Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

- und daher habe ich mir nach dem Einstieg bei Alibaba, die inzwischem mehr als 20% gut gemacht haben, auch einige Rakutens gekauft.

Look Out Amazon, Here Comes...Rakuten?
Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten announced on Tuesday it is acquiring Ebates for $1 billion.

The acquisition, which Rakuten hinted at last week, is part of the Japanese company’s push to grow its base beyond its domestic market and hopefully, become a global player. Having made some $1.2 billion acquisitions to date along these lines, this is Rakuten’s most ambitious move to date.

However, investors are dubious that the company can absorb yet another foreign acquisition, much less one the size of Ebates, despite Rakuten’s strong cash position.
Then there is the ever-present Amazon, which dominates the e-commerce market in the U.S. Few believe it will falter in the face of Chinese giant Alibaba, much less a Rakuten-Ebates combo.

Rakuten Goes Forth

Not surprisingly, Rakuten says it is undaunted. For starters, it has assembled a very interesting mix of acquisitions. There is messaging app Viber, which it purchased for $900 million in February, the Canadian ebook offering Kobo, Spanish video service Wuaki.tv, Viki, a digital content platform and Buy.com.
Now it has picked up Ebates.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2014/09/...ere-comes-rakuten/  

By Steve Hutt

In This Article:

Understanding Rakuten’s Cashback System
Earn Passive Income with Rakuten Affiliate Marketing
Optimizing Your Earnings With Rakuten’s Referral Program
Exploring Rakuten’s In-Store Cashback Opportunities
Create a Stream of Income with Rakuten’s Credit Card
Maximize Your Earnings Through Everyday Shopping
Using Rakuten Travel and Vacation Deals to Earn More
Increase Your Savings With Rakuten Coupons and Promo Codes
Expand Your Earnings with Rakuten Double Cash Back Stores
Rakuten Shopping Rewards: Shop Smarter, Not Harder
Discovering Under-The-Radar Ways to Earn With Rakuten
Rakuten Mobile App: Earning on the Go
Deal Stacking with Rakuten for Greater Rewards
Make Money Online with Rakuten and Side Gigs
Rakuten Deals and Saving Hacks for Smart Consumers
Conclusion

https://ecommercefastlane.com/how-to-make-money-with-rakuten-2024/
 

Rakuten Mobile co-CEO Sharad Sriwastawa expressed confidence its improved network performance was helping drive steady subscriber growth, with the operator apparently on track to being EBITDA positive in December.

In its earnings documents, it stated total mobile users hit 8.1 million earlier this month.

“We’re on the right trend. We want to growth to 10 million, then to 12 million or 15 million.”

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/rakuten/...growth-as-coverage-widens/
 

Significant potential for improved financial performance

The company's trading price below its estimated fair value suggests potential for future appreciation, especially as it leverages AI and expands Rakuten Symphony to secure new business opportunities. The combination of these factors indicates a promising yet challenging path forward, with significant potential for improved financial performance and market share expansion.

https://simplywall.st/stocks/jp/retail/tse-4755/...uho-alliance-and-m
 

Rakuten Unveils New AI Models Optimized for Japanese

- New Large Language Model and first Small Language Model deliver greater efficiency and aim to make AI applications accessible for everyone

Tokyo, December 18, 2024 – Rakuten Group, Inc. has unveiled two new AI models: Rakuten AI 2.0, the company’s first Japanese large language model (LLM) based on a Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture, and Rakuten AI 2.0 mini, the company’s first small language model (SLM). Both models will be released to the open-source community to empower companies and professionals developing AI applications by Spring 2025.

Rakuten AI 2.0 is an 8x7B MoE foundation model based on the Rakuten AI 7B model released in March 2024. This MoE model is comprised of eight 7 billion parameter models, each as a separate expert. Each individual token is sent to the two most relevant experts, as decided by the router. The experts and router are continually trained together with vast amounts of high-quality Japanese and English language data.

Rakuten AI 2.0 mini is a 1.5 billion parameter foundation model and the first SLM developed by the company. The model was trained from the beginning on extensive Japanese and English language datasets curated and cleaned through an in-house multi-stage data filtering and annotation process, ensuring high-performance and accuracy in text generation tasks.

"At Rakuten, we see AI as a catalyst to augment human creativity and drive greater efficiency. Earlier this year, we launched a 7B Japanese LLM to accelerate AI solutions for local research and development," commented Ting Cai, Chief AI & Data Officer of Rakuten Group. "Our new cutting-edge Japanese LLM and pioneering SLM set new standards in efficiency, thanks to high-quality Japanese language data and innovative algorithms and engineering. These breakthroughs mark a significant step in our mission to empower Japan’s businesses and professionals to create AI applications that truly benefit users."

High efficiency with advanced architecture

Rakuten AI 2.0 employs a sophisticated Mixture of Experts architecture, which dynamically selects the most relevant experts for given input tokens, optimizing computational efficiency and performance. The model offers comparable performance to 8x larger dense models, while consuming approximately 4x less computation than dense models during inference.

Increased performance

Rakuten has conducted model evaluations with the LM Evaluation Harness*4 for Japanese and English capability measurements. The leaderboard evaluates language models based on a wide range of Natural Language Processing and Understanding tasks that reflect the characteristics of the target language. Rakuten AI 2.0’s average Japanese performance improved to 72.29 from 62.93 over eight tasks compared to Rakuten AI 7B, the open LLM Rakuten released in March 2024.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/1218_01.html
 

Through the pre-training of the existing foundational model „Rakuten AI 7B” with 7 billion parameters, it became possible to accelerate the pre-training process using large and complex data by expanding the in-house designed multi-node GPU cluster. Rakuten aims to contribute to the open-source community by providing the latest LLM and SLM as open models, further advancing Japanese language LLM. By continuing to develop the latest LLM models in-house, we will accumulate knowledge and know-how, working towards the expansion of the “Rakuten Ecosystem” (economic zone).

Rakuten has adopted the theme of “AI-nization” to signify AI utilization in all aspects of our business for further growth. We are committed to promoting efforts to leverage AI across various aspects of business to drive growth. Through the utilization of abundant data and cutting-edge AI technology, we aim to create new value for people around the world.

https://www.moomoo.com/news/post/47271779/..._ticket=1734542258442720
 

 

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/...w_quote_recentlyviewed

 

5 Steps to Dramatically Save on Your Mobile Phone Bill

Post published: December 13, 2024

https://mobile-contract-guide.com/en/...ve-on-mobile-bills-5-steps-en
 

Da dachte man, daß es nach guten Nachrichten zum Mobile business endlich mal konstant nach oben geht, aber Rakuten ist einfach ein konstantes Verlustgeschäft für Buy-and-Hold Anleger.
Gut daß ich nur mit einer kleinen Position drin bin.  

 

https://www.ariva.de/aktien/...displayHighLow=0&compare=100391820  

 

 

Inside Rakuten AI Episode 1: Ting Cai on AI Innovation and Responsibility

In this exciting first episode, we chat with Ting Cai, Rakuten Group Chief AI & Data Officer, who shares how Rakuten AI is unlocking unlimited potential for smarter, more impactful solutions for businesses and users alike. Cai also shares why responsible AI is so important and how Rakuten ensures our innovation is guided by ethics, transparency and trust. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes, where we’ll sit down with other Rakuten AI leaders to explore how they’re shaping the future of AI innovation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRTvPchwqc
 

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TMUS/...e-us/free-cash-flow
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGhRIzFEPeU  

"AI-nization 4.all" at Rakuten Technology Conference 2024

December 20.12.2024

"AI-nization 4.all" was the theme of the 16th Rakuten Technology Conference, which featured talk sessions with leaders from the tech industry including Google, Ampere, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, Microsoft, Meta and executives from Rakuten's Technology Divisions. Record-high participation saw more than five thousand attendees join onsite at Rakuten Crimson House in Tokyo as well as from satellite locations across Japan and the world. Attendees praised Rakuten’s quick adoption of new technology and expressed excitement about the future of AI. Check out the video to see more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0X9vB2W2Wg
 

Applications and Grants =560
Granted  =  139
Pending = 394

https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/338677-66#competitors
 

“The Next Winners of the AI Boom

Unlike the AI enablers, these companies are not at the forefront of producing the material needed to create AI. Instead, they are employing AI technology within their own products and services.”

https://investorplace.com/smartmoney/2024/12/...ies-ready-to-explode/
 

The Future Telco – a new series from TMN and Rakuten Symphony

By Keith Dyer 17 December 2024

TMN editor Keith Dyer introduces a major new Series - The Future Telco - that will document real-world adoption of a transformative approach to telco operations.

https://the-mobile-network.com/2024/12/...m-tmn-and-rakuten-symphony/
 

December 19, 2024

The vision for what is possible can be clear as day. The path to achieve it is never quite as obvious.

When Rakuten Mobile launched the world’s first fully cloud-native, software-based mobile network service in a developed, highly competitive market in Japan, and a plan for upending traditional telecom economics, few outside the company saw the opportunity.

Five years later since the mobile service went live, Rakuten Group has just reported its first operating profit, buoyed by 30% year-on-year revenue growth from Rakuten Mobile.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/...e-looks-like-rakuten-symphony-h0omf
 

Individual investors account for 44% of AST SpaceMobile, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ASTS) ownership, while institutions account for 35%

Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Rakuten Group, Inc. with 15% of shares outstanding. Antares Technologies Llc is the second largest shareholder owning 5.2% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 5.0% of the company stock.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...stors-account-44-ast-144146002.html
 

Market-Cap of ASTS = $ 6.8 billion

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ASTS/
 

Rakuten Symphony Launches Comprehensive Maritime Cybersecurity Service, “Rakuten Maritime”

Tokyo, December 20, 2024 – Rakuten Symphony has officially announced its entry into the maritime cybersecurity industry with the launch of Rakuten Maritime, a comprehensive enterprise service addressing the growing demand for cybersecurity and digital transformation in the sector worldwide.


Rakuten Maritime offers industry-leading technologies to safeguard autonomous vessels and smart ships. As global shipping companies and shipowners accelerate the adoption of autonomous technologies and develop smart ships, cyberattacks targeting these vessels have also risen. This trend has made maritime cybersecurity an essential component of the industry.

The unique nature of maritime operations requires security measures tailored to the design, commissioning and operational phases of ships — differentiating them from traditional land-based systems. Rakuten Maritime addresses these needs with a lifecycle-based cybersecurity framework incorporating five key pillars: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover. This comprehensive approach strengthens vessel security and supports safe operational environments.

Collaboration with CYTUR: The birth of Rakuten Maritime

Rakuten Maritime is a branded service developed in collaboration with CYTUR, a South Korean cybersecurity startup. Established in 2016, CYTUR specializes in cybersecurity technologies and threat analysis for smart ships and autonomous vessels.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/newsroom/...ity-service-rakuten-maritime
 

Validation of a business vision once thought impossible

Rakuten Mobile subscribers are also actively contributing to the growth of the Rakuten Ecosystem. Mobile subscribers drive an almost additional 50% gross transaction volume on Japan’s leading online marketplace, Rakuten Ichiba, 27% on Rakuten Card, Japan’s most popular credit card, and 14% on Japan’s top online travel portal, Rakuten Travel, compared to non-subscribers. This performance and a subscriber base that has just passed eight million members are the ultimate validation of a business vision once thought impossible.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/...e-looks-like-rakuten-symphony-h0omf