase in business accounts created and a substantial 31% year-over-year increase in delivered business messages, further underscoring the demand for such solutions.
Viber’s business toolkit includes a host of valuable features for business owners directly managing their customer conversations.
A public business profile allows businesses to create searchable pages sharing essential details with users both inside and outside the app. 1:1 customer chats now enable real-time communication with customers. And, with discoverability through Viber search, businesses can leverage Viber’s search feature to attract and retain loyal customers, helping users locate local products or services by name or category.
In addition, new dedicated chat folders separate customer and personal messages for a professional experience, with a business inbox folder also available. The product catalog feature allows business owners to add and promote products, letting customers explore and inquire about offerings directly through chat.
Empowering small enterprises in Greece and the Philippines
Currently, Viber’s self-serve business accounts are available in Greece and the Philippines, with plans to expand to more countries later on. The company has also announced upcoming features like broadcast messages, voice calls, and quick and automatic replies, taking communication for small business owners to the next level.
Early testers are reporting positive results. Nene Tamayo, a Philippines-based shop owner, uses Viber to connect with customers, allowing her to provide a personal touch to conversations that foster loyalty.
Eleni Petroulaki, a fitness and nutrition expert in Athens, praises Viber for helping her build stronger relationships with customers. “From connecting instantly with customers to showcasing my services, Viber has not just been a platform, but a partner for my growing business,” she said. “My presence on Viber allowed me to build stronger relationships and ensure long-term brand loyalty with my customers.’’
Cristina Constandache, Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Viber emphasized the significance of the new toolkit. “Our mission is clear: to offer customized services for enterprises of all sizes. For those seeking growth, we deliver solutions that pave the way right within the app. With Viber as a growth partner, businesses have a communications platform for adapting to new challenges that arise on their business journey.”
Viber’s new toolkit for business signifies a major step towards making digital business communication more inclusive for companies of all sizes. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, Viber’s commitment to connecting people – no matter who they are, or where they are from – will ensure that businesses have the tools they need to thrive in an increasingly competitive world.
https://rakuten.today/blog/...rategy-with-toolkit-for-businesses.html
October 3, 2023
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...ai-and-open-ran-at-mwc-las-vegas
17 hours ago
One of Japan’s most popular credit cards hit an astonishing new milestone: Over the 12 months to July 2023, Rakuten Card users spent 20 trillion yen – more than a 20% jump over the previous period.
Rakuten Card’s incredible growth trajectory can be attributed in part to a broader trend in Japan’s cashless economy. Including e-money and mobile code payments, cashless transactions expanded to 36% in 2022 to reach 111 trillion yen. The vast majority of this spending – 93.8 trillion yen – came from the credit card sector, which grew 15.8%.
Why is Japan embracing cashless like never before? And why is Rakuten Card’s growth outpacing the rest of the field? We spoke to Rakuten’s Card Strategy Planning Department Manager Yoshihiro Ogawa for some insights.
https://rakuten.today/blog/...as-japan-embraces-cashless-economy.html
Rakuten chief executive officer Tareq Amin recently informed investors on a conference call that deploying services in the 900-MHz band could be done at “extremely low” cost.
“We will utilise and reuse our existing base stations, all of the accessories from batteries, rectifiers, even fronthaul backhaul, dark fibre, where we reuse the existing infrastructure that exists,” Amin said.
“Also, the software for radio access is a technology that is owned by Rakuten Symphony. So thus, we believe that capex is negligible if you compare deployment of [the] platinum band of Rakuten Mobile versus other telecom companies in Japan or across the world.”
https://disruptive.asia/rakuten-mobile-platinum-band-2024/
Why is Japan embracing cashless like never before? And why is Rakuten Card’s growth outpacing the rest of the field? We spoke to Rakuten’s Card Strategy Planning Department Manager Yoshihiro Ogawa for some insights.
Japan’s cashless journey has only just begun
Ogawa is in charge of marketing and strategy for growing Rakuten Card’s overall shopping GTV (gross transaction value), which is an important indicator of the service’s performance. He believes there is still plenty of room for growth for Japan’s cashless economy.
“In 2022, Japan’s cashless payment rate was 36%,” he explains. “METI (Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) is aiming to bring this up to around 40% by 2025, towards an eventual goal of reaching a global standard of 80% in the future. So, we believe there is still plenty of room for growth. “
https://rakuten.today/blog/...as-japan-embraces-cashless-economy.html
By Jessica Gibson October 09, 2023
Rakuten Symphony explains how its radically different approach – combined with in-depth knowledge & proprietary architecture – benefits private networks
Rakuten Symphony is a company that truly lives up to the moniker ‘innovative revolutionaries’.
Often, you find that companies spot a gap in the market and then idealise the fastest, cheapest way of filling that gap – but not Rakuten Symphony, which is taking a new technology approach, proven by Rakuten Mobile in Japan, and delivering it globally. The company has married its knowledge with an automated approach that can be leveraged by any mobile operator, creating unique opportunities for its Symworld Cloud offering, including for private 5G deployments.
“Private 5G needs to be looked at from the perspective of connectivity as well as the use cases that it serves, explains Partha Seetala, President of Rakuten Symphony’s Unified Cloud Business Unit
“By combining innovations in storage, networking, computation and application management into a cloud-native Kubernetes-based architecture, Symworld Cloud provides the highest-performing, most cost-efficient solution.
“From a use case perspective, once a connectivity issue is solved, enterprises want to deploy more domain-centric workloads, like video analytics or apps churning a lot of data. That's where Symworld Cloud shines – it addresses network and storage-based workload needs.
https://technologymagazine.com/articles/...d-capabilities-at-the-edge
Research and Markets
Mon, October 9, 2023 at 3:33 PM GMT+2
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...pac-mobile-broadband-133300693.html
By Kelly Hill October 2, 2023
When it comes to real-world examples of how operators have leveraged automation based on network data, here are two: Nordic operator Elisa in Finland and its “lights-out” network operations center (NOC), and Rakuten Mobile (both in terms of utilizing automation itself, and helping other operators automate through its Rakuten Symphony platform provider).
Greenfield Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile has always done things in a markedly different way as compared to legacy telcos, with very much a software-first focus and network equipment and software tools that it is now offering up via its Rakuten Symphony spin-off. Geoff Hollingworth, Rakuten Symphony CMO, recently said in an RCR Wireless News interview that while Rakuten Mobile essentially started with the challenge of having to build from the ground up, “the opposite is true of any existing operator,” Hollingworth pointed out. “They have 20 years of very complex instrumentation of a network that’s gone through many generations. All of that instrumentation is required at the time [and] is there for a reason. It’s important to understand if the reason still exists or not. … Also, an organization exists, that is designed around that architecture and those domains, and those silos. … It’s important to start with where the existing operator is today, and to then understand that there [are] existing levels of automation.
Automation within telecom operators “isn’t a new thing,” he acknowledged, but “it tends to be sub-optimized, and it tends to be held into more individual domains and domain controllers. … What we’re moving into when you go into … full, AI-driven [automation] is cross-domain.”
He offered up a specific case from Rakuten Symphony involving a large operator wanting to retire legacy IT technology stacks around site building, site management and site commissioning. “I think if you look at the annual reports of pretty much every operator, one of the challenges is retiring legacy tooling,” Hollingworth added. Most legacy tools have been created organically within an operator and may be called a “tool” but is essentially a spreadsheet or simple web app, a “daisy chain of many different applications and somehow it works through cultural knowledge.” It is “very hard to actually change and retire those,” he said. “And some of the companies we’ve worked with have tried multiple times and failed quite often, because the incentives of many people aren’t aligned to the actual outcome of that retirement.” There can also be built-in incentives around work that has been outsourced, and it’s in the interest of people who are doing the outsourced work to keep the legacy tools in place. But back to the example of the site technology stack. The process of designing, redesigning and deploying sites across a large country can involve “hundreds of thousands of people touching that process every day, as they build thousands of sites or refresh thousands of sites in parallel.” Rakuten Symphony offers a digitalized approach to this that Hollingworth said “accommodates existing processes as much as possible, but retires what doesn’t make sense anymore. … Everybody that is working in that system suddenly is contributing to a common database of understanding.”
With that common database in place, he explained, operators can start to run AI models on it. “You can actually start to ask which actual outsourced vendors, which turf vendors are performing the best? Where is the time taken [that is] slowing people down in different markets? … you can start to do almost automated vendor selection, automated suggestions on process improvement—because everything is timestamped and all interactions are recorded. You can imagine, then, that there are some serious insights you can generate from that, that are very hard to understand if the data is distributed and disparate across an organization,” he said.
He also offered up a specific example of how Rakuten has applied this to its own operations.
“Whenever there’s an outage, as part of the root-cause analysis, if we haven’t managed to automate it, we do ask the question: ‘Can this be automated?’ If it can be automated, we immediately put it in as a candidate for automation,” he said. “When we have a problem in the network, in the actual management console, we actually recommend potential automation to solve that–but we don’t automatically trigger them. But there is a checkbox there that says, ‘Do you want to automatically trigger this?’” That tells the humans involved that the issue has been recognized and that it has happened X number of times before with X result. That means that confidence is high that 1) such issues can be identified when they happen and 2) the proper response can also be identified, offered and executed. “But at all times, the operations people can decide how slow or fast they want to move on that, and everything is recorded,” Hollingworth noted.
https://www.rcrwireless.com/20231002/carriers/...%2520through%2520its
By Brooke Frischemeier Head of Product Management, Unified Cloud Rakuten Symphony
Kubernetes demands a better storage paradigm
Kubernetes has proven to be the north star of orchestration for containerized applications. However, this container agility comes with complexity under the layers, when it comes to storage. There can be 100s or 1,000s of micro-serviced containers, per network function, each with its own relationship to the data. Fortunately, when one applies Kubernetes principles to the problem, one can unify and supercharge the relationship between application lifecycle management and storage management.
Leveraging the principles of containerization, applications are bundled with their environments and all associated dependencies, making them intrinsically geared for easy portability, scalable deployment, and consistent replication. This evolution in application design and deployment necessitates a fresh perspective regarding existing storage models. Containers and Kubernetes usher in a new paradigm where storage is no longer an isolated, unchanging component. Instead, storage can be transformed into a vital, fluid component of improving the application’s lifecycle outcomes.
Seamlessness is crucial, given the inherently dynamic nature of containers. Unlike monolithic applications or virtual machines, one of the main advances brought on by containers is their ephemeral nature designed for rapid spin-ups, teardowns, and overall scalability. This agility demands a similarly agile storage system, one that can provision resources on the fly, scale in tandem with application needs, and reclaim resources when no longer required, including persistent storage resources.
Legacy IT infrastructure and deployment models typically mandated distinct silos for application deployment and storage provisioning. In these environments, storage was managed independently, requiring manual intervention for allocation, scaling, and disaster recovery. Recognizing the challenges and inefficiencies of this application-storage bifurcation, Rakuten Symphony embarked on a journey to seamlessly integrate storage management into its application-centric solution. The result is an intuitive system where storage needs defined by the application drive the provisioning and lifecycle of storage resources.
Developers and support teams have long struggled with the “it works in my lab” predicament, where applications behave unpredictably across different environments. Containers sought to mitigate this by encapsulating both the application and its environment, ensuring uniform behavior irrespective of the deployment target. Similarly, the Kubernetes promise must extend to storage as well. Whether an application is deployed on a local development machine, a test environment, or a production cluster spanning multiple geographies, its interaction with storage must span all scaling and disaster recovery scenarios.
A cloud-native storage solution must enforce uniformity, shielding operators and developers from potential storage-to-application anomalies and ensure that applications always have a predictable storage experience.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...2520the%2520desired%2520outcome.
Tell us about Shoplooks
Shoplooks is an industry-leading influencer marketing network dedicated to utilizing our influencer database to develop long-lasting partnerships and top-tier campaigns.
Founded in 2017, the company aims to empower the world’s premium creators to be as economically successful as possible. In the initial stages of Shoplooks’ growth, the Asia-Pacific market remained a central strategic focus. Its distinctive Chinese heritage has garnered substantial appeal within the global overseas Chinese consumer base, resulting from rapidly establishing a database featuring high-quality Chinese influencers. Shoplooks achieved significant success in the Asia-Pacific region during its early years with a strategic emphasis on the fashion and luxury sectors.
Over time, Shoplooks’ operations have expanded beyond the Asia-Pacific market, reaching a global audience. We’ve also diversified our collaboration areas to encompass various categories, including lifestyle, food, and pet-related content. In tandem, Shoplooks has refined and expanded its influencer database, cultivating fruitful partnerships with top-notch influencers from around the world.
Now in its 6th year, we have grown to become a three-sided marketplace, serving creators, brands, and shoppers. More than 50,000 retailers employ us for performance-driven campaigns and paid collaboration and invested more than $40 million in influencer marketing through the Shoplooks platform by 2022. Over 250,000 creators and shoppers purchase over $1 billion in products annually through the Shoplooks platform and app.
Affiliate marketing has emerged as a cornerstone of the marketing landscape. In the earlier days, businesses leaned heavily on PR campaigns to boost brand recognition. As the landscape evolved, a more sales-driven approach focused on metrics like clicks and sales to measure performance. This is precisely where affiliate marketing comes into its own. Presently, sales are the central focal point.
We’re excited about how influencer marketing is ascending in significance as an effective strategy to support affiliate marketing and other marketing efforts seamlessly. Over the next 5 to 10 years, it’s projected to soar from a 5% – 10% market share to encompass over 50% of the average marketing budget. Brands are transitioning from conventional social media buying to a content-centric approach, aiming for an integrated brand impact. This syncs perfectly with the foundational philosophy and ongoing innovation path of Shoplooks.
Why did you choose to partner with Rakuten Advertising?
Rakuten Advertising undeniably stands out as a globally renowned and highly professional affiliate network platform. Its extensive network of strategic partnerships with top-tier merchants worldwide and its dedicated focus on the Asian luxury market align seamlessly with Shoplooks’ strategic positioning. From a user perspective, Rakuten’s platform boasts an elegantly designed interface that is both professional and user-friendly. The evident commitment to fostering strong communication between Affiliate Managers (AMs) and Publishers has led to a wealth of high-quality collaboration opportunities with our merchants. Additionally, the platform offers periodic review services, which has proven critical for refining Shoplooks’ influencer marketing strategies.
https://blog.rakutenadvertising.com/...publisher-spotlight-shoplooks/
Published by C. Diep, Aug 10, 2023
In the second quarter of 2023, Rakuten Group generated almost 295 billion Japanese yen in revenue via its internet services segment. The segment represents the company's strongest business, carried by its domestic e-commerce operations through the online retail mall Rakuten Ichiba among others.
Rakuten Group, Inc. is a Japanese conglomerate providing e-commerce, FinTech, and telecommunication services.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1404066/...rnet-services-revenue/
Rakuten don't just sell solutions; we use them at scale in our own operations. Experience unmatched efficiency, reliability, and innovation, proven in the most demanding real-world scenarios.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/automation/speed
A significant benefit of the software-defined storage provided by Symcloud Storage is in the abstraction it introduces, distancing applications from the underlying infrastructure's complexities. Symcloud Storage unifies application-to-storage lifecycle management and automation.
Historically, interfacing with storage systems involved intricate knowledge of the underlying hardware, network configurations, and vendor-specific protocols. Kubernetes sought to unify this experience by introducing abstractions, such as Persistent Volume (PV) and Persistent Volume Claim (PVC), allowing developers to declare their storage needs without drowning in the minutiae of infrastructure specifics. But the Kubernetes Container Storage Interface (CSI), on its own, provides minimal functionality for stateful applications and volume persistency.
With Symcloud Storage, we go beyond the mere provisioning of storage. Our design philosophy and user experience take into account the holistic lifecycle of applications and their data. Consider scenarios like backup, snapshot, clone, disaster recovery, and data migration, with application-to-storage consistency. In traditional setups, these were often storage-centric operations, disjoined from the application’s lifecycle. There was no application-awareness to the storage.
These abstractions don't dilute the power and flexibility of Symcloud Storage. On the contrary, they empower developers and operators by offering enhanced vanilla Kubernetes features like Storage Classes, which describe and categorize storage types based on various attributes, like storage performance policies, placement policies, resiliency metrics, and backup policies. Applications can thus be paired with storage solutions that precisely match their requirements, in a multi-organizational environment, ensuring optimal performance and cost efficiency.
By leveraging existing Kubernetes constructs like PVs, PVCs and Storage Classes, and combining them with application awareness, environmental awareness and intuitive automation, Symcloud Storage guarantees that applications receive the appropriate storage based on their declared needs, irrespective of the underlying infrastructure or storage backend. This consistent storage experience, from edge to core to the public cloud aids in maintaining the application state, performance, and data resilience across different environments. From development to production and for any lifecycle event, developers and operators can predict how applications will interact with storage, allowing for better performance tuning, troubleshooting, and scaling decisions.
While some Kubernetes solutions enable self-service, they still require a lot of command-line coding and developer expertise. This is also addressed with Symcloud Storage. Anybody can wield its application-to-storage constructs across any number of desired lifecycle outcomes, without being an expert. True self-service is now at your fingertips with no expertise required, delivering application portability, allowing one to migrate across clusters, cloud providers, or even hybrid environments, with full, easy-to-use, automation.
Our approach to storage is a profound departure from traditional paradigms. We are breaking away from the status quo of storage as a detached, static entity and embracing it as an intrinsic, dynamic component of the application ecosystem. Symcloud Storage heralds a new era of cohesive, agile, and efficient application deployment and management. This fusion of application and storage architecture underscores our mission to empower operators and developers by streamlining operations, and ensuring that applications, along with their data, thrive in a harmonious, resilient, and scalable environment.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...2520the%2520desired%2520outcome.
For a long time in the past, the pace of development in E-commerce is relatively slow and lagged behind most developed economies due to low acceptability by Japanese consumers. However, E-commerce is rapidly growing in recent years, and the total market size has been ranked third in the world.
Rakuten Group’s E-commerce business is moving aggressively, as total GMV rose from JPY 15.3 trillion in 2018 to JPY 33.8 trillion in 2022 (Chart 1), with a compound annual growth rate of 17%. The number of monthly active users also swelled from 10 million to 39 million over the same period. As a consequence, the Group's revenue from the e-commerce business grew by 12.6% year-on-year to JPY 0.8 trillion in 2022, while operating profit surged 36.6% year-on-year to JPY 95.6 billion.
https://www.bondsupermart.com/bsm/article-detail/...ctive-RCMS_275601