Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
The global Ride-Hailing and Taxi Market was valued at USD 196.05 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 515.49 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 11.34% from 2022 to 2030.
https://straitsresearch.com/press-release/...5202022%2520to%25202030.
5 days ago
Humanity’s history is a story of toolmaking, and AI is a tool like any other. It’s not a replacement for people. What it is, is a very specific tool — a very powerful tool that, like the computer, will create a lot of opportunities.”
Google Cloud chief decision scientist Cassie Kozyrkov is on a mission to democratize AI. At the recent Rakuten Technology Conference, she joined Rakuten’s own chief data officer Ting Cai and global head of the Rakuten Institute of Technology Ewa Szymanska on a panel exploring everything from the very fundamentals of AI to its modern applications.
“It’s important to know exactly what AI is a tool for: It is a tool for writing software,” Kozyrkov continued. “It’s actually another approach for telling computers what we want them to do for us. And this is very simple and very powerful.”
A new way to write software
At the core of every AI is a model, Kozyrkov began.
“What is a model? It’s just a fancy word for recipe — a recipe for converting inputs into outputs. Now that is what computers do for us — that’s what they’ve always done. And that’s what they do in traditional software engineering as well.”
How this model is created is what sets the two disciplines apart.
“Now where does that recipe or model come from in traditional programming?” she posed. “It comes from a human programmer thinking really hard about the problem… Kind of handcrafting that recipe and explicitly expressing to the computer, here is what you do with the input to get the output. Step by step. That’s traditional programming, that’s traditional code.”
Kozyrkov employed the example of training a system to recognize an image of a cat. To do this traditionally, a programmer would need to go through the painstaking process of defining the essence of a cat: “Triangles for ears, ovals for eyes — what about cats with flat ears?” she ventured. “It’s going to be pretty hard for you to come up with a set of rules that capture catness.”
With AI, however, this near-impossible task becomes unnecessary.
“What if we had another way to communicate our wishes?” she proposed. “What if we could explain not with instructions but with examples. That… is what machine learning and AI are all about. That is the power of it. Instead of having to come up with the instructions, you now come up with examples. You say, here are a bunch of cats, here are a bunch of not cats, and from there, you figure it out.”
AI is a communication problem, not a technical one
“Notice that this isn’t about robots or any of this kind of fancy stuff. This is about communication. This is a second way to tell machines what you want them to do.”
Kozyrkov reminded the audience that this method of teaching is something that humans have been doing forever.
“We as humans already have these two modes of communication when teaching one another. Sometimes if I want to teach you how to do a task, I’ll give you the exact steps,” she pointed out. “Sometimes I say, here, watch me do it a few times and then you figure out the patterns and come up with the instructions yourself from there.”
It’s AI that makes this teach-by-example approach viable with computers.
“With machines, traditionally we only have one way to program it: explicit instructions. Now, we’ve got both. We can use examples or data. This means that even if we can’t say how we do the task, we still have a chance at automating it anyway,” she shared. “And that is extremely powerful and that’s why you should be excited.”
Are companies investing in the wrong kind of AI?
“Now, why do businesses fail at making use of such an incredibly powerful technology with so much opportunity? I think that the secret here is that there are actually two machine learnings — two AIs.”
Kozyrkov challenged her audience (of techy conference-goers) to raise their hand if they knew how a microwave works well enough to build one themselves.
“How do you trust that thing? You don’t know how it works. Why do you use it to heat your food? Because knowing how it works isn’t the way to trust. The way to trust is making sure that it delivers for you exactly what you needed it to do.”
Kozyrkov believes that companies need to approach AI in the same way.
“There are two AIs out there, two machine learnings,” she repeated. “They are the difference between building new microwaves and using microwaves to build new recipes… Two completely different disciplines that both go by the same name. And this creates a lot of confusion. I think that where businesses fail is that they think they want the one — they hire for the one — but actually they want the other.”
Today, there is no shortage of AI-powered tools that can be used to innovate on all manner of problems: “Warehouses upon warehouses of microwave ovens that other people have built,” she quipped. “That is the new AI. That is the applied AI. And that is the new revolution in software.”
Democratizing AI — it’s anyone’s game
“There is a lot of space for a lot of different players here, now that we’re able to apply AI to many different interesting business problems.”
The field of AI has come a long way, and today it’s more open and beginner-friendly than ever. No longer is it the case that only AI researchers can make a significant impact.
“Now, anybody who understands the problem that they’re solving, who understands how the business and the real world works around that, who has technical skills and who is interested in constructing technology and solutions for solving those problems — anyone with any perspective on that whole ecosystem of stuff is very welcome and very needed in AI,” she stressed.” All these tools are available for use because the research history is long and it’s been packaged up and ready to go. You don’t need to know how the microwave works in order to use it.”
Kozyrkov encouraged the audience to explore the many tools already available.
“Go play. Have fun. Try out these things that already exist and have been built for you. And put them together towards the goal of solving your business problems,” she encouraged the audience. “Put your own data through them and see if you can get your problems solved with what already exists. There’s a lot of space, just dive in. You don’t have to read a stack of textbooks first, I promise.”
AI is collaborative, human-oriented
Kozyrkov also warned developers not to forget who they are building their systems for.
“It’s very important to consider the context for how it will be used and to make sure that you’re thinking about how to enrich someone’s experience,” she stressed. “How to save time; how to improve lives; that you’re really putting the user first — because fundamentally, this is going to be a very human thing that has a lot of potential to enrich people’s lives.”
AI systems are, in the end, built by humans.
“To understand the people that you’re serving, it helps to have a lot of different views represented on the team. A higher probability of overlap with the people that you’re actually building for.”
She reminded the audience that everyone in their organization will be involved in the final result. “What I would like people to focus on is this notion that you — your whole team, which would include everybody on it — the business leaders, engineers, the statisticians, the designers, everyone — that you are serving as a teacher.”
In this context, Kozyrkov doesn’t believe that there is any one type of person who is well-suited to working in the AI space.
“When I’m asked the question, Cassie, what is your ideal kind of AI employee or AI person? That is my least favorite question I can get about AI. The reason is simple. It’s not just a one-person thing. It’s not a one-person job. It’s a team that usually consists of many different people who are playing different roles and who are working together and bringing their shared disciplines and perspectives. So it’s very interdisciplinary, it’s very collaborative. And I often find that where you’re more likely to fail is not on the technical stuff — it’s on that interdisciplinary collaboration.”
It’s this collaboration that will allow AI to flourish, Kozyrkov stressed.
“Take the perspective of this being a collaborative thing that you are designing and that is how you build that brighter AI future.”
Rakuten’s winning combination
Kozyrkov had praise for Rakuten’s rare combination of research and application.
“Often you have either good research in isolation, or you have application-based research that’s not done in-house,” she lamented. “Both of these are very important things. They rarely exist together with the kind of excellence that your institute represents. So this is really phenomenal.”
Rakuten’s own chief data officer Ting Cai revealed his impressions after having joined the company earlier this year. “I have never worked at a company where everyone talks about data and AI. So that makes me feel very excited.”
Cai also praised the high quality of the data at his disposal.
“I feel like Rakuten has a lot of unique data,” he continued. “We have a lot of transaction data, offline data. That’s fantastic data for us to apply. And using that data gives us unique opportunities to create unique solutions and original algorithms.”
Global Head of Rakuten Institute of Technology Ewa Szymanska also encouraged employees to use the assets that Rakuten makes available to innovate.
“Look again at the breadth and variety of businesses that Rakuten has and just imagine the wealth of data and the possibilities that it opens up by combining them to build things that don’t exist today.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/RakutenUndervalued/...ns_winning_combination
Global Video Streaming Market 2023-2028, International Size, Trends, Rate of Growth, Trends, Business Standing, Share, And Forecasts Analysis, Top Companies - Microsoft, Rakuten
Published: Jan. 29, 2023 at 9:18 p.m. ET
The global Video Streaming market size was valued at USD 138473.03 million in 2022 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 20.89% during the forecast period, reaching USD 432247.8 million by 2028
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/...osoft-rakuten-2023-01-29
2023/02/11
Two major Japanese telecom companies are expected to join hands with British organizations to promote a new communications network amid economic security concerns over China's growing share of the field, a source close to the case said Saturday.
NTT Docomo Inc., Japan's leading mobile operator, and Rakuten Mobile Inc. are likely to share information about research and development on Open RAN, or Open Radio Access Network, with British enterprises and institutions, the source added.
Open RAN has industry-wide standards enabling its interoperability with multiple vendors' equipment for cellular wireless networks. In 2022, the Japanese and British governments made an agreement to cooperate in enhancing the technology.
Docomo and Rakuten were selected following their successful bids in response to an October 2022 call for proposals by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology to subcontract research and development on Open RAN networks.
The Japanese state-run institute hopes that the two firms will help improve trust in Open RAN and contribute to energy saving while exchanging information on the progress and state of development of the technology, the source said.
In addition to Britain, Japan has entered into similar partnerships with the United States, Australia, India and Singapore. In January, Tokyo and Washington also inked a memorandum to spread Open RAN.
https://nordot.app/997099468917129216?c=445918389795193953
February 9, 2023
Symworld Site Management accelerates execution velocity with real-time program management audibility and sub-project project transparency.
Now in general availability, supports site creation and site modification in days versus weeks.
Integrated Symworld Platform provides a common operational environment for Site Management and the end to end Mobile as a Software lifecycle.
Symworld Site Management is developed by Rakuten Symphony Intelligent Operations Business Division.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/newsroom/...lifecycle-for-30-opex-saving
Fiscal Period: December 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Net sales1 1 263 932 1 455 538 1 681 757 1 902 661 2 129 193 2 366 911
EBITDA1 179 115 57 657 2 627 -79 281 171 515 309 650
Operating profit (EBIT)1 72 745 -93 849 -194 726 -333 531 -137 616 -987
Operating Margin 5,76% -6,45% -11,6% -17,5% -6,46% -0,04%
Pre-Tax Profit (EBT)1 -44 558 -151 016 -212 630 -373 056 -167 171 -14 537
Net income1 -31 888 -114 199 -133 828 -290 006 -131 881 -28 826
Net margin -2,52% -7,85% -7,96% -15,2% -6,19% -1,22%
EPS2 -23,6 -84,0 -87,6 -181 -85,9 -18,6
Free Cash Flow1 32 030 738 044 -29 123 -693 364 -322 691 -52 03
https://www.reddit.com/r/RakutenUndervalued/..._of_rakuten_will_be_a/
Christian Zibreg February 9, 2023
Viber's new storage management section make it easier to find, select and delete multiple media files and chats, helping you to free up space on your iPhone.
The Rakuten-owned app rolled out new storage management features on February 9, 2023. To immediately update your copy of the app to the latest version, open the Viber page on the App Store and touch the Update button
https://www.idownloadblog.com/2023/02/09/...torage-management-update/
We need to take cost out of delivering telecom networks. We will be releasing how we in Rakuten Mobile, Inc.and Rakuten Symphony have radically accelerated efficiency gains at all the layers of the telco business. It is how a internet software company approaches building a telecom network, and how we approach hardware supply chain similar to Facebook, AWS, Google, and other online leaders. As part of leading into this conversation at MWC BCN, I reshare an analyst call Tareq Amin held with Sachin Katti and Intel Corporation, where we explain how it is possible to take cost, time and material out at the hardware level. I like this session since it gets into details rather than marketing (says the person working in marketing...) https://lnkd.in/gx5xuu52 Come see us at Barcelona, our whole focus is sharing how to build networks for less. Caroline Chan Vishal Gupta Muneyb Minhazuddin Matthew Johnson Sushil Rawat Jason King
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...activity:7023045119364792320/
Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony CEO, Tareq Amin, and Sachin Katti, CTO and CSO of Intel's Network and Edge Group, take a group of industry analysts on a journey of how our companies are collaborating to make next-gen mobile networks a reality. They demonstrate how together, Rakuten and Intel are driving innovation into the telecom domain and offer a preview of what's coming next from this relationship.
https://vimeo.com/772522837/bca484b990
By Chris Mellor February 10, 2023
Japan’s Rakuten Symphony BU is setting up automated and containerized 5G edge deployments, using acquired Robin.io technology to do what HCI edge suppliers do with virtualized server systems.
Kubernetes storage startup Robin.io was bought by Rakuten Symphony in March 2022. Rakuten Symphony is a mobile carrier with 4G and 5G capabilities. The 5G side is focused on internet edge sites that will need fitting out with IT systems running cloud-native applications, which was Robin’s technology focus.
Seethala said stateful edge sites were needed because, if data is not filtered, processed and acted on closest to where it is generated, then it results in a poor user experience, increased cost from transferring data over the network, and poor end-to-end performance. The compute needs to be located where the data is generated.
We should consider two kinds of edge locations: geographically dispersed far edge sites such as drive-thru restaurants and coffee shops, oil and gas extraction sites, shops in malls and so forth; as well as larger near edge sites. There can be thousands of such edge sites, with tens of thousands of Kubernetes clusters across the far edge and thousands of them across the near edge. Sending people out to each one to do a manual installation is not feasible.
This kind of automated deployment and setup has been provided for edge HCI sites (with hypervisors) by the main suppliers, such as Scale Computing. But Kubernetes-orchestrated, cloud-native edge sites are different, and the automated software deployment and startup has been lacking, we’re told. Now Robin.io has some 50,000 Robin servers in production.
https://blocksandfiles.com/2023/02/10/...l-cloud-native-5g-edge-play/
by David Chang, Published on Feb. 12, 2023
Shopping online is a great way to save time and money, but sometimes it can be hard to find the best deals. Thankfully, there are a few web browser extensions out there that can help you save even more when shopping online. Here are three of the most popular extensions that work on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or other popular browsers that can help you keep more money in your savings account while shopping online. This can help you stay on budget while also earning rewards.
Rakuten is a free extension where you can get cash back for shopping at over 3,500 stores as well as find coupons. Stores pay Rakuten a commission when you buy through their website, the Rakuten app, or through the extension. Rakuten then shares the commission with you via check or PayPal. Rakuten has paid out over $2.2 billion dollars to 15 million members, and the average member earned $63.50 in cash back in 2020. If you're shopping for a specific item, Rakuten will look for the best price in their network of stores. In addition, Rakuten offers exclusive coupons and cash back deals.
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/..._campaign=article
The most popular movies and TV shows on Rakuten TV in the World. Who was #1 on Rakuten TV on February 13, 2023? TOP 10 charts or full ratings charts. Check the title detail for more streaming analytics.
https://flixpatrol.com/top10/rakuten-tv/world/2023-02-13/
Acorns Raises $300 Million at $2.9 Billion Valuation
March 10, 2022
Acorns is a fintech startup, the savings and investing app. It is a platform that allows its users to round up purchases and automatically invest spare change in low-cost, diversified exchange-traded funds portfolio offered by such asset managers as BlackRock and Vanguard.
https://investclub.sv/2022/03/10/...million-at-2-9-billion-valuation/
Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2022
February 14, 2023
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/
Q4/21 Q4/22 YoY
Revenue 481.2 563.2 +17.0%
Non-GAAP Operating Income -76.1 -69.7 +6.5
IFRS Operating Income -86.4 -76.8 +9.6
Operating Income (excl. minorityinvestment and Mobile segment) 43.6 49.2 +12.8%
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/
Very important news: Operating Cash Flow of the Non-Financial Buisinesses was positive after a lot of negative quarters in a row with 11.5 JPY bn in Q4/2022
Cash Flow Breakdown: January 2022 – December 2022: Operating Cash Flow = - 322.8 JPY bn
Cash Flow Breakdown: January 2022 – September 2022: Operating Cash Flow = - 334.3 JPY bn
Result is a positive Operating Cash Flow of 11.5 JPY bn
https://www.reddit.com/r/RakutenUndervalued/...w_of_the_nonfinancial/
FY2020 = 4.5 trillion JPY
FY2021 = 5.0 trillion JPY
FY2022 = 5.6 trillion JPY
Domestic e-commerce GMS (Excludes some tax-exempt businesses, includes consumption tax.) is the combined transaction amount for Rakuten Ichiba, Rakuten Travel (GTV on checkout basis), Rakuten Books, Books Network ,Kobo (domestic), golf business, Rakuten Fashion, Rakuten Dream businesses, Rakuten Beauty, Rakuten 24, Car, Rakuma, Rakuten Rebates, Rakuten Seiyu Netsuper, and cross boarder trading ,etc.
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/
Rakuten chief sees growth path after costs plummet
14 FEB 2023 Joseph Waring
On an earnings call, Mikitani noted network construction and roaming costs will be reduced significantly by the end of 2023, which puts the company on the right path to establish a profit structure.
More than 95 per cent of data traffic was carried on its own network in Q4 2022, compared with 83 per cent in the comparable quarter of 2021. It aims to eliminate domestic roaming by end-2023, saving JPY180 billion ($1.4 billion) annually, he said.
Its operating loss fell to JPY112.6 billion from JPY118.7 billion in Q4 2021. Revenue increased 75.2 per cent to JPY114.4 billion, due in part to ARPU increasing with the transition to new pricing plans.
https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/...520final%2520stage.
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