Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Tareq, as Robin mentioned the cloud, can you tell us how Rakuten’s one-of-a-kind cloud platform is central to your disruptive approach to the mobility market?

AMIN: First, it means we have deployed an entirely virtualized radio access network (vRAN) for which we defined specific requirements unlike those of any other operator. We’ve coupled that with a distributed, common carrier-grade telco cloud; a 5G-ready, IPv6-based transport network for our backhaul and a completely software-defined programmable infrastructure. It’s easier for us to deploy and expand as it’s more responsive and performs faster, and it’s all 5G ready from the start.

Everything is software controlled and built to our particular specifications, which is why we not only have an extremely high degree of control, but also have massive cost advantages. This cost advantage is extremely disruptive to the traditional mobility model, as is our ability to deliver any sort of cloud-based services over this infrastructure rapidly and in a fully automated manner, which is central to our customer experience vision as well.

rakuten.today/blog/...ation-rewrites-mobile-market-rules.html

The Japanese transportation industry is leading the country’s long-standing efforts to go cashless. Earlier this month, two major players from the archipelago’s e-commerce and transport industries partnered up to simplify and promote payments that do not require hard cash.

Homegrown e-commerce giant Rakuten plans to incorporate its services into Japan’s premier railway firm, the East Japan Railway Company or JR East to provide electronic support for its “Suica” cards.
The cards are used to access trains as well as to pay for goods and services at certain kiosks in train stations and select stores around the country. If all goes as planned, users will be able to charge their transit cards using the Rakuten Pay mobile app by 2020.

There are some 5,000 train stations and approximately 50,000 buses in Japan, according to the government data. Currently, Rakuten Pay is used in more than 600,000 stores in Japan.

cointelegraph.com/news/...merce-partnership-on-the-fast-track

Techrock is a platform that uses blockchain to combine technology and individual participation so as to create a world of authentic products for customers. Since it is built on blockchain, the platform offers a high level of security. Blockchain backed data cannot be falsified or manipulated in any way.

Techrock not only tracks each step of developing a product undergoes but also rewards its users with loyalty points for participating on the platform. It also uses blockchain technology to create a permanent record of a product’s authenticity.

Techrock is famously known for delivering high-quality goods and by partnering with Rakuten; it is progressively applying its process on its Rakuten zone. Apparently, the partnership between the two platforms has created a market for authentic goods as large as $60 million in one year.

blockgeeks.com/news/...-rakuten-taps-chinese-blockchain-firm/

m.E. für die Transparenz eher ein Rückschritt, da sie die Bewertung von Rakuten m.E. erschwert:

Announcement of Accounting treatment of Lyft, Inc. Shares

 The shares of Lyft, Inc. (hereinafter “Lyft”) that Rakuten (hereinafter “the Company”) holds have previously been measured at fair value through profit or loss. However, it has been decided that the equity method will be applied from the second quarter of the fiscal year ending December 2019 because, among other considerations, the Company owns shares and, through its own appointed director, is actively involved with the board of directors, and can therefore exercise significant influence over Lyft.

 The Company will record an unrealized loss of JPY 28.4 billion in the second quarter of the fiscal year ending December 2019 as a result of this change in accounting method.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2019/0701_01.html

Published: July 2, 2019

Lyft also stands to benefit from its partnerships and strategic positioning, according to Devitt. The company has been working with Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG, +1.21% GOOGL, +0.05%  Waymo self-driving unit, which he expects will “keep the company on the forefront of innovations in the autonomous vehicle space.” Lyft also became an enrolled Medicaid provider in Arizona last week, which allows the company to service as a covered transportation option for patients traveling to doctors’ appointments.

“Such arrangements could be sources of incremental demand as well as help reduce friction in a friction-filled industry,” Devitt wrote. “Transportation barriers are a leading cause of missed health-care appointments in the U.S.”

www.marketwatch.com/story/...han-uber-analyst-says-2019-07-02

Cabify in Brazil

Spanish mobility company Cabify announced recently that it will retire their application Easy Taxi, the Brazilian startup of taxis by application that bought in 2017. With the next update, the app will incorporate the visual of the program of the Cabify. The brand, however, will remain alive as Cabify's cab service will invest $20 million in Brazil over the next five years to compete head-on with rivals like Uber who have dominated the market.

For now, the two applications will continue to work simultaneously - and will have the same look, until drivers and users are all migrated to the Cabify platform. It is a process that should happen over the next few weeks and be closed in August, the company stated.

With the investments, the company also plans to double its technology team in Brazil

www.onlinemarketplaces.com/articles/...t-20m-into-taxi-sector

Daher war die heutige Kursbildung in Europa für mich heute nicht nachvollziehbar, aber aus meiner Sicht  ein Kaufkurs.

4755:JPTokyo
Rakuten Inc
COMPANY INFO
1,231.00JPY
+13.00+1.07%
www.bloomberg.com/quote/4755:JP


1 Yen entspricht
0,0082 Euro
4. Juli, 17:55 UTC · Haftungsausschluss
www.google.de/.....35i39j0i67j0i131i67j0i10j0i131.ZVJY5UBVf1Y

financefeeds.com/...due-change-accounting-method-lyft-shares/

Unter den US-Tech-Neuemissionen in diesem Jahr waren die Aktien von den Fahrvermittlungsdiensten Uber und Lyft einer der schwächsten. Während sich Uber um den Ausgabepreis herum bewegt, verliert die Lyft-Aktie aktuell sogar 12 Dollar auf seinen IPO-Preis von 72 Dollar. Doch Lyft verzeichnet e zuletzt Fortschritte.

Dabei hat das Unternehmen auf der operativen Seite neue Wege eingeschlagen und mit Alphabets autonomer Selbstfahrereinheit Waymo eine strategische Partnerschaft beschlossen. Damit könnte Lyft in dem Zukunftsbereich führend sein und eine starke Konkurrenz für Uber.

Lyft wurde auch ein registrierter Medicaid-Anbieter in Arizona, der es dem Unternehmen ermöglicht, Patienten zu Arztterminen zu fahren. Solche Vereinbarungen könnten in einem wettbewerbsintensiven Konkurrenzkampf zu einer zusätzlichen Nachfrage führen. Transportbarrieren sind eine der Hauptursachen für versäumte Termine im Gesundheitswesen in den USA.

www.finanzen.net/nachricht/zertifikate/...gspotenzial-7681438

What happened: Suning Global, the cross-border e-commerce unit of Chinese retailer Suning.com, has partered with Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten to sell Japanese goods on its self-operated platform. Under the deal, Rakuten will set up a flagship store on Suning Global to peddle Japanese products to consumers. The two parties are also planning to expand their cooperation to offline businesses such as supermarkets and convenience stores.

Why it’s important: Japanese products are popular with Chinese consumers, particularly categories like cosmetics and household goods. According to data from the Japanese government, Japan to China e-commerce will grow around 20% annually until 2021. Suning.com, a Chinese omnichannel retailer backed by Alibaba, has announced a series of recent news, including the acquisition of an 80% stake in China operations of French retailer Carrefour.

technode.com/2019/07/01/...-reaches-partnership-with-rakuten/

Zwei wichtige Renditefaktoren

Im Freakonomics-Podcast sprach Zimmer über die Perspektiven von Lyft und ging sogar so weit zu sagen, dass es “einfach” werden würde, profitabel zu werden. Er erwähnt zwei wichtige Bestandteile, und keiner davon ist auf Roboterautos angewiesen:

Und so ist der Weg [zur Rentabilität] ganz einfach, es gibt zwei Hauptteile. Der eine: Taxigeschäfte sind in den meisten Märkten profitabel. Und dann müssen wir natürlich unsere Gemeinkosten decken. Und je mehr Fahrten wir machen, desto mehr deckt es das ab, was nicht mit dem Wachstum wächst. Und zweitens sinken die variablen Kosten pro Fahrt, wie z. B. Versicherungen. Und die werden weiterhin sinken.

Lyft erzielt tatsächlich Bruttogewinne mit seinen Fahrten und hat einige Anzeichen für Größenvorteile gezeigt; die Bruttomarge ist mit steigendem Umsatz tendenziell höher.

www.fool.de/2019/06/17/...n-lyft-ueber-die-renditesteigerung/

On 29th May 2019

In case you haven’t heard, Viber is one of those widely popular messaging apps everybody’s using nowadays, with over a billion unique users worldwide.

Today, we’ll show you a few examples of how using Viber for business can help you:
1. Cut messaging costs,
2. Grow your audience,
3. Improve conversion rates.

Viber enables businesses to reach users and customers directly, where they already are, every day – texting on their mobile phones.

Joining the conversation on Viber is the most personal way of communicating your message to your audience, which makes it the most effective.

www.clickattack.com/3-ways-use-viber-for-business/

"Damit Viber auch am Desktop funktioniert, müssen Sie sich vorher - wie von WhatsApp gewohnt - an einer mobilen App mit einer Telefonnummer anmelden. Im Gegensatz zu WhatsApp können Sie danach aber ungehindert am Desktop chatten."

www.chip.de/downloads/Viber-fuer-Windows_61883897.html

Neben Facebook sind heute zahlreiche andere Messenger Dienste zu finden. Auch auf Twitter kann der Bot über die Nachrichtenfunktion auf Anfragen reagieren. Weitere wichtige Messenger Plattformen, über die der Bot mit den Nutzern kommunizieren kann, sind WhatsApp, Kik, WeChat, Viber oder Line.

Fazit: Für jeden Anwendungsfall gibt es den richtigen Messenger

Nur weil Chatbots im Webchat oder auf Facebook am meisten verbreitet sind, heißt das nicht, dass das immer der richtige Kanal für den jeweiligen Anwendungsfall ist. Genauso muss sich nicht auf ein Kanal beschränkt werden. Ihr Chatbot kann auch auf verschiedenen Plattformen eingesetzt werden.

home.1000grad.de/blog/wissen/...s-gibt-mehr-als-nur-facebook/

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.

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

Rakuten Has Generated ‘North of $40 Million’ From Sponsoring the Golden State Warriors
By
Rob Schaefer
June 7, 2019

Per GumGum Sports, an artificial intelligence company that comprehensively analyzes the media value of sports sponsorships, the Warriors drove $19 million worth of value to Rakuten in the 2018-19 season from social media value alone (with $3.8 million of that coming from team-operated accounts). Add broadcast television to that calculation, and GumGum reports a generated value “north of $40 million” which would be a healthy return on investment for Rakuten based on the reported $20 million annual sponsorship fee.

fortune.com/2019/06/07/...ors-rakuten-sponsorship-40-million/

Suning, Rakuten join forces on cross-border eCommerce
1 Jul 2019  

Suning Global, Suning.com’s cross-border online portal, has signed an agreement with Japanese giant Rakuten that will see the latter present its offer to Chinese shoppers through the platform. The collaboration may eventually spread to offline retail as well with tie-ups involving Suning.com’s physical convenience and supermarket estate. The deal is designed to capitalise on the enduring popularity of Japanese goods with Chinese shoppers and is especially interesting as it boosts Japan’s leading eCommerce player’s presence in China while not pairing directly with either Alibaba or JD.com, indicating the rising influence of Suning as a digital and eCommerce player.

www.kriq.eu/ContentIndex/NewsDetails.aspx?id=1521155

re-how.net/press_releases/26080/

Join us for a live conversation with Mark Grover, Product Manager at Lyft.
When:  9 July 2019, 11am PDT

Lyft’s data has grown significantly as the company has scaled to provide more than 50 million rides per month. As a result, they’ve built creative solutions to help them increase productivity and optimize for efficiency and successful outcomes for their data users.

Product Manager Mark Grover works on Lyft’s data discovery and metadata engine, Amundsen. With the help of a Neo4j graph database, Amundsen has improved Lyft's data discovery by reducing time to discover data by 10x.

go.neo4j.com/20190620-Lyft-Livestream.html

Tokyo, July 9, 2019 – Rakuten Mobile, Inc. announced that a resolution was passed at the Board of Directors meeting held July 4, 2019 in which “DMM mobile”, the MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) business operated by DMM.com LLC, and “DMM Hikari,” the high quality internet service business operated by DMM.com LLC which utilizes “Flet’s Hikari,” will be transferred to Rakuten Mobile through a company split effective as of September 1, 2019 (tentative). A total of approximately 2.3 billion yen will be delivered as consideration for the company split to DMM.com LLC.

Since its launch in December 2014, DMM mobile has provided a low-cost high-quality mobile communications service, and its domestic MVNO business (SIM-card-based communications business) has approximately 240,000 subscribers (as of June 30, 2019). DMM Hikari is a high quality internet communications service that utilizes the fiber optic lines of NTT Hikari, and serves approximately 20,000 subscribers (as of June 30, 2019).

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2019/...mp;category=mobile

Lyft expands wheelchair accessible rides in LA and SF
The company is running a pilot test with dedicated Toyota Sienna vans.

Lyft is testing a special line of cars just for riders who use wheelchairs. The ridesharing company announced today that it was piloting a new WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle) service in Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties. All drivers will be certified by First Transit and operate 2019 Toyota Sienna vans, which include a folding ramp for side entry.

Lyft says pricing for its WAV service will be the same as standard rides. In addition to the tests in LA and SF, Lyft has existing WAV partnerships in Boston and Toronto.

www.engadget.com/2019/07/09/...rides-in-la-and-sf/?yptr=yahoo

TalkTalk has announced a major update that could help it rival the likes of Sky and Virgin Media. The broadband firm is joining forces with one of the leading video on demand platforms in Europe to bring customers access to a swatch of extra online content.

The partnership with Rakuten TV will offer those subscribing to TalkTalk’s TV Boost package the chance to enjoy hundreds of movies from an extensive catalogue. Owned by Japanese e-commerce Rakuten Inc, Rakuten TV offers movie streaming services via set-top boxes and smart TVs in 42 countries around the world.

The TalkTalk TV partnership marks the next stage in Rakuten TV’s strategy to increase its presence in Europe, following the announcement of its extension plans earlier this year, where the platform tripled its distribution from 12 to 42 countries to reach more than 30 million European households. Along with its catalogue of top movies, there's also the option to stream content to Smart TVs in 4K HDR.

www.express.co.uk/life-style/...alkTalk-Rakuten-movie-release

Laut der Firma Rakuten Viber telefonieren die Ukrainer täglich rund 4 Millionen Mal mit Viber und senden 11 Millionen Nachrichten. Bedeutsam ist auch die Tatsache, dass in der Ukraine der Messenger auf mehr als 95% der ukrainischen Smartphones installiert ist.

www.segodnya.ua/ukraine/...ili-sovmestnyy-servis-1297920.html

Azimo will internationales P2P-Payment per Telefonnummer bieten – bei 3% Transferkosten

FinTech Azimo will internationale Überweisungen noch einfacher machen: Ab sofort, heißt es, könnten Zahlungen auch international von Handy zu Handy unkompliziert abgewickelt werden. Im Gegensatz zu gewöhnlichen Überweisungen reicht dafür die Handynummer des Empfängers; Kontonummern oder komplizierte IBAN-Nummern braucht man dazu nicht mehr. Die Zahlung wird direkt per App zwischen den Bankkonten transferiert.

Für den neuen Dienst müsse der Nutzer lediglich die App herunterladen, den Empfänger im Telefonbuch auswählen und den gewünschten Betrag entweder senden oder anfordern. Wenn der Empfänger bereits Azimo-Nutzer ist, bekommt dieser den Betrag direkt auf das hinterlegte Bankkonto gutgeschrieben. Das Geld käme aber auch an, wenn der Empfänger die App noch nicht hat. Er bekommt dann einen Link per SMS zugeschickt und kann seine IBAN angeben, um das Geld zu erhalten-

www.it-finanzmagazin.de/...bieten-bei-3-transferkosten-47785/

As detailed by Rakuten executives in a seemingly endless parade of MWC appearances, the company plans to roll out a wireless network with roughly 100 core technicians, using roughly 1% of the number of equipment models that traditional telecom operators manage, by spending roughly half of what it would cost to build a 4G network via traditional methods. Oh, and when you factor in Rakuten's 5G plans, that cost-savings figure goes up to 70% to 80% versus traditional wireless networks. Rakuten plans to test its network this year and launch commercial services by October.

www.lightreading.com/mobile/5g/...rakuten-in-5g/a/d-id/749948