The less bumpy way to ride e-commerce = Rakuten

[FlankerStan]

Revenue expansion and successful cost optimization in each business

Consolidated Non-GAAP OI +JPY 43.5bn YoY

On track to achieve annual profitability

Internet Services: significant profit improvement in growth investment businesses and overseas businesses

Rakuten Card: profitability improved
Rakuten Payment: turned profitable
Rakuten Securities: profit back to pre-zero commission level

Rakuten Mobile: continued loss reduction thanks to revenue growth and cost optimization

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/
Latest IR Materials
First Quarter 2024

[FlankerStan]

Steady revenue growth in each business

Consolidated revenue: JPY 513.6bn Record high for Q1

Internet Services: Rakuten Ichiba and Rakuten Travel plus overseas businesses performed well

FinTech: Growth in all services from expansion of customer base and transaction value

Mobile: Growth in Rakuten Mobile subscribers boosted MNO service revenue by JPY 9.6bn YoY

global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/
Latest IR Materials
First Quarter 2024

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Finance Activities

Refinance risk for 2024 has already been resolved. In addition, by issuing US dollar-denominated senior bonds and JPY-denominated private placement notes in April 2024, the liquidity gap for corporate bonds that mature in 2025 has largely been addressed

Continued efforts to increase intra-group cash flow, including optimization of working capital, and reduce interest bearing debt through various capital procurement activities

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/
Latest IR Materials
First Quarter 2024

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Rakuten Mobile chief hails network quality gains

MAY 14, 2024

On its Q1 earnings call, Mikitani claimed “smooth progress” in turning around the group’s loss-making mobile unit, noting profitability is just around the corner, with a target of EBITDA turning positive by December 2024.

He noted it is now in the third phase of its launch, which is telling customers about its improved network quality. It is working to a target of 10 million subscribers by end-2025.

The operator’s revenue grew 7.1 per cent year-on-year to JPY62 billion ($396.3 million), with mobile service sales expanding 36 per cent to JPY36.1 billion. Its operating loss was JPY66 billion compared to JPY92 billion a year earlier.

Rakuten Symphony’s revenue jumped 55.3 per cent to $118 million.

In early April the operator said it added 1.5 million subscribers within a year, taking its total to 6.5 million at end-March.

Capex in the first quarter dropped 47 per cent to JPY33 billion from a year earlier.

The operator is targeting commercial launch of service on the 700MHz band in June, which will help take population coverage to 99.9 per cent.

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/rakuten/rakuten-mobile-chief…

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Results are okay

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/0514_01.html

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Rakuten Viber introduced an AI-powered feature for group chats

Certainly! In May 2024, Rakuten Viber, a global leader in private and secure messaging and calls, introduced an AI-powered feature for group chats. Leveraging technology similar to ChatGPT, this feature summarizes long conversations into bullet points, ensuring essential details aren’t lost. Here are the key points:

• AI Chat Summary: The feature condenses up to 100 unread messages in a group chat into a concise summary.
• Efficient Communication: It extracts crucial parts of conversations, enhancing decision-making and productivity.
• Privacy: Summaries are visible only to users who request them, ensuring confidentiality.
• Data Security: Viber doesn’t save summaries on its servers, ensuring a secure user experience.

This innovation reflects Rakuten Viber’s commitment to smarter, more efficient communication. The feature is gradually rolling out to users in the U.S., the Philippines, Ukraine, Japan, Bulgaria, and Poland1. With over 1 billion registered users and 820 million monthly active users, Rakuten Viber continues to evolve3. Exciting times ahead!

https://www.bing.com/search?q=rakuten+viber%2C+users%2C+may+…

[FlankerStan]

Excellent Results of Rakuten Bank

https://contents.xj-storage.jp/xcontents/AS92404/1b2adf53/ed…

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Rakuten Securities with new robo advisor

https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/company/newsrelease/pdf/pr…

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On the fence about how to manage your mobile network? Let history be your guide

By Geoff Hollingworth

Chief Marketing Officer Rakuten Symphony
May 6, 2024

In this post I want to expand on the statements I made about game changing innovation and the paradigm shift facing telecom.

At day zero before a disruptive technology is launched, everything feels normal and under control. But looking back at that moment from the future, it’s apparent that the change was so impactful it makes you wonder how we functioned without it.

A good example is the launch of Web 2.0 in 2007. At the time, we were all happily surfing statically created Web 1.0 web pages on our computers. But now can we imagine a world without the social media, photo sharing, e-commerce and other capabilities that define how we use the Internet today? The same thing can be said about smartphones and many other technologies.

It's day zero for Telecom Reinvented

For MNOs it’s day zero of a massive shift in terms of both their operational mindset and technologies that are leveraged, which are virtualized, software-driven, and feature standardized network software and hardware. And it’s hard to see the changes when you are at day zero. This new approach is distinguished by the need for a network-wide standardized data pool to be created and used for AI-powered autonomous automation.

The MNOs who embrace this network industrialization can change their businesses by taking advantage of the opportunities for cost cutting and new revenues that this network paradigm shift brings with it.

Rakuten Mobile has been at the forefront of this change in leveraging a software-first automation approach to manage a nation-wide network with only 250 engineers. Other MNOs will look back on this change and ask themselves, how did we boost our revenue when we couldn’t launch complex 5G standalone services with a zero-touch approach?

Or how did we support new services when we couldn’t autonomously manage tens of thousands of edge network servers?

Or how did we make a profit when we had such huge teams of network engineers managing the network?

We also have the chance to answer other pressing questions. How do we make AI safe? How do we reduce fraud?

I think we'll all look back at this period the same way as we look back at the start of Web 2.0 apps or the smart phone in 2007. Those MNOs who are late to the network industrialization revolution will struggle to compete and they will reflect on this inflection point and realize the consequences of not adopting this reinvented approach to telecom.

And if telecom is not taking advantage of these important changes in the next 10-15 years, shame on the industry.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/on-the-fence-about-how-to-…

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Rakuten Product Conference 2024: Enterprise SaaS and AI

May 09, 2024

Unlock the power of technology for everyone. Join us at Rakuten Product Conference ‘24 on May 21st and 22nd as we reimagine innovation in Enterprise SaaS and AI.