Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
6 days ago
There’s an App for that
“Our mission with Rakuten Senior is to extend the healthy life expectancy and to promote the health and wellbeing of our users,” explains Yu Hirayama, Rakuten Senior’s Business Manager. “This includes everything from encouraging moderate exercise and leaving the house safely, to social participation and finding post-retirement activities.”
Launched in mid-2019, the Rakuten Senior app is aimed squarely at one demographic: Seniors. Users can track health-related functions such as daily steps, for which they can earn Rakuten Points upon reaching their targets. It’s also a hub for joining events and classes to forge new connections with the community, both on- and offline.
“THE DIGITAL SHIFT, TOGETHER WITH THE PANDEMIC, HAS BROUGHT ABOUT A SERIOUS RISK OF SOCIAL ISOLATION… “WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO CONNECT ONLINE, MANY SENIORS ARE AT RISK OF FALLING OUT OF CONTACT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY.”
YU HIRAYAMA, BUSINESS MANAGER, RAKUTEN SENIOR
But to reduce Rakuten Senior to a simple app would be misleading. In fact, there is a fundamental step that many users must take before they even download the app: learning how to use a smartphone.
“Because they’re so different from flip phones, many seniors aren’t even able to carry out the most basic operations on a smartphone,” Hirayama says. “They need to be shown how to make a phone call. They need to learn how to install apps. If they can’t use these basic functions, then they would never be able to take advantage of any app we built for them.”
Rakuten has been holding smartphone classes for seniors since 2016, when Rakuten Mobile trialed the initiative for some of its elderly customers. This endeavor continued with Rakuten Senior, but the team soon found themselves facing a new hurdle: COVID-19 and the age of teleconferencing. Takasaka’s team was forced to take smartphone school online.
“Our regular users are familiar with joining online meetings, but new members often don’t have those skills yet,” Hirayama says. “Some users don’t even know where to start. We have to call them on the phone and walk them through every step of the process.”
A Dangerous Divide
As the world’s digital shift picks up speed, being able to meet online has become a core skill of the modern age. This, Hirayama says, comes with risks.
“The digital shift, together with the pandemic, has brought about a serious risk of social isolation,” Hirayama warns. “Without being able to connect online, many seniors are at risk of falling out of contact with friends and family.”
Seniors are being left behind in other important aspects of life, too: “In times of disaster, crucial information is often broadcast through digital devices. A lack of timely information could lead to delays in getting users to safety,” Hirayama adds. “Meanwhile, basic government services are also heading online, leaving many unable to take advantage of them.”
Through Rakuten Senior’s smartphone school, Hirayama wants to bridge this digital divide. The app also serves as a platform allowing users to participate in a range of community-oriented events such as fitness, yoga, calligraphy and English conversation classes.
“JAPAN’S AGING POPULATION IS A HUGE TOPIC IN JAPAN, AND WE FEEL THAT THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS NEED TO COME TOGETHER TO FIND SOLUTIONS.”
“We hope the event platform will serve to connect people through their hobbies and form lasting connections with the community through events held by local firms, councils and individual instructors.”
Online connections are here to stay
As vaccination rates rise and Japan slowly reopens, Rakuten Senior has begun holding in-person events once more.
In the remote island community of Kushima in Ehime Japan, seniors make up over 40% of the local population – a significant jump over Japan’s already high national rate of nearly 30%. The town is battling social isolation and social withdrawal, something locals hope Rakuten Senior’s smartphone schools can assist with.
Over a period of six months, participants joined regular classes, learning everything from tapping and swiping and downloading apps to mobile payments, social media and online conferencing.
The classes were a mixture of online meetings and in-person instruction. Even as offline events become possible in Japan, cases like Kushima make it clear that for the important task of building communities, the ability to connect online remains crucial.
Playing to Rakuten’s strengths
A tech-driven company in an aging society, Rakuten is in a unique position to empower Japan’s seniors, and even to provide some hints to other countries expecting similar demographic challenges down the line.
“Japan’s aging population is a huge topic in Japan, and we feel that the public and private sectors need to come together to find solutions,” Hirayama reasons. “Being an IT-driven company, we have a lot of digital services that we can provide in the pursuit of extending the healthy life of our users.”
The Rakuten Senior app recently reached one million downloads – a substantial segment of Japan’s senior population.
“Thanks to cooperation with councils and lots of participation from users, our community is growing,” Hirayama boasts. “Once we show them how to get on social media, word spreads fast.”
https://rakuten.today/blog/...ior-takes-on-japans-digital-divide.html
September 22, 2022
Rakuten India’s new 20-story office has opened in the heart of Bengaluru, with spacious office floors to host innovative tech teams working in areas including e-commerce, fintech, advertising, mobile and medical. Check out the fun-filled opening ceremony with traditional rituals, employee performances and partying. Plus, hear from global and local tech executives about the future direction of the company, and ambitions of employees in this new office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALEeZ8-6Zdo
"Abos bei Netflix & Co. kündigen: Streaming geht auch kostenlos
Außerdem gibt es Hybrid-Dienste wie Rakuten TV, die bestimmte Titel oder einzelne Folgen einer Serie kostenlos mit Werbung zur Verfügung stellen und andere nur für Abonnenten oder eine Miet-Gebühr freischalten.“
https://www.finanzen.net/nachricht/...ng-geht-auch-kostenlos-11730280
September 28, 2022
As Rakuten Ichiba marks its 25th anniversary in 2022, its flagship "Rakuten Super Sale" is also now in its 10th year, having grown into a massive sales event. In this report, we explore the history of challenge and effort by the development team to establish a stable system capable of supporting some of the highest levels of online traffic in Japan. We also take a behind-the-scenes look at the 2022 Super Sale with the team of engineers responsible for its operation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekt_Zb9XTog
September 28, 2022 by eboudaoud
Rakuten Symphonythe cloud-ready Open RAN technology platform and sister company for applications of Rakuten mobile, has rolled into the gaming capital of the US with a truckload of announcements for Open RAN acolytes attending the MWC Las Vegas Show… -Integrating 110+ cloud-native features developed by Rakuten Symphony from 56+ industry vendors” , available on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. “This effort is aimed at making it easier for telecom providers to deploy and accelerate their cloud transformation at scale,” Symphony claims. Deploying Symworld on AWS will “support Rakuten Symphony’s commitment to rapidly bring new products and platform updates to market, and to accelerate platform deployments around the world.”
That’s not all… It seems Rakuten Symphony seeks to revolutionize the communications network management software systems sector with the launch of its Symops Service Assurance suite of products that have not only been tried and tested, but are currently in use Rakuten mobile network in Japan. The suite, which aims to replace traditional Operational Support System (OSS) tools that the Symphony team claims are “no longer fit for purpose” in dynamic cloud-native 5G networks, is the “result of four years of investment to fully operationalize end-to-end fault, configuration and performance management in a fully virtualized, dynamic cloud-based telecom operation,” according to Rakuten Symphony.
And the Rakuten Symphony Team throws even more at the Vegas tables… In addition to the planned unveiling of its RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) platform, Symphony also crows about a new multipurpose platform for distributed units. Developed in collaboration with intelit will be deployed at 23,000 locations at the edge of Rakuten Mobile’s network in Japan, a move Symphony claims will reduce data center and associated operational costs by 50%.
https://pandaanku.com/...ymphony-aws-open-ran-bt-open-ran-panda-anku/
September 27, 2022
Rakuten Symphony to run Symworld services, a world-leading, cloud-native telecoms operation platform, on AWS, a leader in public cloud services.
The combination of AWS infrastructure and services combined with Rakuten Symphony’s pre-integrated, telecom-specific, cloud-native operational capabilities accelerates transformation for customers.
LAS VEGAS – SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 – Rakuten Symphony, a Rakuten Group company, today announced it will work with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to make available on AWS the Rakuten Symphony Symworld platform, a world leader in cloud-native telecoms operations. This effort aims to make it easier for telecom service providers to adopt and accelerate their cloud transformation at scale.
Rakuten Symphony Symworld platform offers a total blueprint of cloud-native telecom operations with pre-integration of more than 110 cloud-native functions developed by Rakuten Symphony from over 56 industry vendors. The TM Forum compliant Symworld platform allows rapid adoption of cloud-native operations, including planning, building and operating telecom networks.
Deployment of Rakuten Symphony Symworld on AWS will support Rakuten Symphony’s drive to rapidly launch new products and updates to the platform and accelerate global deployment of the platform. This combined effort will offer customers improved results with their existing and future choices, and empower their desired business outcomes.
AWS is a leader in public cloud services and is the cloud partner of choice for many of the world’s largest telecom operators. When combined with the Rakuten Symphony Symworld platform, telecom operators will benefit from the match of the power of AWS with the power of the proven domain-specific operating knowledge of Rakuten Symphony and the Symworld platform.
“With Symworld platform, we have built the most robust, open and diverse operational stack for cloud-native networks,” said Tareq Amin, CEO at Rakuten Symphony. “Availability of Rakuten Symphony Symworld platform on AWS will offer telecom customers much needed agility, elasticity and security, as well as a seamless experience in leveraging the service offerings of both organizations.”
Successful telecom transformation to cloud requires the adoption and management of cloud infrastructure while changing operational models to cope with the dynamic, de-coupled nature of software-centric telecom operations. Whereas operations previously were largely a static design and deploy, cloud operations require the ability to not only manage fixed network assets, but also dynamic operational tools to address the dynamic client and services needs of telecom.
About Rakuten Symphony
Rakuten Symphony is reimagining telecom, changing supply chain norms and disrupting outmoded thinking that threatens the industry’s pursuit of rapid innovation and growth. Based on proven modern infrastructure practices, its open interface platforms make it possible to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches, with no compromise to network quality or security. Rakuten Symphony has headquarters in Japan and local presence in the United States, Singapore, India, Europe and the Middle East Africa region.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/newsroom/...ecom-transformation-with-aws
September 26, 2022
In this report, we take a look at the Advisory Panel that works with Rakuten Ichiba to discuss quality issues and improvements. We also interviewed a few of the external members of the Panel for their thoughts and expectations for Rakuten.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7847E5soJs
September 27, 2022
Rakuten Medical and CEO Mickey Mikitani have begun a tour to visit medical institutions across Japan. This nationwide tour, or "caravan," was launched as a way to discuss Rakuten Medical's cutting-edge cancer treatment and realize Mickey's wish to "hear directly from medical staff to develop a treatment together," and has already visited 38 medical institutions (as of August 2022) since starting in February 2022. This report covers the tour's stops at a number of hospitals in the Kyushu region.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNV4gpzKCv4
„With the loss of subscribers in previous quarter seeming temporary, we are expecting revenue growth through ARPU expansion to more than offset Rakuten Mobile’s cost growth.“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bejbt8zS2Q
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Rakuten Medical, Inc. (Rakuten Medical) has newly established its subsidiary in India, Rakuten Medical Private Limited (Rakuten Medical India) to strengthen its position in the country and expand its presence worldwide. The Mumbai-based company plans to develop and commercialize treatments based on the Allumino platform in India, beginning with head and neck cancer. To ensure a strong footprint, Mickey Mikitani, Co-CEO of Rakuten Medical recently visited leading medical institutions in the country to exchange views on the current status and future development of cancer treatment.
In India, the total number of new cancer patients in 2020 was over 1.3 million – the 4th largest population of cancer patients in the world. Particulary, there is a high occurrence of head and neck cancer, which accounts for 30% of all cancer types2. India accounts for ~26% of all head and neck cancer cases globally. The majority of these patients present with advanced disease, which also corresponds with poorer outcomes and higher mortality rates.
Rakuten Medical’s proprietary technology platform Alluminox combines the power of light with drug, device, and other related components to develop new, innovative therapies. Illuminating the targeted cells with non-thermal light activates the cell-bound drug, which leads to rapid and selective cell killing. This therapy has potential to be a 5th pillar of cancer treatment.
https://www.businesswireindia.com/...institutions-in-india-80951.html
„Rakuten’s Mobil losses have held back ist share-price over the past few years, but it is finally starting to show some improverments with costs shrinkung sequentally in 2QFY22.“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bejbt8zS2Q
September 27, 2022
Rakuten Mobile, the world’s first end-to-end fully virtualized 4G and 5G commercial mobile network, will rapidly expand coverage with plans to deploy Symware multipurpose edge appliances across 23,000 new sites in just 10 months.
Expects to reduce data center and associated operational costs by 50%.
Developed in collaboration with Intel, the Symware device features zero touch provisioning, Multi-RAT support and IP65 ruggedized DU, and is now ready for global operator deployment.
LAS VEGAS, SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 – Rakuten Symphony today announced general availability for its Symware next-generation distributed unit (DU) product with plans to deploy 30,000 units across Rakuten Mobile’s network in Japan. The rollout targets installation across 23,000 new sites in just 10 months and will support continued subscriber coverage expansion efforts for the world’s largest open mobile network. Rakuten Mobile expects to reduce data center and associated operational costs by as much as half due to simplified data center installation and increased power efficiency.
Phase 1 was announced in late 2021 in collaboration with Intel – a leader in network and cloud technologies – to build the next-generation distributed unit (NGDU). This device features zero touch provisioning, Multi-RAT Support (radio access technology), and IP65 Ruggedized DU, supporting 4G and 5G radio cell site coverage for mass scale deployment.
In the second phase of the rollout, the Symware device is expected to deliver high cost-efficiency via a zero data center footprint and elimination of associated rent overhead in deployment in Rakuten Mobile’s network infrastructure. Underscoring its ability to deliver in demanding environments at scale, the device will be rapidly deployed across more than 13,000 new 5G sites and 10,000 new 4G sites in Japan.
“We announced our intention to change the industry benchmark for Next Generation Distributed Unit design last year at Mobile World Congress Los Angeles. I am more than happy now to announce the global rollout of the Symware NGDU, redefining speed and total cost of ownership for large-scale network expansions,” said Tareq Amin, Chief Executive Officer of Rakuten Symphony. “The revolutionary hardware design supported by the software-based network and full Symworld operational platform will deliver transformational results for Rakuten Mobile and telecom operators around the world.”
The Symware device is based on the Intel Xeon D processor, a workload optimized system-on-chip built for space and power constrained environments. With built-in AI, security, advanced I/O and ethernet alongside dense compute, it delivers high data throughput for Symware open RAN workloads. In addition, it uses the Intel vRAN Accelerator ACC100 adapter, Intel Ethernet Controller E810, and Intel’s FlexRAN reference software to deliver a robust, performant open RAN solution.
“Communications service providers are transforming their networks worldwide with the move to fully programmable, open platforms to gain increased flexibility and agility,” said Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate vice president and general manager, Network and Edge Solutions Group. “Our collaboration with Rakuten Symphony has shown the industry how it’s possible to deliver the performance and cost savings for at-scale deployments when you combine software-based platforms with an innovative design, and an as-a-service business model.”
The business goal is to radically change the total cost of ownership through two "as-a-Service" business models.
The Symware device is sold as a service with the standard model comprising lifecycle management of hardware components, allowing customers to lifecycle manage customized software choices and operations. Symware Plus includes lifecycle management of all software using the Symworld platform for automation.
The Symworl platform helps telecom operators scale faster as the cloud sets the pace for speed, innovation, and network expectations. It supports a full range of cloud-native OSS products (Intelligent Operations) that help greenfield and brownfield service providers plan, build, and operate a mobile network at a significantly lower cost than traditional approaches. The platform enables enable zero-touch provisioning at scale, shortening site commissioning times from weeks to minutes for rapid network builds at 40% lower capital cost. Operators are able to run networks at 30% lower operating costs and accelerate new feature introductions by 10-15x. Protection and transparency are assured via security embedded at every layer.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/newsroom/...ony-symware-phase-two-begins
The operator has announced the general availability of its Open RAN product
September 29, 2022 By Paul Lipscombe
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/...-edge-deployment-goals/
https://global.fr.shopping.rakuten.com/actualites/...mance-et-ventes/
https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/company/...se/pdf/press20220920.pdf
Symphony said that its server platform for a far edge-based DU is now available for anyone to take and deploy. Rakuten Mobile is (as you’d expect) the first big customer, and it says it will deploy 10,000 new 4G sites and 13,000 new 5G sites, using the platform, within 10 months. The product is deisgn with Intel. and combines containerised cell site routing functionality from Juniper and a Distributed Unit (vDU from Altiostar) on a single general purpose server platform.
The server and DU, now known as “Symware NGDU” is based on the Intel Xeon D processor with the Intel vRAN Accelerator ACC100 adapter, Intel Ethernet Controller E810, and Intel’s FlexRAN reference software. It’s also ruggedised and waterproof so it can be sited outdoors.
The device can be sold as a bare metal option, with telcos providing their own supporting OAM environment, or it can be sold with Symphony’s cloud-native Symworld platform for OSS. Both options are being sold on an as-a-service basis.
https://the-mobile-network.com/2022/09/what-happens-in-vegas/
LAS VEGAS – A couple of years ago, Tareq Amin, CEO of Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony, said there was a problem with the distributed unit (DU) appliance in wireless networks, which was holding back the progress of open RAN.
Today, Amin says that Symphony has now solved this problem with a new device — the Symware next-generation distributed unit (DU).
Amin said the DU is the brain and the most complicated thing in running open RAN software. “I had two problems: It was too expensive, and it didn’t scale up to meet the capacity requirements.”
The new DU also integrates other functions that used to require separate boxes – such as the cell-site routing function and the function to convert from CPRI to eCPRI.
Over the last 12-14 months, Symphony worked with Intel to create a new DU. “This is our answer to the industry for a low-cost, ultra-reliable DU product,” said Amin. “There is nothing proprietary about this hardware. It doesn’t have cabinets. We have now miniaturized the entire RAN deployment.”
The new DU is now in production, being built by Foxconn. “This is completely commoditized,” said Amin. “It runs mostly on Intel platforms; there’s no proprietary hardware.”
True to the goal of open RAN, the new DU can run software from any vendor such as Ericsson, Nokia, Mavenir or Symphony, among others.
Rakuten Mobile has built 50,000 4G sites in the last two years — of which 12,000 sites have been upgraded to 5G. Amin said that over time he will “look opportunistically” at refreshing all DUs with the updated hardware.
But to begin with, Rakuten Mobile plans to deploy the new DUs across 13,000 new 5G sites and 10,000 new 4G sites in Japan within the next 10 months.
https://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/...symphony-has-solved-du-problem
Amin said, “We are sitting at about 5.5 million customers two years into operation. My view is we are still getting net adds daily.”
He said analysts are giving the company a hard time because they want it to cut back on capex, sacrificing full coverage across Japan. “You have to have coverage,” said Amin. “We are almost done with dependencies on roaming; 5% is carried on our roaming partner.” He said Rakuten Mobile will reach 99.2% of Japan population coverage this year.
“We have always been consistent that we will break-even in calendar year 2023,” said Amin. “If we really break even in 2023, I think this really addresses everything. Construction is a capex investment, and 2023 we will be pretty much done with our build.”
In related financial news, Amin said he’s asking for permission to report specific Symphony financial results in Rakuten’s next earnings call.
https://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/...symphony-has-solved-du-problem
DIGITAL-TV - INTERNET-TV
Rakuten TV nimmt Wirtschafts- und Finanz-Kanal Moconomy ins Free TV auf
https://www.infosat.de/digital-tv/...z-kanal-moconomy-ins-free-tv-auf
Light Reading Video
Tareq Amin, CEO of Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony, discusses how he got Symware from being a reference architecture to a shipping product, with plans to deploy 30,000 units in Rakuten Mobile's network in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFJbs17bzSM
T H E 2 0 2 2 E U R O P E A N U N I C O R N
The valuation range of Cabify is between 2.5 and 3 billion
60 Cabify Spain 2,500 - 3,000
https://europeanunicornmap.com/wp-content/uploads/...5growth-v1.2.pdf
October 2, 2022
The size of the worldwide 5G services market is projected to reach US$ 48 billion in 2022 and US$ 3,827.64 billion by 2032, while growing at a CAGR of 55%.
Prominent Key players of the 5G services market survey report:
Saudi Telecom Company
Rakuten Mobile Inc.
BT Group plc
Deutsche Telekom AG
China Mobile Ltd.
AT&T, Inc.
KT Corp.
Verizon Communications, Inc.
Bharti Airtel Ltd.
China Telecom Corporation Ltd.
Vodafone Group
NTT Docomo
SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
T-Mobile USA, Inc.
https://www.newstrail.com/...at-a-cagr-of-55-throughout-2022-to-2032/
Exporting Symworld
Why did no one develop it before? Partially this is just due to inertia. Legacy operators keep using legacy technology instead of doing a complete and costly overall of their pre-existing infrastructure. Sunken costs, internal politics, and supplier relations all play a role in keeping things unchanged.
Few players were ready to incur the tremendous risks and costs needed to not only develop but successfully deploy such a system. Without a country-wide deployment as a proof of concept, it would have been impossible to sell. Frankly, considering markets’ punishment of Rakuten for having done so, I believe it was probably the biggest issue. Only a founder-operated company like Rakuten could pull it off.
The official launch of Symworld was on 10th December 2021. I think the marketing is on point, talking directly about the main pain point for mobile operator’s engineers: flexibility and upgrade options. Instead of locking its customers in a suboptimal solution like Ericsson and Nokia used to do, Rakuten offers a solution that can evolve endlessly.
„Never again will you have to worry about a hardware upgrade. Never again will you have to worry about a genration upgrade.“ (Tareq Amin, Rakuten Symphony CEO & Rakuten Group CTO)
https://finmasters.com/.../#annex-vc-foreign-acquisitions-and-content
1 Nutzer wurde vom Verfasser von der Diskussion ausgeschlossen: Scansoft