Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
Tina Bellon - Reuters•July 9, 2020
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...gests-most-uber-lyft-230734885.html
BY PAUL SKELDON ON 1 JULY 2020
Viber, one of the world’s leading messaging apps, and Dexatel, an innovative cloud communication platform are launching a partnership to create a new way to create and send engaging and transactional message that, in the words of Dexatel, will transform user experience.
Through the collaboration, Dexatel users can send messages all over the world with the help of Viber’s highly developed service. Now it will be easier for businesses to connect to their customers and maintain lasting relationships with engaging content. Viber is an ultimate solution to make a simple message more intuitive and fun.
The benefits of using Viber messaging include, sending long messages, up to 1000 characters – SMS gives only 160 characters – as well as enriching messages with images and videos, which says Dexatel, makes the content more engaging and fun.
The services also comes with a simple and user-friendly interface and makes adding call-to-action buttons and branding options an easy way to upgrade any type of marketing messaging.
The new service will also allow Dexatel customers and users to send both transactional and promotional messages. The promotional option lets them be informed about the latest promos, offers, and discounts. Instead, transactional ones allow customers to receive quick order confirmations, welcome text messages, and shipping updates.
Viber gives diverse solutions to businesses, as entrepreneurs can easily check the click-through rate of their call-to-action buttons, analyse their campaign outcomes, and plan perfectly promotional actions.
https://www.telemediaonline.co.uk/...nsactional-messages-using-viber/
David Chao, a venture capitalist who has been on the ground floor of Asian companies worth a combined $206 billion, has raised money for a new fund with a China focus, a sign that rising U.S.-China tensions aren’t turning off foreign investors.
DCM Ventures, which has the backing of SoftBank Group Corp. and Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc., attracted $880 million from investors including U.S. endowments and pension plans, along with European firms.
Chao, the co-founder of DCM, is uniquely placed to bridge the growing divide between the U.S. and China, sparked by trade disputes and tensions in Hong Kong. The Stanford University grad who was once recruited to be a sumo wrestler and understands Mandarin and Japanese, is as much at ease in the U.S. as China and Japan.
“They are the three largest markets in the world, and both from an investment and business development perspective, the right markets,” Chao, 53, said in a phone interview. “China is still going to grow faster than the U.S. over the next 10 years. So I think in terms of the capital flow, it won’t stop.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...acked-dcm-eyes-china-220000850.html
Currently, 37% of UK consumers are aware of AVOD offerings. 74% believe their use of AVOD will remain at the level established during lockdown, and 60% say they are likely to sign up to AVOD offerings when the service is described to them.
For those consumers that watch major sporting events, now presents an exciting moment as the broadcast of football, golf and horseracing starts again with the easing of lockdown. Across Europe, 26% would be interested in streaming sport on an AVOD service, placing this ahead of all other streaming options, including pay-per-view and monthly subscription services.
More than ever, it is important to offer a variety of solutions that stop consumers being priced out of watching video and sourcing illegal content. Anthony Capano, Managing Director, International, at Rakuten Advertising comments, “Offering alternative VOD models is key to meeting these consumer demands and responding to changing viewing habits. Consumers want access to more entertainment, and research suggests they are happy to watch ads in return for it.”
AVOD offers advertisers a huge opportunity
AVOD means brands can finally connect with audiences who are consuming on-demand video. 46% of UK consumers say ads that are funny, engaging, or entertaining will increase their likeliness of using an AVOD service.
Capano adds, “During this lockdown period it is crucial for brands to continue advertising and stay connected to their customers in ways that resonate. 41% of consumers in the UK want brands to communicate with them in a realistic fashion during this time of uncertainty, and 39% believe brands that emotionally understand people will succeed post-pandemic. AVOD can associate brands with enjoyable content that is helping people escape today’s challenges.”
Capano concludes, “Not only can brands benefit from advertising on platforms that are entertaining people, they can be part of a new VOD model that responds to audiences’ desire for content that is accessible.”
https://blog.rakutenadvertising.com/en-uk/...ts/avod-the-time-is-now/
NTT Docomo Inc. will begin marketing lower-priced smartphones later this year to promote its fifth-generation, or 5G, advanced wireless service, President and Chief Executive Officer Kazuhiro Yoshizawa said in an interview.
Yoshizawa said the 4G service that rival Rakuten Inc. launched in April at ¥2,980 per month is “impressive.”
But he said NTT Docomo “won’t compete on price anytime soon.” Customers “don’t find value only in a price,” he said.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/07/09/...smartphone-line-year/
At the end of last year, Lyft had about $2.9 billion of cash and investments on hand and no debt. Plus, the company has a highly variable cost structure, meaning that when revenue collapses, most of its costs disappear, too. For example, insurance is Lyft's single largest expense within its cost of revenue line, and it's a per-mile expense. So if miles driven are down big, insurance costs are down big. The same is true of credit card processing fees, which fall with the number of rides being taken on the platform.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/05/02/...se-3-stocks-and-tha.aspx
Nokia goes broad and bold in Japan
7 hours ago
For the past three decades, Nokia has been part of the fabric of the global mobile industry. Yet the 150 year-old company remains at the cutting edge of mobile technology, playing a multi-faceted role in the development and deployment of Rakuten Mobile’s radical new network.
Although Finland-based Nokia works with hundreds of mobile operators around the world, it hasn’t had a customer quite like Rakuten Mobile before. One of the biggest differences is that Rakuten Mobile is applying the high levels of automation employed in its internet businesses to telecommunications. “Rakuten Mobile is a challenging customer because they’re doing things at speed, doing things at internet speed: whereas things that take a traditional telco several months, they’re doing in several weeks,” says John Harrington, Head of Nokia Japan. “It’s basically us working with a web-scale company in the telco environment. So we’re learning a lot … they’re trying things that haven’t been done at scale before, they are innovating very quickly and because of that we’re having to be more agile and move faster ourselves.”
To meet Rakuten Mobile’s request for an open RAN (radio access network) architecture, Nokia had to undertake significant R&D to create an open interface between its equipment and software supplied by Altiostar. “That was a big decision for Nokia,” says Harrington. “We took a bold move in doing that… it’s allowing Rakuten Mobile to deploy a virtualized RAN, which is separating the hardware from the software and separating the base station from the edge cloud and disaggregating the base station from the baseband.”
Endowed with one of the broadest portfolios in the telecomm equipment industry, Nokia is supplying a mix of hardware, software and services for the radio, core and optical transport elements of Rakuten Mobile’s network. “First and foremost we’re one of the primary partners in rolling out the network and providing operational support, from a professional services perspective,” explains Harrington. “We’re supporting Rakuten with products, people, software and services enabled by our industry leading end to end portfolio: We’re considered a trusted partner in multiple domains.”
https://rakuten.today/blog/rakuten-mobile-partner-profile-nokia.html
German InsurTech startup simplesurance establishes joint venture in Tokyo
Nov 06, 2019
Logo of simplesurance simplesuranceExternal site: a new window will open. is one of the leading InsurTechs (insurance service based on digital technology) that was funded d in Berlin in 2012.The company provides a platform offering insurance that users can subscribe to in a one-stop manner. It currently employs more than 150 people from 30 different nations and offers services in 29 countries. The company has more than 2,500 B2B partners like OnePlus, Huawei Technologies, Rakuten, Revolut, Real and computeruniverse, across the world in a wide range of industries, including e-commerce retailers, banks and well-known insurance companies, like Tokio Marine Holdings Inc and Allianz.
Moreover, simplesurance provides customers in nine countries an easy and convenient way to purchase product insurances in its own B2C platform.
Through the integration into e-commerce sites or apps, the user can subscribe to insurance at the same time of the purchase, which is very convenient for the user as there is no need to re-input personal information.
The application also allows e-commerce business operators to implement cross-selling of insurance tailored to product services within their sites and allows insurance companies to expand sales channels to online buyers.
Receiving funding from Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., with which it also formed a business alliance, simplesurance established its first overseas subsidiary in October 2018, simplesurance Joint Stock Company, with the aim of concquering the Japanese market.
Where top VCs are investing in edtech
Eric Peckham@epeckham / 10:10 pm CEST•October 1, 2019
Education is a $4 trillion market globally in urgent need of an overhaul — so where within education are top venture capitalists optimistic about startups building large businesses by providing new solutions?
According to EdSurge, $1.45 billion of venture capital (a mere 1.1% of the $130 billion in US venture funding) was invested in education startups in the US in 2018; there were only 112 education-focused deals. In line with the trend in venture capital overall, this represented an increase in overall capital but a concentration in fewer deals (mainly large late-stage rounds).
Education is regarded as a tough market for achieving VC scale returns. Selling into school districts and universities is difficult and slow, and freemium models that go direct-to-teachers have struggled to monetize.
New software, content, and financing solutions for learning outside the traditional school system are more compelling business opportunities. This is particularly the case in vocational training where the return on investment of an educational program or tool can be quantitatively measured in job offers and salary increases
I asked four leading edtech VCs and six of the top generalist VCs (who have a track record of education investments) to share where they see opportunity in this sector:
•§Jennifer Carolan, Reach Capital
•§Amit Mukherjee, NEA
•§Michael Staton, Learn Capital
•§Annie Kadavy, Redpoint Ventures
•§Aydin Senkut, Felicis Ventures
•§Matt Greenfield, Rethink Education
•§Hemant Taneja, General Catalyst Partners
•§Marlon Nichols, MaC Venture Capital
•§Jan Lynn-Matern, Emerge Education
•§Charles Birnbaum, Bessemer Venture Partner
Here are their answers…
Jennifer Carolan, General Partner at Reach Capital (an education-focused VC firm in Palo Alto with investments including Abl, BetterLesson, Epic!, Handshake, Holberton School, Newsela, Outschool, and Tinkergarten):
“Human-centered learning has been traditionally limited to one’s physical geography but technology is unlocking learning opportunities that never before existed. We’re particularly interested in the marketplaces that are better matching supply and demand across experiential learning, educator coaching, tutoring, and online small groups.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/01/...top-vcs-are-investing-in-edtech/
Integrated Marketing Services
Founded in 2005, Meli Melo is a British luxury handbag and accessories brand. Meticulously crafted in Italian leathers which are renowned for their distinctive shapes and impeccable construction. Due to an increasingly competitive market, Meli Melo’s growth had started to decline. With a need to be smarter with its marketing budget, Meli Melo looked to Rakuten Advertising to develop an integrated and agile marketing strategy across affiliate, display and search, with the aim to achieve 20% growth YoY in sales while maintaining a healthy return on ad spend (ROAS).
Thanks to this approach, Meli Melo’s performance and growth continue to soar, delivering results and significant changes for the business:
•§Top-line revenue for Q4 increased by +34% YoY
•§Revenue from channels managed by Rakuten Advertising grew to 69%, +176% YoY
•§A ROAS of £8 for every marketing pound spent with Rakuten Advertising during Q4 2018
“We partnered with Rakuten Advertising at a crucial time for our brand when our ecommerce revenues were falling. We have always been a very ROI focused business and this integrated marketing strategy has exceeded my expectations, delivering a unified approach to performance marketing which was the absolute goal I had in mind.” – Doug Ker, CEO of Meli Melo
https://rakutenadvertising.com/en-uk/publishers/affiliate/
Disclosed
Funding
USD 36M
Premfina
2015 , London (United Kingdom)
Saas for Insurance finance
Investors: Rakuten, Fineqia + 8 more
Last round: USD 3M, Conventional Debt, Oct 2019
https://tracxn.com/d/emerging-startups/...rst-insurance-startups-2020
Rakuten Mobile Initiatives Selected by Japan’s NEDO for Research and Development of Enhanced Infrastructures for Post-5G Information Communication Systems
- Initiatives to enhance R&D and commercialization of virtualized 5G RAN and automation of network operations
Tokyo, June 30, 2020 - Rakuten Mobile, Inc. today announced that Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) has selected two of its research and development initiatives to become part of the “Project for Research and Development of Enhanced Infrastructures for Post 5G Information Communication Systems.” On June 29, NEDO announced that it has selected the following two initiatives in line with the research theme of “developing post-5G information communications systems”: “development for technologies to improve the performance of the control units of virtualized base band units” and “technologies for integrated management and automated optimization for cloud-based networks.”
In the initiatives commissioned by NEDO, Rakuten Mobile will carry out technical development related to the enhancement of the virtualized radio access network (RAN) for fifth generation mobile communications systems networks (5G) and the automation of network operations. Additionally, by applying the results of the research and development to improve the efficiency of data transfer across its 5G network and network operations, Rakuten Mobile aims to offer higher quality network services and expand its commercial services globally.
https://corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/...2020/200630_01.html
Rakuten Mobile is teaming up with Rakuten AirMap to develop drones for basestation inspection. Part of Rakuten Group, Rakuten AirMap claims to provide "safe and compliant" drone operations to enterprises and airspace authorities, as well as to drone operators in Japan.
The idea is for these specially developed drones to take multi-angle photographs of newly constructed basestations. By carrying out this work with drones, inspections should be conducted more quickly.
Completion inspections, said the two Rakuten companies, will be conducted using AirMap's TowerSight, a "unified system" aimed at allowing both tower companies and mobile network operators to "transform" their tower inspections through automated drone workflows.
Rakuten Mobile has so far only conducted limited trials of basestation completion inspections in certain areas. Plans are afoot, however, to take the drone tech nationwide.
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/...ectors-at-cell-sites/d/d-id/758693
BY:
RAKUTEN SUPER LOGISTICS
JUN 4, 2020
Online business owners that are fulfilling orders from home or small warehouses can easily become overwhelmed as business grows. When orders start to exceed fulfillment capacity and production exceeds storage space, business owners are forced to find solutions. While growing your business, procedural gaps and inefficiencies will crop up. Promptly identifying solutions to unforeseen hiccups will allow your business to successfully compete and thrive even in the toughest situations.
What to do when your business can't ship orders fast enough?
Take a step back and analyze the efficiency of your current system. What's working? What's not? Thorough assessment and process analysis can pinpoint inefficiencies. Think about all possible solutions and take the time to find a solution that will not only solve immediate business logistics issues, but will take you into your long-term goals as well. One option for entrepreneurs that find their business is expanding out of their control is outsourcing.
Is your business becoming unmanageable? Are logistical concerns consuming time that is better spent on the main focus of the business? If so, now may be the perfect time to start partnering with a 3PL company.
https://www.rakutensl.com/post/...nt-optimize-your-business-logistics
The reality of living in Toronto is that sometimes you aren’t going to make rent. The city is expensive and I myself was faced with that harsh truth recently.
Most 20-30 somethings residing in Toronto live paycheque to paycheque just to be able to enjoy some of the benefits the city has to offer – and I’m one of them. But I usually budget myself well enough that I don’t cringe with the passing of the first of each month. However, somewhere along the way I had spread myself too thin one month and realized I wasn’t going to make my rent. Not by much, but I was still going to come up short. So I needed to find a way to make some extra cash and fast.
That’s when I started selling my stuff online through Carousell. From old Kate Spade totes to Michael Kors bags, to Tiffany jewelry and designer shoes, I started selling my preloved clothing and accessories. And in just two short weeks, I was up $800 and a lot less stressed financially.
For those who don’t know, Carousell is a mobile classifieds app that makes selling your preloved goods easy. Carousell originally started in Singapore but has now spread to over 19 cities around the world, including Toronto. With over 57 million listings and counting, Carousell has quickly become one of the world’s largest and fastest growing marketplaces.
Consider Carousell a mobile flea market. All you have to do it take a picture of what you wish to sell, post it, add a description and price-tag and then wait for offers. But while it all seems very simple to execute, there are tricks and strategies you can use to become a top seller. Here are a few tips I learned along the way to make $800 on Carousell in just two short weeks.
https://www.styledemocracy.com/...e-800-in-two-weeks-using-carousell/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/586575/...chandise-sales-quarter/
The service offers Asian dramas, comedies and other series, and draws on a community of users to help translate and subtitle the content. The name Viki is a play on words, a combination of video and wiki. It’s that community user management format that allows Rakuten Viki to translate its content into more than 200 languages.
Makoto Yasuda, chief operating officer at Rakuten Viki, said the service has 24 million registered members – the company doesn’t share subscriber totals – and is growing 40% year over year. Rakuten Viki is a hybrid ad-supported/subscription service. That means users can get free access to episodes with ads; the first two are free but then users have to wait for three weeks to get more episodes. However, if users want earlier access to episodes, they can become subscribers. Yasuda said this model has led to both subscriber and advertising revenue growing “significantly” on an annual basis.
Rakuten Viki recently rolled out new mobile app updates and a new homepage on the web “to cater to our passionate fans and community,” Yasuda said. The homepage includes rankings for the top contributors, most loved teams and scrolling updates about community members’ achievements. The service also recently added a watch history section that allows users to more easily access the previous 10 programs they watched. Yasuda said the updates have helped with subscriber growth, which is going up at a rate of 80% year over year. Rakuten Viki’s watch time is growing 65% annually as well.
Rakuten Viki’s biggest market is the U.S., which has recently seen several high-profile streaming service launches including Disney+ and Apple TV+. Yasuda said his company is focusing on super serving its biggest fans and continuing to innovate to make sure it stays relevant as more and more OTT platforms compete for consumers’ attention.
https://www.fiercevideo.com/video/...eaming-service-community-rewards
Rakuten Advertising's Ivan Pena and Aaron Contawe co-host a webinar on how in-app tracking can help advertisers build stronger relationships with top performing publishers in their affiliate marketing networks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG2kEmC6xro
(Meine Empfehlung: Untertitel aktivieren!)
Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/...-global-affiliate-market-3
Prominent top manufacturers Included In Global Affiliate Marketing Platform Market with sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players including AWIN, ShareASale, Taobao, JD, Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Clickbank, Rakuten, Leadpages, StudioPress, CJ Affiliate, Bluehost, ConvertKit, MaxBounty, Google, Tapgerine, Chitika, MaxBounty & Tradedoubler
https://dailyresearchchronicles.com/2020/07/11/...e-taobao-jd-amazon/
The United Nations Global Working Group brings machine learning to the world using Algorithmia
The United Nations Global Platform for Official Statistics is an effort to upgrade international official statistics. It is led by the United Nations Global Working Group (GWG).
.“Algorithmia powers the Methods Service for the United Nations Global Platform for Official Statistics, which enables statisticians, data scientists, and researchers from all over the world to share, develop, and test cutting-edge statistical methods and machine learning models.”
Ivo Havinga | Assistant Director, United Nations Statistics Division
The solution Algorithmia offered the needed functionality off the shelf, with a development roadmap compatible with the GWG’s aims. It also provided the GWG with the technology necessary to quickly publish and consume algorithms without extensive DevOps investment. The future Using Algorithmia, the GWG now supports:
• Deployment and consumption of machine learning algorithms as well as traditional statistical methods.
• Access throughout the world with a very low barrier to entry.
• A growing global community of users across 193 UN member states.
The GWG was able to quickly deploy, develop, and tailor the platform with support from Algorithmia engineers. Combined with public cloud hosting, Algorithmia now provides the required ease of use, speed, and consistency needed to maintain the global algorithm library. As part of the UN’s global data program, the GWG is now able to provide data and analysis to help countries around the world make better, data-driven decisions.
https://info.algorithmia.com/hubfs/2018/...57f9b0773&hsLang=en-us
The United Nations Global Working Group brings machine learning to the world using Algorithmia
The United Nations Global Platform for Official Statistics is an effort to upgrade international official statistics. It is led by the United Nations Global Working Group (GWG).
.“Algorithmia powers the Methods Service for the United Nations Global Platform for Official Statistics, which enables statisticians, data scientists, and researchers from all over the world to share, develop, and test cutting-edge statistical methods and machine learning models.”
Ivo Havinga | Assistant Director, United Nations Statistics Division
The solution Algorithmia offered the needed functionality off the shelf, with a development roadmap compatible with the GWG’s aims. It also provided the GWG with the technology necessary to quickly publish and consume algorithms without extensive DevOps investment. The future Using Algorithmia, the GWG now supports:
• Deployment and consumption of machine learning algorithms as well as traditional statistical methods.
• Access throughout the world with a very low barrier to entry.
• A growing global community of users across 193 UN member states.
The GWG was able to quickly deploy, develop, and tailor the platform with support from Algorithmia engineers. Combined with public cloud hosting, Algorithmia now provides the required ease of use, speed, and consistency needed to maintain the global algorithm library. As part of the UN’s global data program, the GWG is now able to provide data and analysis to help countries around the world make better, data-driven decisions.
https://info.algorithmia.com/hubfs/2018/...57f9b0773&hsLang=en-us
Case Study
Tevec is a supply chain recommendation platform that uses machine learning to forecast demand and suggests optimized fulfillment in logistics chains. Put simply, it delivers the perfect order for retailers and goods industries so that products arrive at the right place at the right time. Tevec helps its customers achieve a 50-percent reduction in stockouts in the last-mile echelon of the supply chain. For every product in a store, Tevec runs a forecasting model and an inventory optimization model. Users can change and adjust the parameters of their optimization routine, such as delivery dates, minimum inventory, and service levels.
Algorithmia enabled Tevec to decouple model development from app development. By hosting models on Algorithmia, there is seamless integration of API endpoints, which allows Tevec users to maintain a callable library of every previous model version. Algorithmia freed up Tevec’s architecture and data science teams from costly and time-consuming DevOps tasks. This extra time eliminated the need to hardcode model inference directly into app code. With Algorithmia in place, data scientists and the architecture team could customize apps for users without touching models and call the best model version for any situation. Algorithmia’s serverless architecture ensured the scalability Tevec needed to meet its customers’ varied demands without the waste of other autoscaling systems. Tevec only pays for compute resources it uses.
The future
With consistent 100-percent year-over-year growth, Tevec continues to evolve, and so will its architecture. It is planning additional products beyond perfect order, and while Python will likely remain Tevec’s language of choice, it is evaluating new frameworks, and will continue to respond to customer demands as it increases the scale and volume of its service. Algorithmia will be there to continue to enable that flexibility.
https://info.algorithmia.com/hubfs/2019/...dy_Q42019.pdf?hsLang=en-us
In March, NEC and Rakuten Mobile, Japan’s newest wireless telecom service provider, announced that shipments of a 5G radio unit produced by NEC had begun. This should enable the build-out of Rakuten’s 5G network later this year.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/07/japan-inc-set-to-challenge-huawei-in-5g/