Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

schon gegeben und insofern war das Vorgehen mit dem zwar vollen Angebot, aber kleiner Teilnehmerzahl die richtige Unternehmensentscheidung. Daher sind Auswirkugen auf den Kurs m.E. nur kurzfristigher Natur,  denn die Panne zeigt auch, dass das System läuft.

Rakuten Mobile gets 4th administrative instruction
7:38 pm, December 15, 2019

Jiji PressTOKYO (Jiji Press) — Rakuten Mobile Inc. on Friday received fresh administrative guidance from the communications ministry for recent disruption of its free mobile phone services for 5,000 customers launched in October.

The ministry gave the company administrative instructions three times earlier this year over delays in its work to prepare base stations for its mobile services.

In the latest guidance, it urged the unit of major cybermall operator Rakuten Inc. to prevent any repeat of the service disruption.

Its voice communications and data transmission services were partially disrupted for around three hours on the morning of Dec. 10 due to a glitch.

But the company did not disclose the problem when it occurred and instead announced, through channels including its website, the incident after the services were restored.

the-japan-news.com/news/article/...5cdb877510316111f1324a41b1

By Rhiannon Farrar | December 9, 2019 | INSIGHTS

For many years Cyber Weekend has been the largest retail event to take place annually in the United States. What began in the 1950s as Black Friday grew to include Cyber Monday and now, sees promotions start on the last Thursday in November in-line with US Thanksgiving. And thanks to globalisation, Cyber Weekend has grown in popularity with shoppers outside of the US to become a staple retail event for consumers globally, including throughout APAC.

On the Rakuten Marketing APAC affiliate network, performance exceeded triple-digit growth for Thursday, achieving 110% YoY click growth, and 40% YoY sales increase, while orders rose by 92% in 2019.

Across all devices, Rakuten Marketing Affiliate Network experienced double-digit growth on Black Friday. Clicks rose 84% YoY, there were 79% more orders placed in 2019 than 2018, and sales increased 29% from last year.

Saturday and Sunday of Cyber Weekend saw orders driven by the affiliate network have a stronger AOV ($218.84 on Saturday and $174.92 on Sunday). Clicks, orders and sales all experienced steady growth across the weekend. On Saturday affiliate clicks rose 61%, orders increased 58%, and sales reached 71% YoY growth in 2019. Sunday saw the affiliate channel experienced a 71% increase in clicks, 57% order growth, and sales rise 90% from 2018

On Cyber Monday the industry saw consumers revert back to desktop as the device of choice, with 56% of sales on the Rakuten Marketing Display Network taking place on desktop. The Rakuten Marketing Affiliate Network saw clicks grow by 55% YoY, orders increased 64%, and sales exceeded 2018 by 95%. Clicks on mobile (56%) were higher than on desktop (42%), though desktop drove a more significant portion of orders (60%) and sales (64%).

blog.rakutenmarketing.com/en-au/insights/...tail-performance/

"Point Investment" Service Widens Appeal for Rakuten Securities
DECEMBER 19, 2019

The idea of investing with points instead of cash has attracted much attention in Japan over the past few years, with a number of securities companies now offering such “point investment” services. The goal of these programs is to use the versatility of the points system to lower barriers to investing and capture the interest of new customers from the younger generation who are looking to build up their own assets.

Rakuten Securities was a pioneer in introducing the idea of “point investment” as an industry first, having launched a new service allowing members to use Rakuten Super Points to purchase investment trusts in 2017, followed by domestic stocks from October 2019.

global.rakuten.com/corp/innovation/rnn/2019/1906_007/

The Rising, Stephen Curry and Rakuten's Documentary on Basketball in Japan, Premieres Worldwide on YouTube

SAN MATEO, Calif., Dec. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten, Inc. has joined forces with SC30, Inc. and Limitless Creative Company on The Rising, a short documentary film on the explosive growth of basketball in Japan, capturing the intersection of the international sport with homegrown Japanese culture.

Featuring appearances from several unique Japanese basketball enthusiasts and six-time NBA All-Star and two-time Kia NBA MVP Award winner Stephen Curry, The Rising makes its worldwide premiere today on Curry's YouTube channel. The Rising can also be viewed worldwide on Rakuten Arena's YouTube channel, as well as NBA Rakuten in Japan.

The Rising joins Rakuten's growing lineup of sports-themed entertainment vehicles. Matchday – Inside FC Barcelona, an official FC Barcelona TV documentary series following the world-famous soccer club and its players through the 2018-2019 season, premiered exclusively in Europe and Japan on Rakuten TV in November 2019. The company also produced Everyday Spartans, a reality series following eight ordinary people who transform their lives in a grueling, globetrotting adventure, in conjunction with Spartan Race, the world's largest obstacle race and endurance brand. The first season of Everyday Spartans can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.

www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...on-youtube-300977033.html

Rakuten mobile adopts Anritsu Protocol Test Platform for 5G NR
By ELE Times -
December 19, 2019

Anritsu Corporation is pleased to announce that Rakuten Mobile, Inc. has adopted Anritsu’s 5G NR test solution for 5G New Radio (5G NR) acceptance tests.

Anritsu has already been supporting acceptance tests for Rakuten Mobile 4G devices, leading to this new decision to adopt the 5G NR Mobile Device Test Platform ME7834NR  and Radio Communication Test Station MT8000A for implementing protocol and RF acceptance tests of the latest 5G NR devices. Rakuten Mobile will be using these Anritsu test solutions to implement inspection tests of devices with built-in 5G NR technology (carrier acceptance tests).

Anritsu has partnered with Rakuten Mobile to promote strengthened ME7834NR and MT8000A performance and functions supporting acceptance tests for a wide application range, including their 5G smartphones, communications modules, and chipsets.

www.eletimes.com/...-anritsu-protocol-test-platform-for-5g-nr

Cristina Constandache, officer at Rakuten Viber, discusses why businesses should go beyond programmatic to reach consumers

vimeo.com/379071929

MoLib2Go exceeds 1M circulations
December 12, 2019 Ron Eifert General News

MoLib2Go today announced that they achieved a record-breaking one million digital book checkouts in 2019, a milestone for this library consortium consisting of Sikeston Public Library and other local libraries in the Missouri. This accomplishment illustrates the continued growth and importance of library lending of ebooks and audiobooks along with the creative ways libraries have served their communities with digital services. MoLib2Go is one of 80 systems around the world – including stand alone libraries and consortia – that surpassed one million checkouts through Rakuten OverDrive, the leading digital reading platform and its award-winning app Libby.

The Sikeston Public Library and other MoLib2Go libraries have been providing readers 24/7 access to ebooks and audiobooks for several years. Reader interest and usage has grown every year, reflecting popular trends and interests both locally and across the country.

Named one of PCMag’s Best Free Software of 2019 and one of TIME’s Best Apps of 2018, Libby seamlessly connects first-time users and experienced readers with the popular digital collections of libraries. Readers may browse the library’s digital collection, instantly borrow titles and start reading or listening for free with a valid library card.

sikeston.lib.mo.us/molib2go-exceeds-1m-circulations/

- New service creates a streamlined product pick-up experience for brick and mortar store customers in Japan, offers cashless payments via Rakuten ID, and can be used with Rakuten Super Points. -

Tokyo, December 20, 2019 - Rakuten, Inc. today announced that its mobile ordering and payment service Rakuten Ready has launched in Japan. Rakuten Ready is a solution designed for companies with brick and mortar shops, such as restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores, cafes and retail stores, that allows client companies to easily integrate pre-ordering and payment services compatible with Rakuten ID on their websites and mobile apps.

As an additional option for integration with mobile apps, Rakuten Ready provides functionality that sends notifications to stores using location data from customers who have agreed in advance to provide this information to accurately predict when they will arrive. This feature allows businesses providing pre-ordering and payment services to deliver a smoother product pick-up experience for customers, as well as increase efficiency for in-store operations.

Rakuten Ready is provided by Rakuten Group company Rakuten Ready, Inc. Founded in 2013 in the U.S., the company works with over 4,000 stores, including leading retailers such as Kroger, CVS and Nordstrom, and leading restaurant chains such as Pizza Hut, Chick-Fil-A and Chipotle, to scale their order ahead programs.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/...onth=12&category=ec

Japanese carriers to install 5G base stations on traffic signals: Report
By Juan Pedro Tomás on June 5, 2019

The Japanese government announced it will allow the country’s four mobile carriers to deploy 5G base stations on traffic signals, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.

The main aim of the initiative is to reduce the cost and times necessary to deploy 5G networks nationwide by taking advantage of the country’s high density of traffic lights.

Japan’s 200,000 traffic signals are administered by local governments, which will be able to use the 5G infrastructure for the implementation of self-driving vehicle projects and emergency communications in natural disasters, according to the report.

Last month, Japan’s government approved plans by the country’s four mobile carriers to build 5G wireless networks with investment set to reach JPY 1.6 trillion ($14.4 billion) over the next five years.

Applications submitted by NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank and e-commerce giant Rakuten were approved by the communications ministry after determining that the companies’ applications met the conditions of the allocation of 5G spectrum.

www.rcrwireless.com/20190605/5g/...ons-traffic-signals-report

dem Text nur schwer entnehmen:

Abu Dhabi leads $167 million investment in Spanish delivery app Glovo
PUBLISHED THU, DEC 19 20193:00 AM EST
Ryan Browne@RYAN_BROWNE_
                              §
KEY POINTS
Spain’s Glovo says it has raised 150 million euros in a funding round led by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.
Glovo’s app is mostly known for food delivery, but it also offers other categories ranging from groceries to pharmaceuticals.
The extra cash will be used to help Glovo hire 300 new engineers and developers by mid-2020 and to expand into new territories.

The financing effort was led by Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, and was also backed by existing investors including Germany’s Delivery Hero, Swiss investment company Drake Enterprises and European venture capital firm Lakestar, which was an early investor in Spotify.

www.cnbc.com/2019/12/19/...tment-in-spanish-delivery-app.html

It’s challenging, but you have the opportunity to drive the entire ecosystem and push other parts of the organization to make things happen.

So far my team has been meeting all our deadlines, so every day is an achievement! Every day there is something new happening. Personally, in 24 years, this might be the most challenging project I’ve worked on.

What makes it challenging?

The timeline! Rakuten Mobile is all about Speed! Speed Speed! If you look at how far we’ve come since last December, it’s remarkable. Not only have we proved that we can build a fully virtualized network, but also that we are able to bring 3,000 sites up around the country in the space of a year. To get integrated and have this kind of coverage is not easy. People from other operators think we’re crazy!

“THAT’S THE POWER OF THE RAKUTEN ECOSYSTEM.”

We’re able to achieve this thanks to the Rakuten ecosystem. You have all the sales teams, the e-commerce teams involved ― everybody’s doing their part. We’re collaborating with partner hotels to set up base stations; we’re collaborating with convenience store chains to access their property for sites; we even give phones to Rakuten Express drivers ― they gather coverage data at zero extra cost just by driving around making deliveries!

That’s the power of the Rakuten ecosystem. If we had to do this MNO alone, it would be very hard on such a short timeline.

rakuten.today/tech-innovation/...ofile-sharad-sriwastawa.html

Visa and Portmone.com launched Person-to-Person money transfers in Viber for Ukrainian clients
31 July 2019

Solution allows cardholders to make easy and secure money transfers via Viber messenger
Kyiv, 31 July, 2019 – Visa and Portmone.com, leading payment service provider in Ukraine, today announced the commercial launch of Person to Person bot giving cardholders an ability to quickly and securely make money transfers via Viber – popular instant messaging application.

Now using that solution cardholders can send money within seconds to their friends and relatives. Different scenarios of sending and requesting money are available from now - card to card transfer, from card to phone number. Special offer is available for Visa cardholders: they can send money with this bot without any fee till the end of October.

corezoid.com/blog/visa-portmone-viber-middleware/

Stifel analyst Scott Devitt reiterated a Buy rating on Oct. 31 and lowered the price target from $80 to $70 on Oct. 31.

"Longer term, Lyft's margin profile has the potential to improve due to the marketplace dynamics in the business model, including high costs of individual asset ownership on the supply side and industry-specific costs paid by the company," the analyst said.

Devitt named four reasons why he recommends Lyft:  

Lyft is solving real consumer frictions in personal transportation with a technology-centric model.

The company has a long-term strategic focus led by company founders.

Lyft addresses large potential profit pools in the personal transportation industry.

The company has a unique strategic asset with long-term optionality from investments in non-core areas.

www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/...r-whats-in-store-for-2020

BlueVine Introduces BlueVine Business Banking, Designed for Today’s Small Businesses

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 28, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MONEY 20/20 USA -- BlueVine, a leader in providing access to online working capital for small businesses, today announced the launch of BlueVine Business Banking, a new banking service built specifically for small businesses. BlueVine Business Banking simplifies and enhances the banking experience for today’s small businesses by providing a smart, easy-to-use dashboard and BlueVine Business Debit Mastercard® to manage everyday finances along with 1.00% interest on their balance and zero monthly fees.

“BlueVine is one of the few fintech’s that has successfully managed to launch and scale multiple financing products to SMBs, reaching an impressive milestone of over $2 billion in loans funded,” said Tyler Sosin, Partner at Menlo Ventures. “As the company has grown so has its ambitions to revolutionize SMB finance. It has become abundantly clear that banking – tightly woven with their credit products – is the logical next step.”

With the addition of BlueVine Business Banking, BlueVine aims to solve a broader set of financial needs for small businesses, making it easier for small businesses to grow, access, and manage their funds on their terms.

“Credit is a core part of banking and with the addition of checking accounts to our existing suite of financing products, customers can have a truly seamless banking experience,” said Eyal Lifshitz, CEO and co-founder of BlueVine. “Our vision is to have one banking platform to serve all the financial needs for small business owners.”

www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/...ll-Businesses.html

July 4, 2019

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, 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.”

disruptive.asia/rakuten-cashless-experiment/

Rakuten ist Kunde und einer der Eigner von Altiostar

Firm valuation
$456m - $684m (Dealroom.co estimates May 2019)

app.dealroom.co/companies/altiostar_networks

Everledger Closes $20M Series A Led By Tencent Everledger wraps up Series A to build transparency, traceability and sustainability into global supply chains.

LONDON, Sept 24, 2019 - (Media OutReach) - UK-based technology company Everledger announced today that it has completed its USD20 million Series A funding. The round comes to a close with the backing of Tencent Holdings Ltd, China's leading internet-based services provider. Graphene Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Rakuten, Fidelity and Vickers Venture Partners have also participated. Leanne Kemp, founder and CEO of Everledger, said: "Today's announcement amplifies our commitment to global markets, whilst fuelling our industry momentum as we continue to build Everledger. Having this strong investor cohort join us at this stage in our development is both validation of the innovation we've displayed to date, and a statement of future intent. They will support us in bringing more visibility to good business practices in industries that impact millions, if not billions of people in developing countries."

www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/...m-series-a-led-by-tencent

6 DECEMBER 2019
NEWS
ALROSA and Everledger introduce WeChat programme for blockchain-enabled diamonds
By Yoana Cholteeva

Rough diamonds producer ALROSA and technology company Everledger have introduced a Mini Program e-commerce solution on one of the largest social platforms WeChat to help Chinese retailers track the origin of diamonds.

The software enables the purchase of diamonds with full transparency of their origin, characteristics, and ownership history.

The WeChat Mini Program pilot will showcase diamonds from ALROSA, enabling traceability from mine to consumer. It will also be offered as a white label API for jewellery manufacturers and retailers in China who wish to provide consumers with more insightful stories about their products and brand, and to expand their e-commerce proposition.

ALROSA head of diamonds Pavel Vinikhin said “We are delighted to support this WeChat Mini Program with Everledger, as it reinforces our pursuit for sustainable mining and transparent supply chain information. Chinese consumers will be certain of the origin of their diamonds. We believe demonstrating full provenance of our diamonds on the most popular social media platform will help us to further strengthen our sales base in China.”

www.mining-technology.com/news/...lockchain-enabled-diamonds/

financefeeds.com/...olls-new-version-marketspeed-ii-platform/

Rakuten Group's number of member IDs increased from 2014-2019 68.1 million in Q3/14 to 107 million in Q2/19

Published by Statista Research Department, Sep 30, 2019

In the second quarter of 2019, the number of Rakuten member IDs amounted to approximately 107 million. The most recent figure constitutes an increase of about 8.4 percent compared to second quarter of the previous year. The Japanese e-commerce company is headquartered in Tokyo, where it was founded in 1997.

www.statista.com/statistics/223349/rakuten-members/

und muss irgendwann auch wieder gedeckt werden:

The shares of Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT) are down 4.1% to trade at $45.97 today, after it received a bear note from KeyBanc. While reiterating a "sector weight" rating, analyst Andy Hargreaves posed data that suggested the ride-sharing app's customer growth was fading, and could continue to "slow materially" unless Lyft can broaden its use cases.

However, short interest increased by 12% in the two most recent reporting periods, and now accounts for almost 9% of LYFT's total available float. Thus, its possible some of these calls could be shorts seeking an options hedge against any additional upside.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...tml?.tsrc=fin-srch&guccounter=1

Shortselling. Denn das nicht legale nackte Shorten taucht nicht in offiziellen Zahlen auf, ist aber leicht möglich, weil Verkäufer nur ein Kreuz machen müssen, ob sie liefern können oder nicht. Kontrolliert wird das von der SEC nicht, es sei denn man stößt in Ermittlungen in anderen Zusammenhängen zufällig darauf.

Rakuten Wallet Launches Service for Exchanging Rakuten Super Points for Crypto Assets

Tokyo, December 24, 2019 – Rakuten Wallet Inc., a consolidated subsidiary of Rakuten Group and operator of a crypto asset (virtual currency) exchange business, today announced that it has launched a service that enables users to convert Rakuten Super Points from Rakuten Group’s loyalty points program to crypto assets.

This new service allows Rakuten users in Japan who have a Rakuten Wallet account and have earned Rakuten Super Points to convert their loyalty points to crypto assets available on Rakuten Wallet: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Rakuten Super Points can be exchanged from amounts of 100 Rakuten Super Points and above. To use this service, customers can log in to the app, and, after choosing “Points Exchange,” select the target exchange currency and amount. One Rakuten Super Point is equivalent to one yen when converted to crypto assets.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2019/...orp%20ec%20fintech

ATB is Getting Closer to Customers: The Chain Launches Chatbot on Viber
02 December 2019

ATB, the largest Ukrainian retailer, has launched a chatbot on Viber, one of the most famous and popular secure messaging applications. ATBOT will show customers directions to the nearest stores, tell them about discounts on products and open vacancies, help them get connected to a hotline operator. The bot is available to all Viber users who wish to be kept up-to-date with the latest ATB chain news.

“About 4 million Ukrainians shop at more than 1000 ATB stores throughout Ukraine every day. We needed a tool that would enable us to be always in contact with our customers. We are happy to cooperate with Viber, thanks to which the ATB stores are now accessible to customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said Borys Markov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, ATB Corporation CEO.

corezoid.com/blog/atb-chatbot/

www.rakuten.co.jp/ec/sellinjapan/