Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Rakuten Travel is offering special deals for fully vaccinated traveller

Those immunised against Covid-19 can expect early check-in, late check-out, room upgrades and other perks

Thursday 16 September 2021

With over 50 percent of the population fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the Japanese government has started charting a road map to ease social and economic restrictions in the coming months. While several prefectures including Tokyo are still under a state of emergency, the goal to fully vaccinate all willing individuals by the end of November has opened up the possibility of resuming the Go To Travel campaign in the near future.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Travel has already launched its own campaign on its booking website, offering perks like early check-in, late check-out, free breakfasts and room upgrades to fully vaccinated individuals. To be eligible for the deals, all guests under the reservation must receive both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine at the time of check-in, with the exception of children under 12 years old.

https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/...ly-vaccinated-travellers-091621  

Rakuten Mobile president Yoshihisa Yamada on the firm’s conference call. “Mobile business losses are expected to decline gradually after 2021,” he said. “We aim to achieve breakeven in fiscal year 2023,” aided by subscriber growth, he added.

https://telecoms.com/509763/...e-eyes-tremendous-profitability-ahead/
 

Best of both worlds: Rakuten Kobo introduces Kobo Sage and Kobo Libra 2

• Both feature packed eReaders have Bluetooth wireless technology so booklovers can listen to Kobo Audiobooks

• Kobo Sage unites reading, writing and listening all in one sleek package

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 5 October 2021 - Rakuten Kobo announces the joint launch of Kobo Sage and Kobo Libra 2, two new feature-rich eReaders that take Kobo's digital reading offering to the next level. Continuing our mission to make reading lives better, Kobo Sage and Kobo Libra 2 are built to inspire, with an ergonomic design readers love plus new Bluetooth® wireless technology so you can read eBooks or listen to Kobo Audiobooks all in one device.

With Kobo Sage, enjoy the most luxurious reading experience Kobo has to offer with every feature at your fingertips—including the addition of Bluetooth® wireless technology for Kobo Audiobooks. Kobo Sage is our most fully featured device ever, taking reading to the next level with custom designed accessories, such as our versatile SleepCovers, all-new PowerCover, and compatible Kobo Stylus to take notes and highlight passages—offering readers the option to read, write and listen all on one Kobo device for the first time. Complete with a 8" HD flush E Ink Carta 1200 glare-free screen, ComfortLight PRO adjustable brightness and temperature control, Dropbox support and 32 GB of storage, the sleek and lightweight Kobo Sage is ergonomically engineered for total comfort. The device is available in Black, with Kobo SleepCovers in Light Green and Black, and PowerCover in Black.

Packed with features and personality, Kobo Libra 2 is made to fit into your busy life. With more storage, a faster E Ink screen, and now Bluetooth® wireless technology, Kobo Libra 2 is the next-generation of the popular Kobo Libra H2O. Whether it's sunny days or stormy nights, the waterproof eReader is as adaptable as you are with a 7" HD E Ink Carta 1200 glare-free screen, ComfortLight PRO adjustable brightness and temperature control, and 32 GB of storage. Available in White and Black, with an array of SleepCover colours—Poppy Red, Lavender, Slate Blue and Black—offering great options for personalization.

https://www.media-outreach.com/news/2021-10-05/...e-and-kobo-libra-2/  

https://www.msn.com/de-de/finanzen/top-stories/...Pa0Aj?ocid=msedgdhp  

Video: Rakuten and 1&1 Partner to Build Europe’s First Fully Virtualized Mobile Network

06.October 2021

Rakuten has made three big mobile-related announcements: the start of a long-term partnership with German telecommunications operator 1&1 to build the fourth mobile network in the country; the acquisition of Altiostar Networks; and the launch of new business organization Rakuten Symphony. These strategic moves will allow Rakuten to further strengthen its Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), and accelerate its initiatives to promote adoption of cloud-native, Open RAN-based mobile networks worldwide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXZhp54DRvY  

https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/...ernannte-5g-revolutionaer-ld.1639979  

Rakuten Kobo Inc. is the world's digital bookseller created by and for book lovers. Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten Group, Inc. and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo's 58 million worldwide users can read any time, anywhere, and on any device. With a mission to make reading lives better for all, Rakuten Kobo connects readers to stories using thoughtful and personalized curation of eBooks and audiobooks, and the best dedicated eReaders and apps for reading. With the singular focus of making reading lives the best they can be, Kobo's open platform allows people to fit reading into more moments in their busy lives.  

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4306358
 

This will be excellent for Rakuten Travel and Rakuten Lifull Stay:

https://www.travelcaffeine.com/...apan-reopen-allow-foreign-tourists/  

Rakuten was the biggest of the first venture capital investors

Glovo is working on an IPO in 2022 with a valuation of more than 2,000 million euros, according to Cinco Días

By Jeremiah, October 2, 2021

Recently, in April this year, Glovo received its largest funding round to date, raising 450 million euros. It was in it when, according to the sources of the aforementioned medium, the Catalan company saw its valuation increased to more than 2,000 million euros.

In that financing round, the Germans from Delivery Hero stood out, who are also competitors, and who with an IPO could see a great return on investment. Other big beneficiaries would be the first venture capital investors who bet on the company.

https://www.bullfrag.com/...00-million-euros-according-to-cinco-dias/  

Kobo Sage ereader has a big advantage Kindle doesn’t offer

Chris Davies - Oct 5, 2021, 9:09am CDT

Kobo has a pair of new ereaders to ween you off your Kindle, and if you’ve been looking for reasons to ditch Amazon then the Kobo Sage’s stylus support might be it. The new E Ink model – alongside the new Kobo Libra 2 – from the Rakuten-owned company are also the first to support Kobo’s audiobooks, as well as being waterproof for up to 60 minutes.

The Kobo Sage has an 8-inch e-paper screen, with ComfortLight PRO illumination. It uses E Ink’s Carta 1200 touchscreen, for finger control, but optional is the new Kobo Stylus that supports handwritten notes in ebooks and PDFs. There are multiple pens and shades supported, along with an eraser, switchable using two buttons on the side of the stylus.

Handwritten text can be converted to printed text, too, with standalone notebooks for making lists, keeping a journal, or anything else. They can be synchronized with Dropbox for cloud storage, and access elsewhere. The Sage itself has 32GB of internal capacity, along with USB-C connectivity, WiFi 802.11ac, and Bluetooth for connecting with wireless headphones and speakers.

https://www.slashgear.com/...-advantage-kindle-doesnt-offer-05694010/
 

How big is the O-RAN market potential? One estimate puts it at 500 million U.S. dollars for 2021 and a whopping 22 billion by 2028 (researchnester.com, June 30, 2021.) That report also comes with a prediction that by the end of 2025 almost half the world will be employing 5G technology, “with cellular network operators adopting Open RAN because it provides additional flexibility to meet rigorous 5G application requirements.”

As the industry climbs from a $500 million to $22 billion marketplace within seven years, challenges for O-RAN remain, especially around interoperability and overall performance. Once hardware and software requirements are decoupled from any one vendor(s) those needs must still be reassembled in the open access environment. The interoperability required may involve a steep learning curve. The inability to adapt, to ignore the competition or to not fully grasp what is being sold to private network providers are pitfalls to avoid.

The decoupling of hardware and software with the Open RAN system creates new opportunities for multiple vendors to develop individual pieces of the “ecosystem” based on their specific expertise. This new ecosystem again makes it possible to deploy best-of-breed solutions. As a result, businesses can mix and match specialized technology services from multiple vendors, rather than settle on one source that may be better on some features but not so efficient at others.

O-RAN is here to stay, with many operators already invested in the open model, drawn to the flexibility and interoperability that it offers. That interoperability will allow for the opportunity to adapt as O-RAN and its 5G underpinning grow and no doubt continue to advance in the next few years. The incentive that Open RAN offers—giving vendors more options in hardware and software choices due to its disaggregated components—is a powerful selling tool.

Looking ahead, 5G can have an even greater impact when it comes to robotics and remote work applications. 5G will help the autonomous transportation market take the next step as well. For example, when two driverless vehicles moving side-by-side can “communicate,” sending the necessary course corrections to avoid accidents. Telecom, internet service providers and any industry that uses AI are among various business sectors where there is already a strong synergy in the market for rapid adoption of O-RAN. Demystifying the parameters of the 5G/O-RAN transition and truly understanding how they work together is a good place to start in preparing for the future.

https://telecomreseller.com/2021/10/04/...6495-0-gqNtZGzNAzujcnBszQjl
 

Open RAN — At the epicentre of the 5G digital transformation

Open RAN solution has disaggregated the RAN. This will give the MNOs flexibility. Instead of relying on proprietary aggregated equipment from a few dominant vendors, Open RAN solutions are allowing MNOs to work with a multi-vendor Radio Access Network.

September 29, 2021, 07:46 IST
By Parag Naik

5G Networks are slated to lead the digital transformation in an increasingly connected world. Apart from high-speed internet connectivity and faster communication, the high speed and low latency network will offer a big boost to IoT and M2M communication. Transformative effects of 5G will be felt in healthcare, education, smart cities, autonomous vehicles and several other diverse sectors.

Open RAN is at the epicentre of this digital transformation and plays a critical role in bringing more diversity and innovation to the 5G ecosystem. Open RAN solutions will reshape the mobile network ecosystem in general and 5G networks in particular by bringing more equipment vendors into the ecosystem and enabling adoption of more open source and cloud technologies into the otherwise closed RAN ecosystem. This will also lead to a greater disruption to the traditional ecosystem and accelerates the adoption of more innovative technologies.

One of the main drivers of Open RAN movement is the expected cost benefits to the operators in terms of total cost of ownership of the RAN network over a period of time. Introduction of newer players and introduction of commercial off the shelf hardware and open source software is expected to bring the Capex and Opex for the network operators. Such cost benefits play a pivotal role in large scale adoption and proliferation of 5G networks and hence will speed up the digital transformation across industries.

https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/...rmation/86600080

 

Marriott International And Rakuten Announce Strategic Collaboration To Enhance Travel Experience

TOKYO, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) and Rakuten Group, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4755) today announced an industry-first strategic collaboration set to elevate the travel experience of millions of Japanese customers traveling domestically and internationally.

The agreement between Marriott and Rakuten will leverage the strength of Rakuten's digital expertise and capitalize on the current growth of Japan's digital economy, alongside the global scale and the rapid growth of the Marriott Bonvoy footprint. This new agreement is designed to create a seamless, integrated travel experience and allow eligible members to enjoy benefits from both Marriott Bonvoy and the Rakuten loyalty program. The collaboration will allow Marriott Bonvoy to connect directly with millions of Rakuten members to offer them unparalleled experiences and a diverse portfolio of Marriott Bonvoy's 30 international hotel brands, and market directly to Rakuten's customer base with content and promotions that are customized for the Japanese traveler.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...n-announce-strategic-150000075.html  

https://www.statista.com/statistics/275099/...rtphone-users-in-japan/  

Rakuten wins both the 5G Download Speed and 5G Upload Speed awards

5G Experience Report September 2021

It's unsurprising that Rakuten wins the 5G Upload Speed award because it has long shown an advantage in the upload speeds its users experience in previous Opensignal insights and reports. On top of that, Rakuten users saw average 5G download speeds of 224.3 Mbps. In second place is NTT DoCoMo with a score of 161.4 Mbps. But DoCoMo's 5G will be easier for users to find and experience because Rakuten has the lowest 5G Reach of any operator with a score of 0.3 compared with DoCoMo's 2.2.

https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2021/09/japan/...ork-experience-5g  

Robin.io Showcases its Hyperconverged Kubernetes tech, Which Helped Launch Industry's First End-to-End Cloud Native 5G Network, at KubeCon NA 2021

SAN JOSE, Calif. — October 6, 2021 — Robin.io today announced details around its participation at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA 2021, taking place from October 13-15 at the LA Convention Center in person and virtually. Robin.io will present live demos of its cloud native 5G management stack for both public and private networks at booth #S84, including Robin Cloud Native Platform (CNP), Robin Cloud Native Storage (CNS) and Robin Multi-Cluster Automation Platform (MDCAP) product lines.

Robin.io has helped deliver the industry’s first 100% cloud-native architecture for a leading managed network operator, deploying both 5G and edge services. Robin.io runs the entire 5G stack, Open RAN, Core and MEC for that telco, along with many 4G functions, all on containers with Robin.io CNP and MDCAP. Robin.io accomplishes this through application bundles and application pipelines. These are automated through patented infrastructure- and application- topology awareness technology.

Robin.io extends the agility, efficiency and portability of Kubernetes to all applications, even complex big data, databases, AI/ML and custom apps, on any infrastructure, on-premise, hybrid cloud or multi-cloud. Global customers include BNP Paribas, Palo Alto Networks, Rakuten Mobile, SAP, Sabre and USAA.

https://www.realwire.com/releases/...ed-Kubernetes-at-KubeCon-NA-2021  

https://k-tai.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/interview/1355425.html  

dass Rakuten Mobile pro Monat zuletzt zwischen 60 und 100 Millionen an Roaming-Kosten hatte, oder zwischen 180 und 300 Millionen im Quartal.

Wenn die teilweise oder ganz wegfallen, dürfte bei weiter steigenden User-Zahlen (nach 6 Millionen am 23. August 2021 gehe ich zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt von knapp 6,5 Millionen aus) der Break-Even vielleicht schon im Laufe des Jahres 2022 erreicht werden - und nicht erst in 2023.  

 

 

Part of a broader hyper-local strategy, says Toomey

MARRIOTT International and Rakuten Group have signed a partnership that will allow their customers to dip into each other’s loyalty programmes, in a landmark deal that plays to two trends accelerated by Covid.
For Marriott, it’s about going hyper-local, much needed at a time when travel restrictions are still in place while it gives the Japanese e-commerce giant a global platform on which to grow its travel business, both domestically but mostly internationally. Rakuten Group has about 100 million members while Marriott Bonvoy has over 153 million members.

This new agreement is designed to create a seamless, integrated travel experience and allow eligible members to enjoy benefits from both Marriott Bonvoy and the Rakuten loyalty programme. The collaboration will allow Marriott Bonvoy to connect directly with Rakuten members and offer them access to experiences and 30 international hotel brands, and market directly to Rakuten’s customer base with content and promotions customised for the Japanese traveler.

Kazunori Takeda, group executive vice president, president of Commerce Company, Rakuten Group, said “this groundbreaking alliance will add incredible value for our members, enabling them to tap into the advantages of a global travel programme”.

Rakuten offers services in e-commerce, fintech, digital content and communications. With more than 100 million members in Japan, Rakuten’s multi-faceted consumer offerings centre on its ecosystem comprised of more than 70 services, amplified and enriched through integration with its loyalty programme, Rakuten Points.

https://www.webintravel.com/...riott-and-rakuten-take-vow-on-loyalty/
 

Spanish ride-hailing app Cabify bets on grocery delivery amid e-commerce boom

Oct 6, 2021

By Clara-Laeila Laudette

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish ride-hailing app Cabify will allow users to order groceries direct to their homes in nine cities including Barcelona and Madrid via a partnership with online supermarket delivery firm Lola Market, the companies said on Wednesday.

"E-commerce in Spain has been growing at a double-digit rate in the past years," said Lucía Chávarri, Cabify's vice president of new business. "It would make sense for us to sustain above-average growth once we establish ourselves."

By selecting the "Super" option in the app's menu, Cabify users will be able to request goods from supermarkets including Spanish chain Dia and the German and French multinationals Lidl and Carrefour, in a first for the multi-mobility company.

"The change is here to stay, more and more users are going to want to shop online," said Chavarri. "The idea is that we can grow in a market where until now we had no presence."

Madrid-based venture capital firm Seaya Ventures and Japanese online retailer Rakuten - also a lead investor in ride-hailing app Lyft - are Cabify's main investors, according to a source familiar with the company.

E-commerce in supermarkets and grocery stores was already growing at around 38% annually before the pandemic doubled the sector's expansion rate, Chavarri said, citing data from Spain's competition watchdog CNMC.

https://www.nippon.com/en/news/reu20211006KBN2GW0K9/
 

Rakuten's Kobo brand introduces Kobo Sage and Kobo Libra 2 eReaders

Pre-orders start today with availability slated for October 19

By Shawn Knight October 5, 2021, 10:18 AM

https://www.techspot.com/news/...introduces-kobo-sage-kobo-libra.html
 

Instant Messaging Market Impressive Gains including key players Rakuten, Mohalla Tech Private Limited, Microsoft, Kik Interactive

https://www.amitetoday.com/...vate-limited-microsoft-kik-interactive/

 

Viber racks up one billion installs, even without your help

BY WILL SATTELBERG PUBLISHED SEP 24, 2021

When you think of messaging apps, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and any of Google's 47 attempts likely come to mind. As mainstream as those services might be, they aren't the only options you'll find for texting your friends and loved ones. Viber isn't as recognizable a name, but it's been quietly popular for years now. Today, it passed the one billion installs milestone, marking its place among other ultra-successful apps like Google Messages and Snapchat.

In a shocking twist of events, Viber managed to hit this milestone before some of its closest rivals, including LINE and Telegram. In addition to reaching a broad audience throughout eastern Europe and Asia, the app's recent popularity was likely spurred on by the pandemic, where users suddenly found themselves looking for ways to keep in touch with friends and family over the web. Considering Viber is cross-platform, it's an easy choice for Android users to latch onto without leaving behind their iPhone-owning acquaintances. Recent additions to the app have made it perfect for group video calls, with up to 30 users supported at once in a single conversation.

Other additions, like GIF creation tools and a built-in notes utility, have helped set the app apart from the competition. If you're tired of dealing with the privacy ups and downs of WhatsApp and the ongoing death of Hangouts, this might be the perfect time to give Viber a shot. You can grab the app using the Play Store link below or download the latest APK from APK Mirror.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/09/24/...s-even-without-your-help/