Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

- und daher habe ich mir nach dem Einstieg bei Alibaba, die inzwischem mehr als 20% gut gemacht haben, auch einige Rakutens gekauft.

Look Out Amazon, Here Comes...Rakuten?
Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten announced on Tuesday it is acquiring Ebates for $1 billion.

The acquisition, which Rakuten hinted at last week, is part of the Japanese company’s push to grow its base beyond its domestic market and hopefully, become a global player. Having made some $1.2 billion acquisitions to date along these lines, this is Rakuten’s most ambitious move to date.

However, investors are dubious that the company can absorb yet another foreign acquisition, much less one the size of Ebates, despite Rakuten’s strong cash position.
Then there is the ever-present Amazon, which dominates the e-commerce market in the U.S. Few believe it will falter in the face of Chinese giant Alibaba, much less a Rakuten-Ebates combo.

Rakuten Goes Forth

Not surprisingly, Rakuten says it is undaunted. For starters, it has assembled a very interesting mix of acquisitions. There is messaging app Viber, which it purchased for $900 million in February, the Canadian ebook offering Kobo, Spanish video service Wuaki.tv, Viki, a digital content platform and Buy.com.
Now it has picked up Ebates.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2014/09/...ere-comes-rakuten/  

Rakuten’s OSS Reboot - Innovating with AI to reinvent the telco

Appledore Research 2024

https://8924028.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/...20Note%25200224.pdf
 

Appledore Research 2024

https://appledorerg.com/rakuten-oss-reboot?_fsi=M6B6whBJ
 

Rakuten Symphony hat kürzlich eine Neuausrichtung seines OSS-Portfolios bekannt gegeben. In Zusammenarbeit mit OpenAI nutzt das Unternehmen seine Expertise und Technologie, um die Telekommunikation neu zu gestalten. Appledore Research hat dazu eine optimistische Forschungsnotiz veröffentlicht und fragt: "Ist dies die Zukunft des OSS?" Rahul Atri, der Leiter des OSS bei Rakuten Symphony, setzt auf Vereinfachung und Automatisierung von Betriebsprozessen unter Verwendung von KI. Er ist überzeugt, dass Telcos in Zukunft kein eigenständiges OSS mehr benötigen werden.
Rakuten Symphony hat bereits einige Erfolge bei der Neuausrichtung seines OSS-Portfolios erzielt. Durch die Nutzung von KI und Automatisierung zur Vereinfachung von Betriebsprozessen konnte das Unternehmen effizientere Abläufe erreichen. Rahul Atri, der Leiter des OSS bei Rakuten Symphony, ist zuversichtlich, dass Telcos in Zukunft kein eigenständiges OSS mehr benötigen werden.

Bisher gibt es keine spezifischen Bedenken oder Kritikpunkte zur Neuausrichtung des OSS-Portfolios bei Rakuten Symphony. Die Branche reagiert positiv auf die Nutzung von KI und Automatisierung zur Vereinfachung von Betriebsprozessen.
 

I believe that EBITDA is a useful indicator for evaluating the cash flow generation ability of the Rakuten Group's.

EBITDA (Calculated by adding depreciation and amortization expenses, etc. to Non-GAAP operating income)  in millions of Yen  

Three months ended March 31, 2024: 52,766

Three months ended March 31, 2023: 3,500
 

EBITDA in 2024 will be after my estimates a minimum of 250,000 million Yen = $ 1.7 billion. But it can reach $ billion, too.  

reach $ 2 billion, too.  

Rakuten, eBay team up to test US market for used Japanese fashion goods

May 22, 2024

Japan's Rakuten Group is partnering with eBay to test U.S. demand for used Japanese fashion goods, made all the cheaper with the yen trading near a 34-year low.

The tie-up, which started on May 8 with just seven vendors on Rakuten's second-hand goods unit Rakuma, aims to capitalise on the currency effect and also a move toward bargain hunting as cost-of-living pressures around the world crimp spending.

In exchange for commissions on sales, eBay lists Rakuma's selected goods for sale on its site, while a Rakuten-contracted vendor handles shipping and customer service in the U.S.

After the U.S., eBay's next biggest markets are Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and its "ultimate goal" would be to expand Rakuma offerings to those countries, said Naoki Kitamura, eBay Japan's head of category management.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...en-ebay-team-test-us-074305121.html
 

The advertising business recorded an increase in revenue (total sum of advertising sales in Japan recorded in each segment: Internet Services, FinTech and Mobil as group transactions) with sales of 51.8 billion yen, up 7.2% YoY in Q1 FY2024.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/0514_01.html
 

Rakuten and eBay to trial demand for used Japanese fashion in US

Thu, May 23, 2024

Users of eBay's US site will be able to purchase some products listed on the Rakuma official shop. The focus is initially on used fashion and accessories.

Reuters quoted Rakuma general manager Kenichiro Hasegawa: "Because of the use of cases and covers ... these second-hand goods are in quite good shape. To say something is 'used in Japan' gives some immediate value."

Rakuten Rakuma believes that listing on eBay will enable it to expand its sales channels and promote overseas sales for store operators.

Rakuten has yet to set a sales target for the venture, but success with the initial vendors could lead to an expansion to include all Rakuma shops and users on eBay.

According to eBay Japan category management head Naoki Kitamura, the company aims to broaden the availability of Rakuma's offerings to Canada, Australia, the UK and Germany.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...ay-trial-demand-used-124909039.html
 

More O-RAN standards please, says Rakuten Symphony

22 May 2024

Japan’s Rakuten Mobile built an Open RAN network when the standards body, the O-RAN Alliance, was just in its infancy. More development of standards is needed to encourage Open RAN adoption, especially for operators of brownfield networks, according to Rahul Atri, Managing Director and President of OSS at Rakuten Symphony.

“We are glad that standards are coming through now and people are paying more attention, especially the big boys,” said Atri. “Standards open the opportunity for Rakuten and for the larger community to share capabilities. We believe that standards are a starting point. When we set up the Rakuten network in 2018, we had to go forward and start solving our problems. Now, we are converting those capabilities into platforms and applications which are more aligned to the Open RAN standards.”
Rakuten Symphony partners with Open RAN software vendor AirHop, and uses its apps on the Rakuten Symphony Symworld marketplace. The firm plans to integrate apps from other such partners into its RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC).

Only a handful of commercial operators have greenfield open RAN networks, which means that Rakuten Symphony’s client base will be largely brownfield – another reason why standards are so important to the firm, Atri said.

“It’s also more important when you’re a brownfield to go with standards. For example, if there are no standards, the likes of Nokia and Ericsson will want to charge extra to the brownfield customers for integration. So, the standards are a way to make everyone agree to certain level of compatibility integration, so that all the people can come online and solve a business problem.”

https://rethinkresearch.biz/articles/...please-says-rakuten-symphony/
 

From Blueprint to Reality: O-RAN RIC Unveiled WHITEPAPER

https://assets-global.website-files.com/...epaper_1.pdf?_fsi=M6B6whBJ
 

EBITDA in 2024 will be after my estimates a minimum of 250,000 million Yen = $ 1.7 billion. But it can reach $ 2 billion, too.  

https://rakutenadvertising.com/resource-category/case-studies/
 

https://rakutenadvertising.com/en-uk/resources/case-study-treatwell/
 

Rakuten FinTech Segment Q1 2024: A Deep Dive into Growth and Expansion

Norbert Gehrke

Rakuten’s FinTech segment is demonstrating remarkable growth and profitability, driven by a focus on customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and innovative service offerings. The company’s ambitious plans for 2024, including the strategic reorganization and ongoing efforts to enhance payment services, suggest a commitment to continued success in the dynamic FinTech landscape.

https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech/...growth-and-expansion-be5432ee4ffe
 

Dell and Rakuten Symphony join forces for telecom and edge cloud innovation

By Mehran Hadipour
VP - BD & Tech Alliances Rakuten Symphony
May 20, 2024

I recently spoke with Eric Van Vliet, Dell Technologies’ Director for Telecom Market Development, EMEA, about the partnership between Dell and Rakuten Symphony.

Great synergy and focus exist between the two companies: Dell provides high-performance infrastructure and Rakuten Symphony brings cloud and telecom software innovations.

For Rakuten Symphony, this partnership is important because high-performance infrastructure is a big part of how we deliver our software solutions to operators, especially with Open RAN where there are dependencies on acceleration, hardware set up and so on.

Having launched its telecom infrastructure business in 2020, Dell Technologies has seen success in the market due to its emphasis on bringing innovation to operators. The relationship with Rakuten Symphony brings innovative cloud solutions that emphasize automation and AI for dramatic improvements in efficiency and management, and reduction in costs.

“Historically, if we’re looking at the telecom industry due to its critical nature to every country and every society it’s always difficult to innovate because with new innovation comes risk. But when society has evolved, and we saw this with 4G and 5G, there’s more and more demand. Now, if we’re looking at coming together as an ecosystem, it’s all about moving things forward, accelerating progress and helping the telecom service providers to take that next step.”
- Eric Van Vliet, Director for Telecom Market Development, EMEA, Dell Technologies

Rakuten Symphony is part of Dell’s Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab (OTEL) which offers a place where Dell, Rakuten Symphony and other ecosystem members can validate and certify their applications on Dell hardware. The OTEL is an important link in validating virtualized / containerized applications as well as Open RAN solutions that need integration.

Not limited to telecom

The innovation isn’t limited to telecom applications as we’ve also helped enterprises with processing analytics data at the edge. It’s a good example of collaboration as Dell was exploring edge computing and Rakuten Symphony was investigating analytics solutions. When both companies brought their work together a brand-new solution emerged.

Dell has integrated our Rakuten Cloud-Native Platform, Cloud-Native Orchestrator and Cloud-Native Storage into the Dell Validated Design for Analytics – Data Lakehouse. This design creates edge servers that can ingest large amounts of data and accommodate large data models. I co-authored a white paper on this solution with Dell and Intel.

Eric reminded us that operators and companies in other industries are facing a new environment with more competition, higher demand and a need to move faster to keep up with the expectations of customers. By working together, Dell and Rakuten Symphony can deliver the innovation that operators and enterprises need to navigate this new reality.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...elecom-and-edge-cloud-innovation
 

Dell and Rakuten Symphony on their collaboration

17.05.2024

Eric Van Vliet, Director of Telecom Market Development EMEA, Dell Technologies, talks about the close collaboration between Dell and Rakuten Symphony, highlighted by the private analytics solution aimed to address the evolving needs of customers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-ZEuHLXIAE  

 

Success stories

Discover how Viber solutions are helping brands grow

https://www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/success-stories/
 

Der AI-Zusammenfasser von Rakuten Viber funktioniert folgendermaßen:

Erkennung: Wenn Sie einen Gruppenchat mit ungelesenen Nachrichten öffnen, erscheint ein Dialogfeld, das anbietet, eine Zusammenfassung des Gesprächs zu erstellen.

Analyse: Nachdem Sie auf ‘Zusammenfassen’ geklickt haben, analysiert die KI die Nachrichten und identifiziert Schlüsselpunkte wie Themen, Fragen, Vorschläge und Antworten.

Erstellung: Anschließend generiert sie eine prägnante Zusammenfassung, die das Wesentliche des Gesprächs einfängt.

Die KI-Technologie hinter diesem Feature stammt von OpenAI und ermöglicht es, wichtige Informationen aus bis zu 100 ungelesenen Nachrichten in einem Chat in einer knappen Zusammenfassung zu destillieren. Diese Innovation spart nicht nur Zeit und Energie, sondern verbessert auch die Entscheidungsfindung und Produktivität. Die Zusammenfassungen enthalten keine persönlichen Identifikatoren außer Benutzernamen, sodass spezifische Gespräche nicht extern mit Gruppenmitgliedern verknüpft werden können. Zudem greift Viber weder auf Gespräche noch auf Zusammenfassungen auf seinen Servern zu, was eine sichere und private Benutzererfahrung gewährleistet.

Diese Funktion ist ein Beispiel dafür, wie KI die Kommunikation effizienter und bequemer machen kann.  

After my estimates Rakuten Mobile will cross 7 million subscribers at the end of next week.  

D2C-Logistik: der Fall der Firma Dreame

Dreame, ein chinesisches Unternehmen, das sich auf hochwertige Haushaltsgeräte spezialisiert hat. Während das Unternehmen versucht, den französischen Markt zu erobern, steht es vor einem großen logistischen Problem: den Lieferzeiten.

Bevor Sie dem Rakuten Fulfillment Network vertrauten, betrugen die Lieferzeiten von Dreame 7-10 Tage. Laut McKinsey geben jedoch 44 % der Käufer an, dass sie nicht länger als zwei Tage warten möchten, um eine Bestellung zu erhalten! Um den gesamten Logistikprozess zu beschleunigen und zu vereinfachen, trat Dreame dem Rakuten Fulfillment Network bei.

Befund:

5x schnellere Lieferung: von 10 bis 2 Tagen, von China nach Frankreich!

Umsatz multipliziert mit 10: Dank attraktiverer Lieferzeiten kaufen französische Kunden leichter ein, was den Umsatz des Unternehmens deutlich steigert.

Sichtbarkeit multipliziert mit 200: Durch den Verkauf auf unserem Marktplatz hat Dreame Zugang zu mehr als 13 Millionen verbundenen Kunden. Dies erhöht seine Sichtbarkeit sowie seine Glaubwürdigkeit und Bekanntheit.


Möchten Sie einen schlüsselfertigen Logistikservice für Ihr D2C-Unternehmen in Anspruch nehmen? Treten Sie in die Fußstapfen von Dreame, um Ihre E-Commerce-Träume Wirklichkeit werden zu lassen.

https://global.fr.shopping.rakuten.com/actualites/...es-optimisation/
 

And now the forecast or what we expect for the future. Now 2010, that's 14 years ago, the cashless ratio, in Japan was 13.2% or so. But now it has come or close to 40% penetration. And at the end of the day in the future, maybe we will be on par with the Western countries, 70% or 80% cashless payment ratio is expected. And if you look at other markets, Rakuten credit card, cards and Rakuten Bank, debit card included, QR based or barcode based Rakuten Pay. Is there as well Rakuten Point, Rakuten Edy and Rakuten Cash? These are the different payment methods that we offer.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/...-q1-2024-earnings-call-transcript
 

Earn Points with the Rakuten Mobile Employee Referral Campaign (Code: 2162)! Re-Contracts & Multiple Lines Eligible

May 16, 2024

https://medium.com/@yamamototetsu/...-campaign-code-2162-5808c158539e

 

Fireside Chat - The Open Telco and the Journey to Cloud Native | Ft. Vivek Chadha

April 30, 2024

At Futurenet World 2024, Rakuten Symphony's Vivek Chadha joined Telenor's Terje Jensen for an engaging Fireside Chat titled "The Open Telco and the Journey to Cloud Native." Watch to explore the full potential of openness and what it means for operators and discover the benefits a cloud-native approach contributes to the journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXfc6ImKgJ4
 

ASCO 2024: Rakuten’s photoimmunotherapy and Keytruda combo shows efficacy in HNSCC

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...munotherapy-keytruda-132646669.html