Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

OptimERA hopes to add more fiber to its greenfield network in the months ahead. The company is also talking to several small cell vendors, and hopes to use its Band 41 spectrum for microcells. Software defined networking will be important for OptimERA's small cell solution, just as it has been for its macrocells.

OptimERA hasn't started offering LTE service to customers yet. Like Japan's Rakuten, which is also planning to build a greenfield wireless network, OptimERA is excited about the potential of a software-defined network but has yet to flip the switch. Rakuten, which has delayed its planned launch until next year, has gained a significant amount of attention in the wireless industry because it too is planning to build a greenfield, software-powered, open LTE network with upstart vendors like Cisco, Altiostar, Intel and Red Hat – a strategy the company has said will reduce its costs by up to 50-60% when compared with traditional network designs.

www.lightreading.com/mobile/4g-lte/...4g-launch/d/d-id/754538

Alongside its sponsorship of the Golden State Warriors, Rakuten has been in partnership with the NBA since 2017, holding a wide variety of fan events in Japan with NBA stars including Draymond Green and NBA legend Ray Allen, and distributing NBA games online through Rakuten TV.

“Rakuten had already found success with its baseball team in Japan, and then with soccer in Kobe,” Arima explains. Sports marketing catapulted Rakuten to household name-status in Japan, and Rakuten has since taken this strategy global. “Sports is a great vehicle for growing global brand awareness. That’s a big reason why Rakuten has partnered with FC Barcelona and the Golden State Warriors.”
Arima believes the strategy is paying off. “It seems to have been very successful so far. Brand awareness of Rakuten in the U.S. has surpassed 29.8%, and over 44% in Spain.”
rakuten.today/blog/...apan-games-2019-mak-arima-laura-li.html

Lyft drivers will have their own pickup zone at Baton Rouge Airport

By Mykal Vincent | October 10, 2019 at 12:13 PM CDT - Updated October 10 at 12:13 PM
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Passengers traveling through the Baton Rouge airport will have a new way to get transportation to and from the terminals.

A new agreement between the airport and rideshare service provider Lyft designates a terminal-front pickup zone to relieve congestion for drivers dropping off or picking up passengers.

The new area will be easily visible and accessible at the front of the terminal.
Lyft drivers will be able to wait for calls in the newly-constructed cell lot, which will serve as a staging area for rideshare operators and people waiting for arriving passengers.

Lyft will pay the airport $3 pickup fee as part of their agreement.

www.wafb.com/2019/10/10/...n-pickup-zone-baton-rouge-airport/

Despite the former intention of founders to refrain from the advertising on Viber, today Rakuten offers all sorts of businesses solutions.

There are different types of interaction with Viber’s audience for the companies.

Ads: Viber provides a banners placing on the screen after the user call. Also in the chat list the companies’ ads displays with a website link. Ads displaying is based on the user preferences and interests by default. However, one allows or denies the content personalization in the Privacy settings (Personal data section).

Promo stickers: It’s a kind of product placement, when a company creates branded stickers to improve customers awareness and loyalty.

Ecommerce solution: Viber has developed an option for retailers that allows to sell products directly in the chat. The feature aims to engage users and complete transactions (1-to-1 Marketing).

An important source of Viber’s income is business messaging. The companies make a monthly payment for delivering messages to their customer bases. Authenticated brands are marked with Green V. It means that the company will not spam or send prohibited content.

To use the option a company should get an official alpha name in Viber.The cost of business messaging depends on the region. For example, to deliver promotional messages in France, you’ll pay about 0,01 €.

gravitec.net/blog/how-does-viber-make-money/

in Hong Kong

PR Newswire•October 14, 2019
More leverage, tighter fixed spreads compare favorably with local competition

HONG KONG, Oct. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bullion trading started at 10am today through Rakuten MetaTrader 4 (MT4) account of Rakuten Securities Bullion Hong Kong Limited ("Rakuten Securities Bullion"), a wholly owned subsidiary of leading online brokerage company Rakuten Securities, Inc., presenting both institutional and retail investors with a new vehicle for greater risk diversification by facilitating investment in gold and silver, the company announced Monday.

To coincide with the trading platform going live, the company also announced a welcome offer for bullion trading through its website.

"Investors using the site will benefit from highly competitive spreads[2] that are both tight and fixed. That's in a local market where floating spreads are commonplace." Rakuten Securities Bullion's spreads for gold and silver are typically US$0.35 and US$ 0.035 respectively.

Mr. Iida added that with the competitive fixed spreads, Rakuten Securities Bullion offers generous leverage of up to 200:1. "That's very competitive too, given that many of the major local brokers provide leverage ranging from 100:1 to 150:1," he said. "And for that we don't charge a fee. There's no commission to pay. It means trading costs are minimized."

finance.yahoo.com/news/...tarts-063900052.html?.tsrc=fin-srch

German fintech Wirecard and Romania-based Libra Internet Bank are collaborating to deliver instant messaging (IM) platform Rakuten Viber, a new money transfer service for its customers called Moneytou, powered by Mastercard.

Viber customers will be able to pay via messaging

With Viber’s compliance partner Neopay, Wirecard will enable users to send money to each other via the one billion-user messaging app, with Libra Internet Bank acting as the local acquirer.

The peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions will be made with payment cards linked to the Moneytou service, initially launching in Hungary before being rolled out to all other Eastern European markets which offer a 25-million-strong customer base.
The first users will be able to send up to 125,000 Hungarion Forints (HUF) a month, that’s $412.67, and up to 780,000 HUF a year, which is $2,574.94 US dollars

www.fintechfutures.com/2019/10/...europe-for-viber-customers/

How Viber Makes Money in the private sector?

Rakuten developed several technical options for earnings.

Viber Stickers. Every app user can send free or paid stickers in the chat. For example, there are an original sticker packs in the market for about $2. Still, users have access to the basic library of free packs.

Viber Games. Similarly, Viber earns by providing the options for gamers. The entertainment fans invite their contacts to a team game for free or for a fee.

Probably, the most requested fee-based feature is Viber Out. It allows making calls by low rates from the app to any phone number. After account replenishment, every user can call to any landline or mobile. There are separate tariffs for each country. Viber Out fits for international calls as well.

gravitec.net/blog/how-does-viber-make-money/

www.investors.com/news/technology/...rc=A00220&yptr=yahoo

She argues that the ride-haling segments can generate profits if Uber and Lyft cut sales and marketing expenses while leveraging their fixed-cost bases, as both companies appear to be attempting to do. Kahn sees the competitive landscape becoming more rational, which should help the companies pull back on driver and rider incentives.

“Looking globally, we point out that Yandex Taxi is already a profitable ride-hailing business and the largest food delivery company − China’s Meituan Dianping − just turned a profit,” Kahn wrote. “Both sectors are sensitive to marketing spend rationalization and we think peak incentives and losses are now behind Uber and Lyft.”

www.marketwatch.com/story/...-16?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

Revenue in the Ride Hailing segment amounts to US$49,598m in 2019.

Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2019-2023) of 11.0%, resulting in a market volume of US$75,403m by 2023.

User penetration is 20.1% in 2019 and is expected to hit 28.8% by 2023.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) currently amounts to US$750.10.

www.statista.com/outlook/368/109/ride-hailing/united-states

Ride-hailing and new businesses to fuel $7tn+ global mobility market The next 10 years of mobility will bring more change in the way that people and products move than any decade since the invention of the automobile. Emerging technologies and business models like ride-hailing and sharing,  autonomous driving and delivery, micro-mobility and even eVTOL (flying cars, finally) stand to disrupt profit pools that we estimate exceed $700bn, and venture backed startups and incumbents will attempt to address over $7tn in spending. Given the size of the opportunity, it should come as no surprise that access to capital has created a hyper competitive environment marked by massive operating losses driven by marketing, subsidies, incentives, and capital investment. As this environment matures and rationalizes, we expect consolidation that will lead to profitability, the  establishment of category leaders, and significant opportunities for investors.

www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/...of-mobility/report.pdf

Rakuten Inc. plans to launch its highly anticipated new mobile network carrier service in October as planned but only on a very limited basis for the first six months.

At a news conference on Sept. 6, Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten, said the service will be made available only for about 5,000 users until the end of March 2020. During that time, the service will be free.

Full-fledged service will begin in spring 2020, six months behind the initial schedule.

To be eligible for the free service, users have to be 18 or older and a resident of one of the 23 wards in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya or Kobe.

Those users have to either sign a new contract with Rakuten or transfer from other mobile carriers to Rakuten.

“Once we confirm the stability of the new network, we will start accepting applications online as soon as possible,” said Mikitani.

Mikitani added, “It might be one month later or by the end of this year,” suggesting a possibility of moving up the service launch date.

Rakuten plans to provide service using KDDI’s network in rural areas, while installing its own base stations in 3,432 locations in the metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, by the end of March 2020.

www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201909060027.html

Als erste paneuropäische VOD-Plattform bietet Rakuten TV auf werbegestützten Kanälen Hollywoodproduktionen sowie lokale und exklusive Inhalte kostenlos an

October 15, 2019 04:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CANNES, Frankreich--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rakuten TV, eine der führenden Video-On-Demand-Plattformen in Europa, bietet seinen Nutzern künftig auch kostenlose Inhalte an. Mit Start des neuen Geschäftsmodells AVOD (Advertising-Video-On-Demand) können Zuschauer jetzt eine große Auswahl an Inhalten kostenfrei auf der Plattform genießen.

Zum Start wird das kostenlose Angebot von Rakuten TV mit Hollywoodproduktionen sowie lokalen Inhalten bestückt sein. In einem nächsten Schritt geht es mit einem kombinierten linearen und On-Demand-Angebot um exklusive Rakuten-Inhalte, TV Serien, Dokumentarfilme, Nachrichten und Sportkanäle in die Erweiterung.

Zu den exklusiven Inhalten, die Rakuten TV auf seinem neuen AVOD-Kanal zeigen wird, gehört mit Matchday – Inside FC Barcelona die neue Dokumentarserie über den FC Barcelona. Diese zeigt exklusive und bisher unbekannte Szenen aus dem Privatleben der Spieler und wird von John Malkovich erzählt. Die Serie ist eine Kreation der Barça Studios, dem hauseigenen Produktionsstudio des FC Barcelona, in Zusammenarbeit mit Kosmos Studios, Rakuten Inc. in Verbindung mit Rakuten H Collective Studio und Producciones del Barrio.

www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191015005100/de/

Rakuten Fashion will provide one-stop digital solutions to fashion businesses by employing Rakuten Group assets that cover the entire process from production to sales, including demand forecasting, order management, payment systems, fulfillment services, overseas sales support and product planning. Through this vision, Rakuten plans to further empower the fashion industry by building a more open platform.

Rakuten will seek to run a robust, well-rounded platform that includes UI/UX design improvements and service development. In addition to leveraging Rakuten's IT and business expertise through Rakuten Fashion, brands and users will be able to take full advantage of industry experience that can only be acquired from fashion professionals and apparel companies. Rakuten aims to transform Rakuten Fashion into a digital platform that features helpful support functions, products and services.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2019/1015_01.html

"Lyft was founded in 2012, and has over 30 million riders and 2 million drivers. We are singularly focused on improving people’s lives with the world’s best transportation and committed to building reliable, affordable and sustainable transportation."

finance.yahoo.com/news/...eside-100005698.html?.tsrc=fin-srch

Delivery service Glovo launches in Kherson
02 October, 2019, 18:10

Dmytro Demchenko
Delivery service Glovo has started its operations in Kherson, as informed by the press service of the company.

         •§Kherson is the eleventh Ukrainian city to welcome Glovo. The service also operates in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Poltava, Mykolaiv, and Chernihiv.

         •§The company’s couriers can deliver anything that does not violate the rules of the service and does not exceed the size of the original backpack 40x40x30 cm and weight of 9 kg.

         •§Order processing time is less than an hour.

ain.ua/en/2019/10/02/glovo-launches-in-kherson/

Cabify is essentially the Uber of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world. It has a strong presence in Spain, Mexico and Brazil, and a growing presence in countries like Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia. It’s also available in Portugal, although initially just in Lisbon and Porto.

It seems like Cabify are differentiating themselves by being the upmarket taxi service. The cars are always nice, and often brand new, and they often give out Cabify-branded water and sweets as well.

This does mean that Cabify is often more expensive than other services like Uber or Taxify.
         •§Fare Estimate (Praça do Comércio to Lisbon Airport): €12.15.
         •§Free Credit: €6 with code jamesc130
         •§App available for iOS and Android.

www.portugalist.com/portugal-taxi-apps/

www.marketscreener.com/TELEFONICA-68962/...m_content=20191017

Provokation, obwohl ich Ride-Hailing auch nicht völlig unkritisch gegenüberstehe

finance.yahoo.com/m/...65252/uber-and-lyft-face-heat-for.html

Denn Lyft und Uber werden schon aus Eigennutz alles unternehmen, um in ihren Beförderungsmittel für Sicherheit zu sorgen. Und die Amis sind meines Erachtens nicht so blöd, diese Wichtigtuerei von Politikern in diesem Fall als billige Schaumschlägerei zu entlarven.

and 2 million drivers gehören eher zu den Wählern der Demokraten, deren Vertreter hier einen auf scheinheilig machen, was meines Erachtens nicht ankommen wird.

feeding the company's growth

02 October 2019

Carousell, an online classifieds marketplace company, is focusing on the auto portion of their market to help increase the company's growth throughout this year.

The company's General Manager for the Philippines, Raffy Montemayor, recently stated that the auto market is one of the key areas that is helping drive growth for the entire platform.

“I am confident that our automobiles business unit will lead in the online classified space,” he said.

He also stated that both overall listings for cars and views of those listings have continued to grow ever since OLX Philippines consumers have transitioned onto the Carousell marketplace.

Karl Magsuci, the Head of Cars for Carousell Philippines, also recently stated that overall car listing views have increased from 106,000 to around 312,000 and listings themselves went from 6,000 to 13,000 after the transition from OLX.

Auto parts and accessories saw views go from 71,000 to 121,000 and listings went from 1,600 to 5,300 since the transition.

Views for listings of motorcycles moved from 44,000 to 102,000 and actual listings grew from 1,200 to 4,000.

Magsuci said that the company believes that both views and listings will keep increasing as the year moves on. He also said that growth is expected to actually increase by next year as the platform continues to upgrade itself to make it easier for consumers to use.

Earlier this summer Carousell and OLX began conducting operations together as Carousell.ph with a focus on becoming the Philippines' top digital retail site.

The two companies merged after Carousell received an investment from OLX Group's owner Naspers which led to the platform acquiring OLX Philippines.

www.onlinemarketplaces.com/articles/...ng-the-companys-growth

Rakuten Viber wants to expand its services in Myanmar beyond calling and instant messaging to incorporate payments, transfers and e-commerce, its chief executive, Djamel Agaoua, told the Myanmar Times.

www.mmtimes.com/news/viber-eyes-more-growth-myanmar.html

Nokia not part of second phase Rakuten rollout
By Keith Dyer 16 October 2019
Nokia's role in Rakuten's Open RAN won't move to second phase antenna unit.


As Rakuten moves to a wider deployment beyond its launch phase, CTO Tareq Amin wants a sleeker product – one that is easier to deploy and costs less. So he is specifying an integrated radio-antenna unit, within one enclosure. That won’t be from Nokia, he told TMN. Instead he is working directly with hardware provider Flex and also with KMW – with both companies going ahead with a design.

Rakuten announced the Phase Two antenna units in September, and TMN asked Nokia then if it was involved. It never managed to produce an answer, and this is probably why.

For 5G, the operator has chosen a 3.5GHz antenna-radio unit from NEC and will deploy mmWave small cells from Airspan that are based on the Qualcomm’s FSM 100xx SoC design. In fact here may be rather a lot of those going down, with Amin telling a conference today in Barcelona that street poles are easy to get onto in Japan, and that the country might well have the largest mmWave deployment in the world in 2020.

the-mobile-network.com/2019/10/...econd-phase-rakuten-rollout/

aus Kulmbach vorsichtig, aber das klingt m.E. ganz vielversprechend:

Wirecard: Spannende Pläne mit der Viber-App - Aktienanalyse

04.10.19 12:30
Der Aktionär


Kulmbach (www.aktiencheck.de) - Wirecard-Aktienanalyse von "Der Aktionär":

Nikolas Kessler vom Anlegermagazin "Der Aktionär" nimmt in einer aktuellen Aktienanalyse die Aktie des Zahlungsdienstleisters Wirecard AG (ISIN: DE0007472060, WKN: 747206, Ticker-Symbol: WDI, Nasdaq OTC-Symbol: WRCDF) unter die Lupe.

Wirecard habe am Freitag ein neues Projekt vorgestellt: Der Zahlungsabwickler unterstütze den "Moneytou"-Service von Mastercard, der Transaktionen über den Instant-Messaging-App Viber von Rakuten ermögliche. Die Reichweite des Dienstes sei enorm.

Wirecard starte gemeinsam mit Rakuten Viber und dessen Partner NeoPay einen neuen Geldüberweisungsservice für Nutzer der Viber Instant Messaging App. Mit "Moneytou - powered by Mastercard" könnten Nutzer schnell und sicher Geld über die Messaging App senden. Wirecard wickle dabei alle Peer-to-Peer-Transaktionen über digitale Payment-Karten ab.

Der Dienst solle laut einer Pressemitteilung zunächst in Ungarn starten und anschließend in weiteren osteuropäischen Ländern angeboten werden. In der ersten Phase würden die Partner bis Jahresende bereits 25 Millionen Nutzer gewinnen wollen. Weltweit würden aber bereits über eine Milliarde Menschen den Messaging-Dienst Viber von Rakuten nutzen - das Potenzial sei daher enorm.

m.aktiencheck.de/exklusiv/...Viber_App_Aktienanalyse-10419587

variety.com/2019/digital/news/...ramas-dramafever-1203324728/