Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

https://network.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/fee/saikyo-plan/en/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7oCG4ZTekM&t=36s

 

Valuation of Cabify is $ 2.2 billions

January 2023 - Spain - Cabify plans to go public in a year

Cabify plans to take its shares public in a period of 12 to 15 months.

The valuation of the company would be close to 2,000 million euros (2,200 million dollars).
After being affected by the restrictions imposed by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, at the end of 2021 the company reached profitability again. The profitability has been maintained in 2022, and this gives the company the option to go public.

https://gigpedia.org/resources/news/2023/january/...-cabify-Valuation of Cabify is $ 2.2 billions

 

Nepali Times: What does it mean for Viber to become a "superapp" and how will it enhance the user experience and benefit brands?

Berina Tanovic: We have seen that end users are more fond of using several apps on their phones. According to the statistics, 77% of the time we are actually using only three of all the apps downloaded. And from that three 50% of the time, we're using only one. So what we realise based on these reports and statistic that people are not keen to use several apps for several purposes, they want to have one app, which is actually super app. So Viber will enable them to do several activities and several daily tasks in one place, meaning that they will be able to use Viber to call a taxi, order food, or do any kind of activity in their daily life. From a brand perspective, it's a huge opportunity because it allows them to contact their target focus customers in their natural environment. So it's a win-win for both parties.

Every industry in the world can actually use Viber for business solution either to provide better customer support or better customer experience, or just to enhance communication with the target audience. For example with two of our local partners here in Nepal, Sparrow SMS and F1Soft, that actually implemented Viber for business with several brands here in Nepal, and they provide cost effective solutions at the same time, they can offer them let's say better communication platform.

https://nepalitimes.com/business/viber-s-new-partnerships-in-nepal
 

TELUS is currently operating seven sites, each with a single radio per sector and three sectors per site, using a total of 21 Open RAN radios, he said. By the end of Q3, TELUS plans to have 84 radios and servers on the 7 sites but with multiple radios per sector, all deployed and powered by Rakuten Symphony.

TELUS is also implementing Rakuten Symphony’s Zero Touch Provisioning solution, which was trialed and proven in August 2022 by the two companies. Dabboussi noted that the solution removes human error by automatically turning the radio on and configuring it with all of its parameters to offer the services to customers.

Dabboussi noted that the automated solution is helping TELUS and other operators to achieve tasks without human eyes and hands involved, and that by doing this, operators don't only reduce cost, they minimize the amount of human error that takes place. Speaking on why automation is critical to mobile networks, Dabboussi explained that most of network outages, and most of network issues stem from at least a source of human error, because humans are not perfect. But machines and scripts as you design them well, and as you improve them, they can become perfect and predictable.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...-the-future-of-telecom-telus-cto
 

https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/
 

The most notable turnaround was observed in Rakuten’s net profit, which stood at ¥139,985 million for H1 2023. This marks a substantial recovery from the net loss of ¥177,892 million reported in the first half of 2022. The positive trajectory in net profit highlights Rakuten’s successful implementation of strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing profitability and shareholder value.

https://www.telecomlead.com/4g-lte/...profit-in-the-first-half-111875

 

Rakuten Insight

7 AUGUST 2023

GRECO JOINS RAKUTEN INSIGHT US SALES TEAM

US – Rakuten Insight Global, a wholly-owned online market research subsidiary of Rakuten Group, has appointed Darci Greco as vice-president, client development for the Americas region.

Adam Birss, executive officer at Rakuten Insight, said: “Darci's unique blend of skills and rich experience makes her an exceptional addition to our team, and we are enthusiastically looking forward to her contributions.”

Rakuten Group is an internet services company headquartered in Tokyo. Rakuten Insight Global is responsible for leveraging the Rakuten Group’s first-party data for market research purposes. It manages onling panels across 12 Asian markets and the US.

https://www.research-live.com/article/news/...s-sales-team/id/5115733
 

Why You Should Always Use This App When Shopping Online

Published on Sept. 24, 2023

Many or all of the products here are from our partners that compensate us. It’s how we make money. But our editorial integrity ensures our experts’ opinions aren’t influenced by compensation. Terms may apply to offers listed on this page.

KEY POINTS
         •§You can shop at over 3,500 retailers through Rakuten.
         •§Not only do you get up to 40% cash back on your purchases, but you can also take advantage of discounts, coupon codes, and exclusive deals.
         •§You can make your purchases through the app, rakuten.com, or using the Rakuten browser extension.

https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/..._campaign=article
 

Rakuten Mobile calls on MIC to include new entrants in allocation of platinum band spectrum

24 Apr 2023

In response to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC’s) ‘Survey Related to Use of Frequency Bands in Mobile Communications Systems’ in Japan, fourth operator Rakuten Mobile has urged the ‘democratisation of the mobile phone market’ by lobbying for the ministry to include new industry entrants when it allocates spectrum in the so-called ‘platinum band’ (700MHz). The mobile operator is arguing that the band is critical in allowing wireless carriers to optimise connectivity across Japan, noting: ‘In the event that we are allocated platinum band spectrum, we will utilise our network technology and existing base station sites to conduct an efficient base station rollout that is both flexible and cost-effective in order to provide stable and high-quality services to our customers.’

https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2023/04/24/...num-band-spectrum/

 

Rakuten Advertising helped leading luxury cosmetic house Lancôme and social shopping community Dealmoon achieve 234% Growth YoY and top publisher status.

+234%
Sales Growth YoY for Lancôme

+514%
Sales Growth YoY for Dealmoon

+229%
Revenue Growth YoY for the Absolue Line

+246%
Order Growth YoY for Absolue Line

https://rakutenadvertising.com/resources/...udy-lancome-and-dealmoon/

 

Mikitani recently assumed the role of CEO of Rakuten Symphony in place of Tareq Amin.

Rakuten Mobile co-CEO Sharad Sriwastawa was appointed acting president of the software unit.

Mikitani said Sriwastawa’s operational strength means Amin’s departure is “a more positive situation for us”.

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/...-subscriber-growth/
 

Super Micro Computer, Inc.: Supermicro Introduces New All-in-One Open RAN System Optimized for Telco Edge Data Centers with Built-in Intel vRAN Boost

Expanded Edge Server Portfolio Delivers Improved Performance and Power Efficiency for Open RAN and Intelligent Edge Workloads

SAN JOSE, Calif. and LAS VEGAS, Sept. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Supermicro, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a Total IT Solution Manufacturer for AI, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, announces the expansion of its portfolio of purpose-built servers for Edge AI and Telco workloads. The new Supermicro X13 Edge server, the SYS-211E-FRN13P, delivers a scalable, integrated Distributed Unit (DU) Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) server. As virtualized Open RAN technology has matured to the point where it's become proven, companies are looking for solutions that enable them to optimize deployments and reduce costs. This solution means shifting the emphasis to attributes such as cost, power consumption, size and weight, and scalability.

https://www.finanznachrichten.de/...built-in-intel-vran-boost-008.htm

Supermicro and Rakuten Symphony - Next Gen DU and CU Platforms
Last Updated: Mar 03, 2023

https://vimeo.com/804181158


 

Rakuten Viber works to provide its services in Kurdish: VP

17 hours ago

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Rakuten Viber works to provide its services on the tech market in Kurdish, a vice president of the popular communications application told Rudaw, saying that their work is an appreciation for their Kurdish users.

“We are heavily working with our tech partners to make sure that the services that we launch on the market will also support Kurdish in an accelerated time frame,” Atanas Raykov, Vice President of Growth and Key Markets at Rakuten Viber told Rudaw’s Mohammed Sheikh Fatih.

Raykov said Viber allocated resources to fully support the Kurdish language to achieve “a full localization of the app in Kurdish” so that all the application’s menus and settings are adapted in the Kurdish language.

“This was a very important milestone for us. This was a way also to show our gratitude for the loyalty of Kurdish users, and to show the fact that we appreciate differences,” Raykov said.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/250920231
 

Hungary: Electronic payments expand with stable, high coverage

15 September 2023

The value of VIBER turnover decreased by 5 per cent compared to the relatively high base in 2023 Q1 while it rose by 69 per cent year on year. The total numbers of transaction items expanded by 9 per cent relative to 2022 Q2 and a fall of 1 per cent is seen from the previous quarter. As a result of the above changes in turnover value and the number of transaction items, the average transaction size in VIBER fell by HUF 86 million from the previous quarter; however, there was a year-on-year rise of HUF 616 million. In annual terms, the increase in turnover was mainly fuelled by interbank items and primary market transactions relating to the two-week MNB bills issued by the Bank, while on a quarterly basis, interbank items decreased, whereas primary market transactions relating to the two-week MNB bills issued by the Bank continued to show an increase. Over the period as a whole, a total of 544,000 items were settled in VIBER, amounting to some HUF 943 trillion. Compared to the same period last year, the average liquidity of VIBER participants rose by 168 per cent, while it increased by 7 per cent compared to 2023 Q1, mainly due to the rise in the account balance as the reserve ratio requirement increased. As seen in the previous quarter, VIBER participants did not have to use significant amounts of their credit lines to conduct their payment transactions. Maximum utilisation of the intraday credit line continued to be low at system level, fluctuating between 0.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent in 2023 Q2, meaning that, on average, VIBER participants had to use only that portion of their overall credit lines available.

https://statisztika.mnb.hu/sw/static/file/...ekoztato_20230915_EN.pdf
 

Rakuten Card’s Annual Shopping Gross Transaction Value Surpasses 20 Trillion Yen for Most Recent 12-Month Period

Tokyo, September 1, 2023 - Rakuten Card Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rakuten Group, Inc., today announced that Rakuten Card’s annual shopping gross transaction value (GTV) surpassed 20 trillion yen for the 12-month period running from August 2022 to July 2023.

Cashless payments have been gaining popularity in markets around the world in recent years. The Japanese market reached a cashless payment ratio of 36.0% in 2022, representing a value of 111 trillion yen. Among the cashless payment options available, credit card payments are leading the cashless renaissance in Japan, with the total amount of credit card payments rising to 93.8 trillion yen (up 12.8 trillion yen year-on-year (YoY), a 15.8% increase) last year.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/update/2023/0901_01.html

 

Excellent for Rakuten TV

Global CTV advertising is set to grow by 64% over the next five years, according to GroupM’s bi-annual growth forecast. That takes CTV to a $42B global industry, making up a quarter of all TV spend. Recent research from Ampere Analysis on the addressable TV landscape corroborates these findings, estimating a 50% growth by 2027.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/...8-TJpU?trk=public_profile_like_view

 

OPEN STANDARDS FOR RADIO ACCESS NETWORKS

MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 25
2023

In the broader tech sector, open standards ensure that various digital systems work together seamlessly, allowing for greater compatibility and interoperability between different technologies. In the telecom industry in LDCs, a limited choice of technology providers and a lack of flexibility has made it challenging for MNOs to manage their networks nimbly. However, that’s changing as these operators embrace open standards, and Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN) provide one example of this shift. The shift to Open RAN involves disaggregating network hardware and software, which is traditionally bound together and supplied by a single telecom equipment supplier. Interfaces between different parts of the radio access network — the component of a wireless telecommunications system that connects individual devices to other parts of the network through a radio link — are standardized in an open network, facilitating a greater diversity of equipment vendors within the supply chain.

An Open RAN reduces the costs of deploying and operating mobile networks, which makes this approach well suited for rural and remote areas. However, mobile operators in advanced markets are also looking at the technology to enable innovation and increased flexibility when upgrading networks.

Leading MNOs are already making commitments to upgrade their networks through this technology. For instance, Vodafone aims to have 30% of its European network in Open RAN by 2030. Momentum is also building in regions such as Africa: In 2022, a range of MNOs, including the African MTN Group, signed an Open RAN Memorandum of Understanding to accelerate the adoption of this technology. In that partnership, MTN and mobile telecom industry business-to-business service provider Rakuten Symphony are working with Accenture and Tech Mahindra on Open RAN proof-of-concept trials in South Africa, Nigeria and Liberia, drawing on Rakuten’s network automation and orchestration solutions.

https://nextbillion.net/...ions-internet-access-developing-countries/

 

„1&1 baut Europas modernstes 5G-Netz“: 1&1 erzielt mit GvW Erfolg vor OLG Koblenz

1&1 darf sein im Aufbau befindliches Mobilfunknetz weiter als das modernste 5G-Netz in Europa bezeichnen. Dies hat das OLG Koblenz in seinem Urteil vom 18. Juli 2023 entschieden (Az: 9 U 432/23). Damit hat das Gericht der GvW-Mandantin 1&1 – wie bereits die Vorinstanz (mehr) – in dem zentralen Punkt Recht gegeben.

Die Deutsche Telekom hatte als Berufungsklägerin u.a. darauf abgezielt, 1&1 den Werbeslogan „1&1 baut Europas modernstes 5G-Netz“ auf Basis der neuartigen Open-RAN-Technologie gerichtlich verbieten zu lassen. Diesen Antrag haben die Koblenzer Richter nun auch in der zweiten Instanz abgewiesen. Das Urteil erlaubt dem Telekommunikationsanbieter aus Montabaur, für sich in Anspruch nehmen zu dürfen, beim Bau des Mobilfunknetzes europaweit als erster und einziger Netzbetreiber vollständig auf die innovative Open-RAN-Technologie zu setzen.

Die Open-RAN-Technologie ist eine cloudbasierte Technologie, mit der über standardisierte Schnittstellen Komponenten verschiedener Herstellerinnen und Hersteller für ein innovatives und leistungsstarkes Netz kombiniert werden können.

https://www.gvw.com/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/...g-vor-olg-koblenz
 

Das Nachtreten der Telekom, deren Netzaufbau vor allem der Steuerzahler finanziert hat, ist an Dreistigkeit kaum zu überbieten.  

Rakuten Symphony talks Open RAN benefits and bringing radio disaggregation to brownfield network environments
Beginning in 2018, Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Rakuten Group, started deploying a greenfield Open RAN network. Since then, Rakuten Group has also spun off hardware/software and consultancy vendor Rakuten Symphony to sell its technology stack and approach to operationalizing an Open RAN network. In the recent Open RAN Global Forum, available on demand, Rakuten Symphony Chief Business Officer Rabih Dabboussi reflected on the why and how of the approach in Japan, and what he sees driving adoption of Open RAN in the larger brownfield network market.

In terms of why Rakuten Mobile elected to go with Open RAN, Dabboussi highlighted three main drivers. First, he said because Rakuten Mobile was entering a market with three established incumbent operators, they need a more advantageous cost structure focused on TCO reduction to gain a competitive edge. Second, given Rakuten Group’s large reach into things like e-commerce, financial services, travel, entertainment and more, mobile fit into a larger data-driven platform strategy. And third, “We don’t believe in a building a huge organization to keep the lights up…The adoption of a software-centric, highly programmable network leveraging highly optimized cost compute and storage and network systems.”

“We strongly believe in this mission,” he said. “We strongly believe in our technology stack, and as we built it and used it ourselves, we created yet a new company called Rakuten Symphony that would take the technology, the solutions, the products, and the overall architecture and provide it to other telcos around the world, both brownfield and greenfield.”

Asked why, given the performance, cost and other upsides associated with Open RAN, adoption has been slower than many would like, Dabboussi gave a clear-eyed response. “Because it takes time, he said. “And because it takes time, I think the industry has been super critical of itself…And this is my call to the whole industry that the future is heading that way. It is slow, yes, the technology is nascent, yes, but it’s going to get there.”

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20230926/open_ran/...te-open-ran-adoption
 

Fintech revenue of the Rakuten Group from the 1st quarter 2013 to the 2nd quarter 2023 (in billion Japanese yen)

Rakuten Group's quarterly fintech revenue 2012-2023

Published by C. Diep, Aug 10, 2023

Rakuten Group generated around 181 billion Japanese yen in revenue through its fintech business segment in the second quarter of 2023, up by more than 13 percent compared to the second quarter of the previous year. Rakuten offers services such as Rakuten Card, Rakuten Bank, and Rakuten Securities. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, where it was founded in 1997.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/223360/...internet-finance-sales/
 

If Rakuten Group generated around 181 billion Japanese yen in revenue through its fintech business segment in the second quarter of 2023, up by more than 13 percent compared to the second quarter of the previous year, are  $ 1.21 in Q2/2023 = $ 4.84 billion on a yearly base.  

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Privacy professionals from around the globe gathered at Rakuten Crimson House in Tokyo for the first-ever Rakuten Global Privacy Summit to discuss opportunities posed by emerging technology and to align strategically. A key takeaway from the summit was that privacy strategy should not be a defensive strategy but an offensive strategy. Known as “Privacy by Design,” this concept encourages companies to be proactive in defining privacy regulations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfXe1zj27eg
 

Fintech Valuation Multiples: 2023 Report

By Evan Bailyn Last Updated: July 20, 2023

https://firstpagesage.com/business/...2520it%2520was%2520in%25202021.