Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Following the discussion at ATS London 2019 on why brand marketers need to invest in mobile, ExchangeWire speaks to Cristina Constandache (pictured below), Chief Revenue Officer, Rakuten Viber, in this exclusive interview on how messaging apps can be used as an effective and brand safe environment for advertisers.

https://www.exchangewire.com/blog/2019/10/09/...apps-the-new-browser/
 

What advantages do brands see by spending in messenger and super-utility apps? What can be done to ensure these ads are brand-safe, non-intrusive, and privacy-compliant?

Industry stats show that users spend more time on messaging apps than on any other app, which is great for brands. This means that reaching consumers today can be done much more naturally through a native dialogue experience. It’s not only about placing ads in front of them, it’s about engaging in a conversation with consumers, which is something that no other marketing channel can deliver. The results go beyond just impressions, views, and increasing brand awareness: we’re talking about actual performance results where you can measure the impact and the actions taken by the consumers, following the interaction with a brand. Again, this is something that is exclusive to the messaging space. No other channel is able to offer the same level of engagement, not even social media.  

"In terms of privacy compliance, we can’t speak for other messaging apps. But when it comes to Viber, our app has been built with the user’s privacy in mind from the very beginning. All messages, photos and media on Viber are end-to-end encrypted by default, meaning that we do not have access to the exchanges that the users are having, and we go above and beyond to ensure our privacy settings are set to the highest level by default."

Quelle: 4425  

With 60% of the world’s population currently owning a smartphone – a number expected to rise to 79% in 2025, it’s no wonder over-the-top (OTT) messengers like Viber are becoming more popular amongst enterprises and mobile advertisers 

Viber Business Messages offer great responsiveness and engagement value, offering brands a range of advantages. With over 1 billion unique users worldwide, 70% of whom are between 18 and 35, the Viber app has great reach with a young audience. 22 million of those are in Ukraine, translating to 97% market penetration, making Viber a great way to reach your customers.

Viber Business Messages have several advantages over SMS. They can incorporate links and images to make messages more engaging, and each message can contain up to 1,000 characters (compared to SMS’ 160 per message). This makes them ideal for communicating important information to your customers in interactive and engaging ways.

Viber Business Messages are great for

Two-way communication including notifications and alerts

Eye-catching special offers, loyalty programs, and promotions

Transactional messages: user authentications, delivering account information and reports

https://www.gms-worldwide.com/enterprises/...viber-business-messages/  

https://books.google.de/...age&q=rakuten%20pay%202019&f=false  

The number of monthly Rakuten Pay users increased nearly 14-times and its MVNO business expanded to 2.2 million subscribers from 1.65 million a year earlier.

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/...mobile-loss-widens/
 

Michio Takahashi, Vice General Manager, Cross Border Trading Business Department, Rakuten, Inc, agreed that technology should be the key driver for innovation, emphasising that the implementation of innovation needs to be the industry's top priority. He shared Rakuten's two factors for the implementation of successful cross-border retailing, namely a close partnership with local platforms and proper logistics solutions. For example, his company's partner in the mainland is JD.com, which has inventories in numerous export destinations to ensure products can be shipped to customers swiftly.

https://www.marketscreener.com/...in-Asian-E-tailing-Summit-29691352/
 

https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/...n-rakuten-weltweit/  

aber immerhin wird man unter den ersten Fünf wahrgenommen  - das ist mehr als Nichts.

https://www.onlinehaendler-news.de/online-handel/...t-ranking-klar-an  

dass die m.E. erfolgsversprechenden Investitionen im Mobile-Bereich nicht positiv, sondern negativ bewertet werden, was ich bei aller Unsicherheit, die hinsichtlich des Erfolges besteht, als absurd ansehe.

Da Rakuten den Kapitalmarkt m.E. richtigerweise nicht in Anspruch zu nehmen gedenkt, sondern Investitionen ausschließlich aus dem Cash Flow und über Anleihen stemmt, haben die auch wenig Interesse an der Kursentwicklung, Daher erfährt man auch nichts über die Vorgänge im Mobile-Bereich - denn das würde vermutlich der Konkurrenz nützen, Rakuten als Unternehmen aber nicht und auch nicht den Großaktionären, die ihren Bestand nicht verändern wollen.  

On the other hand, technology companies such as Rakuten, Yahoo Japan and Messaging app operator Line have been very aggressive in promoting their e-money payment apps, which provide additional benefits such as loyalty points and discounts when used for transaction within their e-commerce sites.
The government's support of wider e-money adoption is a golden opportunity for technology companies' aspirations to capture a big slice of Japanese consumers' wallet. E-money is the ideal first point of contact for a company to establish a financial services relationship that can be leveraged over time into higher-margin financial products.

The likes of Rakuten and Yahoo Japan can much more easily pivot into broad financial services thanks to their wealth of data on spending habits and personal interests, their predisposition to new technologies such as AI and the government's support.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/...s-chance-to-boost-cashless-society
 

Algorithmia
Headquarters: Seattle, WA
Founders: Diego Oppenheimer (CEO), Kenny Daniel
Funding: $38 million, via Pitchbook
Valuation: $100 million, via Pitchbook
Algorithmia cofounder Kenny Daniel used to have a favorite saying: “’The future is already invented; it just happens to be stuck in a research paper somewhere.” He and longtime Microsoft employee Diego Oppenheimer banded together to devise an easier way for data scientists to discover and work with machine learning models. While Algorithmia began as a marketplace for algorithms used primarily by individual developers, it has adapted into a more robust infrastructure service for large enterprises. For example, it says that one financial institution used its platform to bring a new risk model into production.

https://miniamazon.co.uk/trending/...al-intelligence-companies-forbes
 

12 | Upstart

Upstart cofounders Dave Girouard, Anna M. Counselman, and Paul Gu
Headquarters: San Carlos, CA
Founders: Dave Girouard (CEO), Anna M. Counselman, Paul Gu
Funding: $164 million
Valuation: $750 million, via Pitchbook
Upstart CEO Mike Girouard admits that most of the early team of former Google employees had no history in financial services when they came up with the idea to apply advanced data science to the credit process in 2012: Only the belief that the current system was antiquated and exclusionary. By using data not typically found in a person’s credit history to find more nuanced risk patterns, Girouard says Upstart’s lending model has higher approval rates and lower interest rates than traditional methods, with loss rates that are “less than half” of those of peer platforms. To-date, more than 300,000 individual borrowers have used Upstart to get a loan.

https://miniamazon.co.uk/trending/...al-intelligence-companies-forbes
 

den USA:

https://financialwolves.com/rakuten-review/  

Rakuten’s Tareq Amin voted the most powerful person in wireless tech for 2019
by Linda Hardesty |
Nov 28, 2019 8:00am

We have a winner: Rakuten Mobile’s Tareq Amin is the most powerful person in wireless technology for 2019, at least according to the readers of FierceWireless. Amin amassed 104,148 votes to edge out American Tower’s James Taiclet with 91,346 votes in the final round.

Over the course of the past week, the FierceWireless “powerful people” tournament pitted 26 of the top wireless executives/super technologists against each other in five rounds of matchups.
But in the end, it came down to Rakuten Mobile’s Amin, representing a company that’s building a wireless network in an entirely new way, versus American Tower’s Taiclet, representing a tower company that’s making 5G a reality by deploying the new radio equipment. It was a tight race, but the readers have spoken.

Amin joins an exclusive group of wireless executives who have won the FierceWireless “powerful people” vote. Sprint’s Michel Combes won the contest in 2018; OneWeb’s Greg Wyler won in 2017; and T-Mobile’s John Legere won in 2016.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/...-powerful-people-wireless-tech
 

von Rakuten dürfte das Rating "BBB-" sein. Das hängt u.a. auch damit zusammen, dass Rakuten seine Investitionen in das Wachstum seit mehreren ausschließlich aus dem Cash Flow und Krediten finanziert, was ich allerdings für absolut richtig halte. Solange die Investitionen in den Aufbau in das Mobile-Netz noch nicht oder kaum zu Zahlungszuflüssen führen, wird sich an diesen Bewertungen auch nichts ändern. Und Cash bei den vielen Beteiligungen hat Rakuten auch noch nicht gemacht - allerdings kommen in Q1/2020 Zahlungen aus dem Verkauf von Careem - warum man die Pinterest-Beteiligung nicht zu Geld macht, weiß ich auch nicht, da ich hier inzwischen kaum noch Synergien sehe.

S&P Global Ratings held a webcast on November 13, where analysts from our corporate ratings team provided the rationale behind the 'BBB-' rating assignment on Japan-based internet services company Rakuten Inc. This webcast is provided on a complimentary basis.

https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/...=&sourcepage=register

Ratingagenturen bewerten die Kreditwürdigkeit von Unternehmen, Banken, Staaten und Papieren. Die weltweit einflussreichsten Ratingagenturen sind Standard & Poor's (S&P) sowie Moody's und Fitch. Für ihre Einstufungen verwenden Ratingagenturen Buchstabencodes. Die Skala beginnt in der Regel mit der Bestnote "AAA" ("Triple-A"), die beispielsweise Deutschland regelmäßig erhält. Es folgen "AA", "A", "BBB", "BB", "B", "CCC", "CC", "C" - und schließlich "D".
Je schlechter die Ratingagenturen die Bonität eines Schuldners beurteilen, desto teurer und schwieriger wird es für ihn, sich am Kapitalmarkt Geld zu besorgen.

Die Ratingcodes und ihre Bedeutung
   S&P     Fitch   Moody's§Engl. Bezeichnung
       AAA       AAA       Aaa     Prime          §
       AA+       AA+       Aa1§High grade
        AA        AA       Aa2§High grade
       AA-       AA-       Aa3§High grade
        A+        A+        A1§Upper medium grade
         A         A        A2§Upper medium grade
        A-        A-        A3§Upper medium grade
      BBB+      BBB+      Baa1§Lower medium grade
       BBB       BBB      Baa2§Lower medium grade
      BBB-      BBB-      Baa3§Lower medium grade
       BB+       BB+       Ba1§Non-Investment grade
        BB        BB       Ba2§Non-Investment grade
       BB-       BB-       Ba3§Non-Investment grade
        B+        B+        B1§Highly speculative
         B         B        B2§Highly speculative
        B-        B-        B3§Highly speculative
      CCC+       CCC      Caa1§Substantial risks
       CCC        CC      Caa2§Extremely speculative
      CCC-         C      Caa3§In default with little prospect for recovery
        CC        RD        Ca§In default with little prospect for recovery
         C        RD        Ca§In default with little prospect for recovery
         D         D         C§In default

https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/rating102.html
 

- smaller competitors have not any chance and can't collect capital for any expansion.  

Rakuten Pay (Online-Zahlung) kann beim Kauf von Flugtickets der AirAsia Group verwendet werden

Die AirAsia Group, einschließlich AirAsia Japan Co., Ltd bietet einen von Rakuten, Inc., bereitgestellten Online-Zahlungsdienst "Rakuten Pay" an. Er kann ab heute zum Kauf von Tickets auf der AirAsia- Website www.airasia.com verwendet werden . Dies ist das erste Mal, dass eine Fluggesellschaft diesen Service als Zahlungsmethode auf einer Website für Flugreservierungen verwendet.

AirAsia-Kunden können "Rakuten Pay" als Zahlungsmethode auswählen, wenn sie Japanisch auf der Website anzeigen und in japanischen Yen bezahlen. Neben AirAsia Japan, einer japanischen Fluggesellschaft, AirAsia X (Malaysia), einem Langstrecken-LCC, und Thai AirAsia X (Thailand) gehören alle Fluggesellschaften zur AirAsia-Gruppe

https://translate.google.de/...e-to-pay-by-rakutenpay&prev=search
 

"wie ein Grab":

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/  

We spend 3 hours and 15 minutes a day on our phones.

According to Google, 89% of people are likely to recommend a brand after a positive brand experience on mobile. So how do you leverage this and design a referral program for your app that drives growth?

We’ll show you our favorite mobile referral program examples of 2019, why we love them, and what tips you can apply to your own referral program.

In this list:

1. Rakuten
2. HelloFresh
3. HotelTonight
4. Duolingo
5. Uber
6. Neighbors
7. Airbnb
8. TaskRabbit
9. Tile
10. Rover

Rakuten is one of the most well-known cashback websites. When you make an online purchase through Rakuten, you can receive up to 30% cashback. You simply shop as you normally would on websites like Amazon, Indigo, Nike, and Sephora, and Rakuten mails you a cheque with your cashback balance.

https://www.saasquatch.com/blog/...le-referral-program-examples-2019/  

Based on 25 analysts offering 12 month price targets for Lyft in the last 3 months. The average price target is $68.14 with a high forecast of $96.00 and a low forecast of $50.00. The average price target represents a 50.02% increase from the last price of $45.42.

https://www.tipranks.com/stocks/lyft/price-target
 

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.68% higher within the past month. LYFT is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...arket-225010968.html?.tsrc=fin-srch
 

I don’t believe that New Street Research is independent, I believe they publish in the open to the public materials, what their best clients want

8 DECEMBER 2019 BY CHRIS HOARE • GLOBAL WEEKLY REVIEWS
Rakuten stumbles (again); vRAN isn’t the problem, but it’s not a magic bullet if the basics aren’t right; implications for Dish & other new entrants

Rakuten is the highest profile virtualised Radio Access Network project in the world, and CEO Mikitani’s MWC tub-thumping lifted vRAN to the top of the ‘hot topic’ list for 2019. Speakers at our recent 5G conference (key takeaways from the telecom team HERE and the tech team HERE), and plenty of other news flow, have indicated that virtualisation of the core and the RAN is the way forward for lower unit costs and more flexible, secure, and scalable networking.

We don’t see this as a change of trend – unit costs have been falling relentlessly for several decades – but virtualisation is one of the key drivers for continued declines over the next decade. Virtualisation has a large and growing band of global enthusiasts too, including heavyweight operators, and an increasingly wide ecosystem.

Precisely because Rakuten put vRAN front and centre in its extravagant pitch to MWC earlier this year, it’s natural to suspect that vRAN is at the root of its disappointing trajectory since then. But, just as vRAN isn’t central to Rakuten’s story, in our view (see HERE), it also isn’t why the launch is late and impact being downgraded. This diagnosis matters for the Japanese market, but it also matters for vRAN globally.

https://www.newstreetresearch.com/blog/

New Street Research LLP
New Street Research LLP operates as an investment firm. The Company offers investment advisory and portfolio management services, as well as provides equity and debt research solutions. New Street Research serves customers worldwide.

https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/2161980Z:LN

New Street Research is the premiere independent research boutique focused on the Telecommunications and Technology sectors globally. We partner with the world’s leading investment institutions to bring them unique insights and ideas that will guide their investment decisions. New Street Research was established in 2003 with a focus on the Communications Services Sector (Telecommunications, Cable, Satellite and Telecommunications Infrastructure companies). In 2018, we are expanding our focus to include Technology Infrastructure (IT Hardware, Semiconductor, Semiconductor Capital Equipment and Communications Equipment companies). We are broadening our coverage because we believe that bringing together talented thinkers with diverse perspectives on themes that cut across the technology, media and telecom landscapes will improve the quality of original insights we bring to our clients.

https://de.linkedin.com/company/new-street-research  

https://www.eu-japan.eu/sites/default/files/...ns/docs/december19.pdf  

Herr Mikiya sagte, dass "Rakuten zu einem der wichtigsten Internet-Ökosysteme geworden ist". Er erklärte, dass das Unternehmen in Kategorien wie E-Commerce, Kreditkarten, Bankgeschäfte, Punktprogramme und Reisen rasant wächst. Derzeit ist das Unternehmen in 30 Ländern und Regionen weltweit tätig. F & E-Stützpunkte befinden sich in fünf Ländern, darunter Tokio, Paris und Singapur. Weltweit gibt es über 3.500 Ingenieure und Forscher.

In den letzten Jahren hat Rakuten internationale Markenprojekte entwickelt. Der Streaming-Service in Europa wurde in "Rakuten TV" umbenannt, die Messaging-App Viber wurde in "Rakuten Viber" umbenannt und die Cashback-Site Ebates wurde in "Rakuten" umbenannt. Infolgedessen hat sich die Bekanntheit des „Rakuten“ -Logos in Europa auf ca. 70% und in den USA auf ca. 50% verbessert. Mikiya geht davon aus, dass die Quote in den USA Ende des Jahres auf 70% steigen wird.

https://www.itmedia.co.jp/business/articles/1912/10/news006.html