Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

ASTS:  Abel Avellan's interview at Rakuten Optimism 2021

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASTSpaceMobile/comments/...rakuten_optimism/  

OCTOBER 25, 2021

E-commerce, loyalty points and logistics

Mikitani revealed continued double-digit growth for Rakuten’s e-commerce business, projecting five trillion yen in domestic shopping gross merchandise sales for 2021. One important ingredient in this success recipe, he asserted, was Rakuten Points, the company’s ever-popular, highly versatile flagship loyalty program.

“As of August this year, we’ve given out over 2.5 trillion yen (cumulative) worth of points. It’s an incredible figure!”

Rakuten Ichiba has also adapted its logistics strategy to keep up with changing customer expectations. “Around 92% of merchants are signed up with our free shipping program,” he revealed, noting that these merchants make up the vast majority of the platform’s revenue.

Earlier this year, Rakuten partnered with Japan Post to create the JP Rakuten Logistics company. Rakuten’s own logistics facilities cover nearly 70% of Japan’s population, and the two companies will not only merge their existing fulfillment centers, but also build a number of new ones, driven by a cutting-edge digital platform that will be open for all to use.

“To achieve truly universal service — to reach every last corner of the country with quick and affordable delivery services — it made sense to partner with Japan Post, who already have their own comprehensive delivery network.”


A robust fintech ecosystem

Rakuten Bank recently made headlines after announcing preparations to go public. The online-only bank has seen astonishing growth in recent years. Total deposits have expanded to more than 6 trillion yen, while accounts also number more than 11 million. But the banking business is just one part of a robust fintech ecosystem, Mikitani told his audience.

“The capital provided by Rakuten Bank can be used to operate services like Rakuten Card’s revolving repayments or cash withdrawals, or to connect with Rakuten Securities,” he explained. “All of our financial services — Bank, Card, QR payments, e-money, securities, insurance — are consolidated into one [ecosystem], and organically interlinked with our e-commerce business.”

This tight integration is one factor driving Rakuten Card’s notable success in Japan. The credit card has already been recognized as Japan’s leader in gross shopping transaction value, and later in the day at Rakuten Optimism, Rakuten Card President Masayuki Hosaka announced onstage new milestone-breaking goals for the mid-term: 30 million cards, shopping transaction value of 30 trillion yen, and a market share of 30%, dubbed the “Triple Three” goals.

“The financial ecosystem we have created here is truly something you could call sustainable,” said Mikitani. “I don’t think an ecosystem like Rakuten’s could exist anywhere else in the world.”


Mobile: More than just a telco

Another major driver of the company’s ecosystem success, noted Mikitani, is Rakuten’s fast-growing mobile business. “Rakuten Mobile is in a different league than other mobile operators… We’re much more than just a telecom business.”

Continued Mikitani, “Traditionally, mobile carriers have gone in the opposite direction: They started with a mobile network, and swam upstream to start providing services like online shopping, loyalty programs and financial services. But we started with those higher-level services.”

Mikitani pointed to Rakuten’s strong membership base as a key to driving forward the mobile service.
“One argument I often hear is that the fourth major mobile carrier in any given country rarely succeeds. But we have the strength of over 100 million memberships behind us here in Japan. Acquiring new customers isn’t as much of an issue for us.”


Going global with cutting-edge telco tech

Mikitani is also optimistic about Rakuten Mobile’s revolutionary fully virtualized cloud-native network. “Rakuten Mobile runs almost completely on software. There is practically no proprietary hardware.”
The system offers a high level of flexibility and security while also driving down costs for operators, achieving a network quality that has earned Rakuten Mobile numerous awards from industry organizations and media outlets.

The entire suite of technologies is being made available to global operators through the newly formed Rakuten Symphony, and interest is already strong: German operator 1&1, who also spoke at the conference, will be taking on Rakuten’s entire stack.

“This is a huge market,” Mikitani revealed. “It’s expected to be worth 15 trillion yen (approximately 131 billion USD) by 2025. And Rakuten Symphony is the only company that’s able to offer all of these cutting-edge services.”

https://rakuten.today/blog/optimism-for-a-digital-tomorrow.html
 

26.10.2021 – 09:01

Mobileum stellt Risikomanagement-Telekommunikationsanalyse für Rakuten Mobile bereit

Mobileum Inc. ("Mobileum"), ein führender, weltweit tätiger Anbieter von Analyselösungen für Kommunikationsdienstanbieter, freut sich bekannt zu geben, dass das Unternehmen Japans neuestem Mobilfunkanbieter, Rakuten Mobile, Inc., seine erstklassige Active Intelligence-Plattform für bereitstellen wird. Die weitreichende Active Intelligence-Plattform von Mobileum umfasst Telekommunikationslösungen für Netzwerksicherheit, Roaming und Kernnetzwerk, Tests und Überwachung, Risikomanagement sowie Kundenbindung und -erfahrung.

Rakuten Mobile wird die einheitlichen Dienstleistungen von Mobileum für Revenue Assurance und Betrugsmanagement zusätzlich zu einer Reihe fortschrittlicher Analyselösungen nutzen, um Deep Network und operationelle Analysen mit Echtzeit-Maßnahmen zu verbinden und so das Kundenerlebnis zu verbessern und Kosten zu senken.

Rakuten Mobile hat sich nicht nur wegen der Funktionen für Revenue Assurance und Betrugsmanagement für Mobileum entschieden, sondern hat auch Kooperations- und Partnerschaftsvereinbarungen mit Mobileum unterzeichnet. Gemäß der Kooperationsvereinbarung werden die beiden Unternehmen gemeinsam Produkte entwickeln, um einige der wichtigsten Probleme in den Bereichen Sicherheit, Risiko und 5G-Tests für Telekommunikationsbetreiber weltweit zu lösen. Die Lösungen von Mobileum werden Betreibern weltweit auch über Rakuten Symphony als Teil der Rakuten-Kommunikationsplattform zur Verfügung stehen.

"Wir freuen uns sehr über die Partnerschaft mit Mobileum, um die mobile Erfahrung und das Engagement für unsere Kunden zu bereichern und sicherzustellen, dass unsere Ingenieure Zugang zu Echtzeit-Betriebsinformationen über das landesweite Netzwerk von Rakuten Mobile haben", erklärte Tareq Amin, CEO bei Rakuten Symphony & CTO bei Rakuten Mobile.

"Unsere Partnerschaft mit Rakuten Mobile unterstreicht den Wert, den die Active Intelligence-Plattform von Mobileum unseren Kunden in Bezug auf Wachstum, Rentabilität und Marktdifferenzierung bietet. Wir freuen uns, mit einem Brancheninnovator wie Rakuten Mobile zusammenzuarbeiten, um innovative, analysebasierte Lösungen bereitzustellen, die es Anbietern digitaler Dienste ermöglichen, zu wachsen und ihre Einnahmen zu schützen, neue Geschäftsmodelle zu entwickeln und sich im 5G-Zeitalter digital mit ihren Kunden auszutauschen", so Bobby Srinivasan, CEO von Mobileum.

Informationen zu Mobileum Inc.
Mobileum ist ein führender Anbieter von Telekommunikationsanalyselösungen für Roaming, Kernnetz, Sicherheit, Risikomanagement, nationale und internationale Konnektivitätstests und Kundeninformationen. Mehr als 1.000 Kunden vertrauen auf Active Intelligence, die Plattform des Unternehmens, die fortschrittliche Analyselösungen bereitstellt und es den Kunden ermöglicht, tiefgreifende Netzwerk- und Betriebsinformationen mit Echtzeitaktionen zu verbinden, die den Umsatz steigern, die Kundenerfahrung verbessern und die Kosten senken. Mobileum hat seinen Hauptsitz im Silicon Valley und verfügt über weltweite Niederlassungen in Australien, Deutschland, Griechenland, Indien, Portugal, Singapur, den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten und Großbritannien.

https://www.presseportal.de/pm/146409/5055963
 

Rakuten orchestrates Korean deal for Symphony

ANNE MORRIS, Contributing Editor, Light Reading 0/25/2021

Rakuten Mobile plans to add a string to the bow of its Symphony venture with the acquisition of yet another technology specialist that will also furnish it with a research and development presence in South Korea.

The Japanese mobile operator announced it has agreed to acquire Estmob, the South Korean startup that is behind the peer-to-peer file transfer solution Send Anywhere. The ultimate aim is to integrate Send Anywhere with Rakuten Symphony.

Notably, Rakuten investment arm Rakuten Capital has been supporting Estmob via early stage investment fund Rakuten Ventures since 2014, when it led a $1 million seed round for the Seoul-based startup. In 2016, Rakuten Ventures fully provided Series A funding of $6 million.

That in turn led to the development of Send Anywhere, said to have more than 43 million users in locations such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 2019, Estmob launched a cloud service, Sendy, that has evolved into a collaborative tool by adding cloud functions to Send Anywhere. Sendy is currently used mainly in Japan, Korea and the United States
https://www.lightreading.com/asia/...-deal-for-symphony/d/d-id/773001  

October 26, 2021
Announcement of Financial Results of Rakuten Securities, Inc., a Consolidated Subsidiary


Results for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 (January 1, 2021 to September 30, 2021)

Consolidated Operating Results* (Millions of yen, rounded down)

Operating revenue Net operating revenue Operating income Ordinary
income Net income

Nine months ended September 30, 2021
66,083 62,631 11,780 12,436 7,551

Nine months ended September 30, 2020
52,609 50,829 11,149 11,214 6,893

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2021/...2520ir%2520fintech  
 

by Linda Hardesty |
Oct 27, 2021 12:01pm

https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/...rakuten-and-dish-together  

Rakuten Advertising's "Accelerate" Quickens Affiliate Marketing Growth And Fuels Market Expansion

With Real Time Expert Analysis and Waived Publisher Fees, Accelerate Delivers Fast Results with Reduced Risks for Digital Marketers Seeking New Growth Opportunities

SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten Advertising has introduced Accelerate, a fully-managed, affiliate marketing program led by experienced analysts leveraging unique data insights, competitive intelligence, custom campaign modeling and publisher matchmaking to optimize performance marketing spend with unprecedented speed.

Unlike other affiliate programs, Accelerate assumes the financial risk of testing new publishers, meaning advertisers are guaranteed to only pay for performance. By tapping into the company's network of 150,000 publishers in North America, EMEA, APAC and LATAM, Accelerate makes it simple and profitable for brands to expand into new markets and drive incremental sales.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...-expansion-301408964.html  

 

 

HCL Technologies Launches HCL SMARTWiFi Platform for Communication Service Providers

https://www.hcltech.com/press-releases/...ches-hcl-smartwifi-platform  

Rakuten Points: Much more than just a loyalty program

2 days ago

On August 31, Rakuten reached a remarkable new milestone: 2.5 trillion Rakuten Points rewarded — a value equivalent to 2.5 trillion Japanese yen, or around US $23 billion.

So how did Rakuten Points become one of the world’s most unique and rewarding loyalty programs, delivering billions of dollars in added value to shoppers in Japan? The key lies in the program’s versatility, which provides members with the freedom to use their points for everything from buying and selling cryptocurrency to paying for a carton of eggs.

So many ways to earn, so many ways to spend
While most loyalty programs offer basic returns within a single service, Rakuten takes this idea several steps further.

Users can, of course, earn points by shopping online through Rakuten Ichiba, making a reservation through Rakuten Travel, or using many of the 70+ services Rakuten operates in Japan. However, there are no limitations on where those points are spent.

Rather, users have their pick of the entire Rakuten Ecosystem: Points earned through regular shopping with their Rakuten Card could be used to book an appointment at a fancy salon through Rakuten Beauty or order take-out sushi through Rakuten Gurunavi Delivery.

But Rakuten Points’ purchasing power doesn’t end there. Over the past five years, the program has evolved and expanded to include more and more surprising ways users can utilize their points both in and outside of the company’s services.

1. Invest your points in the stock market
Since 2018, Rakuten has allowed its members to “invest” their extra points in the stock market.

The program requires no Rakuten Securities account, just a quick set-up through the Rakuten Point Club app. Users can choose between a moderate “Balanced Course” and a more aggressive “Active Course” for their points. The funds are invested appropriately on the user’s behalf, and can be withdrawn at any time.

WITH SO MANY WAYS TO EARN AND SO MUCH FREEDOM IN HOW TO SPEND, IT’S LITTLE WONDER THAT RAKUTEN’S POINTS PROGRAM IS REGULARLY NAMED THE NUMBER ONE LOYALTY POINTS PROGRAM IN JAPAN IN OVERALL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.

The service is meant as a kind of “mock investment experience” so that users can get a taste for investing in the stock market without needing to use “real” money.

Since launch, the program has attracted the interest of over five million users in Japan, over half of whom are 30 or younger. Investment platform Rakuten Securities has also seen an influx of younger users — perhaps in part thanks to this fun service — recently reaching a milestone of six million accounts.

2. Buy and sell cryptocurrencies
Of course, the fintech fun doesn’t end with stocks: Since 2017, crypto asset management service Rakuten Wallet has allowed users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, conveniently exchanging them to and from Japanese yen.

But yen isn’t your only ticket to ride the cryptocurrency train: Rakuten Wallet users can also use their Rakuten Points to top up their portfolio.

Earlier this year, the service sweetened the deal even further, introducing a new way for users to convert their assets back into a spendable currency. For no cost, users can now turn their Bitcoin and Ethereum into Rakuten Cash — tied to the Japanese yen and functionally similar to Rakuten Points — and use it anywhere across the Rakuten Ecosystem, invest it into the stock market, or even…

3. Go grocery shopping
Rakuten Pay has been an industry leader in smartphone QR code and barcode payments since its inception in 2016. The service allows users to shop using nothing but their smartphone screen — no proprietary hardware or fancy NFC chips necessary — simply by linking their preferred source of funds and flashing a barcode at the checkout counter.

Funds can be drawn from a credit card, bank account or — you guessed it — Rakuten Points. This means that Rakuten Points are effectively equivalent to real-world cash at any location that accepts Rakuten Pay. In Japan, that includes all major convenience stores, many supermarket chains and a wide variety of other physical stores.

Together with Rakuten Pay, shoppers and diners can use their Rakuten Points at more than five million locations across Japan.
Together with Rakuten Pay, shoppers and diners can use their Rakuten Points at more than five million locations across Japan.
4. Enjoy a nice meal
Part of Rakuten Pay’s incredible success can be attributed to the groundwork laid by e-money service Rakuten Edy and the Rakuten Point Card. For example, Rakuten has worked with countless restaurants and other small businesses for well over a decade to help them introduce their own loyalty programs in the form of Rakuten Points.

Customers can flash their Rakuten Point Card when paying the check to receive Rakuten Points, and can even use points to fully or partially pay for that very check.

Together with Rakuten Pay, shoppers and diners can use their Rakuten Points at more than five million locations across Japan.

5. Pay your credit card bill, or your cellphone bill, or your electricity bill, or…
High-profile services like Rakuten Card and Rakuten Mobile regularly make headlines around the world, but Rakuten also runs a number of smaller services supporting the everyday lives of people in Japan.

Rakuten Energy allows users to get their homes hooked up to the electricity network and earn Rakuten Points on every kilowatt-hour. Rakuten Hikari provides a similar service for fiber internet, while Rakuten TV and Rakuten Music take care of users’ entertainment needs.

It almost goes without saying that the monthly bills for all of these services can be paid either partially or in full using Rakuten Points. In the case of Rakuten Card, this means that points can be used to pay the balance for literally anything bought on credit.

With so many ways to earn and so much freedom in how to spend, it’s little wonder that Rakuten’s points program is regularly named the number one loyalty points program in Japan in overall customer satisfaction.*

https://rakuten.today/blog/...points-more-than-a-loyalty-program.html
 

Rakuten's Tareq Amin: Conducting Symphony but changing the music

Tareq Amin, CEO of Rakuten Symphony and CTO of Rakuten Mobile, talks about his company's success in open RAN and how it plans to change the economics of building 5G networks for other operators

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

Meine Empfehlung für alle Nicht-Native-"Englische": Untertitel zuschalten!  

With the launch of new features and numerous activations, Viber celebrates the International Month of Privacy and Security

Rakuten Viber, the world leader in cross-platform communication, pays tribute to the International Month of Privacy and Security by continuing to work with dedication to protect its users’ data. By launching a series of activities, educational videos and developing new features, Viber takes care of the user’s privacy.

Unlike other applications, two-way encryption has been automatically enabled for group and private conversations in Viber’s settings since 2016, so users don’t need to enable it further. Since Viber is a platform on which brands and users communicate regularly with each other, it provides all levels of security with the encrypted transmission of corporate messages. Encryption during transmission offers an extremely high level of security for users and brands: messages are not stored on Viber servers, connections are secure and HTTPS only. Viber is taking all measures to protect its users from hacker attacks.

On the occasion of the month when people have the power to take data protection measures, Viber also launches a new feature: messages “disappeared” in group conversations. This option is available from June 2020 for individual chats and from now on all members can simply toggle this option on and off in any group chat and specify whether they want messages to disappear after 10 seconds, one minute, one hour or a day after reading.

On devices running Android 6 or later, Viber will completely disable forwarding, copying, or screen capturing of the message when the disappear option is enabled. For older versions of Android and all iOS users, group chat members will automatically be notified if a member takes a screenshot or screenshot of the disappearing message. This option can be applied to any type of message, including photos and stickers.

Users can also be confident that they are safe while communicating with companies via chat. All brands that want to be featured on Viber are manually reviewed and approved by the Viber team, therefore brands are obligated to accept the privacy policy for communicating with users. Verified company profiles receive a verification, which is a blue badge, a sign of authenticity that shows users that the brand is trustworthy, which allows for more transparent communication between users and brands. In addition, an official trade order may contain information about the brand, logo, address and telephone number, all to make it easier for the user to check and identify the actual order.

Throughout the month of October, Viber shares safety tips via messages and videos in its local communities, to educate users on how to customize and control various aspects of their privacy in the app.

https://remonews.com/serbiaeng/...onal-month-of-privacy-and-security/  

Can Rakuten Symphony become a $100 billion business?

BySean Kinney, Editor in Chief
November 2, 2021

Rakuten Symphony CEO Tareq Amin sees the company as a platform provider and partner rather than as a vendor

When he came from Reliance Jio to serve as upstart Rakuten Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer, Tareq Amin’s priority was to build and commercialize a network that could meet the demanding quality standards of Japanese consumers and do it with an eye on cloud-native automation capabilities and an Open RAN architecture that have double-digit impacts on total cost of ownership.

Since then, this mission has evolved to include the development of the Rakuten Communications Platform—a blueprint that packages up Rakuten Mobile’s network approach for other operators, enterprises and governments—the acquisition of virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) software specialist Altiostar, and the launch of Rakuten Symphony, a new organization Amin heads that’s dedicated to selling RCP and other network and managed services.

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20211102/carriers/...100-billion-business  

Between 15 and 20 billion additional revenues are enough and would double the revenues of Rakuten.  

https://matcha-jp.com/en/10667
 

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RKUNY/rakuten/revenue  

Kobo libra 2 review: A new and improved ereader for audiobook lovers

Rachael Phillips

Thu, November 4, 2021, 7:18 PM

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...ra-2-review-improved-181830000.html
 

Rakuten Symphony Strikes Up Alliance with Intel and Juniper to Deliver Symware

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer assess the 5G ecosystem implications of the Rakuren Symphony, Intel, and Juniper Networks collaboration to develop Symware, a carrier-grade Open RAN solutions aimed at modernizing radio cell sites by using the latest cloud-native architecture and capabilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU5D6ceivhs
 

5G and the Power to Revolutionize: Japan Perspectives

https://optimism.rakuten.co.jp/en/2021/day1/session03/
 

 

 

Acorns to go public via an IPO or SPAC merger?

November 03, 2021 04:42 AM EDT
Raza Naqvi

In September 2021, Acorns reportedly hired David Hijirida as its president to step up the company's public debut plans. Mr Hijirida is a former employee of Amazon and had a stint at digital bank Simple.

Potential investors are searching for Acorns IPO, however, the fintech company had earlier said that it will merge with a blank-check company to go public in the US equities market.

Before hiring Mr Hijirida, the California-based company had hired Rich Sullivan from Twitter to be a chief financial officer. Noah Kerner, who is the CEO of Acorns, is looking to establish the company as a brand and expand its business operations.

Acorns was reportedly valued at US$ 2.2 billion, and the company is looking to public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company by the end of this year.

Notably, Rich Sullivan is an experienced professional and he led Twitter's financial planning and corporate finance for many years. He has over two decades of experience in mergers, acquisitions, investor relations and treasury.

Mr Sullivan's experience could help the company in achieving the successful completion of the SPAC deal. Acorns plans to merge with Pioneer Merger Corp, a SPAC listed on Nasdaq Capital Market and the combined entity will likely trade as Acorns Holdings on Nasdaq.

According to a Research and Markets report, the global fintech market was approximately worth US$ 7301.8 billion in 2020 and this industry is expected to record a compound annual growth rate of 26.9 per cent till 2026.

https://kalkinemedia.com/ca/news/ipo/...-an-ipo-or-a-merger-with-spac  

ShopBack to acquire APAC’s leading BNPL player hoolah, together to drive US$3.5B in sales in 2021

Nov 2, 2021

ShopBack and hoolah join forces to bring the most rewarding shopping experience to 30m shoppers, powering half a billion shopping trips to 8,000+ merchants across the Asia-Pacific.

The acquisition extends ShopBack’s product offering from APAC’s leading publisher and rewards platform, to enabling transactions with payment options like BNPL and more.

Shopping and rewards platform ShopBack today announced that it has received consent from shareholders of hoolah, a leading ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) platform, for a 100% acquisition of the company by ShopBack. hoolah, combined with ShopBack's position as the market-leading publisher and shopping companion across the Asia-Pacific, will transform the shopping experience for shoppers, while providing a one-stop solution for demand generation and user engagement for merchants across the Asia-Pacific.

https://corporate.shopback.com/blog/...layer-hoolah-together-to-drive