Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

"Rakuten TV ist die erste Video-on-Demand-Plattform in Europa, die die TVOD (Transactional Video-on-Demand), AVOD (Advertising Video-on-Demand) und SVOD (Subscription Video-on-Demand) miteinander kombiniert und seinen Nutzern ein Universum an Inhalten nur einen Klick entfernt bietet.
Während der TVOD-Dienst von Rakuten TV ein echtes Kinoerlebnis mit den aktuellen Neuerscheinungen verfügbar macht, bietet der AVOD-Dienst eine Reihe von kostenlosen Themenkanälen an, darunter Movies, Euronews, Kids TV, Viki, Dokus und Rakuten Stories. Auf der Abonnementseite bietet die Plattform den internationalen SVOD-Dienst STARZPLAY als Premium-Anbieter von Filmen und TV-Serien.

Rakuten TV ist in 43 Ländern verfügbar und gehört zu Rakuten Inc., einem der weltweit führenden Internet-Service-Unternehmen, das eine Vielzahl von Dienstleistungen für Verbraucher und Unternehmen mit den Schwerpunkten E-Commerce, Fintech und digitalen Inhalten anbietet. Rakuten, mit Hauptsitz in Japan, ist auch für seine Partnerschaften mit dem FC Barcelona, der NBA, den Golden State Warriors, dem Davis Cup und dem Spartan Race bekannt."

sumikai.com/movie/...ick-in-japans-nationalsport-sumo-288434/

Japan’s surprising potential for e-commerce growth

1 week ago

“Rakuten Ichiba’s GMS (gross merchandise sales) for December last year grew around 50% year on year,” he reported. “And it’s looking like GMS growth for January will also be tracking at this level.”

Mikitani argues that this is part of a larger digital trend in Japan. “I believe we can keep a reasonably high growth rate. The reason for that is that Japan still has an extremely low rate of online shopping compared to the rest of the world, at just 6.76%,” he revealed. “That rate in China, for example, is over 20% — and in America too.”

For the Rakuten Ichiba merchants wondering how the new business would fit into Rakuten Group’s overall strategy, Mikitani had some good news. “Rakuten Mobile is in fact bringing many completely new users to the Rakuten Ecosystem,” he reported. “Many of these new users have made their first purchases on Rakuten Ichiba, used Rakuten Card for the first time, or opened an account with Rakuten Bank, showing us that they are beginning to engage with the Rakuten Ecosystem.”

Among Rakuten Mobile subscribers, Mikitani also reported an uptick of 44% in monthly spending on Rakuten Ichiba.

rakuten.today/blog/rakuten-new-year-conference-2021.html

Nika Lazo, ABS-CBN News
Posted at Feb 11 2021 06:09 PM

MANILA - Viber users who order food on the chat app's FoodPH directory can now pay for their orders using Gcash.

Viber, Globe myBusiness and GCash announced the partnership on Thursday, which allows online payments to FoodPH sellers via QR codes from GCash.

FoodPH is Viber's new directory of mom-and-pop food sellers. Customers can search for a specific type of food, a certain cuisine, or look for a dish based on location on FoodPH. Viber's message bot then directs them to sellers of these products.

"We have the ambition for Viber to move beyond just calls and messages and make its way towards becoming an all-in-one app that fits right into the lifestyles of our users, with no compromise to our users' privacy and safety," the Viber executive said.

GCash said the mobile wallet and payments app has more than 33 million active users and is serving close to 1 million social sellers.

news.abs-cbn.com/business/02/11/21/...-foodph-online-payments

Win your upcoming marketing campaigns using Viber Chatbots

Priya B.
Feb 4·

With time, businesses are increasing their efforts towards bringing digital communication to keep up with global trends. Customers are also expecting ways to communicate with their favorite brands on their preferred channels. Digital communication brings advantages like strong relationships, seamless availability, and higher engagement with customers and prospects. Viber Business Messenger is one of the best communication channels including all these qualities for your business as well as for your customers.

Viber is a platform of a massive global audience and one of the most secured ones which are kind of the biggest benefit of it. Customers are already familiar with this application and according to one research, more than 1 billion users are using this app already from 193 countries. 30% of this audience uses Viber for sending stickers, 50% use it to send photos and videos, and more.
Well, these were some most liked features by Viber users for their personal use but if we talk about business, there are many marketing tools that you can use to increase your brand loyalty using Viber combining with a Chatbot.

Chatbots have been on the trend for a couple of years now. And the adoption of this amazing tool is increasing day by day. A chatbot can bring a new way for businesses to communicate with their audiences, prospects, and most importantly with their customers with the help of the exploding popularity of messaging apps like Viber. You can personalize your brand communication using Viber chatbot using amazing Viber marketing tools including Viber In-App Search, Viber Scan Codes, Viber Advertising, and Viber Stickers.

priyab15.medium.com/...igns-using-viber-chatbots-4476c99bcf1c

FY2020 Shopping GTV strong growth despite pandemic of +21.9%YoY
Shopping GTV hit JPY 11.6tn, maintaining positive growth despite the pandemic, and returned to pre-COVID-19 growth rates.

Shopping GTV market share in Japan expanded to 19.5%
No. 1 in Japan in terms of shopping GTV share since 2017.
Demonstrated strength during the pandemic, and further expanded the share.

FY2020 Rakuten Card membership hit 21 million (+13.5% YoY)
Expanded the customer base and continued to accelerate membership acquisition

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/
Downloads/20Q4videoPPT_E.pdf

„The credit card industry in 2020 was affected by the pandemic, and since, the GTV dropped significantly, it had continued to grow negatively. However, Rakuten Card maintained positive growth even driving the pandemic and had already recovered to pre-pandemic level. As a result, we have further widened the gap in the growth, right, with marketing and are one step ahead in the cash side.

We also continued to expand our customer base. We increased by 2.56 million card members in 2020. This means that 1 in 4 credit card issued last year are Rakuten Card. Even after Rakuten Card become #1 in shopping transaction volume in 2017, it continued to grow our market average, and its share expanded to about 20% at the end of the last year. We can expect a big leap when offering consumption activities such as travel and dining returns in the future.

In 2021, Rakuten Card will continue to focus on expanding its customer base, promote its in shopping and strengthen the relationship with customers. I'm confident that when offering consumption returns, our share of the cashless market can expand right away. The asset business, such as shopping revolving and cashing, should also make a big leap in 2021. We will continue to expand our business and create further shareholder value.“

seekingalpha.com/article/...-results-earnings-call-transcript

FY2020: Reached 9.91mm accounts = +20.0% YoY
First online bank in Japan to reach 10 million accounts, January 2021

FY2020: Achieved 5tn yen deposits (Rakuten Bank non-consolidated) = +46.2% YoY
Record accumulation of 1tn Yen in 6 months

Q4/2020: Significant increase in number of transactions +42.2% YoY
Steady growth in use as customers' main account

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/
Downloads/20Q4videoPPT_E.pdf

Artikel über Rakuten:

Japan's Rakuten vows to stay in mobile battle after record loss
Online shopping boost from pandemic offset by investment in telecoms network

First Message
"We have no intention to stay in the number four position," Mikitani said during an online conference. "Rakuten has almost 22 million credit card users," he said. "I want more [mobile subscribers] than cards." Subscriptions for the mobile service hit 2.5 million applications as of Feb. 8.

Second Message
But Mikitani said the impact from rivals' new offerings were "limited" and that Rakuten's own revamp has accelerated the pace of user acquisition. Before the launch of the new plan, Mikitani had said the mobile business would break even at around seven million subscribers, a target it expects to reach in 2023. Becoming a serious competitor in the mobile market would not only help Rakuten establish a new cash cow, but also lure new customers into its suite of online services.

Third Message
Succeeding at home is also be key to reviving its global ambitions. The company has scaled back its e-commerce business from Asia in recent years amid intense competition. Mikitani said the telecommunications infrastructure business, Rakuten Communication Platform, is attracting strong interest from overseas telecom companies as a potential alternative to existing providers Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson. "Rakuten will sell the platform built from the mobile business," he said, drawing a comparison to Amazon's cloud business.

asia.nikkei.com/Business/...n-mobile-battle-after-record-loss

Outraged by WhatsApp’s privacy update, Viber’s CEO calls on users to seek alternatives
In stark contrast with WhatsApp’s slippery slope on data privacy, Viber has led by example, implementing core features to ensure user data is safe and secure

"The recent outrageous update in WhatsApp's privacy policy reduces the term 'privacy' to a laughing stock. The update not only demonstrates how meaningless user privacy is to WhatsApp, but it seems like a new record in disrespecting users record it will no doubt keep breaking in the future. Today, I'm prouder than ever in Viber's privacy policy, calling all men and women who see themselves as more than just data to be sold to the highest bidder, to move their messaging and calls to Viber," said Djamel Agaoua, CEO of Rakuten Viber.

tbsnews.net/tech/...-ceo-calls-users-seek-alternatives-185707

Rakuten’s Mobile business is growing and financing plans are solid

CEO Mikitani shares story behind Rakuten’s record-breaking growth
11 hours ago

Other telco carriers have recently significantly reduced prices. Was this in line with your expectations? Rakuten also announced a new plan, but what other response do you plan at this point?

With other companies, you have to apply online and you only get 20GB, so the plans are quite restrictive. There are many different brands, and people who do not use much data are paying expensive mobile service fees. We are looking to democratize mobile fees, so our plan is very simple.

Our new service plan looks aggressive, but the current pace of subscriber acquisition numbers is several times higher than before. I think it was a smart decision, considering that the cost of acquiring customers will also decrease. The investment plan is mostly in line with original plans. So, our financing plans are solid.

rakuten.today/blog/fy2020-financial-results-ceo-interview.html

CEO Mikitani: Some good news about RCPin the near future

What kind of earnings contribution do you expect from RCP in the future?

Let’s look at Amazon as an example. It has two pillars: E-Commerce and AWS. Their revenue structure is such that cloud services generate the earnings to fuel growth of the e-commerce business. In Rakuten’s case, building on the Rakuten Mobile base, RCP will be a platform for overseas expansion, and the software we’ve developed will be offered for sale to various overseas companies. It’s hard to say at this stage whether mobile or RCP will ultimately generate more profits, but RCP may generate revenue that is equal to or better than the Mobile business.

At this stage, we are already seeing increasing sales of RCP software, in the form of OSS (open source software) and other software solutions, to clients in more than a dozen countries around the world. I think we may have some good news to share in the near future regarding mobile networks built solely with RCP.

rakuten.today/blog/fy2020-financial-results-ceo-interview.html

Please tell me your thoughts on M&A.

Ten years ago, Rakuten was a business model company. But now we are a technology company. Therefore, M&A to acquire specific technologies may increase in the future.

rakuten.today/blog/fy2020-financial-results-ceo-interview.html

Viber vs WhatsApp: Which One is Better Suited to Your Needs in 2021

By Yasir Nawaz

January 6, 2021

www.purevpn.com/blog/viber-vs-whatsapp/

Rakuten : U.S. regulator issues final rule unveiling non-bank's path to deposit license approval
12/15/2020 | 05:00pm GMT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal banking regulator on Tuesday finalized new rules that should make it easier for non-bank companies to acquire a banking license, paving the way for a slew of technology companies to compete more effectively with traditional banks.

FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams has said she is willing to consider new charters eyed by fintech firms like Square Inc and retailers such as Rakuten Inc, which have both submitted applications.

www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/...ense-approval-32018242/

“With Virtual RAN (vRAN), network functions are virtualized, breaking down silos and minimizing CAPEX and OPEX.” — Anil Bhandari, Vice President of Product Management, Altiostar

For Communications Service Providers (CSPs), there’s a lot of momentum around virtual and open radio access networks (vRAN/Open RAN), but it’s important to first understand the concept. Traditional RAN architectures are proprietary and closed solutions, and this hinders the innovation necessary to rapidly offer new mobile services or scale them as user demands change over time and location.

With open and virtualized RAN, proprietary and expensive hardware are replaced, and you disaggregate the RAN architecture, now providing open interfaces and an ecosystem in which many vendors and solution providers can innovate.

Virtual radio access networks (vRAN) apply the principles of network function virtualization (NFV), whereby the RAN network functions are now virtualized and deployed on cloud platforms. It brings the benefits of cloud and the ability to take a platform-centric approach by deploying RAN network functions on an agile, scalable and hybrid platform. This breaks down silos and minimizes CAPEX and OPEX.

Another important benefit of a vRAN is that network functions can be flexibly deployed as needed, more dynamically. This is key — especially in the context of 5G — to support higher cell and device density and a wide variety of use cases not limited to physical network functions.

www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/...-cloud-network-automation-altiostar

Growing interest in Open vRAN from brownfield mobile operators

At Altiostar, we’ve seen a growing interest in Open vRAN from brownfield mobile operators. In fact, our trials and other engagements with these carriers has more than quadrupled in the last year, far outpacing the number of greenfield prospects in our pipeline.

This increase in interest comes in the face of market skepticism from some in the industry around the challenge of integrating Open vRAN into an already established proprietary network. Open vRAN supports features for co-existence with existing 2G, 3G and 4G deployments. Also, with Open vRAN deployments in the densest of networks such as in Japan, it has been clearly proven that Open vRAN works across both 4G and 5G.

With greenfield Open vRAN deployments taking place around the world, existing MNOs are starting to feel the financial pressure of competing against these new, lower cost networks. Open vRAN realizes these cost benefits from the use of COTS hardware, automation features, and a thriving and growing open ecosystem that offers real competition, helping to drive down network costs.

Existing MNOs have also been adjusting to the profit margin squeeze that has come from skyrocketing demand for data services which requires network upgrades that haven’t yielded significant increases in average revenue per user (ARPU). This trend will only continue as higher speed 5G networks become ubiquitous. This means that operators need to find ways to reduce their costs. Open vRAN, with its support for automation, will help brownfield operators bring down OpEx.

www.thefastmode.com/expert-opinion/...-in-brownfield-networks

5 Strategies to Make 2021 the Year that Open vRAN is Widely Deployed in Brownfield Networks

For all of its societal and pandemic challenges, 2020 will also go down as the year when Open vRAN took off as the foundation for next-generation 4G/5G networks.

Part of that success is the extensive attention given to the Rakuten Mobile network, a greenfield network that launched in April 2020 as the first nationwide wireless network based on open RAN software.

But the understated story of the year is the number of brownfield carriers who are looking to apply the technology as they buildout their existing network. Over the last year a growing number of these operators began carefully integrating this new technology into their existing networks.

This work doesn’t grab headlines, but I think it will lead to significant deployments in 2021.
Integrating Open RAN with legacy networks takes planning. While each network is different, there are some common themes, as I wrote in an article published in “The Fast Mode.”

Here are five strategies that can simplify the adoption of open RAN by brownfield operators:

• Conduct a 4G Open vRAN trial in single geography to support growth or support for a new frequency band.

• Use Open vRAN in 4G/5G greenfield network expansion projects.

• Follow Open vRAN blueprints set up by companies like Altiostar that pre-validate all the elements needed for an end-to-end solution to enable quick deployment.

• Build Open vRAN 5G network which, by definition, is a greenfield network opportunity as legacy RAN equipment doesn’t support 5G.

• Build Open vRAN 5G on top of existing LTE network for non-standalone networks as capacity expansion on top of existing LTE network.

These are the highlights of the more detailed strategies that I proposed in my article. As brownfield operators use these strategies to prove out the benefits of Open RAN in their networks, expect to hear more about deployments and adoption of the framework in 2021.

www.altiostar.com/...-widely-deployed-in-brownfield-networks/

Virtualizing and disaggregating RANs give communication service providers (CSPs) the freedom to work with new suppliers, boost innovation and differentiation and utilize new operating models. Network operators can also reduce their investment while lowering operating expenses (OpEx), as well as increasing flexibility and automation. To help aid this progress, Red Hat and Altiostar have expanded our work together so that virtualized and containerized RAN can be deployed with infrastructure, application and service automation. Altiostar has helped Red Hat develop the necessary components for running virtualized and containerized RAN and creating the necessary automation framework to support commercial deployment and reduce OpEx for operators. This collaboration delivers:

• The introduction of our infrastructure and workload automation framework for a container-based RAN reference architecture that allows a consistent approach to a disaggregated RAN - for both our customer and partner ecosystem

• Full RAN functionality using cloud-native network functions (CNF) infrastructure from Red Hat and Open vRAN software from Altiostar

• Cooperation on certification, integration and interoperability of Altiostar’s 4G and 5G based virtualized RAN (vRAN) and cloud RAN (cRAN) products with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift

www.redhat.com/en/blog/...uture-ran?sc_cid=701f2000001ORkmAAG

Von Rita Deutschbein und Adrian Mühlroth | 11. Februar 2021, 14:40 Uhr

WhatsApp nimmt es mit dem Datenschutz nicht so ernst, das wissen wir mittlerweile. Doch auch die lange Zeit als gute Alternative gehandelte App Telegram zeigt hier Probleme. TECHBOOK stellt vier Apps vor, bei denen Ihre Daten sicher sind.

Viber
Mehr als eine Milliarde Nutzer sollen Viber weltweit schon verwenden. Ursprünglich wurde die App für Anrufe via Internet geschaffen, inzwischen steht sie anderen Messengern aber in nichts nach. Nutzer finden alle gängigen Funktionen von WhatsApp auch bei Viber, wie das Senden von Nachrichten, Bildern, Dokumenten und Videos. Auch Audio- und Videoanrufe sind möglich sowie große Gruppenchats, die Communities genannt werden.

Mit der eigenen Sicherheit wirbt Viber: „Dank einer End-to-End-Verschlüsselung werden sämtliche Daten, die du teilst, immer zwischen dir und der Person, mit der du sprichst, verbleiben. Das bedeutet, dass du nicht zweimal darüber nachdenken musst, was du auf Viber teilen kannst und was nicht.“

Das macht Viber zur besseren Alternative zu WhatsApp und Telegram

Nutzer haben die Möglichkeit, selbstzerstörende Chats zu verwenden. Dabei löschen sich ausgewählte Nachrichten nach dem Lesen automatisch. Die Communities erlauben Chats mit unbegrenzt vielen Mitgliedern. All das macht Viber zu einem schöneren Messenger-Erlebnis.

Download: iPhone/Android

www.techbook.de/apps/die-besten-alternativen-zu-whatsapp

O-RAN ALLIANCE kündigt virtuellen MW-Open Summit und Demonstrationen der O-RAN-Technologie auf der MWC Shanghai 2021 an

Altiostar hat sich mit Airtel und NEC zusammengetan, um Interoperabilitätstests und die Integration von massiven MIMO-Funkeinheiten (O-RU) und virtualisierten verteilten Einheiten (O-DU) zu demonstrieren, die auf handelsüblichen Servern (COTS) ausgeführt werden. Die Demonstration bietet eine kommerzielle End-to-End-Open-Fronthaul-Schnittstelle, die auf O-RAN-Spezifikationen basiert.

basic-tutorials.de/...chnologie-auf-der-mwc-shanghai-2021-an/

FY2020 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Consolidated Financial Results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvc7fim1Jxs

zum besseren Verständnis: Untertitel aktivieren!

Viber is the most popular messenger among Kyivstar subscriber

17 FEBRUARY , 2021

The mobile operator Kyivstar has analyzed the popularity of messengers, social networks and platforms among Ukrainians.

According to the company’s report, the study used generalized and anonymized data on mobile data traffic in the operator’s network.

According to the operator, Viber is the most popular messenger among Kyivstar subscribers – 12 million subscribers of the operator use it monthly. Next in the ranking are Facebook Messenger with 11 million users, Telegram with 6 million and WhatsApp with about 5 million.

“The most popular social platforms are Facebook and YouTube, they are monthly used by about 13 million Kyivstar subscribers. Instagram is used by 10 million people. Unexpectedly, Twitter ranks third with 7 million, and TikTok closes the list of leaders with 5.5 million,” Kyivstar said.

open4business.com.ua/...s-use-viber-and-facebook-most-of-all/

Rakuten Mobile is part of the broader Rakuten ecosystem that encompasses e-commerce, online finance, communications and digital content. We spread the cost of providing connectivity across a broad portfolio of services. Once a potential customer receives free connectivity, they might buy something from our internet shopping mall Rakuten Ichiba or sign up for a digital payment service. Members of the Rakuten ecosystem in Japan can access over 70 services ranging from payment to digital content and travel – through a single ID. For each purchase, they receive loyalty points that can be used on online services or in our partners’ offline shops, like the local convenience store. We are convinced that the additional business across our ecosystem of services will allow free connectivity to be sustainable.

The second reason we can offer free internet access builds on our revolutionary mobile network. Until now, a few vendors dominated mobile infrastructure, offering cost-consuming, vertical, top-down, proprietary systems. Rakuten Mobile has built and launched the world’s first large-scale commercial open-architecture network. Our network is constructed from off-the-shelf parts powered by cloud computing. Open RAN technologies give us the flexibility to separate the software from the hardware and to promote healthy competition between vendors, driving innovation and more attractive pricing to the customers. The new network’s advantages are clear: Our total cost of ownership is 40% lower than that of conventional mobile networks.

rakuten.today/blog/...sh-human-potential-internet-access.html

Ligado is in a great position to work with Rakuten Mobile

23 OCT 2020

US satellite communications company Ligado Networks raised $3.85 billion to fuel plans to deploy 5G services using L-band spectrum, moving ahead with the effort despite continued opposition from critics.

The company stated the funding will allow it to strengthen strategic partnerships with industry players including chipset designers, device manufacturers and network infrastructure providers. It added the money will also go toward integrating IoT technology into its satellite service capabilities and developing an “innovative private network solution” for the enterprise and industrial sectors.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported Ligado Networks was seeking fresh funding from investors to avoid filing for bankruptcy for a second time, as it faced the maturation of substantial debt amassed in recent years while it waited for approval from regulators to move ahead with its L-Band scheme.

It filed for bankruptcy under its previous name, LightSquared, in 2012, emerging from protection in 2015 and setting its current path in 2016. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved Ligado Networks’ 5G plan in April, though several US government agencies and aerospace groups subsequently petitioned the regulator to reverse course.

With funding and FCC approval secured, Ligado Networks CEO Doug Smith said the company is “in a great position to work with the industry to get this spectrum deployed for 5G”, adding “now the fun begins”.

www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/...ding-boost-for-5g

Tokyo & London, February 19, 2021 – Rakuten, Inc., global leader in internet services, today announced that it has become a Patron of the British Fashion Council (BFC).

The partnership announced today represents another important step for Rakuten to further strengthen its branding in the global fashion industry and collaborate with leading fashion brands, designers and events.

London Fashion Week is one of the “Big Four” international Fashion Weeks, alongside New York, Milan and Paris. Rakuten partnered with the Japan Fashion Week Organization to become the headline sponsor for TOKYO Fashion Week in August 2019, renaming the event to Rakuten Fashion Week TOKYO.

Rakuten has consistently grown its fashion footprint in recent years. Rakuten acquired ShopStyle in 2017, the leading fashion and lifestyle shopping platform for influencers and consumers, and has been a participant in the European Commission’s first memorandum of understanding to fight counterfeits for 10 years. In addition to becoming the title sponsor of Rakuten Fashion Week TOKYO in 2019, the company launched the “by R” program to support Japanese fashion brands and designers in September 2020.

Since launching its “Rakuten Fashion” strategy in 2019 aimed at promoting Japan’s fashion scene globally, Rakuten aims to become a facilitator of exchange between cultures, apparel designers, both small and large, to empower the global fashion industry.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/update/2021/0219_01.html