Mobile Business Losses Expected to Peak in 2021; Increasing Rakuten’s FVE to JPY 1,400
Kazunori Ito Director Analyst Note Sep 9, 2021
We raise Rakuten’s fair value estimate to JPY 1,400 from JPY 1,200 as we think the company is making solid progress on enhancing its ecosystem. Rakuten’s cross-use ratio has reached 73.9% in the June quarter, 5 percentage points up from three years ago, implying the improvement of Rakuten’s user engagement. The number of accounts for Rakuten Bank and Rakuten Securities increased 21% and 42% from the previous year, respectively, outpacing the 6.8% increase in Rakuten membership. Rakuten Card accounts for 21% of gross trading value in Japan, which is up from 10% five years ago. While June quarter earnings numbers were below our expectations because of the larger loss in the mobile segment, we are encouraged with the solid KPI numbers in the fintech businesses. Our new fair value estimate of JPY 1,400 corresponds to 1.1 times price/sales, which is at the middle of its historical range over the past three years.
Rakuten Mobile is starting to make a material contribution in enhancing Rakuten’s ecosystem. For instance, the company explains that 19% of new mobile subscribers are first-time users of Rakuten’s services, and 65% of Rakuten Mobile users are Rakuten Card users, 39% are Rakuten Bank users, and 17% are Rakuten Securities users. As such, in addition to the current combination of e-commerce and fintech businesses, mobile business is adding more stickiness to Rakuten’s entire ecosystem. Although operating loss for the mobile segment for this year will be larger than our previous forecast, we believe it will contribute to driving the growth of Rakuten’s ecosystem in the longer run.
Libuda
: Rakuten forays into India's B2B tech segment
Japan's Rakuten forays into India's B2B tech segment, launches new product
This is the first time that Rakuten will be bringing its products and services into the Indian market
Shivani Shinde | Mumbai Last Updated at September 15, 2021 11:33 IST
Developed in India, Rakuten SixthSense, will provide businesses end-to-end visibility of the entire IT environment, from development to business operations.
Sunil Gopinath, CEO of Rakuten India said that the launch of SixthSense is the culmination of the experience and feedback it has received based on working with over 70 group companies. “Our product launch is looking to solve for Indian IT leaders which will make it stand out and validate its quality for a global rollout. We have selected India as the first launch market as the region has always been a hub of exceptional engineering talent and a mature market that offers exciting opportunities for growth as Indian enterprises drive significant changes in their existing IT environments to support their growing customer needs. Also, we have a large R&D center in Bengaluru, which allows us to innovate and support our local customers more efficiently,” added Gopinath.
Rakuten India has 1,500 employees and plans to add additional 2,000-3,000 employees in the next two years.
Observability itself is a USD 30 billion-plus kind of market
Rakuten India is the largest of Rakuten's nine technology hubs outside Japan. It has over 1,500 people and there are plans to ramp up the headcount further over the next 2-3 years.
The goal is to build this to a 2,000-3,000 member organisation in the next two to three years, he added.
A lot of Rakuten's businesses - be it commerce, FinTech, cloud, mobile or ads and media, a lot of the key businesses are powered by the technology built in Rakuten India, he said.
Rakuten SixthSense is launching in India and will gradually be rolled out to other global regions. ''SixthSense is in the observability and monitoring space. Globally, observability itself is a USD 30 billion-plus kind of market and we feel we have a very solid product that we are bringing to the market...we have tested it in-house across dozens of Rakuten's businesses and they are all using it successfully,'' he said.
Gopinath explained that with a significant increase in data generated from across the business, there is an urgent need, especially in the midst of a continuously transforming digital environment, to glean insights from data at a faster rate and with a higher ROI (return on investment) for businesses to stay competitive.
Libuda
: Viber launches in-app AR filters with Lens
September 16, 2021 | 12:01 am
To make its app more fun to use, Rakuten Viber has introduced a new feature to chats: the Viber Lens. It teamed up with Snap, Inc., the creator of Snapchat, to bring augmented reality (AR) to its in-app camera.
“By implementing this technology, Viber Lens helps empower our user’s creativity in making simple communication more entertaining and vivid. It gives them more freedom on how they relay their thoughts and feelings to whoever they’re talking to, all while having a little fun,” Rakuten Viber Senior Director for APAC David Tse said in a statement.
“We are seeing a huge trend of people using videos and photos on our app,” Mr. Melnick said. “When we look at camera, [Viber] Lens is the first step in the evolution of how people communicate. Viber started as a voice app and transformed into a messaging app, but we are transforming and adding more abilities to our cameras.”
Mr. Melnick said in the future, Rakuten Viber also plans to also develop games, and improving the app with features for organizational communication and businesses.
The official YouTube channel of Rakuten Securities’ investment information media “Toushiru”, the first major online securities management channel to exceed 100,000 registered users!
2021-09-15 by rehow
Rakuten Securities, Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Yuji Kusunoki, hereinafter “Rakuten Securities”) is pleased to announce the number of official YouTube channel subscribers of the owned media “Toushiru” that provides investment information related to money. However, we are pleased to announce that the number of people has exceeded 100,000 for the first time in a program operated by a major online securities company.
Since its opening in September 2018, the official YouTube channel of “Toushiru” (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5BiTvy2Ni2MyigJPspjhOA) has distributed 40 to 50 videos every month on a wide range of themes from market information to asset formation. With the concept of “making money and investment closer to you!”, It has been well received as a video program of the owned media “Toushiru” that sends information that is not bound by the framework of investment and securities.
An Australian fashion label exceeded ROAS goal by 53% through a paid social partnership with Rakuten Advertising, which led them to extend the program by 8 months.
The Story Since 2018, the Australian fashion label has partnered with Rakuten Advertising to drive sales through its affiliate, display and search programs. In the second half of 2020, the brand reached out to Rakuten Advertising as performance marketing experts to help improve its existing in-house social program. Throughout September to December 2020, the program was live through key promotional periods, including Vogue Online Shopping Night (VOSN), Cyber Week, End of Season Sale and the label’s biannual event. By the end of the year, Rakuten Advertising was able to help the label exceed its ROAS goal through highly strategic planning and seamless execution.
Results
Rakuten Advertising’s recommended strategy proved successful and the team was able to improve the performance of the label’s social program through this campaign. The brand saw exceptionally positive outcomes in the early stages of Q4, which prompted the team to extend the campaign for a further two months and again for an additional six months until June 2021.
29:1 Average Program ROAS
The label's social program consistently exceeded the 19:1 ROAS goal in Q4 2020.
33:1 Peak ROAS
The social program peaked in November 2020 and was responsible for 49% of total site revenue in this period.
46% Uplift in CTR
The label experienced an increase in CTR (46%) and ROAS (32%) compared to its April 2020 biannual sale event, which took place before migrating their social program to our platform.
68% Reduction in Spend
The program saw a reduction in spend during VOSN by 68% and a remarkable 215% increase in ROAS YoY.
Learnings These positive results are a testament to Rakuten Advertising team’s social expertise. The team worked closely with the retailer to transform its social program strategically and successfully improved performance during and beyond the golden quarter. Along with other performance channels, social now forms a key aspect of the brand’s performance marketing strategy and accounts for a significant portion of the brand
Cabify’s big investors include Japan’s Rakuten, with 40 per cent of the shares, and Spain’s Seaya, with about 10 per cent. Employees, including Mr De Antonio, retain about 25 per cent.
Rakuten Group had a busy August. Early in the month Rakuten Group introduced Rakuten Symphony which unites its telecoms operations across Japan, the US, Singapore, India, Europe, the Middle East and Africa under a single banner “to offer 4G and 5G infrastructure and platform solutions to customers worldwide”. It also announced the acquisition of virtual RAN innovator Altiostar.
The new national 5G German operator, 1&1 is Symphony’s first customer. Rakuten will take over the build of the active network equipment and will also be responsible for the overall performance of the 1&1 mobile network, which naturally will be based on OpenRAN technology. 1&1 will have access to the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) stack of access, core, cloud and operations solutions as well as to its partner network. Rakuten will also provide its orchestration software to support highly automated operations. Work on Europe’s first fully virtualized network is to start in Q4, although Telefonica Deutschland has also worked closely with Rakuten Mobile and claims to be the first German operator running Open RAN.
As we suggested, Rakuten is looking to success as a vendor to drive global growth with its Japanese network and business as a kind of massive, real-life, proof of concept. Tareq Amin has been named as Symphony’s CEO. Amin began his famous association with the group as CTO of Rakuten Mobile which is building the world’s first fully virtualized network in Japan. The plan is to disrupt the staid Japanese market in the way that Reliance Jio (with Amin in charge of tech development and automation) turned the Indian market on its head.
However, the Japanese market is proving a tougher nut to crack. On 23 August Rakuten Mobile announced that the combined number of subscribers for its mobile operator and MVNO service passed 5 million, but on 11 August, Rakuten Group’s numbers for the previous two quarters showed its losses had risen by some 85% to about $900 million with the cost of the Japanese mobile network decimating profits. Some analysts reckon the operator needs 20 million customers to break even.
Libuda
: Rakuten Mobile & Cisco Disrupting the Industry
Rakuten Mobile & Cisco CX: Disrupting the Industry, Together
Rajiv Asati
September 16, 2021
Over the years, Cisco has been one of the proven enablers of industry transformation. The Telco & Media industry is one example of an industry that’s been ripe for disruption, thanks to operators such as Rakuten Mobile.
Together, Rakuten Mobile and Cisco have had a three-year, fast-paced journey. First, we built the world’s first cloud native mobile IPv6-only network—automated from top to bottom and powered by programmable software stack. Recently, we took a huge step further by introducing segment routing. This uniquely positions Rakuten Mobile to build a better, more inclusive internet for the future. And we’re not done yet.
The work is challenging for sure—but worth the effort. Rakuten CTO Tareq Amin said it best: „“Our challenges were numerous. And to be very frank with you, this journey hasn’t been easy. But I think it’s the right journey. And if you ask me, again, would you take the path that we have taken to achieve the results and be where we are today? I would say absolutely. It’s the right thing to do.”
The work with Rakuten Mobile is an excellent example of how Cisco Customer Experience (CX) teams work hand-in-hand with customers, Cisco’s technology groups and other vendors to completely change the game.
When I look back on the body of work so far with Rakuten Mobile, three tenets stand out as key to our success:
1) Agree to do things that have never been done before
2) Embrace radical transparency and data-driven recommendations
Washington View: Big Wheels Keep On Turning – Rolling On The River To 5G
September 14, 2021
Ligado also mentioned its previously noted collaboration with Japan-based network operator Rakuten Mobile. In their newest update, the two companies said they plan to launch field trials over the next 12 months.
And so the wheels keep on turning, and Ligado continues rolling downriver towards construction of its 5G network.
Rakuten Symphony could play an important role in the Middle East
Tokyo may be particularly suited to helping the Middle East navigate tensions over its 5G rollout. The Persian Gulf states, Egypt, and Morocco have each struggled over whether to follow Washington’s footsteps in barring Huawei or ZTE equipment from their 5G networks. Even as China remains their largest trading partner and source of foreign investment, these countries and eventually others in the region will have to grapple with the national security and privacy ramifications of Beijing’s current monopoly over the 5G network industry.
However, the Middle East’s concern regarding China’s closed network architecture creates newfound synergies with Japan, whose government and industry have been leaders in developing disaggregated, virtualized, and interoperable network solutions. A joint commitment by five major Middle Eastern mobile operators to deploy open RAN Technologies, announced in July, could provide Tokyo with just the impetus it needs to form a regional 5G working group complementing other multilateral efforts to outcompete Huawei, the Chinese firm often seen as an arm of the state. Japanese open RAN developers already engaged in the region, such as Rakuten, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and NEC, would play a critical role in this endeavor.
During this next phase of its Middle East engagement, Japan has a direct stake in—and is uniquely suited for—helping the region adapt to its changing geopolitical landscape. Multilateral, issue-based working groups, such as one focused on open RAN technologies, could facilitate a broader transregional strategic dialogue that harnesses the Middle East’s access to capital alongside the Indo-Pacific’s innovative potential to usher in a new era of stability and prosperity.
Libuda
: Rakuten 5G Ranks High Among Global Operators
Opensignal 5G Global Awards: Rakuten Mobile’s 5G Network Speed Ranks High Among Global Operators
20 hours ago
Just months after receiving two of the mobile industry’s top five global awards at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and scoring 920 points out of 1,000 for its network in Tokyo in a report by independent analyst company umlaut, Rakuten Mobile has racked up more awards for its world-first mobile network – this time for its speeds in 5G.
Rakuten recognized for remarkable 5G speed results
Announced on September 20, Rakuten Mobile was named a Global Leader in the 5G Download Speed category, with a speed of 358.7 Mbps against an average of 175.3 Mbps for all 5G operators analyzed globally in Opensignal’s 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards report*1. While uptake of 5G in Japan is still in relatively nascent stages, Rakuten Mobile is on track to deliver great performance to local consumers.
In addition to Rakuten Mobile’s success in the 5G Download Speed category, Japan’s newest operator was named a Global Leader in the 5G Upload Speed category, with an upload speed of 30.8 Mbps, versus the global average of 5G operators of 21.8 Mbps.
The report from Opensignal, the independent global standard for measuring real-world mobile network experience, covers over 100 operators in more than 35 countries and is based on data collected between January 1 and June 29, 2021.
Media Product Updates: New Measurement Capabilities and PMP Best Practices
By Rakuten Advertising | June 16, 2021
Rakuten Advertising’s latest media product launch provides advertisers and agencies with greater insight into campaign performance. Today we explore these benefits and gain insight from our programmatic media expert on best practices for working PMP deals.
LoopMe Brand Lift Survey Measurement
Brand lift surveys allow advertisers and agencies to go beyond impressions and measure the impact of branding efforts across all Rakuten Advertising media platforms – Rakuten TV, Rakuten Viki, Rakuten Viber and Rakuten France.
Brand Lift Surveys are now available to clients working with Rakuten Advertising in the following markets: • Europe: UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Nordics and Benelux • Southeast Asia: Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines • North America: USA and Canada
PMP Best Practice Did you know you can buy PMP deals through the Rakuten Exchange? The Rakuten Exchange is the only direct source of accessing our owned and operated media properties, Rakuten TV, Rakuten Viber, Rakuten Viki and Rakuten France.
Rakuten TV Launches New Channels In May we announced that Rakuten TV has further strengthened its partnership with Samsung TV Plus by launching 166 channels across 16 markets. In addition to expanding regions with Samsung TV Plus, Rakuten TV has also launched an additional 90+ free linear channels.
Rakuten Enters Digitally Remastered 4K Edition of Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro into 11th Beijing International Film Festival
- Launches business aimed at content distribution and merchandising in China.
Tokyo, September 17, 2021 – Rakuten Group, Inc. today announced that it will enter a digitally remastered 4K edition of the feature-length animated film Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro in the 11th Beijing International Film Festival, which runs from September 21 to 29, 2021.
Rakuten will also enter into a licensing agreement with TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. for the distribution and merchandizing rights of the film in China. Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro will be entered in the Festival's "Panorama" category, as part of the “Restored Classics” section, which screens world-renowned masterpieces which have been restored using the latest cutting-edge technology. This marks the film’s first time being screened in China.
The film is widely known as acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s directorial debut and is the second film in the Lupin the 3rd series. Since its original 1979 theatrical release in Japan, it has gone on to gain popularity with audiences around the world. Going forward, Rakuten plans to distribute the film in China, as well as develop and sell a line-up of related merchandise.
Additionally, screening Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro in China marks Rakuten’s first foray into its new global media franchise business, which will see Rakuten handling comprehensive production of a variety of content, from distribution to merchandising. With operations in 30 countries and regions worldwide, Rakuten intends to leverage its accumulated experience in the content business to expand its media franchise business globally, beginning with China.
Rakuten aims to continue delivering a diverse array of IP-based entertainment experiences through its media franchise business.
Libuda
: Japan's turnround still underrated by investors
Fiscal support and reform needed to continue progress on the economy under new prime minister
MIYUKI KASHIMA
The writer is Head of Investments for Japan at Fidelity International
In Japan, the stable and steady expansion since Abenomics was launched nine years ago has felt like a sea change from the 20 years of economic stagnation that preceded it. The economy added 5m jobs, companies boosted capital expenditure as profits rose and, on the whole, the country has returned to growth. The Nikkei 225 has trebled in value over the past decade. It is a real turnround story. Yet Japanese equities are an asset class that remains underrated and under-owned by international investors. With a vote next week to select the next head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Japan’s new prime minister, the priority for the incoming leader is making sure the country continues the turnround.
Libuda
: iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13, Mini
Rakuten Group Co., Ltd. Rakuten Mobile, “iPhone 13 Pro”, “iPhone 13 Pro Max”, “iPhone 13”, “iPhone 13 mini” will be released on September 24th (Friday)
2021-09-23 by rehow
Rakuten Mobile, Inc. (Headquarters: Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, President: Yoshihisa Yamada, hereinafter “Rakuten Mobile”) will announce “iPhone 13 Pro”, “iPhone 13 Pro Max”, from today, September 24th (Friday). Innovative and elegant “iPhone 13” lineup including “iPhone 13” and “iPhone 13 mini” was released at the lowest selling price among domestic mobile carriers. Customers must purchase the “iPhone 13” lineup at the optimal selling price for the “iPhone” from the Rakuten Mobile Shop, the official website of “Rakuten Mobile”, and the “Rakuten Mobile Official Rakuten Ichiba Store”.
The “iPhone 13” lineup enables advanced 5G experiences by supporting many 5G frequency bands, and 5G can be used in a wider area and with excellent performance.
“IPhone 13 Pro” and “iPhone 13 Pro Max” are offered in four beautiful finishes: graphite, gold, silver, and the all-new Sierra Blue. It supports an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz, and is equipped with a “Super Retina XDR display” that uses “ProMotion” to make the touch experience faster and more responsive.
You can also purchase from the Rakuten Mobile Shop and the official website of “Rakuten Mobile” using the “iPhone Upgrade Program”, which eliminates the need to pay for up to 24 out of 48 payments. In addition, by using the “iPhone Super Value Transfer Campaign”, you can return “Rakuten points” worth up to 20,000 yen.
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