Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
Hirose, CFO: At the operating income level, the cumulative six-month loss for this fiscal year is 6.6 billion yen, an improvement of 45 billion yen from the same period last year. On the other hand, financial income and expenses worsened by 66.6 billion yen, which, as you pointed out, is the gain or loss on derivatives heding realated to perpetual bonds. Under IFRS perpetual bonds are treated as equity, so unrealized gains and losses do not impact the P/L, but onlythe derivative hedges are reflected.
https://www.ls-tc.de/de/aktie/rakuten-aktie
In the second quarter of 2025, Rakuten Mobile’s standalone EBITDA improved by 19.1 billion yen year-on-year, reaching 5.6 billion yen. Compared to the previous quarter, when we achieved our first quarterly profit, we were able to further expand the profit. We are making steady progress toward achieving full-year EBITDA profitability in 2025.
As for the number of subscribers, we surpassed 9 million subscribers on July 7th, and as of July 31st, we reached 9.08 million subscribers. Toward breaking the major milestone of 10 million, we aim to further accelerate the pace of net additions in the second half of the year.
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/
Within this, Rakuten Rewards has been affected by the trend of US companies reducing their marketing expenses. However, both revenue and profit have remained flat while implementing cost controls. Rakuten Viber is showing strong growth in both communication and advertising revenue as the market expands. In addition, Rakuten Viki has achieved increases in both revenue and profit, driven by the expansion of subscriptions and the enhancement of its content lineup.
Q2-2025-earnings-call-transcript
August 8, 2025
A strong Q2 from the mobile operator was instrumental in driving group-level operating income for Rakuten for the first time in six years, the Japanese firm announced, showing the importance of that nascent MNO business as part of the bigger picture.
Rakuten Mobile reported EBITDA of 5.6 billion yen (US$38 million), which represents an increase of JPY19.1 billion from a negative position in the same quarter last year. Arguably more importantly, while it's not a huge sum of money for a telecoms operator, it's also a significant uplift on the JPY102 million (around US$700,000) that Rakuten Mobile posted in Q1, its first ever quarter of EBITDA profitability.
"Steady progress is being made towards achieving full-year EBITDA profitability in 2025," Rakuten said in its results announcement. And it's hard to argue with that.
The growth came on the back of an increase in the number of subscriptions and improved average revenue per user (ARPU), Rakuten said.
The operator has already trumpeted its customer growth for the quarter, having reached the 9 million subs milestone in early July.
But in the interests of comparison, it reported 8.97 million total subscriptions at the end of Q2, including MNO, MVNO and MVNE customers, a net increase of 390,000 over three months. As of the end of July, the total was up to 9.08 million.
Customer growth was driven by increased acquisitions and lower churn as a result of the end of the spring sales season and the impact of price changes by some operators, Rakuten said.
Net ARPU, a key indicator for its operating income and EBITDA profitability, came in at JPY2,474 ($16.7), an increase of JPY114 year-on-year.
https://www.telecoms.com/operator-ecosystem/...a-is-into-the-billions
August 8, 2025
Rakuten Bank is pleased to announce that it will be awarded to the best internet bank in Japan at the "Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2025 (formerly known as the Asiamoney Best Bank Awards for Japan)" sponsored by Euromoney magazine. Country's Best Digital Bank" for the eighth consecutive year.
The "Euromoney Awards for Excellence" is an award launched in 1992 by Euromoney magazine, a British financial magazine founded in 1969. The awards are given to banks that have performed well in the past year in each market around the world, and select the best banks in each country in categories such as digital banking and investment banking. The winners of the awards were determined by a team of senior journalists chaired by Euromoney magazine's editors who conducted in-depth research on each bank and market, as well as online interviews conducted by senior editors with senior banking industry executives in each country.
Rakuten Bank was awarded the "Country's Best Digital Bank" in the banking industry in Japan in the following points:
Expanding the customer base by actively promoting cashless payments using the Rakuten ecosystem
Procedures such as account opening are online, and new services are quickly released through in-house development of the system.
Strong security and financial inclusion initiatives, and BaaS to bring in new customers
Rakuten Bank will continue to provide attractive products and services to customers.
https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/press/2025/250808.html
Senior Vice President, Global Services Division Rakuten Symphony
August 5, 2025
At Rakuten Symphony, we are at the forefront of redefining how software for telecom networks are tested, validated, and deployed. In an industry where innovation is constant and the tolerance for failure is zero, traditional QA processes no longer meet the speed or scale required by next-generation networks.
The emergence of AI-powered Digital Twin Labs represents a fundamental shift in how we assure quality—replacing manual pipelines with intelligent, predictive systems that mirror the complexity of live environments and learn continuously from real-world data.
As telecom moves toward disaggregated networks and on-demand services, QA must become a strategic enabler. Rakuten Symphony’s AI-led QA labs not only assure quality—they accelerate innovation. With our digital twin approach, networks become self-aware, test environments self-heal, and quality becomes a constant, not a checkpoint.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...qa-with-ai-and-digital-twin-labs
August 12, 2025 by Sylwia Kechiche
As 5G matures and network virtualization becomes the new standard, our understanding of network performance must evolve. On July 23rd, I had the pleasure of hosting a fireside chat with Mahmoud Elsakhawy, General Manager of End-to-End Performance & Capacity at Rakuten Mobile, one of the world’s most ambitious and disruptive operators.
Over 30 minutes, we discussed how to measure user experience in a meaningful way, reflecting on how to stay relevant in a world shaped by real user behavior.
It’s not just about speed - and it never was
I opened the session with a simple but important question: Is speed still the most important KPI?
The answer, as Mahmoud eloquently put it, is no. While speed remains a critical element of performance, it's far from the whole story. Today's users expect more than fast downloads. They want reliability, responsiveness, and a seamless experience no matter where they are or what they’re doing. Whether streaming video, playing online games, or attending a virtual meeting, packet loss, jitter, and latency matter far more than headline speeds to ensure a good user experience.
As Mahmoud pointed out, “3Mbps is enough for 720p video, which is sufficient for smartphones but if the network isn’t stable, the experience still suffers.” This emphasis on stability over headline speeds aligns with how today's users interact with their networks: constantly connected, application-driven, and highly sensitive to quality fluctuations.
https://www.opensignal.com/2025/08/...-lessons-from-rakuten-mobile/jp