The less bumpy way to ride e-commerce = Rakuten (Seite 126)

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Rakuten plans global expansion for STAY rental business

12th June 2023

Rakuten, is seeking to accelerate the international expansion of Rakuten STAY, its latest vacation rental model in which it will own, manage and operate its inventory.

Previously called Rakuten LIFULL STAY until Rakuten bought out LIFULL’s 49 per cent stake last year, Rakuten STAY’s real estate model is designed to own and operate its own brand of “wide spaces”, according to CEO Munekatsu Ota, including private villas and apartments. There are currently around 600 rooms of Rakuten STAY accommodations, which accommodate between eight and ten people, and the company aims to expand this to 10,000 in the future.

This is in addition to Rakuten’s existing Vacation STAY brand, which features around 100,000 listings of vacation rentals, hotels, apartments and special zone private lodgings in destinations such as Tokyo, Hokkaido, Osaka, Kyoto, Okinawa, Chiba and Kanagawa.

https://shorttermrentalz.com/news/rakuten-stay-expansion-jap…

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Rakuten Mobile and Tokyo Institute of Technology establish research center

https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/rakuten-mobile-tokyo-i…

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Mobile network operators’ new industrialization revolution

By Geoff Hollingworth Chief Marketing Officer Rakuten Symphony

June 6, 2023

The industrialization revolution started 15 years ago – at least it did for some of the largest internet companies in the world.
These industry leaders sought out a more efficient way to manage their growing computing and networking infrastructures as profitability and scalability became a tipping point.

What they implemented became popularized in public cloud circles as the industrialization cycle. The first task was to standardize the infrastructure. Gone were the days of affectionately naming each server in the data center and along came standardization. This meant adopting a structured naming system as the starting point of creating an even more structured approach to building and operating the network.

MNOs need the industrialization cycle
We are recommending that mobile network operators (MNOs) undergo the industrialization cycle to improve their businesses. With the advent of Open RAN and Mobile as a Software™ architectures, MNOs no longer need to hand over control of their networking decisions to their vendors. They are now able to exert more control over their network to reduce costs and deliver more and better services. The industrialization cycle is one way to structure this process.

Below is a summarized version of the industrialization cycle. In our recently published Mobile as a Software™ White Paper, we go into more detail on each stage and include a case study of how each of the steps can be applied.

Here are the five stages of the cycle:
• Standardize: Minimize the amount of variability in a facility, hardware, software, operations or the entire business.
• Combine: Combine as much as possible to reduce the number of entities and operations under management.
• Abstract: Create a normalization layer above all entities that allows the universal application of common management practices rather than managing exceptions.
• Automate: Automate everything using the abstraction layer. No interaction should require human intervention so as to lower opex and increase agility.
• Govern: Governance ensures the implemented cycle is achieving the needed outcomes across six dimensions: performance, scalability, quality, economics, compliance and security.

That’s the industrialization cycle – but it doesn’t stop when you get to governance. The cycle is repeated again and again as the MNO gains new insights to their business and network, and as the market evolves.

With a historical overreliance on the next big “G” as a cure all to their business problems, MNOs are digging themselves into a financial hole. But now with a software-driven network they are in a position to follow the lead of their cloud service provider colleagues and use the industrialization cycle to streamline their network for growth and profitability.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/mobile-network-operators-n…

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Advertising-in-Economic-Uncertain

https://iabeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Advertising-…

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Audience-Engine: Personalisierung und Segmentierung leicht gemacht

9 May 2023

Vor kurzem haben wir uns mit Kyle Fish, Lead Product Manager, Affiliate bei Rakuten Advertising zusammengesetzt, um alles über die neueste Arbeit seines Teams zu erfahren, welche die Branche revolutionieren wird: Audience-Engine.

Hey Fish, danke, dass du heute Zeit für uns hast. Lass uns mit einem schnellen Elevator-Pitch zur Audience-Engine beginnen:
Audience-Engine ist eine einzigartige Provisions-Technologie, die Zielgruppengenauigkeit und Personalisierung über den Affiliate-Channel möglich und zugänglich macht. Ziel ist es, den Publishern zu ermöglichen, unterschiedliche Provisionsraten für die Zielgruppen, die sie haben, zu nehmen.

Wir möchten, dass Publisher weiterhin ihre Werbebotschaften personalisieren und verschiedene Arten von Verbrauchern über ihre Websites erreichen. Wenn eine Zielgruppe wertvoller ist, z. B. Shopper mit höherem AOV oder TikTok-Nutzer, sollen Publisher in der Lage sein, diese entsprechend zu kennzeichnen und Provisionen für den zusätzlichen Wert erhalten, den sie erzielen, wenn ein Mitglied dieses Segments konvertiert.

Wie funktioniert das genau?

Der Prozess ist ziemlich ähnlich zu dem, wie Affiliate heute funktioniert. Die Reise beginnt damit, dass Publisher und Advertiser sich für eine Kampagne und eine Targeting-Strategie entscheiden. Beide Parteien vereinbaren dann spezifische Provisions-Regeln für die Zielgruppen auf der Basis des Angebots des Publishers. Dies könnte durch E-Mail-Maketing an ein Segment aus der Datenbank des Publishers, durch gezielte Medienpräsenz bei Kunden mit hohem AOV oder Käufern von Beautyprodukten, die dem Publisher bekannt sind, oder sogar durch das Posten von Angeboten in ihrer Instagram-Story passieren. Dann, zum Zeitpunkt des Klicks, gibt der Publisher das passende vereinbarte Attribut weiter, das zum Angebot des Advertisers mit den vereinbarten Provisionsregeln führt.

Audience-Engine setzt ein, wenn der Publisher (über das gesetzte Attribut) der Affiliate-Plattform mitteilt, dass eine bestimmte Gruppe von Konsumenten erreicht oder eine personalisierte Nachricht an einen bestimmten Nutzer übermittelt wurde.

https://blog.rakutenadvertising.com/de-de/news/audience-engi…

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More flexibility through Rakuten Bank

Beginn des Handlings von "Restwert-Wohnungsbaudarlehen" mit Zinsauswahl | 2023 | Pressemitteilung | Rakuten Bank (rakuten-bank.co.jp)

https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/press/2023/230609.html

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Four strategies to support a thriving telecom startup ecosystem

By Azita Arvani
CEO North America, Rakuten Symphony

June 8, 2023

Recently, I had a great discussion with some distinguished industry colleagues about RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), its benefits and how we can bring that power to telecom faster.

A big part of unlocking the power of RIC is around leveraging third-party innovation via xApps (near real-time scenarios) and rApps (non real-time scenarios) in radio networks. While developing a RIC framework and designing open and interoperable interfaces have rightfully enjoyed tremendous efforts from some of the industry’s brightest minds, creating a blueprint alone is not enough. For RIC to succeed, we must also create an environment for xApp and rApp developers to thrive in. And that goes beyond RIC and across the board for the industry. For telecom to transform, we need to make it easy for the new blood to run in our veins.
Telecom hasn’t always provided the friendliest of atmospheres for welcoming external innovation. In particular, startups have continuously encountered formidable challenges introducing new tech into the industry. This is in spite of the vast potential upside that exists as competition grows ever more fierce. Having worked closely with global operators, prominent vendors and compelling startups, I've had a front-row seat to the struggles startups face as they navigate the complexities of driving demand within major operators and establishing a channel to sell to them. This is bad for startups and bad for the operators, especially as speed emerges as the most consequential competitive edge.

There is hope for improvement. In my current role as CEO, North America of Rakuten Symphony, I have seen proof of a more successful approach. As telecom attempts to move confidently into a world defined by 5G, open RAN, RAN Intelligent Controller and cloud-native technology, now is the time to improve how we work with startups to foster a robust ecosystem that will attract a diverse set of vendors and technologies that will help the industry accelerate transformation.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/four-strategies-to-support…

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Business Phone Number Platform Market with phenomenal CAGR of 32% during forecast

The Business Phone Number Platform Market size is projected to accrue voluminously by 2029 registering a phenomenal CAGR of 32% during the forecast period (2023 to 2029).

Business Phone Number Platform Market 2023 to 2029 Demand by Key Regions and Top Key Players as Zoom, Rakuten Viber, Cisco

Published: June 9, 2023 at 5:27 a.m. ET

The Business Phone Number Platform Market Research Report is a supreme resource that presents an all-inclusive view of the Business Phone Number Platform industry, surrounding all relevant information. The Business Phone Number Platform Market size is projected to accrue voluminously by 2029 registering a phenomenal CAGR of 32% during the forecast period (2023 to 2029).

Some of the key players profiled in the report: Zoom, Rakuten Viber, Cisco, Microsoft, Mitel, RingCentral, Avaya, Twilio, Meta, 8×8, Verizon, Enreach, GoTo, Vonage, Ooma, TextNow, Aircall, AVOXI, Dialpad, Sangoma Technologies, Dstny, NFON, Nextiva, Grasshopper, 3CX, Google, Ziff Davis, OpenPhone, CounterPath (Alianza)

https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/business-phone-num…

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Online Apparel Retailing Market May See a Big Move

06-09-2023 01:15 PM CET

Major players profiled in the study are: Alibaba Group (China), Amazon.com (United States), JD.com (China), Rakuten (Japan), Walmart (United States), American Apparel (United States), Benetton (Italy), Cotton On (Australia), Diesel (Italy), Dolce & Gabbana (Italy)

https://www.openpr.com/news/3083430/online-apparel-retailing…

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The Open RAN discussion continues

Will Townsend
May 19, 2023,03:46pm EDT


Unsurprisingly, Open RAN was also a hot topic at the event. The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Rakuten took to the main stage to discuss key Open RAN updates.

Rakuten might be best described as the poster child for Open RAN, so it was no surprise that the company provided an update at the Big 5G Event. Rakuten lays claim to the largest Open RAN deployment in the world, and it has aggregated its learnings with its Symphony Symworld 4G and 5G.

I was initially skeptical about Symworld, given the competitive nature of operators, and I wondered whether others would adopt Rakuten’s solution. However, that quickly changed for me a year ago. Symworld was launched at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona in 2022, and I was impressed by the collaboration out of the gate between Rakuten and AT&T. Not only does AT&T plan to leverage Rakuten’s intellectual property for its own Open RAN deployments, but it will also collaborate to enhance Symworld over time. Support from Nokia and Cisco also points to the value Rakuten provides for others in the Open RAN space, where it hopes to capitalize on its deployment agility and savings in capital and operational expenses.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2023/05/19/big-5g-…
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