Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

because Rakuten is one of the biggest or the biggest owner of Glovo

It also speaks to the company’s commitment to the Egyptian market, which is among the biggest in the Middle East – and it’s not just about supply and demand, as Rodrigo Alier, Regional General Manager EEMEA, explains.

“Glovo is also the first to enable couriers to use bicycles in the delivery market as part of our global eco-friendly strategy.” And so beyond the physical service that it provides for users, Glovo’s approach, strategy and philosophy is just as key.

"Since we started our operations in Egypt, we’ve been able to reach more than 1 million customers through our application,” Alier continues. “As for the next quarter, Glovo is planning to invest heavily in growth activities and expand significantly to reach two new zones inside Cairo and two new cities outside Cairo next quarter, after a long study for high demand areas.”

“Our sales and customer base increased by 35%, and 8-10% on average every month, respectively. During this period, we have been able to collaborate with many distinctive partners to reach 1000+ partners working in the food and non-food sectors locally and internationally. Through this fruitful cooperation, we have succeeded in increasing sales and additional revenue for all partners by 25- 50%.”

Throw in the fact that Glovo has, to date, provided some 5,000 job opportunities in its short but impactful 18 month stint in Egypt and its projection to hit 6,000 more by the end of 2020 and you have the kind of scenario that is so rare today – everyone’s a winner.

https://www.cairoscene.com/LifeStyle/...is-Changing-the-Game-in-Egypt
 

Viber branded messages enable you to keep up with the latest trends in mobile marketing!

By introducing a new communication channel, you bring your brand to its target audience 1 to 1.

Viber branded messages represent the most direct way of communication with the target group, providing numerous opportunities:

One - way communication

Two - way communication

Personalisation

Web platformADMIND

Reports and statistics

Send text + images + URL

AD MIND owns a base of  370.000 Viber users in Montenegro, over 500.000 users in Serbia, and over 300.000 users in Bosnia, to whom you can send branded messages through your business channel!
You can target users by city, gender, age, etc.

https://www.ad-mind.me/viber-marketing-poruke-crna-gora?lang=en
 

Top Viber Communities in PH (& How You Can Grow Your Own Viber Community)
Gia Mendoza, 8 months ago

Filipinos’ obsession over social media cannot be denied, so is the need to be able to share what we see online easily and immediately to people close to us. And so, there is no surprise that the Philippines is among the world’s top users of messaging apps (i.e. Viber and Facebook Messenger).

Viber Communities
This new and improved version of Viber Public Chats was rolled out in the first quarter of 2018. It is designed to cater to brands, businesses, and people with common interests.

Viber Communities carries the following features:
• Chat space for 1 billion users
• Creation of media collection sent within the chat
• Pinned messages
• Tiered management roles – superadmin (owner, has full control), admin (co-managers), community members
• Direct replies to a message
• Mention of other Communities to get them involved in the conversation
• GIFs, stickers, and other media exchange
• Invitation and joining via link
• All members can access chat history
More advanced features have also been introduced:
• Polling
• Main chat list visibility
• The option to allow or not all members to take part in the conversations
• Analytics (more on this below)
• Multiple admin roles
• Discoverability via the search bar with the use of “@”
• The option to receive notifications or not (including frequency)
The member to member messaging in Viber Communities will soon be released. It will allow members to exchange direct messages without revealing their mobile numbers.

https://www.shopback.ph/blog/viber-communities-philippines  

https://www.acorns.com/about/  

Lernende Systeme
Rakuten Marketing Data gewährt den Zugang zu Mitgliedern von Rakuten auf der ganzen Welt und umfasst reichhaltige Transaktionsdaten, die mit Advertiser- und Publisher-Daten von unseren Partnern verknüpft werden. Unser System lernt ständig hinzu und verschafft Ihren Kunden so mit jeder Minute immer klarere Erkenntnisse.

Strategische Erkenntnisse
Durch die umfassende Analyse unserer Daten können wir ein klares Verständnis unserer Kunden schaffen – wer sie sind, welche Werte sie haben, woher sie kommen und wohin sie sich bewegen. Diese Kundeninformationen ermöglichen in Verbindung mit den damit verknüpften Daten aus vielen Kanälen eine intelligente Optimierung Ihrer strategischen Kampagne, um die Effektivität und den Maßstab zu erhöhen. Diese Informationen behalten wir nicht einfach für uns – wir geben unseren Kunden vollständige Transparenz und Zugriffe über unsere Berichtsplattform.

Angetrieben von Intelligenz
Unsere KI steht bereit und liefert Ergebnisse, die Tag für Tag intelligenter und abgestimmter werden. Sie verknüpft unsere Daten mit leistungsstarken Analysetools und setzt die Informationen dadurch ein, um eine optimale Erfahrung für Ihre Kunden zu bieten – und für Ihre Marke.

Der Netzwerkeffekt
Wir arbeiten mit mehr als 150.000 Publishern und den größten Marken auf der ganzen Welt zusammen. Die Grundlage unseres Erfolgs ist die Zusammenarbeit. Wenn unsere Daten, Informationen und Erkenntnisse mit unseren Advertiser- und Publisher-Partnern geteilt werden, schöpfen wir den Netzwerkeffekt voll aus.

https://rakutenmarketing.com/de-de/

 

Alibaba’s video-streaming platform Youku’s detective thriller series “The Longest Day in Chang’an” will be available overseas via Youtube, Amazon Prime and Rakuten Viki. First debuting on Youku on June 27, the series is available in Chinese, English, and Vietnamese. It will go live in Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Brunei on partnering streaming platforms and TV networks throughout the month. Youtube, Amazon, and Rakuten Viki will also offer the program to their paid-subscriber base in the US, Canada, and South America.

https://technode.com/2019/07/04/...chinese-language-detective-series/  

https://www.kobo.com/de/de/p/writinglife  

OverDrive Education’s Sora Student Reading App Experiences Substantial Growth in 2019

CLEVELAND – November 13, 2019 – OverDrive Education today announced that its K-12 student reading app, Sora, is now available to more than 23,000 schools nationwide, an increase of 5,000 since 2018. Millions of students at public and private schools across the U.S. now have the opportunity to access Sora to borrow ebooks and audiobooks for classroom and pleasure reading.

Educators that have implemented Sora in the classroom have noted improvement in students’ reading achievements. From the beginning compared to the end of the school year, students with Sora nearly doubled the amount of time they spent reading. Additionally, ebook and audiobook reading increased 240% when students connected the app to their local public library versus solely accessing their school’s collection.

The case for Sora adoption is also aided by the app’s unique feature set. Teachers and school librarians can meet the curricular needs of all students by using the app to assign titles from their school’s ebook and audiobook collection. Sora, which is now compatible with Google Classroom, can also show educators an aggregate view by school of the number of books students have opened daily, plus the average reading time per session.

https://company.overdrive.com/2019/11/13/...bstantial-growth-in-2019/

 

Kias in Colorado, a car model that motorists here can’t even buy

A change to Colorado’s electric-vehicle tax credit law this year prompted the ride-sharing company to choose the state to launch its first EV fleet in the U.S.

Coloradans will be able to catch a ride in a sleek, new $40,000 electric Kia Niro as soon as December even though the vehicles aren’t available for sale in the state.

That’s because Lyft is making a fleet of 200 of the long-range electric crossovers available for lease to its Colorado drivers.  

The ride-sharing company on Thursday rolled out the plan — its first attempt in the U.S. to make an electric-vehicle fleet available to its drivers — thanks to a law change earlier this year.

Legislators opened up Colorado’s electric-vehicle tax credit program to rental companies and businesses with fleets in an attempt to attract a company like Lyft to put a mass of EVs on the roads. Lyft, which lobbied for the change, hopes laws will change in other states, too.

https://coloradosun.com/2019/11/14/kia-niro-lyft-colorado-fleet/

 

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 28, 2019

The “Japan Mobile Wallet and Payment Market Opportunities (Databook Series) - Market Size and Forecast across 45+ Market Segments” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
The mobile payment industry in Japan is expected to record a CAGR of 15.3% to reach US$ 241,243.5 million by 2025. The mobile wallet payment segment in value terms increased at a CAGR of 15.0% during 2018-2025.

https://apnews.com/20ffeef91a07452fb44cc8068914b524
 

Lyft Stock Can Double, Analyst Says. That’s a Bold Statement.
Nov. 15, 2019 12:34 pm ET

It is said that fortune favors the bold. And J.P. Morgan’s opinion on Lyft stock qualifies as bold.

The bank calls the ride-hailing startup a top internet pick—comparing Lyft (ticker: LYFT) to the likes of Amazon.com (AMZN) and Match (MTCH). Analyst Doug Anmuth has an $85 price target for the shares, up about 100% from recent levels.
Anmuth covers internet stocks. Besides Lyft, his other top picks are Facebook (FB), Amazon, and Netflix (NFLX). (The list reminds Barron’s of the old Sesame Street game: Which one of these things doesn’t belong?)

Of course, Lyft is a platform-technology company. It offers more services than just ride-hailing. Consumers can access scooters and see public transit options on its mobile app.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/...rgan-internet-analyst-51573839244
 

Gett Announces Closure of Juno and Strategic Partnership With Lyft

TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Gett, the global leader in corporate on-demand transportation, today announces the closure of its New York rideshare business, Juno, effective today. Gett also announces a strategic partnership with Lyft to enable Gett's corporate clients to access rides in the United States beginning next year.

Dave Waiser, Gett CEO, commented: "This development reinforces Gett's strategy to build a profitable company focused on the corporate transportation sector, a market worth $1 trillion each year."
As a corporate transportation leader, Gett serves over 15,000 companies, including a third of the Fortune 500. Through the Lyft partnership, Gett's corporate customers traveling in the United States will be able to request rides through the Gett app and be matched with a driver on the Lyft network. This partnership will allow Gett to expand its reach across the United States, seamlessly serving its business clients on the Lyft network, all through Gett's SaaS platform for business travelers.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...tegic-152000872.html?.tsrc=fin-srch
 

The No. 3 ride-sharing app in New York City is shutting down.

Juno, which launched in 2016 and was only operational in New York City, sold itself to Israeli ride-sharing company Gett in 2017. Now Gett is shutting down Juno on Monday evening.

Gett announced the end of Juno in a press release that also touted a new partnership with Lyft (LYFT). Gett’s corporate clients will now be able to access Lyft rides in the U.S. beginning in 2020, Gett says, which will give them access to a larger pool of drivers.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...-push-192200773.html?.tsrc=fin-srch  

https://feverup.com/  

Singapore-based startup ShopBack gears up for Vietnamese market
Southeast Asia’s leader in e-commerce cashback programs is ready to tap Vietnam’s tech-savvy consumers.

By Thu Huong Le Mon Oct 21 2019

Vietnam will be the eighth market in Asia-Pacific for ShopBack, the Singapore-based startup that offers cashback rewards, as it taps into the country’s fast-growing consumer market.

Founded in 2014, ShopBack currently operates in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia, and Indonesia. ShopBack has raised USD 83 million, including a USD45 million investment round led by Rakuten and EV Growth back in April.

Chow said ShopBack will likely go live in Vietnam within this month or by early November, and about 100 merchants have already signed on, gearing up for an official launch early next year. The country is already home to one of ShopBack’s three R&D centers in the Asia-Pacific, with 50 engineers working out of Ho Chi Minh City.

Chow did not mention specific details regarding the kind of competition that ShopBack will face in Vietnam, but noted that there are “immense opportunities” to partner with similar businesses because “Vietnam is still relatively young in the rewards space.”

https://old.kr-asia.com/...up-shopback-gears-up-for-vietnamese-market
 

Currencycloud today announces the launch of Currencycloud Spark, a solution enabling banks and Fintechs to provide multi-currency accounts to their business customers to collect, store, convert and pay in more than 35 currencies. Currencycloud Spark will enable businesses to realise their global ambitions faster than they ever dared dream.

Setting up bank accounts in foreign countries is a complicated and expensive process and far beyond the means of many businesses. With Currencycloud Spark, companies will be able to easily create receivables accounts around the world, manage multiple currencies, and instantly move money between accounts, meaning financial institutions such as banks and Fintechs can provide business customers with total flexibility in how they manage their international payment flows with their customers.

About Currencycloud
Currencycloud’s technology is unlocking the global economy for payment platforms of the future. Today, Currencycloud has 85 different APIs across four modules – collect, convert, pay and manage – that cover the entire workflow in B2B cross-border payments. The as-a-service platform is proprietary and is fully cloud-based on AWS using Restful APIs. Launched in 2012, Currencycloud is based in London and is regulated in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, and has processed more than $50bn to over 180 countries. Currencycloud works with banks and Fintechs globally including Starling Bank, Standard Bank South Africa, Travelex and Brookline Bank, as well as partnering with Visa to deliver innovation in travel payments.

https://www.currencycloud.com/company/news/item/...rrencycloud-spark/
 

https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/...emiums-since-fca-approval  

BlueVine raises $102.5M more for banking services that target small businesses
Ingrid Lunden@ingridlunden / 12:16 pm CET • November 19, 2019

Today, BlueVine, one of the financial services startups that has built a business specifically catering to SMBs is announcing a big round of funding, underscoring the quiet opportunity and demand that is out there.

“We see a massive gap in the market, with most SMBs still using consumer plus accounts,” said Eyal Lifshitz, Bluevine’s CEO and co-founder. “That is the mission we are on.”

The startup, which offers financing and other banking services to SMBs, today is announcing that it has raised $102.5 million, a Series F round of equity funding that is coming from a mix of financial and notable strategic investors.

“We are not profitable yet, but we’ve grown 100% since last year and will do triple digit revenue this year,” Lifshitz said, noting that the company has now originated some $2.5 billions in loans to date to 20,000 small businesses.

Others that have built big businesses around these users include Kabbage — the SoftBank-backed startup out of Atlanta that also started out with loans before diversifying also into a wider range of banking services. (Kabbage is currently valued at over $1 billion, as a point of comparison.)

https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/19/...es-that-target-small-businesses/  

Discover, evaluate, and integrate with any API. Rakuten RapidAPI is the world’s largest API marketplace with over a million developers and ten thousand APIs.
Build amazing apps,
https://english.api.rakuten.net/developers

Your API.
One Million Developers.
Market, manage, and monetize your API on the world’s largest API marketplace.
https://english.api.rakuten.net/api-providers
 

Today, the global money transfer service has entered into the Netherlands with the launch of its Dutch subsidiary, Azimo BV. Eventually, Azimo carries the credits of being the first UK-based fintech company to separate the UK and European operations right before the implementation of Brexit. The new subsidiary will handle all transfers sent from outside the UK.

Earlier this year, the fintech startup was granted a licence by the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank). Following the same, the fintech company opened an office in Amsterdam for its European operations team as it continues to grow its share in the global remittance market valued at $700 billion.

With its remittance service, Azimo has been providing its service to Dutch customers since 2015. It is used by migrant workers letting them send money to family and friends abroad. As per recent figures by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), migrants account for almost 21% of the overall Dutch population. It is estimated by the World Bank that over €4.6 billion was sent from the windmill country to others across the world in 2018.

Ever since its advent, Azimo has helped over a million customers sending money. It has handled over €2.3 billion of transfer volume, which is a 60% year-on-year increase as of June 2019. Notably, it is one of the few European fintechs to reach this profitability to date.

https://siliconcanals.com/news/...ents-app-opens-office-in-amsterdam/
 

DZS to Deliver 5G Fronthaul Solutions to Rakuten Mobile

Oakland, Calif. – November 19th, 2019 – DASAN Zhone Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: DZSI), a global leader in fiber access transformation for enterprise and service provider networks, announced it has been selected by Rakuten Mobile, Japan’s newest mobile operator, as a technology partner to deliver the next generation of mobile cell site aggregation switches that support 4G LTE & 5G ready services as well as Wi-Fi services.

Rakuten Mobile is building a cloud-native mobile network that will scale the end user experience and transform the operational simplicity of managing a nationwide mobile network.  Rakuten mobile’s new mobile architecture is based on network virtualization and cloud web-scale solutions that enable the ultra-fast delivery of services and readily scales for mass market roll-out.  The utilization of fiber densification to mobile cell sites enables ultra-high performance and low latency transport that both enhances the end mobile user application experience and enables Rakuten to automate and manage the network services at a fraction of the cost of traditional operators.

DASAN Zhone Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: DZSI) is a global leader in network access solutions for service providers and enterprise networks. The company provides a wide array of reliable, value-add networking technologies—including broadband access, mobile backhaul, Ethernet switching, Passive Optical LAN, and software-defined networks—to a diverse customer base that includes more than 1,000 of the world’s most innovative network operators.

DASAN Zhone Solutions is headquartered in Oakland, California, USA, with operations in more than 20 countries worldwide.

https://investor-dzsi.com/news/...nthaul-solutions-to-rakuten-mobile/
 

Anca Alexe 18/11/2019 | 15:06

Spanish delivery startup Glovo has announced its entry on the Arad market, its 9th Romanian city, after Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi, Brasov, Craiova, Constanta and Sibiu.

The app is expected to expand to three new Romanian cities by the end of this year.

https://business-review.eu/business/...ers-ninth-romanian-city-206521  

Today there are Spartan obstacle course races in more than 42 countries and the Spartan mission is to transform the lives of 100 million people throughout the world. Ultimately, De Sena wants obstacle course racing to feature in the Olympics, and, as he has previously stated, he has no intention of stopping until it is.

With Spartan’s ambitious plans for growth and desire to create a better future for people around the world, Rakuten was a perfect choice to become the company’s Global Innovation Partner and “Powered by” partner in September 2018.

The partnership is based on shared values of empowerment, optimism and community building. Rakuten expects the new series to have a particularly strong impact on the latter.  

“The Spartan community is very engaged in content and experience-sharing. Promoting the Rakuten ‘One Team’ spirit through these inspirational stories really resonates well with that community, and I think that it will attract a lot of non-Spartans as well,” said Tobias Memmott, manager of Rakuten’s Digital Creative Strategy Group and the show’s producer.

https://rakuten.today/blog/everyday-spartans.html
 

Following their four wins at the 2019 International Performance Marketing Awards, we spoke to Rakuten Marketing UK country manager Nick Fletcher at PI LIVE to catch up on their successes, the importance of teamwork and embracing technology going into 2020.

It's been a period of exceptional growth for Rakuten Marketing which has seen the business expand even further internationally whilst driving performance and success for multiple campaigns across Europe and APAC. All of this leading to the excitement of winning four awards at the International Performance Marketing Awards — including Best Team in Performance and Best Affiliate Network.

In addition to being premier sponsor at PI LIVE this year, we caught up with Rakuten Marketing UK country manager, Nick Fletcher to discuss more the awards and their work to date around technology and AI as well as the importance of teamwork in marketing campaign success.

https://performancein.com/news/2019/11/20/...nd-embracing-technology/
 

in die Spur zu kommen:

Kreditech generated a positive cash flow from lending activities in 2018 (EUR 26 million compared to EUR 15.1 million in 2017) and the negative cash flow from operations was dramatically reduced (from EUR 89.2 million in 2017 to 13.8 million in 2018), thanks to decreased refinancing costs, better interest rates from new loan facilities and an overall reduction in spending. “We are proud to report that the positive cash trends have continued in 2019 and will result in a projected break even in 2020. This is a clear indication that our strategic decisions are making Kreditech a healthy, profitable and growing business”, says David Chan. Kreditech's mission is to be the global leader in technology-enabled consumer lending and the platform of choice in the near-prime market. Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, Kreditech currently employs more than 300 people across seven countries. With well-established and growing operations in Poland, Spain and Russia, Kreditech’s near-term focus will be on rapidly scaling its business in India. The company also has plans to further expand in other major consumer-lending markets in the coming years.

https://www.kreditech.com/company