Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
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/
The writers of the article ignore that Rakuten can reduce through future transactions interest payments in dollar.
Rakuten’s Costly Junk Bonds Signal Challenge for Japanese Billionaire Mikitani
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...auth=1&a20_comeback_from_auth=1
Now In Colour: Bring Your Books to Life with the New Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour eReaders
- With colour eReading technology, eco-conscious materials, and water-resistance for on-the-go use, Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour blend the vibrancy of life and literature
Tokyo & Toronto – April 11, 2024 – Rakuten Kobo introduces booklovers to its first-ever colour E Ink eReaders with the new Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour, turning the page on the exclusively black and white digital reading experience Kobo fans already know and love.
With a Kobo-optimized colour E Ink Kaleido 3 display, Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour offer a subtle palette that retains the benefits of E Ink technology, now in colour. With the capacity to store thousands of books, a long battery life, 24/7 access to the Kobo.com bookstore, and OverDrive integration to easily borrow library books, booklovers can stock their digital shelves wherever they go. The new eReaders are also equipped with Bluetooth wireless technology, making it easy to listen to Kobo Audiobooks.
“We are pleased to be the first global ebook platform to offer affordable colour eReaders, bringing both your books and our bookstore to life with a beautiful spectrum of gentle hues. It’s everything you love about print, with all the benefits of ereading,” said Michael Tamblyn, CEO, Rakuten Kobo. “For Kobo, colour is a way of deepening and enriching the reading experience, while keeping the daylight readability and battery longevity that E Ink screens deliver so well.”
In addition, for every reader who is also a journaler, in-the-margins note-taker, or page-decorating BookTok’er, Kobo Libra Colour is also Kobo’s most affordable stylus-enabled ereader with the addition of a Kobo Stylus 2 (sold separately), with colour handwriting, highlighting, and notebooks. Building on the success of Kobo Sage and Kobo Elipsa 2E handwriting experiences, the new Kobo Libra Colour brings stylus-based writing and Kobo’s patented write-anywhere ebook annotations to our popular 7” format. Colour highlighting also appears in Kobo Clara Colour, letting you colour-code your favourite passages with the touch of a finger.
“To build the most enriched reading experience for our customers, we worked tirelessly to optimize the Kaleido 3 display to ensure the best representation of colour,” said Ramesh Mantha, SVP, Product, Rakuten Kobo. “We introduced collimated front lighting technology to our 6” and 7” size eReaders to provide better colour performance, and have further engineered our software to automate the regulation of colours so they always look their best, no matter the content being displayed.”
Complementing the new colour reading experience, Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour further advance Kobo’s commitment to sustainability, adding new repairability features like easier battery replacement in addition to the use of eco-conscious recycled and ocean-bound plastics. Their SleepCovers also offer new pops of colour including Butter Yellow, Candy Pink and Cayenne Red. Crafted with fully recycled materials, the SleepCovers offer pops of colour and eco-friendly construction.
For Kobo readers who prefer an eReading experience in black and white, Kobo introduces Kobo Clara BW, an upgraded version of our black-and-white classic 6” ereader, equipped with the latest E Ink Carta 1300 screen, and an improved processor and more storage.
Kobo Libra Colour retails for $249.000 CAD/$219.99 USD, Kobo Clara Colour for $179.99 CAD/$149.99 USD, and Kobo Clara BW for $159.99 CAD/$129.99 USD at www.kobo.com/ereaders and select retailers. The Kobo Stylus 2 is currently available and retails for $89.99 CAD/$69.99 USD. Pre-orders will be available on April 10. The devices will be available in stores and online as of April 30, 2024, in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Turkey.
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/...=4&category=ec
The hedging of the currency (US-$) for the repay in 2029 and the interest pays in the five years reduce the interest rate from effective more than 10% to only 6.03932% per year
Issuer: Rakuten Group, Inc.
Type: USD-denominated senior notes due in 2029
Principal amount: USD 2,000 million
Offering price: 99.512% of principal amount
Interest rate: 9.75% per year
Coupon rate after currency swap: 6.03932% per year
Maturity date: April 15, 2029
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2024/...tegory=corp%2520ir
April 10, 2024
Rakuten is improving the user experience and increasing orders on Rakuten Rakuma, the second-hand marketplace app, by using deep learning AI and other techniques. RNN interviewed the tech team behind the improvements to find out why this is happening now, what was changed, how modern recommendation systems work, and learn exactly how much orders increased thanks to their efforts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTYJei0RrWQ
April 12, 2024
https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/info/info20240412-03.html
Colour e-readers won't be for everyone, but adding colour notes to a book is undeniably cool
APR 10, 2024
https://mobilesyrup.com/2024/04/10/kobo-libra-clara-colour-reveal/
https://www.golem.de/news/...t-ein-riesiges-funkloch-2404-184016.html
Denn mit Rakuten haben die Verzögerungen bei 1&1 nichts zu tun, sondern mit einem Funkmaste-Anbieter, der lange im Einflussbereich von Vodafone agierte, weshalb auch das Kartellamt schon ermittelt.
Dreist ist vor allem, dass hier jemand lügt, dessen Marktstellung lange Jahre vom Steuerzahler aufgebaut wurde und der trotzdem Wettbewerb zu verhindern versucht.
Hier sollte auch die Politik Stellung nehmen - und zwar schleunigst.
April 10, 2024
Rakuten is improving the user experience and increasing orders on Rakuten Rakuma, the second-hand marketplace app, by using deep learning AI and other techniques. RNN interviewed the tech team behind the improvements to find out why this is happening now, what was changed, how modern recommendation systems work, and learn exactly how much orders increased thanks to their efforts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTYJei0RrWQ
Prophylactic administration of a selective COX-2 inhibitor reduces the volume of edema associated with photoimmunotherapy by 30-50%
Reduced edema volume by 25%, even when administered post photoimmunotherapy
Suggested the COX-2 inhibitor may manage edema without compromising anti-tumor efficacy
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...inhibition-302114857.html
April 10, 2024
James Dartnell, Director, Corporate Communications, EMEA, Rakuten Symphony shares with us his career journey - from teaching in Paris to being a journalist and editor in Dubai, and now a PR and Communications specialist in London - as well as his future ambitions in the world of tech.
What were your personal/professional motivations for joining Rakuten Symphony and what was the moment you knew you’d made the right decision to join?
Joining Rakuten Symphony was an easy decision. I already knew Rakuten from the Group side as a hugely popular brand in Japan and through its partnerships with FC Barcelona and Golden State Warriors. In terms of Rakuten Symphony, the deal to build Europe’s first commercial-scale Open Radio Access Network with 1&1 in Germany was - and still is - regarded as highly innovative by telecom industry standards. I’ve always liked the saying ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ - I was very excited to work for a tech company that wants to reinvent an essential piece of global infrastructure through cloud, automation and open standards.
There wasn’t a specific moment where I knew it was the right decision, but supporting the launch of the Open RAN Customer Experience Centre in the UK - a facility in Weybridge selected for funding by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications - in March 2023 was a personal point of pride. It felt fitting that we’d launched a European centre for interoperability testing in my home country just two months after I’d joined.
How would you describe the day-to-day role of a Corporate Communications Director to a layperson, and what makes it particularly different at Rakuten Symphony?
It’s my job to ensure that communications and content issued externally are up to our standards, and, perhaps most importantly, are presented in a way that makes people interested about what we're doing. That could be in the form of news announcements, thought leadership articles or responding to specific and - credit where it’s due to the media - sometimes challenging queries. An eagle-eye for detail always helps. It also means working closely with executives to ensure that I stay in the loop on any important strategic planning around products and customers.
What keeps my job interesting is that Rakuten has a unique story to tell. The industry is always paying close attention to what we do. I also enjoy working as part of a global team that operates around the clock.
What is something that you and your team accomplished (or took part in) recently that you’re proud of, and what made it possible?
Rakuten’s participation at MWC Barcelona 2024 was very successful. We accomplished a lot throughout the course of the week, issuing 11 key news announcements, all of which were the result of behind-the-scenes prep work in the run-up to the show. It's important for us to keep the industry informed about how we're working with mobile network operators and the wider ecosystem.
I really enjoyed being the MC for the Rakuten conference at MWC - as well as hosting sessions with Mickey and Sharad Sriwastawa, I also had the chance to moderate expert panel discussions on topics including eSim technology and enterprise private 5g networks. Perhaps most satisfying of all was hearing glowing endorsements from our customers 1&1, AT&T and Axiata Enterprise during the conference - it was great to be a part of that and to hear them speak so highly of Rakuten Symphony in the public sphere. The comms team played an important role in bringing all these elements together - we worked closely with customers and partners including Kyivstar, The United Kingdom Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Telecom Egypt to get news updates ready for press, while the conference required detailed planning and was executed very smoothly. Visitors to the world’s biggest connectivity event had the chance to see what Rakuten can accomplish.
What advice or mantra would you pass on to others who are looking to follow a similar career path to yourself? How has it influenced the way you approach work?
I can’t undersell the value of working abroad. I spent nine-and-a-half years working in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and one year teaching in Paris. Both stints gave me invaluable and unforgettable experiences. Living, working and travelling internationally broadens your horizons - working for a globally minded Japanese company felt like a natural progression and still feels like a really good fit.
From a comms perspective, my advice is to avoid clichés and buzzwords as much as possible. Readers switch off when you say things that they’ve heard dozens of times before, so try and keep your explanations clear and your language refreshing. Technology is already a complex topic - don’t put readers to sleep with tedious or confusing prose. I strongly believe that succinct, informative explanations are severely lacking in the world. It’s the writer’s job to make the penny drop for the reader and viewer - I daresay they need to be more enlightened (hopefully even entertained) after hearing what you have to say.
Comms professionals have the chance to become a unique brand of expert. We need to be clued up about lots of things - our organization, whatever it sells, and the industry it’s selling to. We work closely with executives that have significant experience and knowledge - that’s a free education. If you can absorb as much information as possible over time, you have the chance to become an expert in your own right. I had the same attitude when I was working as a journalist and editor in the UAE - I conducted hundreds of interviews over time. Each of those was a chance to probe a subject matter specialist and ask them questions that are important to the reader.
What are your career goals and how do you think Rakuten Symphony will give you an advantage in achieving them?
I love the storytelling aspect of my job - I’ve always enjoyed writing but I thrive off the buzz of presenting those ideas or explanations in the public sphere, whether that’s on stage or on camera. I’m not an engineer but I want to improve my understanding of technology and how it can benefit the world. Then I want to combine that knowledge to build a career in the tech industry. Engineers are incredibly smart people and they deserve huge respect - I would like my niche to be ‘translating’ some of that complex subject matter into digestible stories and business cases.
I'm fortunate to work with leaders across every time zone that try to support me in my professional growth. If you bring a new idea to the table, it’ll always be given a fair hearing; if you can prove it’s viable, there’s a reasonable chance it’ll be implemented. I know that I’m still at an early stage of my career but I also try to reciprocate that treatment and pass on any knowledge or experience that might help others.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...conversation-with-james-dartnell
12.04.2024
Die chinesische Streamingplattform Tencent veröffentlichte Staffel 1 von „Three-Body“, wie diese andere Adaption der „Trisolaris“-Trilogie von Liu Cixin heißt, bereits Anfang 2023. Auch hierzulande kann man die Sci-Fi-Serie schauen, die allein in Season 1 auf satte 30 Folgen kommt. „Three-Body“, die wesentlich näher an der chinesischen Buchvorlage gehalten ist, ist beim Streaminganbieter Viki Rakuten verfügbar.
https://www.filmstarts.de/nachrichten/1000075120.html
8 April 2024 By Michael Kozlowski
https://goodereader.com/blog/kobo-ereader-news/...aders-on-april-10th
April 15, 2024
20 years since the founding of the team, the curtains opened on the newest season for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Everyone was fired up for the first three season-opening games, including Rakuten Mobile. A special campaign was announced at the start of the first game offering 50% back in Rakuten Points for eligible users. Check out the video to hear fans' thoughts on the team and experience using Rakuten Mobile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBfqkN4SVQk
Beispielsweise wird Cabify, eine private Taxiplattform ähnlich wie Uber, Didi und Lyft, in naher Zukunft weitere Transportmöglichkeiten in Mexiko anbieten. Cabify hat in allen Hauptstädten Lateinamerikas den Durchbruch geschafft und wird mit der Ankündigung einer neuen Fusion weiter expandieren. Cabify, Easy Taxi und Movo bündeln Ressourcen, um Transporte mit Motorrollern sowie öffentlichen und privaten Taxis anzubieten. Solche Ansätze werden mehr Möglichkeiten für den Ride-Hailing-Markt in der Region schaffen.
Source: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/de/...hailing-market/market-trends
April 10, 2024
The feature intends to condense your group chat catchup, because you probably don't want to scroll through it all.
Sometimes a group chat takes on a life of its own, whether it's friends and family deciding to get chatty while you're busy working or a conversation thread that gets so busy you mute it for a day to get some space. For these situations, the Rakuten Viber chat app unveiled a new AI Chat Summary tool Wednesday that summarizes those lengthy message threads down to a few essential points.
The chat app's feature leverages OpenAI to do this and can scan up to 100 unread messages when building its summary. When opening a conversation with unread messages, the app will offer to build a summary, and if requested, the app will then scan for any key decisions or actions in order to create reference points. When the AI Summary is used, the app will mark the group chat as read, but you can still scroll back through the conversation if you'd like.
Viber says these summaries won't be saved on the chat app's servers, nor will it include any identifiers beyond usernames. The feature is gradually rolling out now in the US, the Philippines, Ukraine, Japan, Bulgaria and Poland to start. Other regions will follow after that, and it's coming to both the iOS and Android versions of the chat app.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/...usy-group-chats-youll-never-read/
By SCOTT FOSTER MARCH 30, 2024
Rakuten Mobile, Japan’s upstart mobile telecom network operator, sees light at the end of the financial tunnel as subscriber growth heads toward breakeven on an operating cash flow basis in 2024.
Breakeven will be a milestone for the Open RAN (Radio Access Network) standard that allows for various companies to supply different parts of a telecommunications network.
https://asiatimes.com/2024/03/...n-mobile-making-gains-with-open-ran/
München 10. April 2024
Marktanteil soll mit neuer eReader-Generation mit Farbdisplay weiter ausgebaut werden
Neues Leseerlebnis auch für Kinderbücher, Reiseführer, Mangas, Comics uvm.
Audio-Funktion für Hörbücher und Eingabestift tolino stylus
War bislang Schwarz-Weiß der Standard beim Lesen auf eReadern, so kommt mit der neuen Generation von tolino-Lesegeräten ab Mai 2024 Farbe in die digitale Buchwelt. tolino präsentiert als erster großer Anbieter auf dem deutschsprachigen Markt eine komplett neue eReader-Generation mit Farbdisplays. Mit gleich drei Geräten der neuen Generation und einem Eingabestift unterstreicht die tolino-Allianz, hinter der die Buchhändler Thalia, Hugendubel, Weltbild und Libri stehen, ihre Innovationsstärke. Die eReader tolino shine und tolino shine color sind ab dem 7. Mai im Handel verfügbar. Der tolino vision color folgt im Juni.
Der Launch der neuen tolino-Geräte bedeutet eine der größten Veränderungen im Markt des digitalen Lesens: Die Zukunft des digitalen Lesens ist farbig. Seit der Gründung vor elf Jahren verkauften die Allianzpartner weit über 5 Millionen tolino-Lesegeräte. Jetzt wollen sie mit der neuen Gerätegeneration ihren Marktanteil von derzeit rund 40 Prozent noch weiter ausbauen. Mit 1.800 Läden im stationären Buchhandel und starken Onlineshops verfügt die Allianz über flächendeckende Präsenz und große Vertriebsstärke. Der Verkaufsstart der Geräte wird pünktlich zum Beginn der Reisesaison mit einer breiten Werbekampagne flankiert.
https://mytolino.de/news/...-allianz-bringt-farbe-ins-digitale-lesen/