The less bumpy way to ride e-commerce = Rakuten (Seite 317)

[FlankerStan]

Excellent Development of Internet Services-Sector of Rakuten

Excellent Development of Internet Services-Sector of Rakuten

In domestic e-commerce services, the mainstay of Internet services, the Rakuten Group is aiming for further growth in gross merchandise sales and revenue by working on various initiatives, including sales promotion activities to cultivate loyal customers and win new customers, promotion of cross-use of services, promotion of the introduction of a common free shipping (shipping included) threshold and further opening up the Rakuten Ecosystem. Services such as the Internet shopping mall “Rakuten Ichiba” and “Rakuten 24”, which sells medical supplies and daily necessities, etc. by online shopping, have continued to see further growth in transaction volume even compared with the previous fiscal year when the Rakuten Group benefited from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which gave a boost to the businesses. This was because these measures successfully led to the retention of customers who began using the services against the backdrop of increased demand for online shopping following the growth in “stay-at-home consumption”. In the online travel booking service, Rakuten Travel, despite a decrease in transaction volume due to the impact of the continued temporary suspension of the "Go To Travel" program caused by the re-emergence of COVID-19, the gross merchandise sales in domestic e-commerce services exceeded ¥5 trillion in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. In other Internet services including overseas Internet services, continuous measures to improve cost efficiency and recovery of consumer behavior helped improve the performance of businesses that have been affected by the pandemic. In addition, the Rakuten Group recorded ¥27,827 million in valuation gains on securities related to investments in FinTech-related companies in the investment business. The Company has completed the succession of all but part of the rights and obligations in connection with its logistics business to JP Rakuten Logistics, Inc., a joint venture with Japan Post Co., Ltd., which became an associate of the Company accounted for using the equity method in the third quarter ended September 30, 2021. Accordingly, part of income (losses) of the logistics business, which was recorded in the Internet Services segment until the second quarter ended June 30, 2021, is recorded in share of income (losses) of investments in associates and joint ventures from the third quarter ended September 30, 2021. As a result, revenue for the Internet Services segment rose to ¥1,003,382 million, a 14.7% year-on-year increase, while segment profit stood at ¥107,548 million, a 166.2% year-on-year increase.

(Millions of Yen)

Fiscal Year 2020 Fiscal Year 2021 Amount Change YoY % Change YoY

Segment revenue 874,806 1,003,382 128,576 14.7%

Segment profit 40,396 107,548 67,152 166.2%

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/

Downloads/21Q4tanshin_E.pdf

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Mobile

Establishment of full virtualization technology, our cost-competitive network has expanded.

Achieved 96% population coverage 4 years ahead of schedule Future capex will become steady.

Further reduction of roaming costs in Japan from Q2/22.

Subscribers: 5.5mm (MNO+MVNO) Accelerate customer acquisition by improving network quality.
Group synergies also strong.

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/
Downloads/21Q4CEOPPT_E.pdf

[FlankerStan]

It’s about time the mobile industry met Symworld

24 hours ago

For too long in telecoms, the time of network operators has been mistreated. For too long they’ve been asked to wait for the benefits of next-gen tech; to imagine a future of unlimited speed, scale and innovation that’s always just out of reach.

With today’s announcement of Symworld — a platform to help telecom operators scale at the speed of cloud — we’re saying the time is now.

Symworld: How we bring scale to telecom

Symworld is Rakuten Symphony taking the capabilities initially introduced inside the Rakuten Communications Platform to the global market. Now in general availability, new and incumbent network operators can take advantage of intuitive, one-touch access to a suite of next-gen network software apps. The platform can modernize any network and move operations from being coordinated by people and paper to being driven by software and data. And it’s about time.

The successful public cloud providers use their own services first then sell them to others. Rakuten Symphony is the first telecom company to do the same in the cloud-native era and as we have seen that the possible outcomes are transformational. It’s about time to stop accepting the status quo. And it’s about time to challenge the status quo supply chain to truly embrace the new reality and help their customers be successful.

“SYMWORLD IS EVERYTHING OPERATORS NEED TO START AUTOMATING ALL OR PARTS OF THE NETWORK RIGHT NOW.”

TAREQ AMIN, CEO, RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

It’s about time that terms like “open” started to mean something in the present tense and critically, that operators are able to move as quickly as the market necessitates, scaling fast to pursue countless new opportunities.

I hope you saw the news earlier this month about Rakuten Mobile reaching 96% population coverage four years ahead of schedule.

THIS is what we mean when we say unprecedented scale: When we tell you that it’s possible to deliver a world-class network at a pace previously thought impossible while still hitting network cost reduction targets.

A journey that began in Japan

Before Rakuten Mobile became Japan’s fourth major operator in 2019, before we even broke ground on our network, we were told our approach would never work. Open RAN (radio access network) wasn’t ready for prime time, we heard. An internet services company could never make it in telco, was another refrain. But we never deviated in our mission to reimagine telecoms. And since day one, we’ve done nothing but prove the doubters wrong, earning recognition after recognition for the world’s first, fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile network built on open standards.

“MOBILE INDUSTRY TRANSFORMATION WILL NOT BE ABOUT ANY ONE PRODUCT. IT WILL BE ABOUT ADOPTING A SYSTEM MINDSET THAT PRIORITIZES INNOVATION AND SPEED OVER THE SAME LEGACY APPROACHES.”

The journey that began with the creation of Rakuten Mobile in Japan continues with our announcement today. We are taking the technology that disrupted our home market and bringing it to the world. We are bringing the same belief in our ability to operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches, with no compromise to network quality or security, to empower an industry much in need of change.

The future of mobile network delivery is about speed, agility and the ability to compete

Symworld is everything operators need to start automating all or parts of the network RIGHT NOW; to evaluate, trial and deploy open system components like the Open RAN, the RIC (RAN intelligent controller), service assurance, security and customer experience management via apps instead of getting bogged down in long purchase cycles for more products.

“IT’S TIME TO DISRUPT TELECOM. LET’S DO IT TOGETHER, AS FAST AS WE CAN.”

Mobile industry transformation will not be about any one product. It will be about adopting a system mindset that prioritizes innovation and speed over the same legacy approaches. It will be about recognizing the cloud-driven realities of this business and capitalizing on massive opportunity while it’s still here. Because the time is up for waiting for the old guard to change.

At Mobile World Congress, we’ll be taking the wraps off Symworld and showing the industry what we can do to help all of us move forward, swiftly in a common pursuit.

In the meantime, watch this page for more on Rakuten Symphony and Symworld as the show approaches.

It’s time to disrupt telecom. Let’s do it together, as fast as we can.

https://rakuten.today/blog/its-about-time-the-mobile-industry-met-symworld.html

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Symphony announces European expansion

ByJuan Pedro Tomás February 14, 2022

Rakuten Symphony announced the expansion of its operations across the U.K., France and Germany.

The Japanese company noted that this expansion will allow the firm to support the business operations and growth in the European market and collaboration with operators and vendors in the region to support the transformation of mobile network operations and adoption of Open RAN technologies.

In the U.K., Rakuten Symphony will be based in London and is focused on 4G and 5G Open RAN software and hardware development and testing for Rakuten Symphony, leveraging and expanding recently acquired Altiostar Networks’ R&D center and Open RAN engineering lab in the country.

In France, Rakuten Symphony will be based in Paris, while in Germany, the firm’s headquarters will be based in Dusseldorf. In August 2021, German operator 1&1 AG and Rakuten Group announced a long-term partnership to build the former’s mobile network, which will become the fourth mobile network in Germany.

Together with Rakuten, 1&1 will build what it claims to be Europe’s first fully virtualized mobile network based on Open RAN technology, which will feature a 100% cloud-based multi-vendor network architecture.

Rakuten Symphony has headquarters in Japan and local presence in the United States, Singapore, India, Europe and the Middle East Africa region.

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20220214/5g/rakuten-symphony-ann…

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Mobile’s number of contracted lines exceeds 5.5 million lines Rakuten Group reveals in financial results announcement

about 10 hours ago

On February 14, Rakuten Group announced its full-year 2021 and fourth-quarter financial results. Rakuten Mobile has revealed that as of February 2022, the total number of contracted lines for MNO services and MVNO services has exceeded 5.5 million lines.

Mobile segment sales up 31.9% year-on-year

According to the “FY2021 Full-Year and Fourth Quarter Financial Results” released by Rakuten Group, revenue in the mobile segment for FY2021 was 227.5 billion yen, a significant increase of 31.9% from the previous year.

Factors contributing to the increase in sales include the gradual contribution to sales from users who have finished applying the one-year free campaign, the increase in device sales, and the recording of sales of the communication platform business “Rakuten Symphony.”

https://iphonewired.com/news/311114/

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Alles genau im Detail

Rakuten Group, Inc. FY2021 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Consolidated Financial Results

[FlankerStan]

FinTech progressing well

Expanding customer base and cross-use of services, achieving higher revenue and profits, and increasing competitive advantages.

FY2021 Revenue +7.4% YoY
FY2021 Non-GAAP OI +9.6% YoY
Rakuten Card Holders Achieved 25mm
Rakuten Bank Accounts Achieved 12 mm
Rakuten Securities Accounts Achieved 7 mm

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/
Downloads/21Q4CEOPPT_E%20.pdf

[FlankerStan]

Domestic EC

Demonstrating further competitive advantages in an environment where the pandemic has continued


Revenue +18.1% YoY

Non-GAAP OI +37.7% YoY


https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/

Downloads/21Q4CEOPPT_E%20.pdf

[FlankerStan]

Results are okay

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/

Downloads/21Q4videoPPT_S_E.pdf

[FlankerStan]

Rakuten Mobile announced that it will expand the number of stores in the post office, reaching 285 stores nationwide

Rakuten Mobile announced on February 10 that it will expand the installation of application counters at post offices. By the end of March 2022, we plan to open stores at 285 post offices nationwide.
Rakuten announced a business alliance with Japan Post in March 2021, and in June 2021 opened an application counter for Rakuten Mobile on a trial basis in the event spaces of 10 post offices in the Kanto area. rice field.

After that, it was confirmed by conducting a test that customer needs and store management methods were confirmed, and since November 2021, new stores have been set up mainly in urban areas around the world, and as of February 1, 2022, 182 post offices have been set up. An application counter (Rakuten Mobile Post Office) is set up at.

On February 10, Rakuten Mobile announced that it would expand the installation of application counters at post offices and open stores at 285 post offices nationwide by the end of March 2022.

At the Rakuten Mobile Post Office, you can consult about price plans and service contents, as well as make contract procedures.

https://iphonewired.com/news/309869/