The less bumpy way to ride e-commerce = Rakuten (Seite 237)

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Bank’s total assets increased by 46.3 percent in 12 months

Rakuten Bank's total assets 2013-2022

Published by Statista Research Department, May 30, 2022

As of March 2022, the total assets of Rakuten Bank, Ltd. amounted to around 9.49 trillion Japanese yen. Compared to the previous year, the bank's total assets increased by 46.3 percent.

www.statista.com/statistics/1309989/rakuten-bank-total-assets/

[FlankerStan]

Korean jewelry ecommerce firm bags additional $6m in series B

Investors including Rakuten Capital

Xavier Kong · 25 Aug 2022 · 1 min read

https://www.techinasia.com/jewelry-ecommerce-platform-secure…

[FlankerStan]

Looking towards 2023 what are the top goals and how are they going to contribute to the success of Rakuten Mobile?

The first step is to have 100% coverage in Japan both in terms of population and area. While at present we have 97% population coverage in Japan, one of our initiatives towards making this a reality is our investment in AST SpaceMobile, which is a satellite company. This will help support mission-critical use-cases, rural connectivity, and overall coverage enhancement in metropolitans. Next is the 5G expansion followed by further cloudification, better utilization of the transport network and more focus on enterprise and business customers.

The success that was achieved by Rakuten Mobile in Japan is now being made ‘generally available’ for greenfield and brownfield operators globally with Rakuten Symphony. This network transformation will enable service providers globally to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a cost-effective and timely manner, without compromising network quality and security.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/disrupting-telecom-the-int…

[FlankerStan]

Global Finance Names the World’s Best Consumer Digital Banks in Asia-Pacific 2022

COUNTRY, TERRITORY & DISTRICT - WINNERS

Bangladesh Mutual: Trust Bank
China: ICBC
Hong Kong: Citi
Indonesia: UOB Digital Bank
Japan: Rakuten Bank
Malaysia: Maybank
Mongolia: Golomt Bank
Singapore: DBS
Sri Lanka: HSBC
Taiwan: Taishin Bank
Thailand: KASIKORNBANK
Vietnam: Techcomban

https://d2tyltutevw8th.cloudfront.net/media/document/press-r…

[FlankerStan]

Additional to my postings about the importance of the OSS: This buy more than two years ago was a very important step of Rakuten Rakuten buys OSS startup Innoeye with more than 500 employees

By Linda Hardesty May 13, 2020 11:56am

https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/rakuten-buys-oss-st…

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zu 8444

OSS adaptation is essential – and must start now

This is exciting – but it does mean that MNOs will also have to adapt to support multiple RAN partners, instead of the traditional one or two. Quite apart from what that means from a commercial perspective, it has significant implications from an operational view.

A term that’s widely used in the industry is agnosticism. We often talk about how solutions are protocol agnostic, for example – which simply means they can connect on any suitable interface for the task in hand. To make the most of Open RAN and to ensure that, not only can new Open RAN solutions be deployed alongside traditional ones (which will be around for a long time to come), but that they can also pick and choose vendors as they like, MNOs will need to become agnostic to different RAN products. That’s a huge task.

We’re essentially saying that MNOs need to build an operational environment into which any RAN – open or otherwise – can be seamlessly deployed into their networks and integrated with their operational systems. To achieve this will require a radical shift from current approaches and a more flexible OSS.

This problem is gaining recognition, as our recent white paper made clear. In “Open RAN automation – how to ensure compatibility with your evolving network”, we outlined the challenges of aligning new, Open RAN investments with existing and traditional RAN solutions, highlighting some key use cases that must be addressed to ensure compatibility.

At present, many trials are based on the introduction of a new, single vendor for Open RAN. From these, we’re learning how to solve the first challenge – how Open RAN and proprietary solutions can co-exist successfully. So, we already know how to include Open RAN alongside existing solutions.

https://futurenetworld.net/intelligent-oss/preparing-for-the…

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Trade enhances US trading service with foreign currency facility

Investors can now exchange funds seamlessly between Ringgit and US Dollars via the iSpeed.my app and web platform. Conversions happen in real-time, at competitive rates that are usually better than most banks, and with no additional exchange rate fees charged for trading between currencies.

Kazumasa Mise, CEO of Rakuten Trade, said nearly 25,000 US trading accounts have been activated through Rakuten Trade since Rakuten Trade first launched the service in January. It has also served as a catalyst for new investors to test trading strategies on Bursa Malaysia before diversifying into the US markets.

As of July 31, 2022, Rakuten Trade had activated more than 250,000 trading accounts and transacted a total trading value of more than RM105 billion on Bursa Malaysia since the first business day, while the assets held in trust by its clients were nearly RM3.5 billion.

https://europa.duhuta.com/rakuten-trade-enhances-us-trading-…

[FlankerStan]

The Best Audiobook Apps of 2022

Kobo Books is a decent alternative to Audible if you want a monthly-credit subscription. Kobo’s premium plan buys you any title in the library but for about five dollars less than Audible’s offering.

However, Kobo Books doesn’t have a catalog of thousands of included titles like Audible does. And while you can find most audiobooks from mainstream publishers in the Kobo store, the service has no original content and no audiobooks exclusive to the service.

The app’s interface is simple, manageable, and easily divided between ebooks and audiobooks. Titles in your library are efficiently organized, managed, and sorted. Plus, the player screen is the simplest of all the audiobook apps in this article.

Kobo’s reading statistics are superior to Audible’s. They give you a far more drilled-down look at what you’ve read, how much you’ve read, how many books you’ve completed, how far you are on each title, and overall averages on all the media in the app, not just audiobooks.

One of the annoying things about Kobo is that you can’t purchase audiobooks through the iOS app, even with credits. So, iPhone users need to log into the Kobo website, do your shopping there, and come back to the app when you’ve finished.

https://www.reviewgeek.com/125142/best-audiobook-apps/#:~:te…

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Mobile is the next Tesla

The next generation of OSS is even more important than Open RAN

The first thing I wanted to do is to change the paradigm of having thousands of disaggregated toolsets to manage a network into a consolidated platform. It was an idea that I couldn’t drive in Jio. I will tell you why that is even more important than Open RAN. These building blocks are for new architecture, the next generation of OSS.

If we build these operation platforms on a new modern architecture that supports real-time telemetry, the idea is to get real-time information about every element and node that you have into your network. Being able to correlate them and apply AI machine learning on top of them requires modern-age platforms. It is so critical to my dream.

Our success will not be celebrated because of Open RAN, but the grander vision of having Rakuten talked about as a company that does what Tesla has done for the electric industry in terms of autonomy. Autonomy in mobile networks is an absolutely amazing opportunity to build a resilient and reliable network that has better security architecture and does not need the complexity of the way we run and manage networks today.

https://www.theverge.com/23297756/5g-rakuten-mobile-ceo-oran…

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Rakuten Americas and Warriors