Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Strong expansion of Rakuten Symphony in India and Europe

Juan Pedro Tomás July 25, 2022

Including locations in Bengaluru and Indore, Rakuten Symphony says that its employee base in India has grown to over 3,300 in less than one year through acquisitions and organic growth, and there are plans to further expand headcount over the coming years through recruitment in the fields of Open RAN, cloud, automation, data and telecom standards.

In February, Rakuten Symphony had announced the expansion of its operations across the U.K., France and Germany.

The Japanese company noted that this expansion will allow the firm to support the business operations and growth in the European market and collaboration with operators and vendors in this region.

www.rcrwireless.com/20220725/open_ran/...-lab-india-next-year

Excellent backed from e-commerce segment: High Growth, Solid Margins

It makes sense to start from the e-commerce segment as this is also where Rakuten started in the late 90s. The company started with only 6 people back then and now employs 20,000 people.

The e-commerce segment, known in Japan as Rakuten Ichiba, includes 50,000 merchants. These merchants pay for accessing Rakuten customers through a mix of fixed “subscriptions” and a percentage fee on each sale.

Rakuten also operates a few other marketplaces abroad (obtained during a period of aggressive acquisitions), notably in France, but these foreign ventures did not earn as expected. They are not losing money, but they also failed to turn Rakuten into a truly global actor. They seem to have become an afterthought for the Group, which is now fully focused on the Japanese market.

Rakuten controls 25% of the Japanese e-commerce sector. Gross Transaction Value (GTV) on Rakuten’s retail platform is showing no sign of slowing down, with an 18% year-to-year growth in 2020. Over the last 5 years, the average growth was 12%.

Japan is a surprisingly offline market for a developed economy, with less than 9% of retail purchases done online. This is to compare to the 12%-20% for other advanced economies like the USA, China, and Korea. Cashless transactions are similarly very low at 20-25% only and expected to almost double in the next 5-10 years.

Overall, this paints the picture of a generally offline economy, maybe not so surprising considering Japan’s demography. This is one of the most rapidly aging societies on Earth, with a very low birth rate for decades. The next two decades should see a radical transformation where digital natives are finally becoming the majority of consumers. This should speed up the transfer of more economic activities online, from retail to banking to insurance and entertainment.

finmasters.com/...en-stock-research-report/#ecommerce-segment

xtrend.nikkei.com/atcl/contents/watch/00013/01899/

Audiobooks Market Size is expected to Reach at USD 33,538 Million by 2030, Registering a CAGR of 26.5%, Owing to Increasing Number of Younger and Adult Listeners

TOKYO, July 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Audiobooks Market size Accounted for USD 4,159 Million in 2021 and is predicted to be worth USD 33,538 Million by 2030, with a CAGR of 26.5% during the Forthcoming Period from 2022 to 2030.

Some of the prominent Audiobooks market companies is Audible, Inc, Rakuten Group, Inc., Apple Inc., Downpour, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., Storytel, Playster (Softonic International S.A.), Google LLC, and W.F.Howes Ltd.

www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/...ult-Listeners.html

Mean consensus: OUTPERFORM

Number of Analysts: 16

Last Close Price: 635,00 JPY

Average target price: 1 069,63 JPY

Spread / Average Target: 68,4%

High Price Target: 2 700,00 JPY

Low Price Target: 520,00 JPY

www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/...-INC-6814873/consensus/

New Research Forecasts Metaverse Growth up to $5 trillion in value by 2030

LISA GIBBONS JUN 16, 2022

The report details five industries that are already engaged in metaverse activities, including: fashion, financial services, telecommuncaiotns, media and technology. It notes that these are the industries "most likely to harness the metaverse for both consumer and business uses, where we believe it can generate impact across the value chain."

www.blockleaders.io/news/...up-to-5-trillion-in-value-by-2030

JULY 28, 2022 • CHRISTOPHER DOBROTH

Analyze a successful ecommerce business, and you’ll likely uncover vital partnerships and external selling channels. I’ve managed online companies since 2006. I’ve learned the value of trusted affiliates, niche marketplaces, loyal customers, and reliable vendors.

Affiliate Networks

Affiliate marketing remains a mainstay for many merchants. It has experienced a recent boom with the rise of influencers, who often earn commissions from sales.

There are many potential affiliate platforms to partner with. Examples include CJ Affiliate, Impact Radius, HitPath, Publisher Finders, and Rakuten Advertising. All have many publisher connections. At Lighting Reimagined, my current employer, we use Rakuten. It helps us find suitable affiliates and provides tools for managing commissions, payments, and more.

Affiliate networks facilitate relationships. The publisher will not succeed if the merchant’s offer is poor. A merchant’s offer fails if the publisher does not generate relevant traffic.

A robust affiliate program generates additional online exposure for your products and business. The best affiliate relationships are long-term — nurtured and managed for joint success.

www.practicalecommerce.com/no-ecommerce-company-is-island

Additional to my last posting about the audiobooks market - Positive for Rakuten Kobo too

The Global Online Books Services Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 6.2% from 2021 to 2028 and expected to reach the market value of around USD 27.1 Billion by 2028.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...-size-expected-reach-230000185.html

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. Viber ensures our 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. It is the official instant messaging and calling app partner of the NBA's Golden State Warriors.

www.yahoo.com/now/...cted-rakuten-vibers-first-070000695.html

Messaging app Viber launches Payments, a new digital wallet for paying bills, money transfers and buying goods

Ingrid Lunden@ingridlunden / 2:26 PM GMT+2•July 26, 2022

Viber, the messaging app owned by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, has long been dancing around the area of fintech, launching services like money transfer and chatbot payments in various countries over the years. Now it is making a move to double down on that strategy: it’s launching Payments on Viber — a new service that will let users set up digital wallets tied to their Viber accounts.

Linked to other bank accounts as well as Visa and Mastercard, Payments wallets can in turn be used to make bill payments and buy goods, as well as transfer money to other individuals. Peer-to-peer transfers will be the first of these services to launch, and these will be free. Services like payments to businesses likely will have some fees attached.

The service is being launched first in two markets — Germany and Greece — with the plan being to extend that to the rest of Europe, and then Viber’s wider global footprint of 180 countries, this year and next.

techcrunch.com/2022/07/26/...A5hmxZCnWvTbOoLJMQutUJC2v1i0laRC

POSTED ON MAY 16, 2022 BY ROBERT CURRAN

appledoreresearch.com/2022/05/16/...y-quarterly-update-q1-22/

Rakuten Securities Australia with high rating of 9.00/10
Rakuten Securities Australia has been given by WikiFX a high rating of 9.00/10. WikiFX gives brokers a score from 0 to 10. The higher the score is, the more reliable the broker is. Rakuten Securities Australia excels at all the key dimensions - license index, business index, risk management index, software index and regulatory index.

www.wikifx.com/en/newsdetail/202207291304441793.html

Rakuten Securities HK to launch volume-based ladder spreads

Maria Nikolova July 25, 2022

Forex and CFD broker Rakuten Securities HK plans to introduce a brand-new spread concept. The broker will launch new Volume-based Ladder Spreads on August 1, 2022.

The company will offer fixed spreads as low as 0.5 pips depending on one’s transaction size. The larger the transaction size, the tighter the fixed spread. The offer will be valid for selected currency pairs only.

The broker invites traders to stay tuned for further announcements on its website and social media pages.

fxnewsgroup.com/forex-news/retail-forex/...ed-ladder-spreads/

Rakuten Mobile’s plan is the cheapest offer for unlimited phone call + 3GB data

Unlimited Call Available+3GB available for ¥1,078

Phone call is a tricky factor in Japanese mobile plans. Unlike some countries, unlimited flat rate call is not provided in the mobile plan itself in most of the Japanese mobile plans. Usually, the call charge is either ¥22/30 sec. (MNO) or ¥11/30 sec. (MVNO) and depending on your needs you add a call option to your mobile phone plan. It also needs to be noted that not all the mobile providers offer an unlimited flat rate phone call option, though.

Rakuten Mobile gives a nice solution to this situation. Rakuten Mobile’s plan lets the user to call for free unlimitedly as long as they use Rakuten mobile’s special call app, called Rakuten Link.

Rakuten Link’s phone call service is provided through Rich Communication System (CRS), a different network protocol from the one used for the regular phone call (Volte). You might assume that you and the person you are calling both need to use Rakuten Link, but this is not the case. Even if you are calling somebody who is not using Rakuten Link, the phone call is for free.

One defect is the quality of the phone call with Rakuten Link is allegedly not as good as when you call with a regular phone call app. Whether the quality of the call is good enough is a subjective issue, and hence it largely depends on whether your expectation is high or not. One criterion, though, is that Rakuten Link’s call quality is putatively sufficient if you are happy with the quality of the voice call with Whatsapp, for example. So, if you have no problem with a Whataspp call, we highly recommend using Rakuten Mobile’s unlimited phone call offer.

selectra.jp/en/sim/best-offer-long-term-stays

Die Drillisch Netz AG und die 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH haben mit der Rakuten Symphony Singapore Pte. Ltd. (Rakuten) umfassende Verträge über eine langfristige Partnerschaft für den Aufbau des vierten Mobilfunknetzes in Deutschland geschlossen.

Drillisch Netz AG und 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH sind Tochter- bzw. Schwesterunternehmen der 1&1 AG (1&1).

Rakuten Symphony Singapore ist ein Tochterunternehmen der börsennotierten japanischen Rakuten Group, Inc. Gemeinsam mit Rakuten als Generalunternehmer wird 1&1 das europaweit erste vollständig virtualisierte, hochautomatisierte 5G-Mobilfunknetz auf Basis der innovativen OpenRAN-Technologie und einer cloud-basierten herstellerunabhängigen Netzarchitektur bauen. Rakuten übernimmt die Verantwortung für die Planung, den Aufbau und den Betrieb des 5G-Mobilfunknetzes von 1&1 mit Ausnahme bestimmter Teilkomponenten (z.B. Antennen-Standorte/passive Netzinfrastruktur, technischer Außendienst und Transportnetz), die von anderen Partnern von 1&1 oder von 1&1 Versatel beigesteuert werden.

globallegalchronicle.com/deutschland/2021/...-11-und-rakuten/

Daher wird nach meiner Einschätzung auch erstmals spätestens in Q3/2022 Geld von den beiden Gesellschaften von 1&1 zu Rakuten Symphony fließen.

Additional to my last posting about Symphony contract with flagship customer 1&1 in Germany

"The operation's Symphony contract with flagship customer 1&1 in Germany is worth between $2.3 billion and $2.7 billion over a ten-year period, reports Nikkei Asia."

www.lightreading.com/the-core/...or-investments/d/d-id/772501

Rakuten Viber to roll out new digital wallet

As per a McKinsey report, the global payments market, involving domestic transfers, credit card payments and others, is estimated to reach $2.5tn by 2025.

www.electronicpaymentsinternational.com/...-digital-payments/

Rakuten controls 55% of the total Japanese Internet advertising budget. In 2020 Rakuten’s advertising income overtook TV ad budgets. No less than 7 subdivisions of Rakuten deal with monetizing this data. At the moment, most of Japan’s economy is still offline and cash-based. With the segment growing at 8% a year and the younger generation slowly coming forward, the value of these data has enormous space for growth.

finmasters.com/rakuten-stock-research-report/

Rakuten (US) Rewards (formerly Ebates): quarterly gross merchandise sales (GMS) 2014-2022

Published by

Stephanie Chevalier

Jun 17, 2022

After growing continuously year-over-year since 2014, Rakuten Rewards' quarterly gross merchandise sales saw a drop in 2020 following the COVID-19 oubreak. Despite rebounding during the fourth quarter - benefited as every year from the holiday sales - Rakuten Rewards' GMS was still below pre-pandemic levels. As of the first quarter of 2022, it reached a value of about 2.51 billion U.S. dollars.

www.statista.com/statistics/586575/...chandise-sales-quarter/

RAKUTEN CAPITAL AND IDC VENTURES LEAD USD10M SERIES A FOR COLOMBIAN CREDIT AND CONSUMER REWARDS PLATFORM LEAL

March 31, 2022

lavca.org/2022/03/31/...t-and-consumer-rewards-platform-leal/

Rakuten has started offering cash back on Google Store purchases

The Google Store is one of the best places to pick up new Pixels, and just in time for the Pixel 6a and Pixel Buds Pro to go on pre-order, Rakuten has started offering cash back on Google Store purchases.

The “Rakuten Cash Back Button” is a browser extension that offers coupons and cash back from various online stores. Now, that cash back is available through the Google Store.

While we’re not 100% sure when it was added, Rakuten and the Google Store appear to have enabled cash back within the past few days. Buyers can activate Rakuten – so long as they’ve signed up for the service – on the page and redeem 2% cash back on any purchase. As pictured below, the Rakuten extension throws out a pop-up to notify users of the available cash back.

And really, that’s all that’s needed! After your purchase ships, Rakuten will process the 2% and pay it out to you once you’ve reached the payment threshold.

9to5google.com/2022/07/21/google-store-cash-back-rakuten/

Issuer: Rakuten Group, Inc.

Issue Amount (bn) Issue Date Due Date Coupon Rating

Bonds no. 21 JPY 150 June 13, 2022 June 13, 2025 0.72% A

www.jcr.co.jp/download/...ccc8f4bb97eefbb1c4384/22d0132_f.pdf

Rakuten is an important owner and an important client of AST SpaceMobile

Nokia and AST SpaceMobile building satellite network for regular cellphones

Bloomberg 29 July 2022

Nokia Oyj will provide equipment to connect AST SpaceMobile Inc. satellites to the global telecommunications network, creating a crucial link in a planned space-based broadband network designed to work with standard mobile phones, the companies said in a statement Thursday.

In addition to AirScale base stations, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia will provide its NetAct network management systems and technical support, the companies said.

Terms of the five-year deal with Austin, Texas-based AST SpaceMobile weren’t disclosed.

With BlueWalker 3 aloft, AST plans to conduct testing on five continents in coordination with mobile network operators such as Vodafone Group Plc, Rakuten Mobile and Orange SA.

AST SpaceMobile is among a group of companies vying to offer broadband from near space, a cohort that includes Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Inmarsat Group Holdings Ltd, and OneWeb Ltd., which recently agreed to combine with Eutelsat Communications SA.

“The key differentiator,” AST SpaceMobile said in its annual filing March 31, “is that we intend to connect our SpaceMobile service to standard, unmodified cellular phones without the requirement of special software, ground terminals or hardware.”

mybroadband.co.za/news/wireless/...or-regular-cellphones.html

Japan is one of the few regions where inflation is welcomed.

This should lead to some relative outperformance against other regions in the developed world.

www.schroders.com/en/uk/insurance/...estment-views-july-2022/