Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

More than just a telecom operator -  platform for a wider ecosystem

Data governance is the foundation of AI use", Rakuten Mobile CDO tells London conference

By James Dartnell
May 16, 2024

Rakuten Mobile’s Chief Data Officer Madhukiran Medithe discussed the importance of sound data governance as the most critical starting point for AI use during an on-stage interview at FutureNet World 2024. Medithe delved into the ways that data is a cornerstone in the telco-techco transition.
Sound data governance and compliance is essential if telcos are to take advantage of any AI-related opportunities, Rakuten Mobile’s Chief Data Officer has told a leading London telco conference.

Speaking in an on-stage interview at FutureNet World 2024 in London, Medithe told an expert audience how Rakuten Mobile has prioritised “cleaning” its data to ensure that the operator is able to accurately and responsibly deploy AI models. Moderator Chris Lewis of Lewis Insight quizzed Medithe on the ways that sound data use can form a cornerstone of a successful telco-techco transition.

“Rakuten started capturing data from day zero, and we’re reaping the benefits of that today,” Medithe said. “We have a huge amount of data from across our ecosystem. We know our subscribers, their usage patterns, the types of applications they are using, what services they're looking for, and how they are acting. We always see from the device perspective how the user is experiencing our network.”

Medithe went on to emphasise the criticality of responsible data usage. This, he said, was an absolute must before telcos can attempt any sort of AI initiatives. “We need to be very careful with how we use data,” he said. “Governance and compliance are fundamental in its successful use. Data cleaning and integration are a must because any changes you try to do in real-time or non real-time will also directly impact the customer experience. Today, whatever your modelling may be, compliance must be involved. Even though you take an open API or a third party application, when you go down to such a minute level of data - the subscriber location, address details and type of device - you should be very, very cautious about driving your governance and compliance. This is massive.”

Medithe also emphasised the importance of the data cleaning process. “Unifying data sources from different parts of the network is essential,” he said. “Data cleaning is the most difficult part, but it’s an absolute must. Data science is very niche in telecom because you're trying to capture the data at a millisecond rate. I would say 60-70% of my engineers’ time is spent on data cleaning. When you’re trying to stitch data from the RAN to the core, you need to do more from a governance perspective. With things like subscriber profiling, you need to be very careful and clear on how you’re trying to use the data.”

Medithe rounded off his interview by stressing the need for telcos to become platform companies, as opposed to seeing themselves as a traditional providers of services or utilities.

“Mobile network operators should not view themselves exclusively as service providers - they need to be platform providers. That starts with your data,” Medithe said. “What Rakuten Mobile has done is a massive achievement. Automation and AI are part of Rakuten Group’s DNA, and that has allowed Rakuten Mobile to be more than just a telecom operator - it's a platform for our wider ecosystem. From top to bottom, we try to deploy learnings from our data.”

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...bile-cdo-tells-london-conference
 

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

May 20, 2024

Revenue growth: +15.1% YoY, driven by increased customer base and transaction volume (GTV) across all businesses.

Operating Income (OI) growth: +47.4% YoY, with all businesses, including Rakuten Securities, achieving year-on-year growth.

Rakuten Card: Significant OI increase due to strong GTV growth and improved profitability.

Rakuten Securities: Successful customer base expansion, with general accounts and trading volume continuing to grow, leading to increased OI.

Rakuten Bank: Significant increase in accounts, deposit balances, and AUM, driving revenue growth.

Rakuten Payment: Achieved profitability for the first time, thanks to successful expansion of offline merchants and users.

2024 Strategy: Focus on enhancing the convenience of payment services, promoting high-LTV services, and leveraging data insights for personalized customer experience.

FinTech Reorganization: Integration of the FinTech business into one group to take effect in October 2024, aiming to foster deeper data collaboration and innovative service offerings.

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

 

Cumulated number of credit cards issued by Rakuten Card Co., Ltd. from 2019 to 2023(in millions)

Rakuten Card's number of credit cards issued 2019-2023

Published by Statista Research Department, Apr 4, 2024

By December 2023, Rakuten Card Co., Ltd. has issued around 30.1 million credit cards. The company's number of cards issued to customers increased from about 28.1 million in the previous year and 18.98 in 2019. Rakuten Card is a credit card company that was established in 2001 and is part of Rakuten Group.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1313856/...f-credit-cards-issued/
 

https://kakaku.com/card/menu/rakuten-card/

 

Want to save 25,000-30,000 Yen or more per annum ?

Rakuten mobile offer the most affordable tariff plans in the market, helping you save a whopping 25,000-30,000 Yen or more per annum.

Here's what you can expect from their plans:
Up to 3 GB for only 980 Yen
Up to 20 GB for just 1980 Yen
More than 20 GB for only 2980 Yen

But that's not all! When you enroll with Rakuten Mobile, you'll enjoy a range of exclusive benefits:

1. Limited time offer: Get 6000 yen upon enrollment!
2. Stay connected while traveling abroad with 2GB of free data
3. Say goodbye to commission fees when purchasing your sim
4. Enjoy free calls and messages with the “Link app”
5. Rakuten provide English support on their website and through their customer service team

And the list goes on! With Rakuten Mobile, you can experience top-quality service at unbeatable prices.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/...r-activity-7155021664802488320-g8xW
 

https://www.sec.rakuten.com.hk/en/promotion/flash-deal
 

Rakuten Mobile Surpasses 7 Million Mobile Carrier Service Subscribers

- Largest ever three-month net increase since the launch of Rakuten UN-LIMIT VII, with 500,000 subscribers added in just over two months

Tokyo, June 17, 2024 – Rakuten Mobile, Inc. today announced that the number of subscribers for its mobile carrier service has surpassed 7 million as of June 16, 2024. 500,000 subscribers were added in just over two months since the 6.5 million milestone, marking the largest ever three-month net increase in subscribers since the launch of the Rakuten UN-LIMIT VII plan.
Since the full-scale launch of its mobile carrier service in April 2020, Rakuten Mobile has continued on its mission to democratize the mobile industry, offering an affordable and simple service plan while expanding the Rakuten network area through the build-out of base stations and roaming agreements.
Rakuten Mobile has broadened its appeal to customers by expanding its service offerings, launching the Saikyo Kids Program in May 2024, which rewards customers aged 12 and under with 440 Rakuten Points each month if their monthly data usage is 3GB or less. Together with the Saikyo Family Program and Saikyo Youth Program launched this spring, Rakuten Mobile now provides even more affordable mobile services to a wide range of demographics.

For corporate customers, Rakuten Mobile continues to leverage the strengths of the Rakuten Group to provide services tailored to business needs. In April 2024, the company introduced the Rakuten Mobile Buddycom Set, a special discount package combining Rakuten Saikyo Plan Business with a wireless communications app for accommodation facilities registered with Rakuten Travel, a leader in digital transformation for the travel industry. With the advent of such initiatives, the Rakuten Saikyo Plan Business has been well received by partner companies from Rakuten Travel, Rakuten Ichiba and across the Rakuten Ecosystem.

In addition to service expansion, Rakuten Mobile is working to continuously improve network quality. In recognition of these efforts, in April 2024, the company was named by Opensignal, global provider of network experience and market performance insights, as Japan’s leading mobile network service provider across five network performance areas. On April 30, 2024, the company started radio frequency testing for the 700 MHz spectrum, also known as the “platinum band. Upon completion, the company aims to roll out commercial service using the 700 MHz band on its own base stations, starting with urban areas.

Rakuten Mobile will continue its efforts to improve network quality and expand its range of services so that all customers, from families to corporate clients, can enjoy best-in-class mobile services anywhere in Japan.

https://corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/...20240617_01_lang_en
 

in only two months, it will reach between 8.5 million and 9 million subscribers at the end of 2024.  

Joseph Warring JUNE 17, 2024

Open RAN pioneer Rakuten Mobile claimed it signed up 500,000 new customers in the current quarter, taking its subscriber total to more than 7 million and keeping it on track to reach its 2024 targets.
The latest gain comes after the operator added 500,000 users in Q1. It signed up 1.5 million new users in 2023, following a decline in 2022.

The net addition rate over the past two quarters is more than double the quarterly average of 200,000 in 2023 and 2022.

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/rakuten/...20decline%2520in%25202022.
 

Will Rakuten mobile reach 8-10 million subscribers by 2024?

Copilot

Antworten für Sie werden generiert…

Ja, Rakuten Mobile hat sein Ziel erreicht und die Marke von 7 Millionen Abonnenten für seinen Mobilfunkdienst überschritten. Bis zum 16. Juni 2024 wurden insgesamt 500.000 Abonnenten hinzugefügt, was den größten dreimonatigen Nettozuwachs seit dem Start des Rakuten UN-LIMIT VII-Plans darstellt1. Ursprünglich hatte Rakuten Mobile das Ziel, bis Ende 2024 8-10 Millionen Abonnenten zu erreichen2. Mit diesem Wachstum ist das Unternehmen auf dem richtigen Weg, seine ehrgeizigen Ziele zu erreichen.

https://www.bing.com/...p;adppc=EDGEDSP&PC=EDGEDSP&showconv=1

 

By Anshul Bhatt
Chief Product Officer, BU Intelligent Operations Rakuten Symphony

Telecom is challenged

The harsh realities of complexity, competition and cost continue to plague telecom. Hypothetically, automation and AI can introduce the speed and efficiency required to overcome these challenges.
While AI is set to power the next level of automation, the biggest barrier to success is a lack of AI experts. There is a global shortage of AI experts and the ones that do exist are not lining up to join telecom.

That’s why Rakuten AI for Telecom was not built to enable data scientists to academically make networks smarter. Rather, it was designed to help the existing telecom experts of today close skill gaps associated with supporting the realities of managing complex, automated mobile networks at scale.
Becoming an AI expert without becoming a data scientist

Our goal with Rakuten AI for Telecom is to completely decouple telecom experts from needing to be data scientists before they could effectively interact with AI models.

Case in point: For the past two years, 10 data scientists have supported more than 300 telecom experts who have interacted daily with Rakuten AI for Telecom, creating new models, moving them safely into production and continuously refining performance with more parameters, more data, and more learning.  

A list of example use cases and models can be found here for everything from Remote Electrical Tilt to Sleeping Cells. Only ten data scientists are required to support these hundreds of experts supporting the network at full scale.

Tackling AI models, together

Our approach has strong parallels to what Hugging Face has achieved in simplifying accessibility and deployment of AI models. Just as Hugging Face helps users easily integrate advanced machine learning capabilities into applications, Rakuten is empowering telecom experts to seamlessly implement, collaborate around and scale sophisticated AI models.

Key features on this front include:

Streamlined collaboration. The platform integrates one-click Jupyter notebooks to provide a seamless, familiar environment for users. GitHub integration simplifies version control and collaboration for efficient code sharing and management.

Unified platform for data pipelines and model management. Telecom experts build, execute, monitor and manage data pipelines on a unified platform—no switching between tools required. This helps streamline data engineering and model deployment workflows.

Advanced sharing and privacy controls. Users collaborate while maintaining full control over code with the ability to restrict project access to specific teams or people with view or modify privileges.    

In addition to being easy to use, Rakuten AI for Telecom is also extremely light touch. The initial platform can be deployed by a handful of engineers in merely hours.

Now, teams can publish model requests, deploy use cases and achieve business results faster. The impact is more quickly observed by exec teams.

It is our intention to democratize advanced AI-powered telecom capabilities and make them accessible to a wide range of users. In turn, we can empower mobile operators to completely control how they deploy AI, tailoring models for their specific requirements or problems.

This control extends to how the data that powers AI is managed and stored.
Data management on mobile’s terms

Rakuten AI for Telecom’s architecture supports federated data governance and distributed data management for maximum efficiency and scalability. This helps reduce AI model deployment times while ensuring governance and security.

Operators also maintain complete control over their data and AI processes with robust governance and security capabilities.

Bridging the gap

Rakuten AI for Telecom is more than a platform. It is a tool mobile operators can immediately deploy to bridge AI skills gaps and set the direction of an AI future they control.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/the-human-side-of-telecom-ai
 

Rakuten Symphony makes LLMs breakthrough with IPv6 innovation

June 7, 2024

Rahul Atri, President, OSS Business Unit, Rakuten Symphony, said, “Rakuten Symphony is committed to the highest possible standards when it comes to responsible and effective AI use in telecom. Our engineers continually display their ingenuity in solving real-world AI challenges, and this translates into innovative, cutting-edge solutions that support operators around the world with their technological transformation.”

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...reakthrough-with-ipv6-innovation
 

Rakuten Bank, Ltd. Key Q&A from the Sell-Side Analyst Small Meeting (June 5, 2024)

https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/corp/english/...de_analyst_meeting.pdf
 

Chris Dziadul 05-06-2024

Poland currently has the greatest potential in CEE for AVoD and FAST services says Anna Michalowska, head of content and marketing country manager at Rakuten TV, but obstacles remain.

Owned by the Japanese group Rakuten, it is present in 43 markets and reaches over 150 million households across the continent, offering viewers more than 10,000 AVoD titles and a FAST line-up of over 500 unique channels, 100 of which are owned and operated by the company. They span a wide range of genres including news, sports, kids, series, entertainment, music and plenty of movies.

According to Anna Michalowska, head of content and marketing country manager, Rakuten TV, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is becoming an increasingly important region for the company. Significantly, it defines the region as four markets – Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic – with Poland, certainly in terms of population and availability of services (TVoD, AVoD and FAST), being the largest.

However, says Michalowska, Rakuten TV also has a presence in the TVoD market in several other CEE territories including Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia. She adds that in 2023 Rakuten TV localised its offer in Poland and Romania, with the Czech Republic and Hungary having since followed this year. There has, as yet, been no localisation in other markets in the region.

https://www.c21media.net/department/cee100/...-closes-in-fast-on-cee/
 

Continue to expand 4G and 5G infrastructure with low costs

ByJuan Pedro Tomás
June 18, 2024

Rakuten Mobile previously highlighted that it plans to continue to expand 4G and 5G infrastructure, expand densification of its network and improve connectivity in subways and indoor areas using own infrastructure.

The telco had said it is on track to start offering commercial services using spectrum in the 700 MHz band in June. The carrier also said it aims to gradually deploy platinum band services using its existing network of base stations, starting with urban areas with a high volume of users and traffic.
The telco noted that the spectrum in the 700 MHz platinum band offers better indoor building penetration and enables better connectivity indoors and in underground locations.

By using a next-generation Distributed Unit (DU) developed by Rakuten Mobile subsidiary Rakuten Symphony, the Japanese telco previously said it will be able to easily deploy the radio in its virtualized, Open RAN network. As a result, the newly deployed antenna compatible with 1.7 GHz band and 700 MHz band will be deployed alongside the existing 1.7 GHz radios, allowing the base stations to operate promptly via a software update.

Rakuten Mobile also recently adopted compatriot telecom infrastructure company JTower’s indoor infrastructure-sharing solutions for its network in more than 100 facilities and buildings across Japan.
Rakuten Mobile noted that JTower’s infrastructure-sharing solutions enable mobile carriers to build out their networks in a shorter period of time and with lower costs than if they were to set up their own facilities. Rakuten Mobile said it is utilizing these solutions inside shopping facilities, office buildings and other indoor locations across Japan.

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20240618/carriers/...n-mobile-subscribers

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUgtNoYHzF8
 

Rakuten Viki Content Acquisition 2024  Unraveling the Streaming Giant’s Strategy

Rakuten Viki content acquisition involves navigating complex negotiations with production studios, distributors, and content creators. The goal is to curate a catalog that caters to a broad audience, ensuring that subscribers find value and variety in their streaming experience. Exclusive deals and partnerships have become key instruments in this content arms race, as platforms seek to distinguish themselves in a crowded market.

Rakuten Viki commands a diverse Return on Investment (ROI) by providing a platform for global content and engaging user communities. The platform’s freemium model contributes to its international success.

Rakuten Viki operates on a freemium model offering both free and premium subscription plans. Users can access a wide range of global content for free with ads while premium plans provide an ad-free experience and additional features.

Rakuten Viki’s success lies in its ability to create a global platform for international content enthusiasts. The platform strategically acquires content to offer a diverse library of dramas movies and variety shows fostering a sense of community among fans of global entertainment.

The Role of Data Analytics in Rakuten Viki’s Content Acquisition Strategy

Rakuten Viki Viki utilizes data-driven insights to understand viewer preferences for international content analyze community engagement and optimize its content recommendations. Data analytics play a crucial role in shaping Viki’s strategy ensuring it remains a leading platform for diverse and global entertainment.

Vitrina, an AI-powered content intelligence platform, emerges as a beacon of hope for online streaming platforms seeking to streamline their content acquisition process. By leveraging cutting-edge AI technology and deep industry expertise, Vitrina empowers platforms to make informed decisions by comparing competition catalogs, understanding content demand signals and avails intel; ultimately delivering exceptional viewing experiences for their subscribers.

https://vitrina.ai/blog/...-the-streaming-giants-strategy-vitrina-ai/
 

4 June 2024 by Val M

Rakuten Viki is constantly surprising us as it picks up fantastic content from across Asia. It’s a community-driven site that keeps the subtitles coming so you can enjoy the content you love in more than 150 languages. Some content is free and other, often newer content is available via Viki pass.

For highlights and new content arriving in June 2024 read on. FYI, some of the content on Viki may not be available in your region.

https://www.thereviewgeek.com/newonviki-june2024/
 

https://global.fr.shopping.rakuten.com/actualites/...e-professionnel/

 

Rakuten Launches "Rakuten PLAY," a Streaming Guide for Leading Video-on-demand Services in Japan
- Offers “Overall Content Ranking” of streaming services based on user surveys.

Official site: https://play.rakuten.co.jp/

Tokyo, June 20, 2024 – Rakuten Group, Inc. today announced the launch of "Rakuten PLAY," a video streaming guide that aggregates and showcases content from Rakuten TV and various other leading video-on-demand services in Japan.

Rakuten PLAY is a free service that aims to help users discover new and exciting content that they might not have found otherwise. Users can discover a wide range of titles spanning movies, dramas and anime series using recommendation articles curated by users and an Overall Content Ranking, which Rakuten calculates based on user surveys of video streaming services. In addition, users who subscribe to a paid video streaming service through Rakuten PLAY are awarded with Rakuten Points.
Currently, multiple video-on-demand services are available in Japan, often offering the same titles. These services also provide a variety of original and exclusive content, making it difficult for users to know what content is available on each channel. Amidst this increasingly complex landscape, Rakuten PLAY was launched to help users discover content that matches their interests.

With the launch of this streaming guide, Rakuten aims to provide a richer entertainment experience, making video streaming even more enjoyable and convenient for everyone.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/0620_01.html
 

Rakuten unveils Raku-Invest to ride on US bull market

Thursday, 20 Jun 2024

The launch of Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd’s new service, Raku-Invest, is considered timely as it will ride on the ongoing US bull market, says Rakuten Trade head of equity sales Vincent Lau.

Historically and statistically speaking, Lau said the chances of attracting positive returns from the US stock market this year will be high.

“Historically, bull markets tend to last longer and yield higher returns than bear markets.
“The S&P 500 is up by 15% year-to-date. In a typical bull market, the average returns are more than 20% per year.

Raku-Invest is a localised version of “Tsumitate investing” offered by Rakuten Securities, Inc (RSec) in Japan.

The platform supports dollar cost averaging investment strategy that allows local investors to initiate automated recurring trades for US shares, American Depositary Receipts and exchange traded funds, from RM100.

https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/...n-us-bull-market
 

Revolution Next: Mobile networks in the AI age

19 hours ago

The internet revolution truly began around 1995, when web browsers began to take off. Everyone was talking about online business in Japan, but nobody wanted to take the risk.

I left my banking job and created the world’s first B2B2C online marketplace – an idea nobody believed in at the time – and became part of the first generation of internet entrepreneurs. Today, only a handful of those entrepreneurs still run their companies.

As I discussed recently with Rakuten TV CEO Cedric Dufour on stage during the 2024 edition of Viva Technology in Paris, throughout my career, I have seen numerous tech revolutions that rival that of the internet. Perhaps the biggest was the smartphone; today in online shopping, some 90% of people make purchases on a mobile device. They’re used to pay, learn, entertain and access medical services. Smartphones are an essential part of our social life.

Now, the same thing is happening again – this time with AI.

Empowering the smartphone revolution

A few years ago, one of the biggest problems we had in Japan was mobile phone plan prices. They accounted for a significant portion of the average household budget, and that number was rising. Why was this happening? Because the technologies we were using were too old.

Until Rakuten Mobile, the telecom industry still worked off old physical switches that have barely changed since the age of fixed line telephones.

“WITH MOBILE AS THE NEXT MAJOR PILLAR, OUR ECOSYSTEM IS EVEN STRONGER.”
MICKEY MIKITANI, RAKUTEN GROUP, CHAIRMAN & CEO

The industry had been oligopolized by just a few players who had no incentive to change. We went from 2G to 3G, 4G and now 5G – the numbers changed, but the hardware architecture continued to be vertically integrated and locked in by a few dominant hardware vendors. There was simply no competition.

In launching Rakuten Mobile, we had the advantage of being able to build everything from scratch, unburdened by legacy technology. We virtualized our entire network, running it on software that traditionally required extensive hardware investment. We didn’t follow the path laid out for us by other telecom companies.

Rakuten Mobile’s path to profitability

There are three reasons I believe Rakuten Mobile will be a success. One is that it will likely become very profitable, because our operational costs are significantly less than our competitors’, thanks to our software-driven approach.

The second is that Rakuten Mobile is serving as a test drive for our technology, proving that it works. This has already borne fruit with the launch of 1&1’s network in Germany, built in partnership with Rakuten Symphony. Subscribers in Germany are already moving to Europe’s first cloud-native mobile network built on Open RAN standards.

The third is Rakuten Mobile’s contribution to our ecosystem. We already had e-commerce, credit card, banking and some of the richest data in the world. And this data is telling compelling stories.

Rakuten Mobile subscribers are buying 60% more from Rakuten Ichiba. They spend twice as much on our travel offerings and use our credit card and banking services more as well. With mobile as the next major pillar, our ecosystem is even stronger.

Ushering in the age of “open” Open RAN

In recent years, there’s been much talk about how we could open up the telecom industry – make it into an open-source operating system. Everybody was talking about it, but nobody was doing it. So we took the risk.

When we began developing our Open RAN software, people were more than skeptical – they laughed at the idea. It was too complicated.

But we did it. And now Rakuten Mobile has over seven million subscribers, connected by our nation-wide base station network with 99.9% population coverage when combined with our roaming partner. It’s one of the best performing networks in the world.

“I WOULD LOVE FOR THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND RAKUTEN MOBILE TO BECOME THE LINUX OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS.”
MICKEY MIKITANI, RAKUTEN GROUP, CHAIRMAN & CEO

Our work has essentially broken the grip that telecom hardware vendors had on the industry. This will lead to faster, more affordable, unlimited data access in markets around the world. Operators no longer need to depend on a few locked-in vendors to run the entirety of their networks.

Right now, Rakuten Symphony is one of the only companies with proven 4G and 5G Open RAN software and interoperability with most radio hardware. Other companies are still trying to catch up, but we want to accelerate this process.

That’s why we decided to launch our “Real Open RAN Licensing Program” during MWC Barcelona earlier this year. We will offer our source code at a very reasonable price – even to our competitors – so that operators won’t need to develop the software themselves.

I would love for the technology behind Rakuten Mobile to become the Linux of telecommunications. I think this is going to be a huge revolution that changes the nature of wireless networks.

The next revolution: AI

The shift from hardware to software is important for another reason: the rise of AI. AI cannot manage hardware so easily, but with software, it can manage everything from the radio to the core.

“I BELIEVE AI WILL REDEFINE THE FUTURE OF NOT ONLY ONLINE BUSINESS, BUT THE VERY NATURE OF SOCIETY ITSELF.”
MICKEY MIKITANI, RAKUTEN GROUP, CHAIRMAN & CEO

This autonomous capability is one reason Rakuten Mobile’s engineering costs are a fraction of our competitors. AI plays a key part in our network, something that’s not possible for companies that rely on hardware and physical labor. What we’re doing is very different from our competitors.

More broadly speaking, Rakuten has two strategies with AI: One is our partnerships with OpenAI, Google and other AI companies. Simultaneously, we are also developing our own AI: We recently unveiled the Rakuten AI 7B large language model, which demonstrated exceptional performance compared to other open-source Japanese language LLMs.

While the Big AI players are very smart and innovative, large models require a lot of calculations, which consume a lot of money. We are considering smaller, more vertically integrated AI tools specifically for commerce, finance, travel and more. This makes sense for us to do with our highly valuable dataset.
The second strategy is on the service side – what we are calling our “Triple 20” project. We are looking to use AI to improve our operational efficiency by 20%, with specific targets for each business. We’re also going to improve marketing efficiency by 20% and empower our clients, merchants and partners – these smaller companies that do not have the capability to implement and use AI – by 20%.

I believe AI will redefine the future of not only online business, but the very nature of society itself.

https://rakuten.today/mickeysvoice/...ile-networks-in-the-ai-age.html

 

Rakuten TV adds Red Bull TV and Vevo channels

June 20, 2024

There are three new channels in Spain: Red Bull TV, Vevo Pop and Vevo Latino; three new free channels in the UK: Red Bull TV, Vevo Pop and Vevo Hip-Hop & R&B; three new channels in Italy: Red Bull TV, Vevo Pop, Vevo 90’s and 00’s,;three new channels in France: Red Bull TV, Vevo Hip-Hop & R&B, Vevo Pop. Germany also sees the launch of Red Bull TV, Vevo Pop and Vevo Schlager Pop.

https://advanced-television.com/2024/06/20/...v-vevo-pop-vevo-latino/

 

of Ian Morris from Lightreading

https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/...ran-tune-with-open-licensing
 

JUNE 21, 2024

With 80% of marketers utilizing creators (influencers) nowadays, Rakuten's creator marketing platform Collective Voice is an increasingly valuable business in the US. In this report, we share the insights and voices of some of the creators and brands that Collective Voice connects together. Founder of popular lifestyle site The Mom Edit and a representative from luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue speak about how their surprising match-up became a big hit, while creators specializing in "midsize" fashion and fitness & wellness open up on their strategies for success.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/innovation/rnn/2024/2406_002/