Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Skip the scams, not the sparks: Rakuten Viber launches Viber Dating in the Philippines First

New Viber feature debuts globally with a safe dating experience for real people to make real connections

By Team Orange
February 16, 2025

https://orangemagazine.ph/2025/...nches-viber-dating-in-the-ph-first/
 

Rakuten Viki Celebrates K-Drama Fandom Across the Globe

January 30, 2025

Starting with Korean dramas (K-dramas), Rakuten Viki has solidified its position as the world's top streaming service for Asian content with over 95 million registered users globally, and the excitement levels peaked in late 2024 with the launch of its second annual International K-Drama Day. This video looks at Viki’s approach to content, while highlighting the key events and insights from K-Drama Day 2024, showcasing Rakuten Viki's commitment to bringing exclusive and diverse Asian entertainment to fans worldwide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cNHpT4LDTY
 

With over a billion users worldwide, Viber ranks among the top five messaging apps, mainly concentrated in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

To get a better look at Viber’s popularity, let’s take a look at Monthly Active Users (MAUs). As of 2021, Viber reported 820 million active users, a huge growth over the 260 million it reported two years earlier.
During the pandemic, user numbers grew rapidly as people turned to online groups to socialize and share information. Viber pushed this growth with initiatives like Covid-19 chatbots and e-commerce support. App usage remains strong in its key markets.

https://respond.io/de/blog/viber-for-business

 

Insights from Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Symphony

Feburary 20, 2025

In Episode 8 of Inside Track, Udai Kanukolanu, Chief Revenue Officer at Rakuten Symphony talks us through how he is bringing his decades of experience to in telecome to delivery mutually beneficial outcomes for Rakuten Symphony and it’s customers. Join Udai as he sits down with James Dartnell, Director, Corporate Communications, EMEA, to discuss what exactly goes into winning deals from start to finish, and how Rakuten Symphony are expanding the organization’s global reach by enhancing it’s own value proposition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnJz3IGZ1YY
 

Carousell well-capitalised, with healthy narrowing of losses

Sharanya Pillai

UPDATED Nov 14, 2024, 04:41 PM

SINGAPORE – Online classifieds operator Carousell remains well-funded by its investors, and an initial public offering (IPO) is not the only option to raise capital, said chief executive Quek Siu Rui on Friday.
“We’re so well-capitalised now that it gives us the ability to stay focused on execution,” he said when asked about the company’s plans for an IPO.

“When the time comes for us to think about capital raises, we will look at all options, IPOs being one of them. But there are also many other capital-raising options,” he said, noting that the company has the support of long-term investors.

It was last valued at US$1.1 billion (S$1.5 billion), and it raised US$123.5 million between 2021 and August this year, according to data platform VentureCap Insights.

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/...lthy-narrowing-of-losses-ceo
 

Mit Blick auf das Geschäftsjahr 2025 strebt die Rakuten Group an, "den konsolidierten Non-GAAP-Betriebsgewinn zu steigern" und "Rakuten Mobile wieder auf die EBITDA-Rentabilität des Gesamtjahres zurückzuführen". Wird das Mobile-Geschäft profitabel, wird sich die Profitabilität des gesamten Konzerns weiter verbessern.

https://en-54177.site-translation.com/posts/135121
 

Interview - January 16, 2025

Rakuten Securities is dedicated to building a better, more optimistic future by empowering individuals, businesses and societies to realize their dreams.

This has been a record-breaking year for the Japanese financial markets. In March 2024, the Nikkei breached the JPY 40,000 mark. We’ve had increased IPO activity, with 97 companies having gone public, raising over JPY 570 billion. We’ve also seen a surge in private equity deals, with values nearly tripling the annual average from 2018 to 2022. This backdrop has drawn an unprecedented flow of foreign capital into the Japanese financial markets, with foreign investments in Japanese equities reaching a ten-year high. What were the core reasons for the extraordinary performance of Japan’s financial markets, and what makes Japan attractive to foreign investors today?

One of the driving forces of this active market is that on the institutional and wholesale side, there has been corporate governance reform, but our core business is retail. For that, there was recently the introduction of the Nippon (Japan) Individual Savings Account (NISA), and the government expanded the tax exemption for the accumulation of wealth by three times the previous amount and two times more for other investment aspects. Overall, JPY's 3.6 million annual retail investment is now tax-exempt, and that has brought a lot of capital into the retail investment market.

https://www.theworldfolio.com/interviews/...s-defining-optimism/6631/
 

Programmatic Loyalty: AI-Powered Ad Solution Drives Performance and Guarantees ROAS for Retailers
Feb 05, 2025

New, industry-first solution helps retail marketers optimize Cash Back budgets for increased performance with minimal financial risk

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten, the leading Cash Back shopping platform, launched Programmatic Loyalty, an industry-first advertising solution that leverages AI and Rakuten's robust first-party data to deliver performance-driven outcomes—all with a guaranteed return on ad spend (ROAS). Retailers leveraging Programmatic Loyalty are already seeing impressive results. A leading home and garden brand experienced a 107% year-over-year increase in shoppers during the second half of 2024 during its ongoing campaign.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...-retailers-302368914.html
 

In 2014, you opened Rakuten Securities Bullion in Hong Kong, offering a unique platform with commission-free trading and high leverage catering to the region’s dynamic trading demands. In 2017, you entered a joint venture with Kenanga Investment Bank to establish Rakuten Trade, the country’s first fully online equities brokerage that enables Malaysian investors to access stock trading and investment management through a digital-first approach. Can you tell us about the challenges for your global operations and how you’re overcoming them, and do you have any plans for further expansion, with or without partners? If so, where and what does a partner of choice look like for Rakuten Securities?

The Rakuten group's strategy is to expand its sphere to the global arena, providing comprehensive services. Following that strategy, Rakuten Securities has expanded overseas. We have established an online brokerage business model in Japan, and we want to apply that to overseas markets, especially those centered on the Asian regions. We have started with Hong Kong and Malaysia.

For Malaysia, we established a joint venture with Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad, the biggest brokerage firm company in Malaysia, as Malaysia’s first fully online securities company. Kenanga is a strong local player and has a nudge for the Malaysian people and culture. Our strategy is to develop roots in local communities, which takes time. We need to understand the local market and business culture to provide a brokerage service for local and global stocks successfully. We have dispatched a few members from Japan and have asked the locals to join the company, with them primarily driving the company since they understand the local community mindset.

In Malaysia, since our business model is a stock brokerage, the local regulations require that we have a joint venture with a local company, but in Hong Kong, our business is a margin FX, focusing on a global product. That is the same business model everywhere in the world. Therefore, we have a 100% owned subsidiary, but we have local staff to do marketing and to help penetrate the market.

Are you currently in the early stages, or are you already looking for partners?

We are always looking for new opportunities and partners. We will have discussions and consider how to define our business model and how to find good partners.

https://www.theworldfolio.com/interviews/...s-defining-optimism/6631/
 

Rakuten hope that this new design will appeal to fans of the Dragon Ball series and encourage them to apply for a new Rakuten Card.

First airing in October 2024, Dragon Ball DAIMA is the most recent series in the Dragon Ball franchise.

Like the normal Rakuten Card, the Dragon Ball DAIMA card will offer the same benefits such as no annual fee, 1x Rakuten Points when used normally and 3x points when used on the Rakuten Ichiba marketplace.

This collaboration with Dragon Ball isn’t the first time Rakuten have featured an anime character on a credit card.

Rakuten’s own Shopping Panda mascot stars in the anime “Okaimono Panda!” which is currently airing on Wednesday evenings in Japan.

Other specially branded credit cards available from Rakuten include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, the Vissel Kobe soccer team and Japanese musician Yoshiki.

https://essential-japan.com/news/rakuten-dragon-ball-credit-card/

 

 

 

 

 

AirHopAItm Launches First Office Application of the Industry's First AI/ML-powered Solution for Energy Savings With MIMO Adaptation in Rakuten Mobile

Read more at: https://www.lelezard.com/en/news-21724655.html
 

Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile Sign Agreement to Create European Direct-To-Device Satellite Service Provider

NEWBURY, England & MIDLAND, Texas, March 03, 2025

Vodafone Group Plc, a leading European and African telecommunications company, and AST SpaceMobile, the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by everyday smartphones, designed for both commercial and government application, have signed an agreement to create a jointly-owned European satellite service business ("SatCo") to serve mobile network operators (MNOs) in all European markets.

The new venture will exclusively distribute AST SpaceMobile’s satellite services to European MNOs under a single turnkey arrangement. This will be underpinned by a full network management and network operations centre capability, based in Europe, drawing on Vodafone’s advanced engineering expertise. SatCo will build and run a network of ground stations to provide backhaul services from these MNOs across Europe to the satellite network in low Earth orbit.

On January 27, 2025, Vodafone successfully made the world’s first space-based mobile video call from an area without any mobile coverage on the recently launched BlueBirds satellites, supporting the company’s aim to provide ubiquitous mobile coverage for its 340 million customers in 15 countries and its network partners in 45 more markets.

On 19 February 2025, Vodafone, AST SpaceMobile, and the University of Málaga also launched a new space and land mobile broadband research and validation hub, supported by the Spanish Space Agency.

Set to open by Summer 2025 at Vodafone’s existing Innovation Centre in Malaga, the hub will develop integrated low Earth orbit space-based and land mobile broadband services.

In support of its European expansion, AST SpaceMobile is also enhancing its presence in Spain with the recent opening of 5,600 square meters of manufacturing and office space in Barcelona.

These strategic initiatives will enhance AST SpaceMobile’s capabilities to serve the European market by increasing production capacity and accelerating the rigorous testing of its satellite and telecommunications systems.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...obile-sign-agreement-060000098.html
 

Rakuten Symphony Expands Open RAN with Key Partnerships

By Kamile Bigenyte  
March 3, 2025

Rakuten Symphony announced significant progress with its Real Open RAN Licensing Program by partnering with Cisco Systems, Airspan Networks, and Tech Mahindra. This initiative aims to spread adoption of Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) technology across global telecom markets.
Airspan and Tech Mahindra are tasked with reselling Rakuten Symphony’s Open RAN software licenses to telecom operators worldwide. Additionally, Rakuten is set to collaborate with Cisco to create a private 5G mobile network. This network leverages Cisco’s Mobility Services Platform and Rakuten’s Open RAN solutions, with Tech Mahindra serving as Rakuten’s preferred systems integrator.

In essence, these collaborations are expected to simplify and fully program mobile networks. Furthermore, enterprises of all sizes will benefit from improved access to mission-critical applications, ensuring they are ready for the next phase, 5G Advanced. Masum Mir from Cisco emphasizes the importance of this partnership in promoting wider adoption of 5G services and fostering a transformative digital future.

Rakuten Symphony’s Real Open RAN Licensing Program, introduced last year, was called a “ground-breaking initiative.” It is designed to democratize global RAN technology by offering software through an open community model.

https://voip.review/2025/03/03/...-expands-open-ran-key-partnerships/
 

Rakuten first announced plans to enter the wireless industry in 2018. Today, the company boasts of a profitable Japanese wireless network and an almost-profitable open RAN vendor operation.

Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies
March 3, 2025

https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/...hosts-2025-mwc-victory-party

 

AST SpaceMobile Provides Business Update and Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results

"2024 was a milestone year for AST SpaceMobile, and we enter 2025 even better positioned to lead the emerging direct-to-device satellite communications industry that we invented," said Abel Avellan, Founder, Chairman and CEO of AST SpaceMobile. "The many pieces of our plan are rapidly coming into place. We advanced our customer ecosystem, formalized definitive commercial agreements, and expanded our U.S. Government capabilities. Finally, we completed a carefully structured financing transaction with minimal dilution to current shareholders, enabling us to accelerate our manufacturing efforts and start 2025 stronger than ever."

"With nearly $1.0 billion in cash on our balance sheet pro forma for the recent offering of convertible notes, an alliance of industry leading partners, and our proprietary technology, we are well-positioned for continued success," added Avellan. "We are laser-focused on building and deploying satellites and expanding our commercial agreements during 2025, moving toward commercial-scale revenues. Our vision has never been clearer, and we believe we have the resources and capabilities to execute our plans."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...ides-business-fourth-211500747.html
 

Red Hat to Provide Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony with Open Source Expertise and Solutions

Red Hat announced that it will supply Rakuten Mobile with its Enterprise Linux for Real Time as part of a collaboration aimed at enhancing Rakuten’s fully virtualized, cloud-native network. This partnership also includes support for Rakuten Symphony in developing open RAN telecommunications solutions for global customers.

Red Hat’s contribution will enable Rakuten to utilize advanced Linux technology, allowing Rakuten Symphony to enhance its platforms and tools for telecommunications service providers. Additionally, Red Hat will assist in certifying Rakuten Cloud’s Cloud-Native Storage on Red Hat OpenShift, facilitating integration with Kubernetes-native tools.

The integration of Red Hat’s advanced security features and hybrid cloud capabilities positions Rakuten well to advance open RAN initiatives, private 5G partnerships, and satellite-enabled LTE connectivity. The collaboration emphasizes the need for reliable enterprise support and operating systems that can address the evolving demands of the telecommunications sector. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is designed to offer scalability and dependable performance, assisting organizations in lowering costs and managing workloads across various environments.

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/...se-and-solutions/2025/03/
 

Rakuten Symphony (which sells Rakuten Mobile's open RAN learnings on a global basis) was almost profitable last year, according to Rakuten Symphony Chief Sharad Sriwastawa. Presumably it too will soon reach financial breakeven: Rakuten Symphony counted 31 customers a year ago, a figure that has grown to 45 today. By the end of 2025, officials expect more than 100 Rakuten Symphony customers.

https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/...hosts-2025-mwc-victory-party

 

Top 35 Social Media Platforms (2025)

by Fabio Duarte
February 27, 2025

We’ve compiled a list of the top social media platforms.

Specifically, we ranked the most popular social media networks based on number of users and monthly traffic data.

https://explodingtopics.com/blog/top-social-media-platforms

 

Rakuten Viber is #10 - but this okay, too.  

have a value  of more than one billion $.

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (ASTS)
33.80
+5.19

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ASTS/
 

Revolutionizing Cloud-Native Security and Networking with the Power of AI/ML and eBPF

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...with-the-power-of-ai-ml-and-ebpf