Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

H&M: Get 15-25% Off + 2% Cash Back

Rakuten US sent this email to their subscribers on April 7, 2024.

https://deal.town/rakuten-us/handm-get-15-25-off-2-cash-back-F3ELL4SJN
 

Race to expand corporate economic blocs heats up in Japan

Mar 25, 2024

Regarding the most frequently used reward points, Rakuten Point ranked first, with 35.0%, followed by NTT Docomo's d Point, with 14.0%.

In terms of the currently used reward points, with multiple answers allowed, Rakuten Point held the top position (59.7%) followed by T-Point of Culture Convenience Club, or CCC (49.8%) and Ponta Point (41.0%). Ponta Point is primarily used at Lawson convenience stores.

Rakuten, known for its generous reward point rates, boasts a user base of over 100 million. Meanwhile, NTT Docomo and its industry rival SoftBank, the provider of the PayPay cashless payment service, are focusing on attracting customers primarily from their existing mobile phone user base.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/03/25/...t-reward-service/
 

Japan's Rakuten Mobile Making Gains With Open RAN

3/30/2024 5:05:40 AM

https://menafn.com/1108038774/...en-Mobile-Making-Gains-With-Open-RAN
 

The “What” and “Why” of AI: OSS President Rahul Atri shares “intent-driven” vision with experts at TM

By Suddhaloke Choudhury
Global Content and Social Media Manager Rakuten Symphony

April 4, 2024

Rahul Atri, President, OSS Business Unit and Managing Director, Rakuten Symphony India, took to the stage at the India leg of TM Forum’s DTW Asia Tour for a fireside side with Aaron Boasman-Patel, Vice President of AI, Labs and Innovation at TM Forum to discuss the current telecom landscape, its future, the importance of India for a product company like Rakuten Symphony and more.

The telecom industry needs to fail fast and learn from its previous mistakes if it is to fully capitalize on the opportunities presented by AI and automation, Rakuten Symphony OSS President Rahul Atri told an audience of experts at DTW Asia Tour, Mumbai. “Worst case scenario, we will fail for a few months, but eventually, we will get there,” he said. “Even if everyone gets to Level 3 or 4 automation, it will be a huge success.”

Moving the needle will require an industry-wide commitment in order to avoid a scenario in which, 2 years down the line, the telecom industry will still be concerned with declining ARPU, Atri said on his panel session ‘intent-driven networks and OSS of the future’ which was hosted by moderator Aaron Boasman-Patel, Vice President, AI, Labs & Innovation, TM Forum.

“Technology is not the problem. The creation of siloed organizations and thought processes is.”
-Rahul Atri, President, OSS BU and Managing Director, Rakuten Symphony India

Telecom operators have been plagued with dwindling ARPUs and underwhelming monetization opportunities with 5G. The key to the problem, Atri said, is how the industry currently operates. With the ever-increasing adoption of AI, there is vast amounts of data ready to be accessed which, unfortunately, lacks consolidation. “Technology is not the problem. The creation of siloed organizations and thought processes is. Everyone sitting here needs to come together and decide how to tackle the problems of the future.”

Having observed how legacy operators work, Rakuten Symphony was quick to focus heavily on automation, knowing that it is a critical component of running cloud-native networks. According to Atri, “We are focused not on the technology itself, but the outcome that implementing the technology brings. It is not about adhering to the industry standards, but the value we as an organization deliver, which makes us unique.”

According to Atri, “With AI coming in, mindset is key.” He felt that now, there is an increased ease of defining “How”- how you work with AI models, how you implement them, how you achieve certain outputs, remove dashboards, generate insights and actions. In order to build the network of the future, it is important to understand the 'what'.

“What is the success criteria for the network? What does the vendor or software provider want to achieve? What are the use cases which will help the entire ecosystem make money, how can the next software release be taken to market and more importantly, what is the exact problem the customer wants to solve. These are the questions that are critical if you want to deploy networks of the future,” Atri said.

Use cases of Future Networks

Atri emphasized the importance of understanding the use case for future networks, which would then help the orchestration or OSS formulate the best way to convert the use case into configurations of the networks and make the networks available directly.

“Another important part is assurance. We have deployed an edge or a slice, but maintaining and assuring the quality of service (QOS), that is critical,” he said.

“For networks of the future, with flying drones or smart cars connected to each other, connectivity issues are unforgiveable. So, we need to get rid of our habit of focusing on buzzwords and on Day 1. We need to start thinking about Day 2 as well, taking all of the aspects of building and maintaining the network into consideration.”

“We are proud to be one of the few companies who are helping change the perception of India, from being an IT and services hub to a product hub for incredible innovations across industries.”
Rakuten Symphony India: The organization’s R&D Hub

Atri closed out the discussion by focusing on the importance of the company’s India operations. With around 65% of the total workforce, the 2 main offices of Indore and Bengaluru are the product R&D centre of Rakuten Symphony. “We are proud to be one of the few companies who are helping change the perception of India, from being an IT and services hub to a product hub for incredible innovations across industries,” he said. Giving a glimpse into some of the projects being undertaken by the India team, Atri said that the team in India is currently working on the challenge of building a platform for autonomous networks and delivering programs such as run-time upgrading of network-wide cloud infrastructure.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...h-experts-at-tm-forums-dtw-event

 

Rakuten Mobile Surpasses 6.5 Million Mobile Carrier Service Subscribers

Tokyo, April 8, 2024 – Rakuten Mobile, Inc. today announced that the number of subscribers for its mobile carrier service has surpassed 6.5 million as of April 8, 2024, which marks the fourth anniversary of its service launch.

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 strengthening its service offerings, launching the “Saikyo Family Program” in February 2024, which awards family subscribers a 100 yen (110 yen including tax) monthly discount on the Rakuten SAIKYO Plan. In addition, its “Saikyo Youth Program” launched in March 2024 awards Rakuten SAIKYO Plan subscribers 22 years old and younger 110 Rakuten Points every month. The two programs combined give eligible customers monthly service for an actual price as low as 780 yen per month (858 yen including tax) – the lowest currently available among all carriers in Japan – by subtracting the 100 yen discount from the Saikyo Family Program and applying the 110 Point back reward from the Rakuten Youth Program to the monthly fee of 980 yen (1,078 yen including tax) for up to 3GB of data usage. This competitive price point has found favor with customers across Japan.

Rakuten Mobile’s services for business customers recently changed its name to “Rakuten SAIKYO Plan Business” in March 2023, which combined with its Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) service customers, now provides services to over 10,000 enterprise customers.

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

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/0408_02.html


 

Viber is a versatile messaging and calling platform, providing a range of features to facilitate connection and communication between individuals and groups.

It is available on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows, enabling users to communicate seamlessly using different devices.

Because of its features and capabilities, it recorded approximately 823 million monthly active users.
Average Viber users spend over 35 minutes on the platform daily.

https://earthweb.com/viber-statistics/
 

RADCOM Extends Collaboration with Rakuten Mobile

Expanding collaboration to include advanced AI-powered end-to-end network analytics to maintain efficient network operations and network automation

TEL AVIV, Israel, April 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- RADCOM Ltd. (Nasdaq: RDCM) today announced it has renewed its multi-year collaboration with Rakuten Mobile Inc. The company will continue to provide current solution offerings, and the collaboration will include advanced artificial intelligence (AI)- powered analytics such as anomaly detection and automated root cause analysis. These AI-driven use cases help proactively identify and prevent degradations, enabling Rakuten Mobile to maintain quality of service and drive efficient network operations and network automation monitoring.

https://ians.in/pr-wire-detail/...tion-with-rakuten-mobile-08-04-2024
 

Rakuten Boosts Junk Bond Sale to $2 Billion on Strong Demand

Company increased five-year note sale from $1.25 billion

Rakuten received more than $8 billion in orders for offering

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-2-billion-as-demand-soars
 

Strong development
https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/company/newsrelease/fy2024.html

Excellent service of Rakuten Securities
https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/company/...se/pdf/press20240405.pdf

 

Featuring Award-Winning, Extensively Deployed Software to Accelerate Global Open RAN Adoption

https://symphony.rakuten.com/open-ran
 

Superior performance proven at scale by industry leading tests. We enable the best performing Open RAN network in the world.

Per Opensignal, Rakuten Mobile 5G ranked among the top operators in Japan in following:
Download speed, upload speeds, live video experience, quality experience.

We are now extending these capabilities to customers worldwide, including 1&1 in Germany.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/open-ran

 

Rakuten Viber's New AI-powered Feature Summarizes Group Chats in an Instant

- Leveraging the technology behind ChatGPT, it condenses long conversations into bullet points to ensure important details don’t get lost.

Tokyo & San Francisco, April 11, 2024 – Rakuten Group company Rakuten Viber, a global leader in private and secure messaging and calls, has leveraged the technology of OpenAI to launch a conversation-summarizing AI feature for unread messages in group chats. Developed to meet the needs of millions of busy users, this cutting-edge solution offers a seamless and rapid way to distill essential information from up to 100 unread messages in a chat into a concise summary.

The AI summarizer extracts the most important parts of a user's group conversations and, in an instant, concisely conveys in bullet points what has been discussed, not only saving time and energy but also enhancing decision-making and productivity. The rapid delivery helps users stay up-to-date without going back through a long scroll of messages.

Initially focusing on group chats, the AI summary feature will cater to the most popular form of communication among Viber users. They will be able to pull together key decisions, action items, and discussions to easily use as a reference point. Imagine the convenience this will allow for parents managing their children's school or sports team events through collaborative discussions, family members planning a birthday party for a loved one, or groups of friends making travel arrangements.
Activation is effortless: users entering a group chat with unread messages will receive a prompt to obtain an optional summary of the missed part of the conversation. Importantly, these summaries are visible only to users who request them, ensuring privacy and confidentiality.

Data privacy and safety were top-of-mind considerations in the development of this feature. The AI chat summary content does not include any identifiers beyond usernames, so specific conversations cannot be externally connected to any group members. Additionally, Viber does not access or save conversations or summaries on its servers, creating a secure and private user experience.
“We’re constantly seeking new and innovative ways to make our users’ lives easier and simpler,” said Ofir Eyal, CEO of Rakuten Viber. “That’s why we’re harnessing the power of generative AI to save them time and make sure they don’t miss any important conversations: From classmates discussing school projects to friends or family making weekend plans on the go, our users can get up to speed in a flash on anything they might have missed.”

The feature is gradually rolling out to users in the U.S., the Philippines, Ukraine, Japan, Bulgaria and Poland with more countries to follow soon. It supports iOS and Android platforms and comprehends more than 50 languages.

About Rakuten Viber
Rakuten Viber connects people. No matter who they are or where they are from. The global user base has access to a range of features like one-on-one chats, video calls, group messaging, and updates and discussions with their favorite brands and celebrities. Rakuten Viber ensures users have a secure and free environment to share their emotions. Rakuten Viber is part of Rakuten Group, Inc., a world leader in e-commerce and financial services.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/...gory=ec%2520mobile
 

Rakuten Travel Sparks Wanderlust for Japan Adventures with Inaugural On-Site Events in Singapore

- First-ever Singapore events aim to spark excitement for authentic Japanese stays
- Joint promotion with DON DON DONKI Singapore offers special deals for app members

Singapore, April 11, 2024 – Rakuten Group, Inc. today announced that its travel reservation service Rakuten Travel, a leading online travel agency in Japan, hosted its first-ever events for everyday consumers and influencers in Singapore, aiming to attract more Singaporeans to travel to Japan. This initiative aims to capitalize on the growing popularity of Japan as a travel destination, with the number of visitors from Singapore hitting a record high of 591,000 in 2023 – a 20% increase compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

Jeremy Bek, Global Head of Rakuten Travel, said, “Rakuten Travel recognizes the huge potential in the Singapore market. We are committed to significantly growing our presence by engaging Singaporeans directly and helping them discover unique and authentic Japanese stays through our booking platform. These events mark the launch of our comprehensive engagement strategy for Singapore.”

About Rakuten Travel
Rakuten Travel is a leading online travel agency in Japan. Launched in 2001, the service offers Japan’s broadest selection of local travel accommodation listings. With 14 offices in various countries and regions, Rakuten Travel is expanding its international operations and offers support in eight languages: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Traditional Hong Kong), Korean, Thai and Bahasa Indonesian. It is part of the Rakuten Group, which operates more than 70 businesses spanning e-commerce, fintech, digital content and communications to 1.8 billion members around the world.
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/0411_05.html
 

Callanan, Hyuga and Vossos ignore the facts

The writers of the article ignore that Rakuten can reduce through future transactions interest payments in dollar.

Rakuten’s Costly Junk Bonds Signal Challenge for Japanese Billionaire Mikitani

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...auth=1&a20_comeback_from_auth=1
 

New Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour eReaders

Now In Colour: Bring Your Books to Life with the New Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour eReaders

- With colour eReading technology, eco-conscious materials, and water-resistance for on-the-go use, Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour blend the vibrancy of life and literature

Tokyo & Toronto – April 11, 2024 – Rakuten Kobo introduces booklovers to its first-ever colour E Ink eReaders with the new Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour, turning the page on the exclusively black and white digital reading experience Kobo fans already know and love.

With a Kobo-optimized colour E Ink Kaleido 3 display, Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour offer a subtle palette that retains the benefits of E Ink technology, now in colour. With the capacity to store thousands of books, a long battery life, 24/7 access to the Kobo.com bookstore, and OverDrive integration to easily borrow library books, booklovers can stock their digital shelves wherever they go. The new eReaders are also equipped with Bluetooth wireless technology, making it easy to listen to Kobo Audiobooks.

“We are pleased to be the first global ebook platform to offer affordable colour eReaders, bringing both your books and our bookstore to life with a beautiful spectrum of gentle hues. It’s everything you love about print, with all the benefits of ereading,” said Michael Tamblyn, CEO, Rakuten Kobo. “For Kobo, colour is a way of deepening and enriching the reading experience, while keeping the daylight readability and battery longevity that E Ink screens deliver so well.”

In addition, for every reader who is also a journaler, in-the-margins note-taker, or page-decorating BookTok’er, Kobo Libra Colour is also Kobo’s most affordable stylus-enabled ereader with the addition of a Kobo Stylus 2 (sold separately), with colour handwriting, highlighting, and notebooks. Building on the success of Kobo Sage and Kobo Elipsa 2E handwriting experiences, the new Kobo Libra Colour brings stylus-based writing and Kobo’s patented write-anywhere ebook annotations to our popular 7” format. Colour highlighting also appears in Kobo Clara Colour, letting you colour-code your favourite passages with the touch of a finger.

“To build the most enriched reading experience for our customers, we worked tirelessly to optimize the Kaleido 3 display to ensure the best representation of colour,” said Ramesh Mantha, SVP, Product, Rakuten Kobo. “We introduced collimated front lighting technology to our 6” and 7” size eReaders to provide better colour performance, and have further engineered our software to automate the regulation of colours so they always look their best, no matter the content being displayed.”
Complementing the new colour reading experience, Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour further advance Kobo’s commitment to sustainability, adding new repairability features like easier battery replacement in addition to the use of eco-conscious recycled and ocean-bound plastics. Their SleepCovers also offer new pops of colour including Butter Yellow, Candy Pink and Cayenne Red. Crafted with fully recycled materials, the SleepCovers offer pops of colour and eco-friendly construction.

For Kobo readers who prefer an eReading experience in black and white, Kobo introduces Kobo Clara BW, an upgraded version of our black-and-white classic 6” ereader, equipped with the latest E Ink Carta 1300 screen, and an improved processor and more storage.

Kobo Libra Colour retails for $249.000 CAD/$219.99 USD, Kobo Clara Colour for $179.99 CAD/$149.99 USD, and Kobo Clara BW for $159.99 CAD/$129.99 USD at www.kobo.com/ereaders and select retailers. The Kobo Stylus 2 is currently available and retails for $89.99 CAD/$69.99 USD. Pre-orders will be available on April 10. The devices will be available in stores and online as of April 30, 2024, in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Turkey.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/...=4&category=ec
 

https://payment.rakuten.co.jp/news/2024040801/  

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/5838/...mw_quote_advanced  

Hedging of the currency (US-$) reduce interest rate strong

The hedging of the currency (US-$) for the repay in 2029 and the interest pays in the five years reduce the interest rate from effective more than 10% to only 6.03932% per year

Issuer: Rakuten Group, Inc.
Type: USD-denominated senior notes due in 2029
Principal amount: USD 2,000 million
Offering price: 99.512% of principal amount
Interest rate: 9.75% per year
Coupon rate after currency swap: 6.03932% per year
Maturity date: April 15, 2029

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/...tegory=corp%2520ir
 

Rakuten Rakuma & AI: Modern Recommendation Systems Explained

April 10, 2024

Rakuten is improving the user experience and increasing orders on Rakuten Rakuma, the second-hand marketplace app, by using deep learning AI and other techniques. RNN interviewed the tech team behind the improvements to find out why this is happening now, what was changed, how modern recommendation systems work, and learn exactly how much orders increased thanks to their efforts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTYJei0RrWQ
 

The offer of USD-dominated notes at this moment is excellent, because the swap-rates are high through the big differences between $-interests and Yen-interests. And only this differences dominate the swap-rates. A decrease of  differences between $-interests and Yen-interests lower the swap-rates and increase the coupon rate after currency swap for Rakuten over the low 6.03932% per year of today.  

The argumentation of Callanan, Hyuga and Vossos on Bloomberg is complete nonsense.  

After my estimates paid from shortsellers and/or competitors.  

Nakano Asset Management Fund and Rakuten Securities

April 12, 2024

https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/info/info20240412-03.html
 

https://k-tai.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/1582955.html
 

Kobo’s Libra Colour brings a subtle palette to the grayscale world of e-readers

Colour e-readers won't be for everyone, but adding colour notes to a book is undeniably cool
APR 10, 2024

https://mobilesyrup.com/2024/04/10/kobo-libra-clara-colour-reveal/