Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

July 17, 2019

From ads to drip campaigns, brands that use message apps are able to connect better with their customers more effectively than their counterparts. Viber is gaining traction in the South Asian market with its Business Messaging, especially in the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar. However, before diving into the individual apps, it is important to understand why OTT messaging apps are the central part of the business landscape in Asia.

Only a few people communicate via SMS text messaging in Southeast Asia as there are no unlimited texts or phone calls. Everyone uses a chatting app as it is much cheaper and easier than other apps.

Viber Business offers full-service communications with chatbot capabilities as well as safe and secure communication experience for any business looking to communicate with clients and staff. Viber Business is especially popular in Cambodia and the rest of South Asia, especially at a time when Slack and Facebook Workplace have shown that there is a tremendous market opportunity in disrupting emails and making enterprise intra communication more effective than before.

That’s where Southeast Asia’s business messaging apps shine. Email and phone calls are considered the norm in formal and business settings in Europe and the United States, however, relying on Whatsapp or Viber for business is not only suitable but also preferred. WhatsApp for Business and Viber have become the new platforms for business communication in South Asia in a way that email and phone calls cannot compete.

www.crn.in/thought-leader/...ging-for-the-south-asian-market/

Uber And Lyft Ride-Sharing Services Hitch Onto Medicaid

Arizona Medicaid Director Jami Snyder heard many complaints about enrollees missing medical appointments because the transportation provided by the state didn’t show or came too late.

So this summer she hatched a solution familiar to millions of Americans looking for an efficient ride: She turned to Uber and Lyft.

Arizona became the first state to revamp its Medicaid regulations to make it easier for ride-sharing companies to participate in its nonemergency transportation benefit. Under the changes, Arizona eliminated several safety rules such as requiring all drivers to undergo drug testing and first aid training.

The strategy has added thousands of vehicles to the fleet serving Arizonans on Medicaid, nearly 24% of the state’s 7 million residents.

“It seemed like an obvious solution,” Snyder said. “So far, our anecdotal reports have been very positive.”

khn.org/news/uber-and-lyft-hitch-onto-medicaid/

Lyft Gains As Wells Fargo Starts Coverage at 'Outperform'; Cramer Not Convinced
TheStreet.com•September 27, 2019

Lyft shares were indicated higher in pre-market trading after analysts at Wells Fargo initiated coverage on the ride-hailing group at "outperform", arguing it was well-placed to take on rival Uber

Wells Fargo analyst Brian Fitzgerald placed a $60 price target on Lyft, alongside his outperform rating, citing faster-than-expected revenue growth from active riders, improving profitability and the profit growth potential from the group's new business units such as bikes and scooters.

"Despite the stock's performance since its IPO, we believe LYFT has opportunities that will bear fruit longer term to move the needle," Fitzgerald said. "We are comfortable that Lyft's Ridesharing platform can maintain enough market share, vs. larger rival Uber, in key U.S. cities to maintain a high level of utility to both riders and drivers."

www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/...en=YAHOO&yptr=yahoo

Overview of the Rakuten mobile network
Rakuten Inc., an internet services company headquartered in Japan, is a global leader in e-commerce and financial technology. It also offers media services such as over-the-top video, live TV, music, ebooks, and social media messaging. Rakuten Mobile Network (RMN), a wholly owned subsidiary of Rakuten Inc., is the newest mobile network operator in Japan. They plan to launch their commercial services in October 2019 with an innovative architecture that is set to disrupt the telecom industry landscape globally.

Embracing a 5G systems architecture from inception, this will be the world’s first cloudified network that is fully virtualized from RAN to core with end-to-end automation for both network and services. Radio access will initially be 4G LTE (macro and small cells) and Wi-Fi; with plans for 5G radio technology to be added during early 2020 before the Summer Olympics. This disruptive architecture will enable RMN to deliver a broad suite of services including consumer mobile, narrowband IOT, rich media, and low-latency services including augmented and virtual reality. All services will benefit from an innovative MEC architecture enabling a differentiated user experience.

www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/...gining-mobile-network.html

lovingnewyork.de/aktivitaeten/...i-bike-new-york-erfahrungen/

eine Lyft-Company

aber mit Rakuten als größtem Eigner schon etwas weniger, da die im Zweifelsfall bei der Eroberung des m.E. weltweit aussichtsreichsten Marktes Südostasien im Bedarfsfall zubuttern können. Und Naspsters ist hier ja auch nicht ohne Gründe eingestiegen.

"Direct media ads and programmatic advertising are definitely going to be (part of) a huge scale-up in revenue stream for us. When you look at Carousell, we are actually a very attractive advertising ecosystem and premium publisher, just because of the real stickiness of the app," he said.

If staff costs go up, Carousell may need fresh funds sooner. The startup used US$22 million of net cash flows for operations in 2018. It had US$55.4 million in cash as at end-2018, suggesting a runway of about two years, if the burn rate is unchanged. When asked if Carousell may seek fresh funding within the next two years, Mr Quek said: "I think quite possibly, just because we see so many growth possibilities ahead.

"But as a company, we are always financially disciplined. We build our business plan and financial model around our current view of what we can do in our portfolio markets," he said. Carousell's "endgame" is to secure a leadership position in South-east Asia's classifieds space, and not to burn cash for its own sake, he added.

When asked if Carousell may look to achieve a valuation of at least US$1 billion with its next round of funding, he said: "We find it more productive to focus on what we can do for... our users, than obsessing about the target of when we can reach unicorn status."

www.businesstimes.com.sg/garage/...-fundraise-in-next-2-years

www.grandviewresearch.com/...sis/ride-hailing-services-market

Ride-hailing and new businesses to fuel $7tn+ global mobility market The next 10 years of mobility will bring more change in the way that people and products move than any decade since the invention of the automobile. Emerging technologies and business models like ride-hailing and sharing,  autonomous driving and delivery, micro-mobility and even eVTOL (flying cars, finally) stand to disrupt profit pools that we estimate exceed $700bn, and venture backed startups and incumbents will attempt to address over $7tn in spending. Given the size of the opportunity, it should come as no surprise that access to capital has created a hyper competitive environment marked by massive operating losses driven by marketing, subsidies, incentives, and capital investment. As this environment matures and rationalizes, we expect consolidation that will lead to profitability, the  establishment of category leaders, and significant opportunities for investors.

www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/...of-mobility/report.pdf

El gigante Rakuten controla el 47% de Cabify con su holding en Luxemburgo
20 marzo, 2019 por Miguel

Era un auténtico misterio. Cabify, la mayor startup española por valoración, guardaba bajo llave el reparto de sus acciones. No lo reportaba a los registros españoles, pues su matriz se mantiene en Delaware(Estados Unidos). Pero su máximo accionista, el grupo japonés Rakuten, sí lo ha hecho. La compañía controla el 47% de la española desde su holding en Luxemburgo. Lo hace después de invertir en tres años más de 232 millones de euros, junto con 35 millones de un préstamo convertible.

www.infotaxi.net/...7-de-cabify-con-su-holding-en-luxemburgo/

ride.guru/content/resources/rideshares-worldwide

Diesen "Geist" bekommt man niemals in die Flasche zurück, wie vielleicht manche Shortseller glauben.

zu Rakuten Mobile:

www.lightreading.com/services/...nce-in-october/d/d-id/753370

Denn man muss sich die Frage stellen: Wie startet man ein neues Netz, das es in dieser Form noch nicht gab? Mit einem großen Bäng wäre meines Erachtens waghalsig. Und daher finde ich die Vorgehensweise okay und im Einklang mit dem Nachhaltigkeitsanspruch von Rakuten.

The firm will launch its new mobile service with a Free Supporter programme offering free voice and data to 5,000 subscribers on its own network. It will also offer apps on its website from 1 October.

The intention is to establish the stability and quality of its service for customers and tweak the network based on customers’ feedback and requests. The company says “it will be expanded in waves to welcome tens of thousands of users to the new network”.

The Free Supporter programme is expected to run until 31 March 2020, and “will conclude by the time of launch of regular subscriptions and, in the case of that launch commencing before March 31, 2020, Free Supporter Program subscribers will be offered the opportunity to continue to provide customer feedback in exchange for compensation equivalent to mobile service communication charges until the end of March.”

From October 2019, Rakuten Mobile will offer seven smartphone models and two Wi-Fi routers, including two Galaxy models, which will be available for the first time. They can be used either the Free Supporter programme or the ordinary service. These devices, and all Rakuten Mobile’s new devices in future, will not have locked SIMs.

www.mobileeurope.co.uk/news-features/...th-limited-free-trial

Lyft’s bookings surpassed $8 billion - Only idiots believe, that ride hailing go away

Lyft’s New App Features Real-Time Public Transit Info
SEP 24, 2019

Like its rival Uber, the ride-hailing company wants to be a one-stop mobility shop that integrates buses, trains, subways, and scooters.

Since it launched in 2012, Lyft has gone head-to-head with virtually every other form of urban transportation. Along with arch-competitor Uber, the ride-hailing service has nudged travelers out of taxis and rental cars, drawn pedestrians and cyclists into its backseats, and lured commuters off buses and trains. Competition with other modes has aided the immense growth of the ride-hailing market: In 2018, Lyft’s bookings surpassed $8 billion.

www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/09/...bway-travel/598702/

Lyft just nabbed another glowing Wall Street recommendation — here's why the analysts aren't worried about the stock's terrible performance so far
27.09.2019, 16:26

• Wells Fargo has launched analyst coverage of Lyft with a $60 price target, in line with the rest of Wall Street's optimism.

• Shares of Lyft have fallen more than 46% since the stock began publicly trading in March.

• The bank says Lyft has plenty of potential for stealing market share from Uber thanks to its singular focus on the United States.

That runway could be huge, too, considering that Wells Fargo estimates the total addressable market for trips to be 9.7 billion by 2028. (For context, Lyft gave 619 million rides in 2018, it said in IPO filings.)

But massive potential doesn't come without risks.

Beyond Uber, there are plenty of competitors in spaces that Lyft operates in, like bikes, scooters, and self-driving cars, even if those units are still immaterial to the company's financial position.

www.businessinsider.de/...om-wells-fargo-2019-9?r=US&IR=T

Hoping to boost spending, Japan tries to sell shoppers on cashless purchases
Stanley White

TOKYO (Reuters) - When the baseball season kicked off in Japan this spring, fans of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles were faced with an inconvenience they’d never encountered before: the food and drinks stalls did not accept cash.

The team’s owner, internet commerce firm Rakuten Inc (4755.T), was trying to promote its QR code mobile payment system. But the marketing ploy quickly turned out to be much more than that.
In April and May, food, beverage and merchandise sales at the Eagles’ stadium in the northeastern city of Sendai jumped 20% from the same two-month period of 2018, in part because taking cash out of the equation changed spending habits.

“We consider it to be a success story,” said Hayato Morofushi, marketing manager for Rakuten’s mobile payments. “Using QR codes for payments has only just started in Japan, so we don’t expect everyone to jump on the bandwagon. As we get more success stories, this will win more people over.”
Experts say that when queues move faster, more people join. Customers don’t see cash leaving their wallets and focus on the satisfaction of a purchase, so they spend more.

That psychology could be crucial for Japan’s economy, locked for decades in a deflationary mindset, where consumers delay spending in hopes of stable or lower prices. The Bank of Japan has spent more than $3 trillion since 2013 on bonds and other assets to attain a 2% price growth rate, without success.

www.reuters.com/article/...n-cashless-purchases-idUSKCN1TY02H

The long-term fundamentals underlying Lyft still point to big growth over the next decade. Today, very little of that growth is being priced into LYFT stock. That’s because investors are concerned that the ride-sharing company may never turn a profit. Such concerns are overstated. They will pass. Once they do, the optics should improve here. Improving optics will subsequently converge on favorable long-term growth fundamentals, and LYFT stock should bounce back in a big way.

That being said, LYFT stock may not turnaround right away. Patience is required here. This is a long term investment — not a short term trade. Ultimately, long-term investors should be handsomely rewarded for their patience.

investorplace.com/2019/09/...h-play-in-ride-hailing-not-uber/

One year has passed since the new Residential Accommodation Business Act came into effect in June 2018. The number of licensed facilities has increased from 2,200 to 17,000, and the gross numbers of lodgers has jumped from 220,000 to 930,000. In Rakuten LIFULL STAY’s Vacation Stay, more than 12,000 residences have already been registered, and collaborations with companies with overseas networks including HomeAway, trivago, and Booking.com are running smoothly.

lifull.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/...for_FY2019_09_3Q.pdf

Rakuten & Lifull: Vacation Stay.

Vacation Stay ist ein Online-Marktplatz für Ferienunterkünfte und gilt mit über 10’000 verifizierten Häusern und Appartments als Aushängeschild im asiatischen Raum.

www.datatrans.ch/de/know-how/news/detail/...nd-vacation-stay/

BY MATTHEW HUMPHRIES
8 APR 2019, 5:24 P.M.

The market is full of messaging apps to choose between, which means new and novel features are key to attracting and keeping a user base. Chat and messaging app Viber's latest idea is a subscription service that gives users a local phone number anyone can use, regardless of whether they are signed up to Viber or not.

As VentureBeat reports, the new subscription is called Viber Local Number and it costs $4.99 per month. In return for your money, Viber associates a local telephone number with your account. Other Viber users can simply message or chat through the service, but what if you have friends and family who don't use Viber? That's where a local phone number comes in.

Sharing the local number allows someone to call you and get charged just like any other local rate call.

Business users will also appreciate the ability to give potential clients a number to call or message.

uk.pcmag.com/news/120400/...ds-local-number-option-for-5month

Here’s a list of the current Found Money participants and the amount they’ll contribute (as of March 2019):

Company Discount
Airbnb 1.8% of your service fee
Barnes & Noble 2% of your purchase
Billshark $10 when you sign up
Blue Apron $30 when you sign up
Boxed 4% of your purchase
DirecTV $25 when you sign up
Dollar Shave Club 10% of your purchase
Earnest $100 when you refinance your student loan
Expedia 4% of your purchase
Groupon 5% of your purchase
Liberty Mutual Insurance $5 per auto or home insurance quote
LifeLock $25 with a new purchase
Lyft $15 when you sign up as a driver
Macy’s 5% of your purchase
MeUndies 20% of your first purchase
New Balance 5% of your purchase
Nike 5% of your purchase
Sephora $3% of your purchase
Stich Fix $10 with a new purchase
Walmart $5 with a new subscription
Warby Parker 1% of your purchase

investorjunkie.com/reviews/acorns/

www.tuck.com/airweave-mattress-review/

Rakuten is one of the owner of Airweave

Takaoka is recognized for his innovative work to develop the unique mattress brand

NEW YORK, May 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Airweave President & CEO, Motokuni Takaoka, a finalist of the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™, will be attending the finals in Monaco, June 7-11. Having been selected as the Japan national winner, Takaoka is one of 50 global business leaders selected for the prestigious award. As the Founder of Airweave, Mr. Takaoka has been recognized by the EY panel of judges for his innovation.

"Business as usual" was the last thing on the mind of Stanford-educated engineer Motokuni Takaoka when he took over his uncle's struggling fishing line factory in Japan in 2004. After intensive experimentation, Takaoka discovered that the resin fiber of fishing lines could be repurposed for mattresses. Takaoka re-engineered the machinery to create the unique three-dimensional weave now known as airfiber® — providing a higher-quality sleep thanks to their ergonomic, breathable design. The first mattress shipped in 2007. Focusing on professional athletes, these elite early adopters helped to promote that a good night's sleep is paramount to peak performance throughout the day or, as Takaoka puts it, that "Tomorrow Starts Tonight." The result quickly drove airweave's revenue in Japan to the US $100M mark.

www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/japane

Listen up! Kobo Writing Life, Rakuten Kobo’s independent publishing platform, launches audiobook capabilities
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

KWL is the first platform to enable self-published authors to upload, promote, and sell both audiobooks and eBooks using one easy dashboard

Toronto, ON — September 26 — For self-published authors, reaching audiobook aficionados anywhere in the world is now as easy as checking a box within Kobo Writing Life (KWL), Rakuten Kobo’s independent publishing platform.

Independent authors can now easily upload, promote and sell their audiobooks, adjust prices or choose what countries they want to sell in through the easy to use dashboard. The roll-out is currently being beta tested and will be available to all accounts soon. Audiobook capabilities are currently available in English, and will become available for additional languages by the end of 2019.

www.kobo.com/news/...platform-launches-audiobook-capabilities

Kaufland launches delivery service in Romania's Cluj-Napoca in partnership with Glovo German group Kaufland, the largest retailer in Romania, extended its fast delivery service in partnership with app-based delivery firm Glovo in Cluj-Napoca. The service was first available in Bucharest. In Cluj-Napoca, Glovo couriers provide fast home delivery from two Kaufland stores in the city. Kaufland has entered the Romanian market in 2005 and is part of the German group Schwarz, which also owns the Lidl retail network in Romania.

Spanish startup Glovo, which allows smartphone users to order any product and have it delivered, will invest EUR 3 million in Romania by the end of this year, thus doubling the investments already made in the country since launching local operations in May 2018.

www.romania-insider.com/kaufland-glovo-delivery-cluj