Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Tuesday, 01 June 2021 08:46
Cuatrecasas guides Delivery Hero´s Balkans business €170m sale to Glovo


Cuatrecasas has advised Delivery Hero on the sale of its business in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, as well as some assets in Croatia, to Glovo for €170 million

Delivery Hero SE, a world’s leading local delivery platform, has announced that Glovo will acquire Delivery Hero’s operations in the Balkan region. Glovo will take over Delivery Hero’s businesses in Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, and acquire certain assets of Delivery Hero’s Croatian operations.

Present in all six countries and already holding a very strong position, Glovo is well-placed to continue investing in improved customer experience, long-term and sustainable operations, and further build-out the businesses locally. The aforementioned countries will be rebranded to Glovo’s company brand following a transition period. Delivery Hero will keep strengthening its global presence and focus on delivering an amazing experience to its c. 50 global markets. With this deal, Delivery Hero continues optimizing its operations and investments in key strategic markets.

“Delivery Hero has built a leading business in the Balkans in the last few years. However, given the operational complexity of the business and our current priorities, we believe Glovo is in a better position to continue creating an excellent experience for our users in the region,” remarked Delivery Hero’s CEO and co-founder, Niklas Östberg.

https://www.iberianlawyer.com/news/news/...usiness-170m-sale-to-glovo
 

Delivery Hero verkauft Balkan-Geschäft an Glovo

Glovo übernimmt für rund 170 Millionen Euro das Blakan-Geschäft von Delivery Hero. Eine Fusion schließt die Konkurrenz aus Spanien aus.

26.05.2021 - 15:13 Uhr

Berlin, Barcelona Der Essenslieferdienst Delivery Hero trennt sich von seinem Balkan-Geschäft. Der spanische Konkurrent Glovo kaufe die Aktivitäten in Bosnien und Herzegowina, Bulgarien, Montenegro, Rumänien und Serbien sowie Vermögenswerte in Kroatien, teilte der Berliner Dax-Konzern am Mittwoch mit.

Das Unternehmen aus Barcelona legt rund 170 Millionen Euro dafür auf den Tisch und baut mit der Transaktion sein Geschäft in den Ländern deutlich aus. Glovo-Chef Oscar Pierre versicherte im Gespräch mit Reuters, seine Firma wolle weiterhin auf eigenen Füßen stehen und schloss eine Fusion mit Delivery Hero aus. Delivery Hero ist mit 37 Prozent an Glovo beteiligt.

https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/...-pePUYBSRkJEVUwgAOij0-ap1

 

Glovo plans to launch delivery service in 20-25 cities of Ukraine in 2021

By Interfax-Ukraine.
Published June 3 at 2:01 pm

Glovo courier delivery service is planning to launch its service in 20-25 more cities of Ukraine in 2021.
“If we talk about expansion in Ukraine, we will launch our service in cities with a population of more than 100,000 residents. From the nearest announcements, we will be present in Drohobych and Truskavets in June. This year, I think, we will be present in 20-25 more cities.

Glovo service was established in Barcelona and today operates in more than 650 cities in 22 countries on three continents: Europe, Central and South America, and sub-Saharan Africa. More than 2.5 million people worldwide use Glovo delivery service every month, orders are delivered by more than 51,000 couriers, and the number of associated partners reaches 25,000.

Glovo recently announced that it has also reached a separate agreement to acquire Ehrana, a local delivery company in Slovenia, for an undisclosed fee. The transaction is expected to close in the next few months and the company is now working closely with Ehrana to define the transition strategy for users, partners and couriers.

https://...y/glovo-makes-multiple-acquisitions-in-eastern-europe.html

https://www.kyivpost.com/business/...5-cities-of-ukraine-in-2021.html
 

Rakuten Mobile CTO: Telco Software ‘Absolutely Flawed’

Matt Kapko | EditorJune 16, 2021 10:54 PM

Rakuten Mobile CTO Tareq Amin claims none of the operator’s infrastructure is underperforming, but telco cloud software is thus far failing to meet the moment industry wide.

“Despite so much hype around virtualization, the underlying architecture of the software platforms that are used, whether it is IMS [IP multimedia subsystem] core, policy functions, OCS [online charging system] function, there is not a single vendor in the world that supports elasticity,” he said during a group chat with analysts and press.

“It is not good enough to move the software architecture from monolithic architecture that was built on proprietary hardware and say I’m going to shift to a virtual machine. To achieve the dream and the benefits of cloudification, the software architecture must evolve to support elasticity,” Amin said.

Moving a telco workload to the cloud does not enable elasticity, he explained. “There is no magic that an Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft could enable because the underlying software architecture is absolutely flawed. It needs to evolve,” he said.

“I don’t think the industry as a whole has forced the vendors to advance the software architecture in the same way enterprise and over-the-top players have advanced. Auto elasticity does not exist. Orchestration in a way that you want it holistically across the network doesn’t exist,” Amin said.

No telco software is meeting “Rakuten’s objective for auto elasticity as a network function across multiple geographies with auto-healing enabled,” he said, adding that the operator is pushing vendors to “think like an enterprise IT company, not necessarily a legacy IT software provider.”

Rakuten’s telco workloads are performing as expected, but Amin said he isn’t happy that those workloads still don’t meet his definition of cloud-native architecture. “We still have a lot of work to do with the industry and ecosystem to push this modernization of the software stack to move into the right destination for auto elasticity, auto healing, resiliency, and so on, into the fabric of the cloud networks.”

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/...bsolutely-flawed/2021/06/  

This Week in Open RAN – 18 June 2021
POSTED ON JUNE 18, 2021 BY ROBERT CURRAN

Mobile operator MTN Group opened up about its plans (“rollout by end of 2021”) and vendors (Altiostar, Mavenir, Parallel Wireless, TechMahindra and Voyage) for open RAN rollout. MTN explicitly linked Open RAN with supporting its carbon emission targets. We should expect to see more from the Open RAN community in due course regarding power efficiency vs traditional solutions. MTN is an emerging markets operator, with over 280m subscribers across 21 markets. For context, Vodafone has around the same total number of subscribers.

https://appledoreresearch.com/2021/06/18/...in-open-ran-18-june-2021/  

Rakuten can participate and provide support and services

Software remains underestimated and neglected, or unwilling to embrace cloud-native principles, he argued. Despite software inadequacies, “we have really enabled hyperscale automation into the DNA of this network.”

Rakuten Mobile’s experience thus far in assembling a nationwide open radio access network (RAN) in Japan proves the advantages operators can achieve by transitioning network architecture to pure software functions as virtual machines or container network functions, including operational efficiency gains, lower costs, and agility in providing new services, according to Amin.

Now it intends to prove that more broadly. Rakuten Communications Platform, an ecosystem of telco software, open RAN hardware, network infrastructure components, and support services that the ecommerce giant is packaging to resell to other operators, will later this summer publish the true costs of every application and piece of gear to further underline the cost savings it claims operators can achieve with open RAN.

The operator isn’t interested in making margins on open RAN hardware, Amin claimed. It’s publishing a digital product catalog of the larger open RAN ecosystem to disclose all costs. “Rakuten can participate and provide support and services. If you don’t want us to participate, not an issue, we could link you directly to the manufacturer,” he said.

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/...bsolutely-flawed/2021/06/  

Rakuten is working with Intel to develop a reference design that will integrate a CPU and hardware acceleration into a commoditized processor in 2022, he said.

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/...bsolutely-flawed/2021/06/
 

Published on June 20, 2021

Robin.io, a San Jose, CA-based leader in Kubernetes-based cloud-native 5G, edge and enterprise application management, closed a $38M Series C funding round.

The round, which brought the total capital raised to $86m, was led by Rakuten Capital and joined by Clear Ventures, Emory University, Raine Next-Gen Communications and current investors.

This latest major backing for the company comes as bookings growth at Robin.io has surpassed 400% quarter-over-quarter when comparing the first two quarters of the current fiscal year. When comparing the current quarter to the same quarter last year, the growth rate is even more dramatic, at 681%. In addition to strong market traction, the company has signed 32 new partnerships during the past year. Finally, the Robin.io team has grown 57% during the past year, across four countries. All this has been achieved despite the most challenging business conditions brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The technology is used globally by companies including BNP Paribas, Palo Alto Networks, Rakuten Mobile, SAP, Sabre and USAA.

https://www.finsmes.com/2021/06/...aises-38m-in-series-c-funding.html
 

June 21, 2021

Streaming video distribution and advertising services specialist Wurl has entered into a strategic partnership with VoD platform Rakuten TV to deliver live streaming channels, as well as monetisation services to Rakuten TV and via Rakuten TV’s channel app available on Samsung TV Plus in Europe. The deal marks a significant expansion into the EU by Wurl.

Wurl has delivered 241 feeds supporting more than 50 different channel brands on Rakuten TV and Samsung TV Plus across 42 European countries, including Rakuten TV licensed channels going to TV Plus. Wurl is providing the content company and streaming service with video asset delivery and monetisation services from its AdPool platform, which reinforces the scale of the opportunities offered by Rakuten Advertising.

“As Rakuten TV continues its expansion across Europe, having a strategic partner like Wurl is essential,” asserts Jacinto Roca, CEO and Founder at Rakuten TV. “In just a matter of a few months, we were able to launch services like CNN International, Euronews, Bloomberg TV, Fashion TV, and our own curated channels for popular genres like action, drama, and local film.”

https://advanced-television.com/2021/06/21/...-in-europe-partnership/

 

Rakuten Mobile network in Tokyo delivers a very good user experience comparable to that of the leading mobile networks in other big cities.


The Rakuten Mobile network in Tokyo shows with 920 points competitive performance level with best operator in Atlanta (914 points), Berlin (916 points), Johannesburg (918 points), London (911 points), Mexico City (854 points), Rome (898 points), Riyadh (858 points) and Sao Paulo (906 points), New York (922 points), Milan (939 points), Seattle (936 points), Zurich (936 points) and Sydney (940 points).

In the coverage category and speed categories, the Rakuten Mobile network shows competitive user experience on eye-level with the leading operators in the 13 cities. The Rakuten Mobile network shows room for improvement in Latency category. All in all, the Rakuten Mobile network in Tokyo delivers a very good user experience comparable to that of the leading mobile networks in other big cities.

Being at the core of innovation, umlaut has a strong interest to evaluate the customer experiences of those front-running networks and compare it with network performance of established player. The aim is to offer a unique perspective into this new ecosystem.

https://www.news-blast.com/2021/06/...etropolitan-networks-worldwide/
 

Rakuten Viber / Route Mobile webinar (June 2021)

17.06.2021

Business messaging: Elevate your customer experience with Viber’s business communication channel (June 2021)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT-4IILVVoc

 

3GPP Approves Band Specifications of Ligado's L-Band Spectrum for 5G Deployment

2021-06-21

RESTON, Va., June 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile communications company Ligado Networks today announced it received approvals from the wireless industry's global standard-setting body for new technical specifications that will enable its L-band spectrum to be deployed in 5G networks.

The approvals from the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) mark a crucial step in Ligado's expansion of the L-Band vendor ecosystem and its efforts to deploy new mid-band spectrum in 5G networks in the U.S. Ligado is currently developing a 5G Mobile Private Network Solution designed to bring the power of next-generation networks to the energy, manufacturing, health care, transportation, and other critical infrastructure sectors.

"This is a major milestone for us – in an already momentous year – and advances our vision to deploy this spectrum for a range of next-generation services," said Ligado CEO Doug Smith. "The 3GPP green light gives us what we need to accelerate our commercial ecosystem activities and expand Ligado's roster of partners to deploy this much-needed spectrum for U.S. businesses and consumers."

3GPP approvals of Band 24 will enable vendors to build 5G and LTE products compatible with Ligado's mid-band spectrum. Though 3GPP approvals often serve as the kickoff point for spectrum-holders to engage potential ecosystem vendors, Ligado has already entered into commercial agreements with multiple 5G base station and chipset vendors. The company has also announced a collaboration with pioneering network operator Rakuten Mobile to showcase its 5G Mobile Private Network Solution, and the companies plan to deploy lab and field trials over the next 12 months.

"Receiving these 3GPP approvals is a huge springboard to deploy the L-Band in U.S. 5G networks, and we're excited to have continued support from several industry-leading vendors," said Chief Technology Officer Maqbool Aliani. "Bringing this additional mid-band spectrum to the 5G market will help the U.S. roll out next-generation deployments more quickly, at lower costs, and with superior network performance."

Ligado submitted these work items to 3GPP in June 2020 after winning unanimous, bipartisan approval from the Federal Communications Commission to modify its existing spectrum license. In October 2020, the company announced it had successfully raised nearly $4 billion to develop and deploy the L-Band in 5G networks.

http://www.itnewsonline.com/PRNewswire/...um-for-5G-Deployment/763027  

Rakuten invests in cloud-native telco platform specialist Robin.io

By Ray Le Maistre
Jun 21, 2021

• Robin.io has raised $38 million in new funding
• Rakuten Capital is the lead investor in the round
• Funding and new partnership with QCT should help take Robin.io to new markets

Cloud-native platform specialist Robin.io, a key technology supplier to alternative Japanese mobile operator Rakuten Mobile, has raised $38 million in a Series C round of funding that was led by Rakuten Capital. The round takes Robin.io’s total funding to $86 million.

The vendor’s networking-oriented Kubernetes platform is designed to run radio access network (RAN), core, edge and other cloud-native applications being deployed by network operators, and is being used by Rakuten Mobile for its Open RAN-based 5G network.

The investment strengthens the relationship between Rakuten and Robin.io and makes it a near certainty that the cloud-native platform vendor’s software will feature as part of the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), which is being developed by Rakuten Mobile to provide key technology elements to other network operators around the world that are building Open RAN-based networks.

It also raises the prospect that Robin.io might adopt an open source software development strategy, something that Rakuten Mobile CTO Tareq Amin has hinted at in the past.

Taking on new funding isn’t Robin.io’s only development of late: The company has also struck a strategic partnership with data centre server manufacturer Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) to “jointly offer solutions that significantly reduce the costs, complexities and deployment times for mobile network operators (MNOs) and communication service providers (CSPs) rolling out next-gen networks and services,” with a focus on the “expedited deployment of cloud-native mobile core networks in an operationally optimized solution,” according to this joint announcement.

It’s worth noting that QCT is also a key technology supplier to Rakuten Mobile.

https://www.telecomtv.com/content/cloud-native/...ist-robin-io-41726/  

JUNE 23, 2021 09.56 EUROPE/LONDON BY CHRIS DZIADUL

Rakuten TV has added two more free ad-supported sports channels to its offer.

Tennis Channel is now available in the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while USGA Golf channel can now be received n the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
Other sports channels available on Rakuten TV include FuelTV, MAVTV Motorsports Network, EDGEsport, InTrouble TV and Hard Knocks Fighting Champ. The company anticipates future additions to this category to be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Rakuten TV’s linear channels are part of the platform’s FREE service, which includes FAST and AVOD, and are currently accessible on the Rakuten TV app on Samsung and LG Smart TV devices in 42 European countries.

https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2021/06/23/...expands-sports-line-up/
 

https://www.all-electronics.de/...5g-maerkte-zu-erschliessen-244.html  

Cabify launches a subscription model for its mobility services in Spain | Companies
June 8, 2021 by archyde

https://www.archyde.com/...-its-mobility-services-in-spain-companies/
 

Global Fintech Interview with Julie Van Ullen, MD at Rakuten Rewards

by Sudipto GhoshJune 7, 2021094

https://globalfintechseries.com/banking/...len-md-at-rakuten-rewards/
 

"We also launched a new product, Personalized Rewards, during the pandemic, which effectively allows marketers to apply different levels of cash back to affect different marketing outcomes, for instance acquisition vs reengagement. At first, we weren’t sure how we would best communicate the benefits of Personalized Rewards without in-person client meetings to present the technology, which is so important because performance is paramount to advertisers. Despite initial challenges, we transitioned to remote client engagements seamlessly, and we saw some fantastic campaign results from our clients using Personalized Rewards, like a 128% shopper lift and 125% sales lift."

https://globalfintechseries.com/banking/...len-md-at-rakuten-rewards/
 

Rakuten Group Co., Ltd. A TV commercial featuring Rakuten Mobile, Mio Imada, Sandwichman, and Ryoko Hirosue will be broadcast nationwide from June 3 (Thursday).

2021-06-02

https://re-how.net/all/1130732/  

Rakuten geht einen weiteren Schritt in seiner Wachstumsstrategie in Frankreich ein, indem er die 10 Millionen Mitglieder im Club R übertrifft, dem einzigen Treueprogramm, das seine Mitglieder zu verantwortungsbewussten und tugendhaften Verhaltensweisen anregt.

Fast jeder vierte Franzose, der online kauft, ist heute Teil der Gemeinschaft von Käufern und Verkäufern, die sich für die Kreislaufwirtschaft einsetzt.

Diese symbolische Schwelle markiert nicht nur den Erfolg von Rakuten France, getragen von dem stärksten Wachstum unter den allgemeinen Plattformen im Jahr 2020 *, sondern bezeugt auch seinen Beitrag zur Entwicklung der französischen Verbraucher hin zu einem Handel mit positiven Auswirkungen. Eine integrative Plattform im Dienste der Digitalisierung sowohl der großen Einzelhandelsunternehmen als auch der Kleinstunternehmen / KMU, der Pionier und der führenden Gesellschafter der kollaborativen Wirtschaft, das erste umverteilende Ökosystem des französischen E-Commerce: Rakuten ist der E-Commerce, der alle einigt.

« 10 Millionen Mitglieder des Club R sind 10 Millionen Franzosen, die in einem positiven, kostenlosen Ökosystem eingetragen sind, das sowohl den Käufern als auch den Verkäufern zugute kommt, seien es Händler oder Privatpersonen. Der pandemische Kontext hat eine enorme Beschleunigung der Konsumtrends in der französischen Gesellschaft ermöglicht, die sich zunehmend der Kreislaufwirtschaft verschrieben hat, sich um ihre Kaufkraft bemüht und die lokale Wirtschaft fördern will. Die Händler haben ihrerseits einen beispiellosen Sprung in ihrem Zugang zum E-Commerce gemacht ",sagt Fabien Versavau, CEO von Rakuten France.

https://global.fr.shopping.rakuten.com/actualites/...ub-r-de-rakuten/
 

O-RAN ALLIANCE Industry Summit on June 29, 2021 with a speaker of Rakuten Mobile

O-RAN ALLIANCE plans to hold its next Industry Summit on June 29th. The 90 minute live virtual session will provide exclusive insights from top executives that are driving the rapid advances in the O-RAN space. During the panel discussion speakers from AirHop Communications, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Mavenir, Nokia, Rakuten Mobile, TIM, VIAVI and VMware will share their views on key topics including Open RAN Commercialization, Open RAN Security and Performance. The summit will conclude with a live Q&A where the audience can submit their questions for the panelists.

https://www.01net.it/...tion-centers-and-its-june-29-industry-summit/  

Could you tell us more about the technology driving Rakuten Rewards? How do customers benefit from utilizing your tools and services?

We invest heavily in technology both to improve the experience of our 15 million members, and to advance performance for our 3,500 advertiser partners. This past year, we made a major stride in our innovation by combining advanced advertising technology from Rakuten Advertising with Rakuten Reward’s high-value consumer audience to create personalized cash back offers. For brands, this means they’re empowered to effectively influence valuable consumer behaviors that align with their business objectives – attracting new customers, inspiring repeat purchases or incentivizing purchases of high-margin products. For consumers, it means they’re getting deals and rewards that are customized to their own shopping preferences, and can be introduced to like-minded brands and products through our platform. It’s a major advancement for cash back strategies, and it’s performing very well. Across our clients using Personalized Rewards, we’ve seen a 128% shopper lift and 125% sales lift.

https://globalfintechseries.com/banking/...len-md-at-rakuten-rewards/  

mit einem Rückgang von ca. 11,5 auf jetzt 9,5, wie man sie dem nachstehenden Chart entnehmen kann, eigentlich nicht.

https://www.ariva.de/rakuten-aktie/chart?boerse_id=1&t=quarter

Vorstellen kann ich mir, dass das mit der Unsicherheit über die Entwicklung von Rakuten Mobile zusammenhängt, wobei man hier m.E. zwischen der Entwicklung von Rakuten Mobile in Japan und den weltweiten Aussichten der Rakuten Communications Platform unterscheiden muss. Während ich die Unsicherheit bei der Rakuten Communication Platform nachvollziehen kann, obwohl sie auch große Chancen beinhaltet, sehe ich die Entwicklung von Rakuten Mobile schon sehr viel weiter fortgeschritten und auf einem sehr guten Weg. Denn man zuletzt 0,2 Millionen im Monat dazu gewonnen und am 11. May bereits 4,1 Millionen Subscriber erreicht.

Thursday 13 May 2021 | 14:01 CET | News
Japan's new operator Rakuten Mobile said it reached 4.1 million subscribers for its unlimited plan as of 11 May, up from 3.9 million a month earlier.

https://www.telecompaper.com/news/...-q1-as-revenues-grow-39--1383054

Und für ganz wichtig halte ich, das nachstehende Ereignis, wobei ich die Geschichte mit dem Support von  iOS 14.4 and later für noch wichtiger halte als den iPhone-Verkauf, denn ich bin bisher davon ausgegangen, dass sie den Support auch schon bisher erbracht hätten.

Rakuten Mobile to offer iPhone 12 Lineup, AirTag, AirPods Pro in Japan
Friday 23 April 2021 | 08:02 CET | News
Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile will start selling Apple devices including the iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini and iPhone SE on 30 April. Rakuten Mobile has also announced it will support all iPhone models running iOS 14.4 and later.

https://www.telecompaper.com/news/...ag-airpods-pro-in-japan--1380571

Daher rechne ich mit zwischen 4,4 und 4,5 Millionen Subscriber am Ende des zweiten Quartals und ca. 4,75 Millionen Subscribern zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung des Quartalsberichts für das zweite Quartal.

 

Rakuten is one of the owners of Premfina

01.06.21
It’s Time To Make Insurance Flexible Forever. Here’s How

https://www.premfina.com/2021/06/...nce-flexible-forever-heres-how-2/  

https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2021/04/japan/...etwork-experience