Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

- und daher habe ich mir nach dem Einstieg bei Alibaba, die inzwischem mehr als 20% gut gemacht haben, auch einige Rakutens gekauft.

Look Out Amazon, Here Comes...Rakuten?
Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten announced on Tuesday it is acquiring Ebates for $1 billion.

The acquisition, which Rakuten hinted at last week, is part of the Japanese company’s push to grow its base beyond its domestic market and hopefully, become a global player. Having made some $1.2 billion acquisitions to date along these lines, this is Rakuten’s most ambitious move to date.

However, investors are dubious that the company can absorb yet another foreign acquisition, much less one the size of Ebates, despite Rakuten’s strong cash position.
Then there is the ever-present Amazon, which dominates the e-commerce market in the U.S. Few believe it will falter in the face of Chinese giant Alibaba, much less a Rakuten-Ebates combo.

Rakuten Goes Forth

Not surprisingly, Rakuten says it is undaunted. For starters, it has assembled a very interesting mix of acquisitions. There is messaging app Viber, which it purchased for $900 million in February, the Canadian ebook offering Kobo, Spanish video service Wuaki.tv, Viki, a digital content platform and Buy.com.
Now it has picked up Ebates.

www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2014/09/...ere-comes-rakuten/

By TTG Asia
Posted on 5 June, 2024 12:34

Rakuten Travel is having a Super Sale, offering travellers savings of up to 50 per cent off travel bookings to Japan.

From now to June 20, the sale features high discount coupons and discounted hotel rates, including half off flash coupons – capped at 50,000 yen (US$321) – available for a limited time, with a limit of two coupons per customer.

Additionally, an exclusive 20 per cent off coupon (capped at 20,000 yen) for selected Japanese hotels will be available. Customers can apply either type of coupon on top of discounted hotel rates.

www.ttgasia.com/2024/06/05/...ns-wonders-with-rakuten-travel/

An exclusive interview with Andrew De La Torre, GVP of Technology at Oracle, and Vivek Chadha, SVP, Global Head of Telco Cloud, focused on defining the modern enterprise, different ways that cloud, real-time communications and IoT are coming together, and the role that CSPs can take in the transformation of communications (Watch the recording)

Rahul Atri, Managing Director and President, OSS, discussed the state of play for AI & telcos, including the challenges CSPs face as they move towards AI and the biggest opportunities in GenAI, in an interview featuring Harrison Lung, Group Chief Strategy Officer, e& (Watch the recording)

Alexis Koalla, Director of Operations Strategy and Transformation, Orange, and Anshul Bhatt discussed smarter networks and reinventing the customer experience, including real-world examples of what CX will look like in future. (Watch the recording)

An interview with Dr. Sudhir Kumar Mittal, EVP & Chief Architect, Jio Platforms, and Anshul Bhatt focused on overcoming the challenges that CSPs and enterprises face when it comes to the development and deployment of GenAI applications. (Watch the recording)

Sinan Atan, Business Development Manager, Lenovo, and Vivek Chadha talked about the future of AI at the edge and how solutions are set to revolutionize the adoption and integration of AI in businesses. (Watch the recording)

Daisuke Morikawa, CTO of KDDI Digital Life, and Rahul Atri shared insights on how open telco infrastructures will accelerate operators’ ability to roll out new services. (Watch the recording)

Nastasi Karaiskos, Managing Director, Rakuten Symphony UK, discussed the key challenges facing network operators as they move towards autonomous networks, and the importance of converging the network and IT teams, the role of AI in the telecom sector, and Rakuten Symphony’s contributions. (Watch the recording)

Vivek Chadha spoke about the drivers behind the evolution of telcos to techcos and explained the importance of cloud-native and AI in enabling a successful transformation. (Watch the recording)

Rahul Atri elaborated upon enabling automation and fueling OSS transformation using AI at the core, using tried-and-tested observability platforms like what Rakuten Symphony had deployed for Rakuten Mobile’s network in Japan. (Watch the recording)

Media interviews
Aside from meetings with key prospects, potential partners and customers to explore collaborative opportunities, Rakuten Symphony also held interviews with media partners Light Reading, Telecom TV and The Mobile Network. The interviews provided a platform to showcase Rakuten Symphony’s innovative approaches and share industry insights. Updates on Rakuten Mobile’s network rollout, AI use cases, RIC development, new engagements, and strategy for AI Telecom formed the focal points of the interviews.

symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...th-and-collaboration-at-dtw-2024

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/financial/trends02.html

JULY 16, 2024 by RNN

Rakuten Mobile announced the launch of commercial services using the "platinum band" 700MHz spectrum on June 27. At a press conference held on the day, Mickey spoke about how network quality will be strengthened, allowing for better coverage in areas with large crowds, within buildings, and underground. The press conference also introduced initiatives to improve the quality of Rakuten Mobile's 5G (Sub6) network coverage.

global.rakuten.com/corp/innovation/rnn/2024/2406_028/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8vwQeQ0q5E

otegal.jp/net/rakuten-mobile-campaign/

Rakuten Card rolls out English language app to enhance user accessibility

finance.yahoo.com/news/...lls-english-language-111508801.html

Rakuten Travel saw extremely strong growth in gross transaction value (GTV) for inbound travel, up 243% YoY.

www.bing.com/...RE&sp=2&ghc=1&lq=0&showconv=1

-Start selling tickets immediately following event registration
-Apply from the official site: mini.ticket.rakuten.co.jp/

Tokyo, July 17, 2024 - Rakuten Ticket, a ticket reservation and sales website managed by Rakuten Ticket, Inc., today announced the launch of "Rakuten Ticket mini," an easy and intuitive self-onboarding platform that enables event organizers to quickly set up and manage ticket sales for events.

Available to enterprise event organizers, Rakuten Ticket mini allows users to manage everything from ticket sales to revenue and entry. By simply registering event details, ticket information and the event page publication date, organizers can immediately start selling tickets through Rakuten Ticket.

Once tickets are on sale, event organizers can use Rakuten Ticket mini to view data such as ticket sales, revenue and the number of event attendees on the day of the event – all in real time. The system also includes a feature for downloading full lists of ticket holders, available from noon on the day before the event until the event closes. After reporting that the event has ended, organizers can request payment of sales proceeds with the click of a button. If ticket refunds are necessary, they can be processed easily through Rakuten Ticket mini. The service fee for event organizers is 4.9% of ticket sales (tax included).

In addition to these features, event organizers can leverage the Rakuten Ecosystem, which connects over 100 million Rakuten members across Japan with more than 70 services, to promote their events and boost ticket sales. Moreover, people buying tickets on Rakuten Ticket can earn Rakuten Points with their purchases.

Amid the recent boom in fan-driven activities and the growing diversification of events in both scale and content offerings, Rakuten Ticket mini was launched to help event organizers effortlessly sell tickets for any kind of occasion.

Rakuten Ticket is committed to delivering innovative entertainment experiences, addressing industry challenges and empowering people, communities and society as a whole.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/...tegory=corp%2520ec

Rakuten France Logistics Solution Expands Globally

JULY 17, 2024 by RNN

With a 250% year-on-year increase in its first two years since launch, Rakuten France’s logistics service Rakuten Fulfillment Network (RFN) is delivering impressive growth as it evolves to empower merchants worldwide. While it began as a logistics service for sellers on Rakuten France, now almost half of its orders are for other e-commerce platforms, and a new automated external orders tool looks set to accelerate this trend. In this report, we examine how this simplified, centralized platform is meeting the needs of merchants, as well as how RFN offers potential benefits for other businesses in Rakuten.

global.rakuten.com/corp/innovation/rnn/2024/2405_010/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFmB2JpKEv4

Up Close with New Grad Training 2024, from Business Basics to Mobile | RNN

July 18, 2024

Rakuten’s unique new grad training helps new grads who recently joined Rakuten learn about Rakuten's culture, basic business knowledge, and information on the mobile business. On-the-job training at Rakuten Mobile shops across Japan has begun, but this video gives a peek at what they learned during their training at Rakuten Crimson House. Stay on the lookout for the new grads as they learn and grow through their training period!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYg5a8xwQwg

On the business side, AI-nization has a core Triple 20 objective: achieve 20% greater operational efficiency internally within Rakuten; 20% better marketing efficiency; and empower hundreds of thousands of business clients with tools that boost their productivity by 20%.

“It’s very important to allow these smaller players to utilize AI tools,” Mikitani stressed. “Many small mom-and-pop shops don’t know how to use it.”

This synergizes with Rakuten’s founding philosophy: “I designed the Rakuten marketplace so that I could help small- to medium-sized merchants, not destroy them. So we would like to use AI to empower them.”

Don’t forget the human

While AI excels at common tasks, Mikitani highlighted how it can struggle with the creativity required for truly disruptive innovation.

“Of course it’s a prediction model based on the data. So if no one has ever done it [then the data isn’t there],” he pointed out. “If you asked AI 27 years ago, Should I start an internet marketplace? It would probably say no. Should I start this crazy new mobile company in Japan? It would probably say no.”
This is a major limitation of AI: “It will give you the most likely right answer based on massively available data,” Mikitani argued. “Generative AI will give you a good batting average, but it won’t give you a totally different idea.”

Mikitani cited the creativity of TikTok content as something AI alone couldn’t replicate. “If TikTok was all generated by AI, people may not get so intrigued or interested. There’s a human factor in it.”
n the end, AI must be used to empower humans to be human. “My approach is to utilize AI to become more unique, not to create a robot that can replace humans. It’s always the co-pilot,” he told the HBS crowd. “People who produce a product – we need to respect them, empower them, rather than basically abusing data to destroy their business. That’s the concept driving Rakuten.”

AI is coming, ready or not

Under AI-nization, Mikitani has made AI education a top priority for Rakuten employees. “60-70% of the content we’re sharing in our Monday morning all-hands meeting is about AI.”

Mikitani advocates Neeley’s 30% rule, where employees don’t need to be experts, but should understand the fundamentals of a technology in order to apply it.

“They don’t need to become engineers, but they do need to think about how to use it. For most employees this is much more important,” he remarked. “It’s better to understand how it works. It’s not a magic box, it’s an algorithm. Of course, you can use a calculator to figure out 9×9, but you should really know how to solve that problem. So, I think this basic education for your entire staff is very important.”

For leaders looking to accelerate their own AI strategies, Mikitani offered some words of advice.
“Whether it is good or bad, whether you like it or not, AI is coming and progressing… You have to do it,” he urged. “Get buy-in from your employees of all levels. This will be as fundamental as calculators, Excel or PowerPoint.”

rakuten.today/blog/...ikitani-at-harvard-business-school.html

Leading AI-nization: Fueling Growth with Data and AI | Mickey Mikitani | Leading with AI Session

June 03, 2024 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL

Join us for an insightful discussion as Mickey Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, and Tsedal Neeley, Professor at Harvard Business School, explore how Rakuten continues to lead as a global innovation powerhouse. Discover how Rakuten builds an ecosystem and operating model that leverages an extraordinary level of data to drive strategic AI adoption. In this session, we dive into: Strategic initiatives driving AI adoption at Rakuten Building a data-driven ecosystem and operating model Personal journeys fostering continuous learning Challenges and triumphs of AI integration on a grand scale Learn from the leaders on how Rakuten harnesses data to redefine the future of technology. This discussion covers both the operational and personal aspects of leading a global innovation giant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B-HW7FEHrw

japan-job-en.rakuten.careers/...ientist%22%7D]&l-id=B-005

jetstream.blog/archives/187682

Similarly, while GenAI can revolutionize customer network use cases, it must do so within the bounds of regulatory compliance and data governance. Security and scalability are critical themes in a sector where data protection is paramount. Telcos must ensure that AI implementations adhere to stringent security standards.

“It is important to make GenAI output more reliable, traceable and accurate. It should be capable of providing genuine information to the customer and doing exactly what the organization wants it to do.”
- Dr. Sudhir Kumar Mittal, EVP & Chief Architect, Jio Platforms

Bridging the enterprise-telco divide

A focal point of conversation was the differing challenges faced by enterprises and telecom companies in leveraging GenAI. While commonalities exist, enterprises place a higher emphasis on data partitioning and privacy. Ensuring that data remains secure and that AI models do not inadvertently use sensitive user data for training is a significant concern for enterprises. As enterprises increasingly rely on telco platforms beyond their connectivity needs, operators must make sure that their models learn contextually and grow into “large action models” that are capable of decision-making and execution – all within the confines of regulatory data protection norms.

Making GenAI outputs reliable, accurate, and aligned with organizational policies will be one of the priorities for enterprises and telcos in the future. This alignment is crucial to prevent AI from generating responses that could contravene company guidelines or mislead customers. An approach where AI agents and sub-agents are tasked with specific roles and grow more intelligent and effective over time will help.

The discussion also covered Rakuten Symphony's application of GenAI for critical use cases, such as AI-assisted incident management. These applications have led to substantial improvements in operating efficiency, with AI significantly reducing the time needed to resolve incidents.

symphony.rakuten.com/blog/the-promises-and-challenges-of-genai

x.com/RobinWuzz

Less noticed – but arguably more important – are the myriad ways in which virtually every company and organization the world over is working to better understand, integrate and harness AI, not just technically, but procedurally and administratively as well. Developing and scaling training and education programs and establishing procedural guardrails that ensure data privacy and effective collaboration – these are the monumental and foundational efforts that are now underway at an unprecedented pace and scale. They are precisely the kinds of initiatives that my teams and I are focused on.

AI presents companies, particularly those like Rakuten which operate globally, with a series of challenges. Policies and systems need to satisfy a matrix of regional laws related to data privacy and AI safety. The costs and infrastructure required to manage and transfer massive amounts of data, both globally and within Rakuten’s various businesses, are key considerations. While these challenges preceded the AI era, the emergence of AI has intensified these issues and added urgency to our pursuit of solutions.

Over the past year, my teams and I have worked alongside colleagues in virtually every business and department in the Rakuten Group to ensure that cutting-edge AI tools and training are widely available and accessible and that users can leverage their jaw-dropping potential in safe, sound and secure ways.

We are also working to provide visibility into the AI-related efforts of each business. Our collective success largely depends on our ability to learn from the experiences, advances and failures we encounter as we strive to optimally leverage AI. For instance, every business, and the Rakuten Group as a whole, will benefit from understanding how Rakuten’s messaging app, Viber, is now able to summarize unread messages, or how Kobo’s AI solution helps flag and manage inappropriate content on its website. While teams are understandably laser-focused on ensuring the success and profitability of their individual businesses, establishing and maintaining the administrative infrastructure for visibility, transparency and collaboration is crucial. It’s why we’ve created the AI Management Office within Rakuten International and why other companies are also creating high-level AI centers.

AI has also increased the urgency and opportunity for enhancing core shared services platforms, such as Membership and Global Search. While every business within the Rakuten Group shares certain affinities and faces common challenges, each one is also unique and distinct in critical ways. Consequently, using our core platforms requires maintaining a degree of flexibility that allows us to tweak and tailor our highly standardized solutions to meet specific needs. This kind of flexibility and customization is one of the fundamental advantages that AI offers.

Realizing this advantage, however, requires us to speak a common language and manage our data consistently across all businesses. While not as easy to understand as the output from a chatbot, these “collaboration anchors” will help each business realize economies of scale and efficiency, and in turn, the company as a whole. Rakuten has set an ambitious target known internally as the Triple 20 which aims to strengthen its competitive edge through a 20% enhancement in productivity across operations, marketing, and customer experiences. Though currently challenging, these goals are well within our reach.

The fast pace of modern life has shaped expectations for how quickly massive, global changes take shape and are felt. Given the ongoing media frenzy around AI, it’s understandable that people expect an almost instant AI revolution. The reality is the AI revolution is unfolding in a slower, more deliberate, and considered manner. This is precisely why Rakuten is moving at a rapid speed to both immediately realize benefits from the AI tools and techniques already available and, at the same time, construct a rock-solid foundation upon which we will soon be able to build even faster.

rakuten.today/blog/...d-moves-igniting-the-ai-revolution.html

KIERAN THOMPSON

Tokyo is using the four-way grouping to champion its local tech companies against behemoths from Europe and China.

Published 18 Jul 2024

5G network technologies are currently dominated by four companies. From Europe, Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia, are the trusted suppliers for many Western-aligned 5G networks. The competition they face is China’s Huawei and ZTE. These four companies – a corporate “quad” if you will – along with a smaller share from South Korean firm Samsung, together control more than 95% of the global 5G network equipment market.

Through the Quad, along with other diplomatic entities, Japan is seeking to promote its own 5G national champions. Equipment manufacturers NEC and Fujitsu, plus mobile network operator Rakuten and others, are each pursuing Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) technology, which they and the Japanese government believe will enable them to compete in the highly 5G concentrated market.

www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/...-s-5g-ambitions-quad

By Luu Quy   July 17, 2024

Japanese messaging app Rakuten Viber is eyeing a comeback in Vietnam and has its sights set on business users, a senior executive has said.

The company sees Vietnam as a potential market and plans to strengthen its long-term presence there, Atanas Raykov, Rakuten Viber vice president of global marketing and growth, said during a visit to the country this month.

Viber was a popular app in Vietnam even 10 years ago until it was overshadowed by the likes of Messenger, Telegram and Zalo.

People use other apps for general conversation, but look to Viber when they need high security and protection, he said.

"We aim to reach professionals who trust that our technology can protect the most important contents."

These customers are mostly women in the 22-55 age group who use iOS devices.

Viber is also working to partner with banks in Vietnam to add a feature that allows users to inform each other about a successful bank transfer.

The company also hopes to reach customers in the public sector and major businesses, Raykov added.

e.vnexpress.net/news/business/companies/...-race-4771091.html

Story by Leah C. Salterio

2d

www.msn.com/en-ph/news/money/good-vibes/...?ocid=BingNewsSerp

By Eden Ezion

APRIL 11, 2024

www.viber.com/en/blog/2024-04-11/68753/

rakuten.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/de-DE/Kobo

medium.com/tokyo-fintech/...growth-and-expansion-be5432ee4ffe