Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

and short-term investments

Lyft also pointed out that it has taken further steps to improve its financial position. In May, Lyft completed a convertible debt offering, along with corresponding capped call transactions. On a pro forma basis for these transactions, Lyft held approximately $3.3 billion of unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of March 31, 2020.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...rises-5-hours-strong-053641797.html

Malaysia will double online trading limits this year as the rush of small investors into stocks helped push the market into bull territory.

The Securities Commission will allow up to 100,000 ringgit ($23,500) daily online settlement in the second half, from the current limit of 30,000 to 50,000 ringgit, Executive Chairman Syed Zaid Albar said in an emailed response to questions.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index has risen more than 20% from a low in March, led mainly by glove makers, with trading volume hitting a record 11 billion shares. Individual investors are finding more time to flock into stocks from their homes amid a nationwide lockdown, spurred on by relatively cheap stocks amid low interest rates.

Malaysians’ renewed interest in online trading has also helped a local unit of Rakuten Securities Inc. turn profitable in April since opening in 2017, said Kaoru Arai, managing director of Rakuten Trade. The online brokerage, a joint venture between Rakuten and Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd., now has more than 1 billion ringgit of client assets under trust, he added.

finance.yahoo.com/news/...online-trading-limit-042502500.html

We believe Rakuten has a strong positioning to succeed in reaching its target of 3 million users by the end of 2020. As it stands, it is well-capitalized and already has a strategic presence in other online consumer areas such as eCommerce and fintech, which will accelerate the overall user acquisition at a lower cost. Indeed, the majority of the registration has happened online so far. Since the launch in Q1, data consumption has increased by 3x while the number of base stations on air has also exceeded the initial plan.

seekingalpha.com/article/...-rakuten-attractive-bet-on-mobile

Startup Altiostar introduced its first virtual RAN product, saying that it has already been tried out by several carriers. Virtualized RAN products map the baseband controller functions of traditional basestations so that they can be run on "white box" servers in a central location or closer to the edge of the network. This allows operators to pool or adjust radio resources, depending on traffic.

Altiostar has video about the new product offering:

The product is available now. Kuntal Chowdhury, VP of Marketing at Altiostar, says that some carriers have already been checking the product out. "Several tier-1 operators have tested the vRAN product and the tests passed successfully," he told Light Reading Monday.

www.lightreading.com/mobile/...star-intros-vran/d/d-id/719857

Bord
DAUN, 03.06.2020 - 13:58 Uhr

Der VoD-Streaming-Dienst Rakuten TV holt mit „Euronews“ den ersten Live-Kanal auf seiner Plattform an Bord. Der internationale Nachrichtensender wird, nach einer schrittweisen Einführung in den Ländern Europas, kostenlos rund um die Uhr informative Inhalte bereitstellen.

Der Kanal wird bis zum 8. Juni in allen von Rakuten TV abgedeckten europäischen Ländern als Teil des kostenlosen Angebots der Plattform über AVOD (Advertising-Video-on-Demand) zur Verfügung stehen.
Das Inhaltsportfolio des Senders bietet Nachrichten mit einer europäischen Perspektive, die aktuelle Angelegenheiten, Wirtschaft, Kultur, Sport, Science-Tech und Lifestyle abdecken.

Der Live-Feed wird in sechs Sprachen verfügbar sein, darunter Französisch, Portugiesisch, Italienisch, Deutsch, Spanisch und Englisch.

Seit 2. Juni steht der Kanal in Italien zur Verfügung. Am 3. Juni folgt die Aufschaltung in Frankreich, Belgien und Luxembourg. Am 4. Juni geht der Kanal in Spanien und Portugal auf Sendung. Die Aufschaltung in Deutschland erfolgt am 8. Juni. Zudem geht der Sender am 8. Juni in den folgenden Ländern an den Start: Albanien, Bosnien/Herzegovina, Bulgarien, Dänemark, England, Estland, Finnland, Griechenland, Irland, Island, Kroatien, Lettland, Litauen, Makedonien, Malta, Montenegro, Niederlande, Norwegen, Österreich, Polen, Rumänien, Schweden, Schweiz, Serbien, Slovakien, Slovenien, Tschechische Republik, Ukraine, Ungarn und Zypern.

Die Inhalte von Euronews stehen in der Rakuten TV-App für Samsung Electronics- und LG Smart TV-Modelle ab 2019 zu Verfügung. Anschließend werde dies auf andere geeignete Geräte ausgeweitet, hieß es abschließend.

www.infosat.de/digital-tv/...onews-als-ersten-live-kanal-bord

Carousell, a Singapore-based online marketplace, announced on Monday the official launch of a property listing platform in Hong Kong.

The startup is partnering with Hong Kong companies, including Midland Realty, one of the city’s biggest realtors, to provide listings of local and overseas residential and industrial property for sale and rent through its Carousell mobile application.

The platform, called Carousell Property, also includes a variety of services, including Home Services (home repairs, moving, renovation), Home & Furniture (furniture, gardening) and Kitchen and Appliances, as well as a chat function to talk directly to merchants.

Carousell was cofounded by Marcus Tan, Lucas Ngoo and Siu Rui Quek in 2012. Since then, Carousell has grown into a platform with more than 250 million listings. In 2016, Ngoo and Quek were honored as part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia.

The startup is backed by telecommunications company Norwegian mobile operator Telenor Group, South African tech giant Naspers and venture capital firms Rakuten Ventures and Sequoia India. Carousell mainly operates in Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, and has more than 250 million listings.

makemoneyiseasy.com/...-launches-hong-kong-property-platform/

Keybanc: Uber, Lyft could benefit post coronavirus

Yahoo Finance Video•June 3, 2020

finance.yahoo.com/video/...-lyft-could-benefit-194717283.html

According to a note released by Keyblanc Capital Markets, both Uber and Lyft could see a spike in their profits as states begin to reopen, mainly due to people living in cities who choose to use the ride-sharing apps in lieu of taking public transportation. Yahoo Finance’s The Final Round panel discuss the details of the note’s longterm predictions.

nach wie vor ein unterirdischer Kurs unter 8 Euro  

Peep under the hood of Rakuten Mobile’s new network in Japan and you’ll find one of the biggest names in the global computing industry. As well as being inside many of the world’s PCs and servers, Intel technology is pivotal to enabling the cloud-based automation that underpins Rakuten’s innovative approach to providing cellular service using cloud.

To help it harness the cloud technologies that have revolutionized the computing industry, Rakuten Mobile is deploying Intel processors and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) across its network. “Our silicon is in the radio access network (RAN), the base stations, in the remote radio heads, in the 5G ready mobile core — all in centralized and edge telco clouds: Intel technology has created an end-to-end foundation for this innovative infrastructure,” says Caroline Chan, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Network Business Incubator Division.

For example, the data centers in the heart of Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualized network are equipped with servers that use Intel’s high-performance Xeon processors, and are supported by Intel’s FPGAs to achieve accelerated radio performance. Rakuten Mobile is also using Intel technology in its edge data centers, which are designed to provide very rapid response times for applications and rich media content. These standards-based edge servers are powerful enough to provide Rakuten Mobile’s customers with immersive experiences, such as video streams of live sport and other entertainment in high definition, while also supporting all edge computing applications, including online gaming and OTT (over-the-top).

“The real difference is that this network was built with edge services in mind from the ground-up, rather than as an afterthought,” explains Chan. “It is more service-orientated.  It will provide a multi-sensory experience for consumers that goes above and beyond the traditional KPIs (key performance indicators).”

rakuten.today/blog/rakuten-mobile-partner-profile-intel.html

its underlying network platform to other operators, governments and enterprises in Japan and elsewhere

MIKE DANO, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies
6/2/2020

Japan's Rakuten said NEC – a fellow Japanese company – will supply its 5G core. The news is notable considering Rakuten is widely regarded as being on the forefront of the industry's move toward virtualized, cloud-native, open wireless networks, and therefore its vendor selections represent an important signal to the wider industry.

And Rakuten's selection of NEC as its 5G core supplier means that the Japanese vendor will power the "brains" of Rakuten's 5G network. The 5G core will run everything from network slicing to edge computing, a situation that has attracted a wide range of vendors – including Microsoft, Huawei, Oracle, Cisco and Ericsson – to the 5G core market.

Further, Rakuten has made no secret about its plans to sell its underlying network platform to other operators, governments and enterprises in Japan and elsewhere, and so the vendors it works with on its Japanese wireless network will therefore likely be included in those international efforts as well.
NEC is one of a wide range of upstart vendors powering Rakuten's mobile network in Japan; other vendors include Allot, Ciena, Cisco, Innoeye, Intel, Mavenir, Netcracker, OKI, Qualcomm, Quanta, Red Hat, Tech Mahindra and Viavi. In terms of the 4G network that Rakuten launched in April, Nokia supplies the radios and Altiostar supplies the open RAN management software. For the 5G network that Rakuten plans to launch in September, NEC will supply the 3.8GHz MIMO radios, Airspan will provide the 28GHz radios, and Altiostar will supply the Open RAN management software.

Nokia also supplies Rakuten's 4G IMS core for its VoLTE service, while NEC will supply its 5G core. According to research and consulting firm Dell'Oro, the market for mobile network cores grew 10% year-over-year to nearly $8 billion in the first quarter of 2020.

www.lightreading.com/5g/...unwraps-necs-5g-core/d/d-id/761437

The adoption of affiliate marketing today is incredible: 81% of brands and 84% of publishers leverage it, with spend increasing 10% a year, expected to reach $6.8 billion in 2020.

www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/...rld/#19ecd15b32a0

take online orders during COVID-19
by: Alf Alferez

Rakuten is one of the emerging e-commerce platforms in the world which also operates in America and it is one of the steadiest growing platforms around the world. However, it has not been able to get into the big leagues with the likes of Amazon and others.

That might be about to change because the company is planning to do something big in order to help restaurant owners that are suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is revealed that Rakuten is launching a new platform called Rakuten Takeout.

The most interesting part about this announcement is the fact that Rakuten’s Takeout platform will be free for the restaurants. This platform will help in supporting local restaurants that are struggling to maintain their business and reach diners.

The company also says that members who use Rakuten Takeout to place takeout orders from their favourite local restaurants will also get a 20% cashback and we believe that Rakuten will be giving this cashback from their side.

The platform enables restaurants to easily build a custom website where Rakuten members can place orders and pay online. It is also said that restaurant partners will benefit from access to Rakuten’s 13-million-member base for increasing organic awareness and expanding customer reach as per Rakuten Americas’ statement.

www.ecommercenext.org/...-take-online-orders-during-covid-19/

for core network testing

Network analytics company Spirent Communications Friday said it is extending its support to Rakuten Mobile to help it in rolling out its planned 5G non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) in Japan for its fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network.

June 05, 2020, 12:50 IST

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/...testing/76212462

3 June 2020

The Glovo mobile application, which specialises in on-demand deliveries, has just exceeded 1 million downloads in Poland (App Store and Google Play). Although a wide range of products can be ordered with Glovo, it is widely used to deliver food.

Glovo in Poland: 1 million application downloads

Glovo has been operating in Poland since July 2019, following the acquisition of PizzaPortal.pl. The idea behind the application is to be able to order “anything” and delivery takes place in less than an hour. Glovo has over 2,700 partner points in Poland, including McDonald’s and KFC restaurants and Biedronka and Carrefour shops. The application operates in 30 cities in Poland, but Glovo announces a systematic expansion of its offer and development of all order categories. In total, around the world, the application is used by approximately 2.6 million users per month. It is available in 22 countries and about 550 cities.

The most numerous group of Glovo users in Poland are people aged 26-35 years. Slightly more often they are women. According to Glovo, users use the application most often on Friday and Saturday between 5 pm and 7 pm. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant number of orders took place at lunchtime, but due to the fact that a significant number of offices were switched to remote mode, this statistic has changed. Nowadays orders are made all day long. According to the company, this may also be influenced by a wider offer in the food purchasing segment.

retailmarketexperts.com/en/news/...n-food-delivery-in-poland/

brshow.info/watch/6aWuSXPhBG4/...-customer-success-video.html

Spanish telecoms giant, Telefonica, has signed agreements with Altiostar, Gigatera Communications, Intel, Supermicro and Xilinx to launch a series of 4G and 5G Open RAN trials.

Through this collaboration, Telefonica will launch Open RAN trials in the UK, Spain, Germany and Brazil later this year.

www.channelmiddleeast.com/...aunches-4g-and-5g-open-ran-tests

Digital: Viber Launches Group Video Calls, Enabling Large Meetings and Online Classes on the Messaging App

adobo magazine
May 13, 2020

SAN FRANCISCO, USA – Viber, one of the world’s leading apps for free and secure communication, announces that it will soon launch its Group Video Calls feature, enabling group video calls for up to 20 people with unlimited duration. Inspired by the tremendous success of its Group Audio Calls feature, Viber decided to add video to its capabilities, meeting the growing demand for large video calls to replicate face-to-face gatherings, whether with family, friends, or colleagues.

“We’re excited to enable users to participate in video calls with up to 20 people, and we’re going to expand this further very soon. Viber serves an important purpose to society, now more than ever, in that it enables users to communicate easily ideo discussions will be part of our lives much more than before We decided to launch this feature to bring users another step closer to real, face-to-face meetings when they aren’t an option,” said Ofir Eyal, COO of Viber.

www.adobomagazine.com/digital-news/...s-on-the-messaging-app/

www.forbes.com/sites/jonathankeane/2020/...ures/#247ac98d317f

By Emily Wong | 16 March, 2020

In the business world, success is not so much dependent on how new or ground-breaking the business model is, as it is on how companies can adapt ideas to cater to the local market. Several Southeast Asian companies are a testament to this.

Tech Wire Asia spoke to Sharmeen Looi, an independent consultant who co-founded ShopBack Malaysia in 2015, and current consultant for iMotorbike.com, on how businesses can take models, and replicate them for local markets. Looi is a good authority here; ShopBack is an online loyalty program that drew inspiration from cashback initiatives that originated from the West.

Looi emphasized that there is no one-size-fits-all business strategy, and replicating business models requires customization.

The key to good customization, noted Looi, is to be able to listen to customers, and innovate accordingly. Using ShopBack as an example, Looi said that “Structural adaptation wise, there is always a limit on what businesses can do to fit the market. So it was important that we listened to the customers, and grow our strategies from there.”

“We knew we had to get our customers to understand what ShopBack offers is beyond the conventional thinking of online shopping, where a customer buys something online and gets some rewards. So, we’ve extended our product to other categories of purchases that you can find online, including travel and dining. We also use customer insights to make the right promotional strategy and stay relevant.”

techwireasia.com/2020/03/...t-to-grow-must-be-ready-to-adapt/

the customer take up

Written at: 5/13/2020
The success of the Japanese rollout would silence opponents and undoubtedly spur interest in Rakuten's model. Services on the 4G network were launched as recently as April 8, and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani is unwilling to disclose details of customer takeup so far, insisting that growth is proceeding "in line with expectations." The target is 3 million customers by the end of the year.

www.lightreading.com/asia/...bal-telecom-market/d/d-id/759596

CEO SCORE: 86/100 (Rajeev Gupta)

EMPLOYEES: 500

REVENUE: $110M

www.owler.com/company/innoeye

Since the establishment or Rakuten Mobile a couple of years ago, the company has planned to bring its technology and expertise to market as a unique service, enabling telecom operators globally to deploy fully cloud-native telecom networks of the future, stated Rakuten Mobile executive VP and CTO Tareq Amin in the press release.

He added that the planned acquisition of Innoeye takes the company one step closer to bringing a carrier-grade telecom cloud product, which is as simple as click, buy, and deploy, to the market.

RCP includes all the elements of the Rakuten Mobile Network, including telecom software and applications from multiple vendors, virtual network and edge computing management systems, and BSS and OSS systems handling, customer billing and activation systems.

“Innoeye is thrilled to be a part of the Rakuten Mobile family and the collaboration enables Innoeye to create a highly-innovative cloud-based communications platform that is open, secure, and scalable,” noted Innoeye CEO Rajeev Gupta in the release.

RCP is expected to revolutionize the industry and pave the way for the next level of innovation, offering telecom operators a faster and cost-effective deployment of fully cloud-native network services, Gupta said.

www.indiawest.com/news/business/...1ea-b522-d3fd32c6446b.html

Rakuten resubmits FDIC application

June 1, 2020:  Rakuten has resubmitted its application for federal deposit insurance with the FDIC, a spokesperson for the Japanese e-commerce company said Friday. Rakuten in March pulled its application to operate its bank as an industrial loan company (ILC).

“Rakuten Bank America is confident that the revised application is stronger and is responsive to the FDIC’s feedback,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement seen by Bloomberg Law and American Banker. “Rakuten Bank America is committed to transparency with our constituents and to cooperating with federal and state agencies during the regulatory review process, and we look forward to serving our customers where they are — online.”

Rakuten needs federal and state approval to operate as it intends. The company has an application pending with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions for an ILC charter. If Rakuten’s federal application is approved, its deposits would get FDIC protection and the company would avoid certain bank holding company requirements.

Rakuten first applied with the FDIC in July 2019, then withdrew in March, shortly after the regulator approved ILC applications from payment company Square and student loan servicer Nelnet.

www.bankingdive.com/news/...ication-intends-to-refile/574776/

so ein exzellentes Offline dazu kommt, erhöht sich die Wirkung enorm:

newyorkstyleguide.com/pininfarina-design-rakuten-mobile-store/

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen shifts in consumer buying patterns and media consumption. Video content, for instance, is clearly resonating with consumers. Rakuten Viber has seen 75% growth in shared videos in France, while in the US, Rakuten Advertising is seeing Facebook and Instagram Live views double.

Overall, clicks have been increasing in the UK since mid-March, and orders are up in April. We’ve also seen deal sites have grown their share of traffic by 72% YOY in late-March, while mobile devices have taken a greater percentage of total orders during COVID-19 in the UK. In fact, orders on mobile peaked in April to account for 56% of all orders.

What advice would you give a marketer right now?

Our data shows that consumers are still engaging with advertising – as shown by the fact that conversion rates across our UK network were 20% higher in April than they were in February – and we would encourage them to continue to invest. With on-site retargeting share of sales increasing 79%, marketers should focus on data-led strategies such as retargeting that provide personalised and authentic experience.

econsultancy.com/...p-northern-europe-at-rakuten-advertising/

Startup matches made in heaven?

So, who’s buddied up with whom? Let’s review a few examples found throughout the region.
Fintech EBANX and Spanish ride-hailing platform, Cabify, are working together as well. Not too long ago, the Brazilian unicorn launched a free platform for e-commerce businesses to host their products. Now, Cabify will be helping with the logistics end of that operation.

www.contxto.com/en/colombia/...rships-forged-coronavirus-era/