The less bumpy way to ride e-commerce = Rakuten (Seite 187)

[FlankerStan]

Positive Signs for the Mobile Outlook

Heading into Q4, things are looking better on the mobile side - per management, sign-ups have been exceeding cancellations in November, possibly implying a turnaround in subscriber additions. Given all customers will also be billed from November, achieving more ARPU gains (vs. disclosed ARPU of JPY2.6k in the mobile business in September) will be key to getting to operating profitability. Also helping margins will be the decline of roaming expenses, base station installation, and related maintenance expenses, as the 4G network rollout concludes in FY23 with ~60k base stations deployed (vs. the current ~50k). Pending better visibility into a mobile turnaround, however, I would be cautious about underwriting a fundamental upturn anytime soon.

Beyond the near-term, Rakuten continues to guide to achieving single-month break-even for the mobile business by end-2023. Meanwhile, operating trends are projected to improve as soon as 1H 2023 on the back of cost reductions and the launch of new enterprise services.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RakutenUndervalued/comments/100tdnt…

[FlankerStan]

40 Rakuten Marketing Case Studies, Success Stories, & Customer Stories | FeaturedCustomers

https://www.featuredcustomers.com/vendor/rakuten-marketing/c…

[FlankerStan]

Intel working closely with Rakuten has created a combination product that should greatly accelerate adoption of vRAN/ORAN technology
Combining General Processing with Acceleration

Intel has announced a new product that combines the processing power of its Xeon Scaler chips with the acceleration capabilities of its FPGA components and combined both into one SoC. Targeted at the 5G and ORAN needs of carriers, this combination has some significant benefits that include:

Reduced power requirements – the amount of electricity needed to run network operations is one of the largest costs involved. It is estimated moving to a more power efficient hardware and software deployment can save 35%-40% of required power, with major implications for sustainability.

Reduction in BOM - enabling smaller, lighter and more cost-effective systems to be built. Lowering complexity of the underlying equipment is a core need to enable both automated, one click deployments as well as reducing the space requirements that enable deployment in many more potential locations, including edge computing.

Better performance - a single SOC can improve the overall platform performance by as much as 2X compared to discrete components, according to Intel, enabling control units to power more radios for a more efficient operating environment. Called the Intel Xeon Scalable Processor with vRAN boost, it provides up to 2x capacity gains at the same power, about 20% power savings, and is offered as a compact single SoC rather than multiple discrete chips. Its dedicated accelerator includes 5G specific instructions like matrix acceleration. But with many networking functions now relying on AI processes as well, those can be handled by the Xeon processor AI acceleration.

Bottom Line: Intel working closely with Rakuten has created a combination product that should greatly accelerate adoption of vRAN/ORAN technology. While both companies are free to explore partnerships with other companies, it’s likely that this close working relationship will continue and put both Rakuten Symphony and Intel Xeon at the forefront of the move to a fully virtualized carrier environment. We expect Rakuten to create and sell some leading-edge hardware using the Intel tech, and we expect that what Intel learns from this relationship will keep it at the forefront of supplying processors to the 5G and general carrier marketplace, and ahead of its competitors vying for a piece of this growing and attractive market. Such competitors include Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD and Marvel.

Jack Gold is founder and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, LLC. With more than 45 years of experience in the computer and electronics industries, and as an industry analyst for more than 25 years, he covers the many aspects of business and consumer computing and emerging technologies.

Follow him on Twitter @jckgld or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jckgld

https://www.fierceelectronics.com/iot-wireless/intel-and-rak…

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Rebates, Apple Earn up to 6 times the usual points during the first sale period

by Wired about 20 hours ago

https://iphonewired.com/news/574719/

[FlankerStan]

We will see a jump to profitabilty of Rakuten Mobile

After shifting of all customers off from free plans, increased ARPU and opex will fall strong, because the build out of network is done, we will see a jump to profitabilty of Rakuten Mobile.

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten France startet Club R Pay, den ersten integrierten Zahlungs- und Cashback-Service

Mit der Einführung von Club R Pay ist Rakuten France der erste E-Commerce-Player, der eine integrierte digitale Zahlungsmethode anbietet, die mit einem Cashback-System verbunden ist.

Rakuten France kündigt die Einführung einer neuen integrierten Zahlungslösung an – Club R Pay – und ist damit der erste E-Commerce-Player, der ein solches Zahlungsgerätin der Welt der Marktplätze anbietet. Club R Pay ist eine universelle integrierte Zahlungslösung und ermöglicht es 12 Millionen französischen Mitgliedern des Club R-Treueprogramms, auf mehr als 2.000 Websites problemlos Einkäufe zu tätigen und gleichzeitig auf Rakuten belohnt zu werden. Diese neue Initiative ist ein konkretes Beispiel für die Vision von Rakuten für den Handel von morgen und ermöglicht es Rakuten, die Einkaufsreise zu rationalisieren, aber auch seine Partner bei ihrer Digitalisierung und Entwicklung zu unterstützen.

Mit Club R ermöglicht Rakuten Markenpartnern, ihren digitalen Umsatz auf ihrer eigenen Website zu steigern. Als echter Marketing-Akquisitionspartner ermöglicht Club R Marken, seine 12 Millionen treuen und engagierten Käufer in Frankreich zu erreichen. Ein wichtiger Hebel, um Wachstum zu generieren.

Club R Pay wurde auch entwickelt, um es Partnern zu ermöglichen, ihre Marketingausgaben zu optimieren: Dank eines leistungsbasierten Preismodells zahlen Partner nur, wenn der Benutzer einen Kauf tätigt.

Schließlich erfordert diese Zahlungslösung "Plug and Play" keine aufwändige Entwicklung auf Partnerseite. Universal ist allgegenwärtig, es lässt sich leicht in die Kaufreise integrieren.

Diese Lösung, die vom Marktführer im E-Commerce entwickelt wurde, ist Teil einer Strategie, die sich auf die Kaufreise konzentriert, um Wert für Käufer und Marken gleichermaßen zu schaffen. Rakuten France achtet auf die Veränderungen in unserer Gesellschaft, insbesondere durch die starke Digitalisierung der Einkaufs- und Verkaufswege, und bekräftigt einmal mehr seine Mission: sein Know-how in Innovation in den Dienst von Millionen von Käufern und seinen wertvollen Einzelhandelspartnern zu stellen.

https://global.fr.shopping.rakuten.com/actualites/club-r-pay…

[FlankerStan]

More about Rakuten Pay

https://pay.rakuten.co.jp/detail/?scid=wi_rkc_pc_header_rgli…

[FlankerStan]

After my estimates we will see a shortquezze by Rakuten-shares

in the first days of January 2023, when after window-dressing in 2022 investors come in again and shortsellers must cover at the same time.

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Mobile roaming costs felt in Q4/22 and will fall dramatically in Q1/23

Rakuten Mobile targets adding 10,000 in the Q4/22 to bring the total to 60,000 sites, providing 99 per cent population coverage.

[FlankerStan]

Join Forces to Bring Highly-Valuable Asian Content OTT Inventory to SEA Advertisers

Rakuten Viki and FreakOut Join Forces to Bring Highly-Valuable Asian Content OTT Inventory to SEA Advertisers

Singapore, Dec 9, 2022 — FreakOut is pleased to announce their newly formed alliance with Viki, Asian content OTT giant, which will enable SEA advertisers to access Viki’s highly engaged and niche audience; Korean and Japanese drama viewers as well as K-pop fans. Over the last couple of years there has been a growing wave of cultural diffusion and an increased viewership of Japanese and Korean content around the world. Freakout’s advertisers will now be able to capture and connect with this coveted audience easily.

Rakuten Viki, which was launched in 2007, has evolved to become the largest East Asian content library consisting of 900 titles. Every year, over a 100 new Japanese, Chinese, and Korean shows are added, making it the go-to platform for Asian entertainment. The platform has over 7 million fans in Asia alone – a unique audience profile of a female majority audience, with 60% of viewers being millennials.

With this partnership, FreakOut is opening a different niche of audience to its advertisers while leveraging Viki’s loyal fanbase and audience metrics to create a seamless ad experience for both, advertisers and viewers alike. FreakOut will aim at helping Viki monetise their traffic by serving ads from premium brands and products on the platform while maintaining relevance to their viewer’s profile . On the other hand, Viki’s inventory will be available via FreakOut’s SSP, enabling advertisers to experience brand lift by showcasing their brand message in a highly viewable environment, to a highly engaged audience. In addition to that, advertisers can receive added insight and support from FreakOut to strengthen and fortify their campaign.

About FreakOut
FreakOut is a global marketing technology company with programmatic solutions (DSP, SSP) that delivers in-feed display and video formats across global publishers. Headquartered in Singapore, FreakOut has 11 offices across 10 countries which include China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and USA. FreakOut is a part of FreakOut Holdings, Inc. which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE:6094) and oversees the investments for FreakOut.

https://freakout.net/newsroom/pressreleases/202212asian-cont…