Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

Expect to see growing subscription numbers and increasing ARPU

CEO Mikitani in last earning call few day ago: „However, as of November, the numbers are quite good. And we would like to grow rapidly. ARPU, I would like to make a comment. Actually, it is growing quite well. 5G penetration is impacting and also ecosystem. This is growing as well. So please expect to see better numbers going forward.“

seekingalpha.com/article/...-q3-2022-earnings-call-transcript

Whatever the thing or situation might come, we do have good ecosystem to support solid growth

Unidentified Analyst: Net major company are struggling to grow. I think their growth is saturating -- their performance numbers are saturating. Do you think that would be happening in Japan as well?
Answer: Well, in United States, due to pandemic, people had been divulging online quite a lot. And there, kind of, reliance to online was much greater than Japan, and they had come back to offline basis. That is a huge impact in the United States.

Secondly, the online ratio originally had been quite high in United States -- online ratio is maybe two of Japan. And I think we had some boom because of the pandemic. However, the impact of significance of that is less than United States. So we -- we are growing steadily.

And Internet shopping penetration rate is probably half of United States market. Therefore, we still see the growth opportunity here. And travel, Rakuten Travel is recovering. So I am expecting the business to be quite sound. And we do have off-line ecosystem as well, point economy, credit card payment, it has the 23% market share, which is quite large, but we are aiming to 30%. So whatever the thing or situation might come, we do have good ecosystem to support solid growth.

seekingalpha.com/article/...-q3-2022-earnings-call-transcript

Unicorns in Portfolio: Cabify, Coda Payments, Acorns

Rakuten Capital Overview
Last updated: November 16, 2022
Founded Year2014
LocationTamagawa (Japan)
Portfolio Count61
Unicorns in Portfolio: Cabify, Coda Payments, Acorns

tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/...uiv39IpHTIJuY8g1msL2QeIToZy5w

In order to conduct communication tests between the test satellite launched by AST SpaceMobile and gateway earth stations in Japan and to perform preliminary verification with smartphones, Rakuten Mobile made applications to the Tohoku Telecommunications Bureau for a Gateway Experimental Test Station license (equivalent to a mobile base station) and to the Kanto Telecommunications Bureau for a Mobile Terminal Experimental Test Station license (equivalent to a portable mobile base station), and both applications have now been approved.

Upon receiving the licenses, Rakuten Mobile will begin to prepare a gateway earth station (equivalent to a mobile base station) in Fukushima Prefecture to test and verify direct communication between BlueWalker 3 and mobile devices in mountainous areas in Hokkaido.

To enable testing with Rakuten Mobile and other carriers, Rakuten Symphony will provide a variety of software from its Symworld product portfolio to AST SpaceMobile to be integrated into the company’s satellite system and enable the company’s space-based cellular broadband network. The software to be integrated includes Rakuten Symphony’s vRAN (virtualized Radio Access Network) software, OSS (Operations Support Systems) and BSS (Business Support Systems) software.

Rakuten Mobile will continue its efforts to expand Rakuten's coverage area and improve communication quality so that customers can enjoy comfortable and convenient communication services anywhere.

corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/...20221118_01_lang_en

www.onlinemarktplatz.de/216614/...r-rakuten-gruppe-q3-fy2022/

Read more at:
telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/...33318?redirect=1

A World Cup of Resilience: Tennis fans gear up for 2022 Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals

5 hours ago

rakuten.today/blog/...r-2022-davis-cup-by-rakuten-finals.html

zum Einsteigen oder Verbilligen.

Und man kann ja auch noch eine Dreiviertelstunde.

Rakuten Capital, the investment arm of the global leader in internet services spanning e-commerce, fintech, digital content and communication, to invest in DEA via share subscription rights

/EIN News/ -- SINGAPORE, Nov. 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Entertainment Asset (DEA), a Singapore-based global Web3 entertainment company that operates the PlayMining NFT gaming platform, announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Rakuten Group for a collaborative partnership in the Web3 domain. Additionally, Rakuten Group’s corporate venture capital arm Rakuten Capital is making a minority investment in DEA by subscribing to share acquisition rights.

www.einnews.com/pr_news/601939472/...orative-web3-partnership

Points, Points, Points from Rakuten Mobile

economical.co.jp/smartphone/2022/11/15/...imit-plan-campaign/

Software can‘t just support the business, it must become the business.

Guest OpEd from Geoff Hollingworth, CMO, Rakuten Symphony

17 November 2022

Telecom’s future depends on successfully shifting its centre of gravity from network hardware to software.

At Rakuten, we’ve done exactly this to achieve real transformation, exposing a critical secret we believe every telecoms operator should know: software can’t just support the business, it must become the business.

www.telcotitans.com/telcofutures/...-should-know/5775.article

Rakuten to Open New York City Pop-up for the Holidays

The 6,000-square-foot pop-up will take place at 666 Broadway on Nov. 12 and Nov. 13.

By LISA LOCKWOODP

NOVEMBER 8, 2022, 8:00AM

Rakuten, the shopping destination that offers cash back and rewards, will have its first in-person immersive pop-up experience in New York City.

Slated for Nov. 12 and 13, the 6,000-square-foot pop-up, dubbed “Sleigh Your Shopping,” takes place at 666 Broadway in NoHo. The pop-up will feature Rakuten’s breadth of retailers across beauty, fashion, wellness and other categories. Consumers will be able to shop for brands and get 10 percent cash back in-person at the event, as well as an additional 10 percent directly to their Rakuten account.

Among the brands that will be carried are Inbloom, JVH Hair, Favorite Daughter, Patrick Ta Beauty, Na For those not in New York, shoppers can earn 10 percent cash back from giftable brands by shopping Rakuten’s online holiday gifting destination, “The Holiday Edit,” from Thursday to Nov. 13. Among the “Holiday Gift” gifting lists are Kate Hudson’s wellness edit and Erin and Sara Foster’s

Since its founding in 1999, Rakuten’s members have earned $3.5 billion in cash back by shopping through the platform.

wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/...e-holidays-1235409563/

Rakuten Mobile has increased numbers of subscribers or the current situation is pretty good

Nagao Yoshitaka from Bank of America: July, September, MNO was net decrease. However, as of October 31st, point backward ended in November, December. So what are the current trends and its duration? And then so how much confidence do you have for the net increase? That is my first question.

Hiroshi Mikitani: First of all, the current subscriber trend and the migration period end, and then this is a 10-day data in November and now churn is settled. And then we have the increased number of subscribers or the current situation is pretty good.

Tareq Amin: One more comment. And one of the slides that I have shared, we've shown and highlighted the relationship between coverage and customer adds. So our confidence to add an increased net ads is very high, because we're also addressing and enhancing coverage. So if you look at this chart in front of you, achieving 10% application rates and Tokyo 23 ward show us that this is definitely hitting into the right track. So that was the primary reasons of why we are fast tracking our base station build-out and investing heavily to make this happen, both on 4G and 5G.

seekingalpha.com/article/...-q3-2022-earnings-call-transcript

Mobile Data Traffic and ARPU Growth in Osaka Area Driving Up with 5G

With the introduction of 5G, overall data volume increased by 40% and ARPU increased by 25% in Osaka

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/

These two drivers of ARPU of Rakuten Mobile will be growing largely: 5G penetration (additional from air from January to March) and also ecosystem/data (especially during EC from October to December).

CEO Mikitani said during the last earning call on a question of Nagao Yoshitaka from Bank of America.

Source: Own transcipt of the last earnings call

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/

Ein Land, das derzeit für Investoren attraktiv erscheint, ist Japan. Immerhin handelt es sich hierbei nicht um einen politisch und wirtschaftlich instabilen Emerging Market, sondern um die drittgrößte Volkswirtschaft der Welt. Die japanische Wirtschaft fußt auf technologischem Fortschritt und starken Industrieunternehmen. Exporte spielen eine große Rolle: Wie etwa die Zeitschrift Capital in einem Online-Beitrag schreibt, wurden 2021 Waren im Wert von 756 Milliarden US-Dollar exportiert – dies sei ein Anstieg von rund 115 Milliarden US-Dollar gegenüber dem Vorjahr.

Auch das Zinsumfeld spricht für den japanischen Markt: Im Gegensatz zur US-Notenbank oder der Europäischen Zentralbank bleibt die Bank of Japan derzeit bei ihrer lockeren Geldpolitik. "Inflationsbekämpfung bleibt in Japan Sache der Regierung, nicht der Notenbank", formulierte das Handelsblatt kürzlich in einem Online-Artikel. Dementsprechend kündigte die japanische Regierung ein Konjunkturprogramm mit einem Volumen von 39 Billionen Yen an, dies entspricht 265 Milliarden Euro.

Weiter schreibt das Handelsblatt**, der japanische Sonderweg bei der Geldpolitik treibe zwar die dort anziehende Inflation, diese sei aber immer noch deutlich niedriger als in den USA oder in Europa. So lag die Inflationsrate in Japan im September 2022 laut** Statista bei drei Prozent gegenüber dem Vorjahresmonat.

www.wallstreet-o

Wer sich schon einmal mit der Kaufkraftparitätentheorie beschäftigt hat weiß, dass auf lange Sicht die unterschiedlichen Inflationsraten die Wechselkurspfade sehr stark mitbestimmen.

Und wenn die Inflationsraten in den USA und Europa 10% und in Japan nur 3% sind, ergibt sich erheblicher Aufwertungsbedarf für den zuletzt erheblichen gefallen Yen.

Neben den Inflationsraten spielen für die langfristige Wechselkursentwicklung auch die Terms of Trade (also die Austauschverhältnisse für international gehandelte Güter) eine wichtige Rolle - und die haben sich wegen der Energie- und Rohstoffpreisanstiege zuletzt für Japan verschlechtert. Auch das kann sich wieder ändern, wie alle, die mit der Zyklik dieser Märkte vertraut sind, wissen.  

Rakuten Mobile had now a quite good cost structure in phase 2

Yusuke Okumara from Okasan Security: He asked after the way, how in 2023 the suppoded single month profit will be reached.

Hiroashi Takasawa: Rakuten Mobile is now in phase 2 with a very different cost structure against phase 2, were the growth of the base stations must be forced. He added that Rakuten Mobile had now a quite good cost structure. And he added second, that the costs can be internalized trough the activites of Rakuten Symphony.

Source: Own transcipt of the last earnings call

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/

Viber Advertising Solutions, including native, non-intrusive Viber Ads and branded Lenses & Stickers, continue to gain popularity with brands that want to increase their visibility and attract new users. In the first half of 2022, the volume of monthly Viber Ads impressions in Vietnam reached more than 210M, where IT and telecom, finance, entertainment, retail (including fashion & cosmetics), hospitality, and travel became the top-performing verticals. At the same time, more than 60M stickers were sent and more than 3,3M Viber Lenses were viewed by users in Vietnam.

Our figures in Vietnam reflect the brands’ growing interest in Viber Messaging Solutions and users' utility—as of the first half of 2022, we recorded:

about 500 business accounts registered (and this number continues to grow);

an 18% increase in the number of brands opening new business accounts;

a 21% increase in delivered business messages of all types;

a 41% increase in promotional business messages;

54% growth in the number of chatbot subscribers.

One of the many successful examples of using Viber for Business is the Primer Group of Companies, which wanted to provide an alternative and safer avenue for customers to buy essentials during the pandemic. With the help of Viber’s official partner Infobip, they enabled online purchases with digital vouchers using codes with discounts sent through Viber Business Messages. The results were quite telling: the brand achieved a high conversion rate (53% code redemption), and a 401% uptick in total sales.

Today, globally, more than 8,500 brands rely on Viber Messaging Solutions to communicate with their customers.

www.forbusiness.viber.com/en/blog/post/...recap-from-vietnam/

Jon Jaehnig November 18, 2022

World Cup pride from two premier AR social platforms.

Rakuten Viber and Snap both have packages of AR lenses and interactive experiences to celebrate the FIFA World Cup. Since the two apps joined forces on AR tech last summer, activations like this often go forward for both companies at the same time, ensuring that users of both platforms have access to the quality AR content.

arpost.co/2022/11/18/snap-viber-fifa-world-cup-2022/

de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/...tzer-ids-bei-viber/

POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2022 BY ROBERT CURRAN

appledoreresearch.com/2022/09/29/rakuten-symphonys-11-update/

I believe, such an offering of two-year senior unsecured notes is okay, because Rakuten can pay back this notes with the upcoming posiitve cash flow during 2013 and the following years without any problems.

www.straitstimes.com/business/...-japanese-junk-bond-offering

Expensive - but only for two year and a needed hedge for the coming revenues of Symphony, because after my estimates the Yen will rise during the next two years against the $

Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Group saw its dollar perps fall over 10% as the company launched a new $500mn 2Y high yield dollar bond at yields of around 12%. Rakuten is rated BB+ by S&P. Bloomberg sources said that the company’s bond offering was at a discount of two to three points, noting it was a private transaction. Given the backdrop of low yields in Japan, with the nation being the only country having negative policy rates, Rakuten’s new issue offers a massive yield premium. Bloomberg notes that the yield is an indication of how difficult it is for certain companies to access credit markets as rising rates and recession risks have made borrowing for junk bond issuers costlier this year.

bondevalue.com/news/...all-over-10-after-12-2y-bond-offering/

Automation of the RAN delivers more than just reduced OPEX, it also allows MNOs to deploy an agile and responsive cloud-based network that will allow introduction of new services

The report and forecast dives into operator strategies, and discusses key drivers, and barriers to automating the RAN, and predicts the intensity with which MNOs will reduce OPEX in the next two years, as recession looms and inflation rises.

The report investigates the many challenges, both organizational, and cultural, that MNOs face to make the decisions needed. Which new RAN architectures will be deployed and when, and the RIC use cases. The report puts you in the room with the operators to understand their strategies.

“Rethink forecasts that MNOs will spend $32bn from 2022 to 2026, and of that $7bn will go on RAN automation. Of that forecast amount $3bn will be spent on components related to vRAN or Open RAN, showing that most MNOs’ RAN automation strategies will be closely linked with vRAN and/or Open RAN.”

MNOs are looking at automation, not just as a necessary step for vRAN, but as a way of reducing OPEX, especially those with a large NOC. Some MNOs aim to reduce NOC operating cost by a factor of up to 20%, and some have already taken these steps.

But automation of the RAN delivers more than just reduced OPEX, it also allows MNOs to deploy an agile and responsive cloud-based network that will allow introduction of new services, whilst adapting to changes in traffic and customer demand.

rethinkresearch.biz/reports-category/ran-research/

The report and forecast dives into operator strategies, and discusses key drivers, and barriers to automating the RAN, and predicts the intensity with which MNOs will reduce OPEX in the next two years, as recession looms and inflation rises.

The report investigates the many challenges, both organizational, and cultural, that MNOs face to make the decisions needed. Which new RAN architectures will be deployed and when, and the RIC use cases. The report puts you in the room with the operators to understand their strategies.

“Rethink forecasts that MNOs will spend $32bn from 2022 to 2026, and of that $7bn will go on RAN automation. Of that forecast amount $3bn will be spent on components related to vRAN or Open RAN, showing that most MNOs’ RAN automation strategies will be closely linked with vRAN and/or Open RAN.”

MNOs are looking at automation, not just as a necessary step for vRAN, but as a way of reducing OPEX, especially those with a large NOC. Some MNOs aim to reduce NOC operating cost by a factor of up to 20%, and some have already taken these steps.

But automation of the RAN delivers more than just reduced OPEX, it also allows MNOs to deploy an agile and responsive cloud-based network that will allow introduction of new services, whilst adapting to changes in traffic and customer demand.

rethinkresearch.biz/reports-category/ran-research/