Doubles Global Investment Fund in 2016

Fund size increases to tap into hidden pockets of innovation around the world
Singapore, April 12, 2016 - Rakuten Ventures, the venture capital arm of Rakuten Group, announced today a significant injection of US$ 100 million to its Global Investment Fund. The additional funding announcement comes on the back of a successful track record of early-stage investments and the launch of a Japan Fund earlier this year.

Rakuten Ventures operates a Global Investment Fund and a Japan Fund to invest approximately US$ 285 million in technology start-ups. The US$200 million Global Investment Fund seeks out the next generation of innovators, around the world and across the IT sector, with the unique insight to build and sustainably defend a last-mover advantage in their verticals of focus. Rakuten Ventures is run out of Singapore by Managing Partner SaeMin Ahn, Investment Manager Hogil Doh, and Principal Adit Swarup.

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2016/0412_01.html
 

http://www.internethandel.de/inhalt/...tz-mit-integriertem-Shopsystem  

As a digital retailer, we think about readers a lot. And, we have a lot of them – almost 28 million. We run stores in 18 countries, sell books in 97 languages, and are the second largest manufacturer of eReading devices in the world. Plus, we are the only global player focused exclusively on the reader. All this means we spend a huge amount of time as booksellers trying to determine what the reader wants.

http://news.kobo.com/internal_redirect/...epaper%20-%20APRIL_2016.pdf
 

mit:

UK’s PremFina, a Broker Software Provider, Raises $36M for Expansion
PremFina Ltd., a UK firm that provides software to insurance brokers, raised $36 million in its first round of funding as founder and serial entrepreneur Bundeep Singh Rangar seeks to expand the company.

The equity and debt investment came from investors including the venture capital arm of Japan’s Rakuten Inc., and UK-based Draper Esprit Plc, backed by billionaire Tim Draper, the people said.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/...ational/2017/10/04/466428.htm
 

By Paul Ausick April 6, 2017 2:30 pm EDT

Venture-funded, ride-sharing service Lyft has raised a Series G investment round of $500 million, valuing the privately held company at around $7.45 billion, up from a $5.5 billion valuation after a Series F round raised nearly $1 billion in December 2015.
Investors in Lyft’s latest round were not named, but previous rounds included Fortress Investment Group, Rakuten, Carl Icahn, and Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing (listed under its former name, Didi Kuaidi). Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) invested $1 billion in Didi last year and Didi has also invested $1 billion in Uber.

http://247wallst.com/services/2017/04/06/...w-valued-at-7-23-billion/
 

Rakuten, NBA teaming up in media partnership deal
Oct 10, 2017

Rakuten, Inc. is active in expanding its brand on a global scale, partnering with some of the world’s most famous sports teams like soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona and the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors this year.

Now, it has struck another big deal.

The NBA and the Japanese e-commerce and internet company announced on Tuesday a new partnership, making Rakuten the official broadcasting distributor of NBA games in Japan. The move could also hasten the return of NBA regular-season games to the country.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2017/10/10/...-deal/#.WeJ3B7puIdU
 

habe ich auch einmal bei Dortmund gespielt und könnte mir Rakuten auch als Partner von Borussia Dortmund vorstellen.

Eventuell auch als Nachfolger oder Partner von Gazprom bei Schalke.
 

Nationalhymne "Weiß und Blau wie lieb ich Dich" gespielt wird, wird keiner der Spieler knien.

Selbst wenn Dieter Bohlen Nachfolger von Angela Merkel wird.  

Rakuten, Kodansha to launch smartphone-based fashion magazine BeViVi
Oct. 1 03:50 am JST

Rakuten Inc and Kodansha Ltd have announced that the two companies will launch BeViVi, a smartphone-based internet fashion magazine. The first issue will be published on Oct 23.
BeViVi is an internet fashion magazine optimized for smartphones that aims to make online shopping more fun. Built around the concept of “You can buy now with ViVi,” the magazine is targeted at women in their teens and 20s and features fashion items from Rakuten Ichiba selected by the editorial department of Kodansha’s popular magazine ViVi.

After viewing the magazine content and Rakuten Ichiba products, users can easily purchase items they like from within the magazine. In addition, Rakuten members can also earn and spend Rakuten Super Points.

https://japantoday.com/category/tech/...based-fashion-magazine-bevivi
 

E-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. recently announced the launch of a joint venture with real estate listing operator Lifull Co. Rakuten Lifull Stay Inc. aims to begin offering services after the law takes effect sometime in the first half of next year.

Rakuten is a household name in Japan, with 90 million members, its own professional baseball team and a platform that offers myriad services from banking and credit cards to travel and e-books. Lifull, on the other hand, operates a real estate and housing information site with around 8 million listings, and the firm has a network of more than 22,000 affiliated real estate stores.
“I think it’s an ideal joint venture — Lifull can reach corporate clients while Rakuten can reach out to individual customers,” Munekatsu Ota, representative director and chief operating officer of the new company, told The Japan Times in an interview.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/09/17/...-growth/#.WeMu6bpuIdU
 

RAKUTEN INVESTED 25M EUR IN GLOVO?
SEPTEMBER 28, 2017  

There are some rumours that the Asian ecommerce giant Rakuten with other investors have invested 25m euros in Barcelona-based delivery app Glovo.  Both companies haven’t officially confirmed the investment. Previous big round of 5m euros Glovo raised in August 2016.
Glovo is on-demand delivery app which enables that users get items they ordered in less than 1h via self-employed partners called Glovers. Company has been founded in 2015. in Barcelona and is often featured on the list of most promising Spanish apps.  Glovo is currently present in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Zaragoza, Sevilla, Malaga, Milan, Rome and Paris but they will certainly add more cities in the nearest future. In Barcelona and Madrid they operate 24h.

http://seemea.com/rakuten-invested-25m-eur-glovo/
 

September 26, 2017 4:27 pm JST
Rakuten to buy low-cost smartphone operator Freetel
Online retail giant to be Japan's third-largest smartphone operator

TOKYO -- Japanese online retail giant Rakuten will acquire Freetel, the country's sixth-largest smartphone service operator, Rakuten said Tuesday.
The deal will push Rakuten, currently the fourth-largest operator, into third place behind only giants SoftBank Group and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone.
Rakuten aims to broaden its customer base with low-cost smartphone services, while expanding its online shopping business.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Japan-Update/...t-smartphone-operator-Freetel
 

http://www.kachi.jp/rakuten-co-jp-japan-in-english-the-easy-guide/  

zwei unterschiedlichen Marktplätzen:

Rakuten.com Global
Not to be confused with the Japanese Rakuten.co.jp store. Rakuten.com is a separate e-commerce marketplace, previously known as  Buy.com owned by the Japanese Rakuten company. Available in several languages, including the English version of Global Rakuten store. Some sellers on the Japanese store are also on the global site, but the range of products is mostly very different.

Rakuten.co.jp in English
Even though the Japan Rakuten online store is for the most part in Japanese, it may be easily translated as well as used by any nationality. Account registration is directly available in English, with a possibility to register an account in or outside of Japan. Also they have a large amount of products available for international delivery, that you can simply search for using the link to filter out international sellers.

Quelle; siehe 188  

https://investorplace.com/2017/02/...stock-will-win-big/#.WeosxbpuIdU  

And we can also expect e-commerce to play a role in Viber’s future. Rakuten, Viber’s parent company, is an e-commerce giant often dubbed “the Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) of Japan.” When it bought Viber in 2014, Rakuten made clear its plans to eventually integrate the app into Rakuten’s ecosystem.

When you add more functions to an app, users will spend more time on it, doing things such as booking doctor’s appointments, playing games and chatting with friends. The more time users spend interacting with the app, the greater the potential ad revenue, and this means serious money for the app’s parent company.  

vor Amazon und Yahoo Japan:

http://www.kachi.jp/...shopping-in-japan-best-of-japanese-e-commerce/  

die Marktkapitalisierung von Rakuten?

http://247wallst.com/media/2017/03/02/is-viber-the-next-snapchat/

 

 

http://www.it-times.de/news/...h-auch-der-messenger-viber-ein-123139/  

Viber has really well implemented voice tech. It has comparable quality to Skype and you can even tranfer calls from your phone to your desktop seamlessly.

https://www.slant.co/versus/1922/1984/~snapchat_vs_viber
 

Our free voice and messaging service Viber is much-loved by more than 800 million users around the world and, since acquisition in 2014, we have been more focused on growth than on profitability, but in recent months we have made some changes. We decided to set in motion a series of big and small improvements, including hiring a new CEO and finding ways to increase revenue, not just on the telecommunications side of the business but in content, like advertisements and sticker sales.
Now it’s clear those improvements have had an effect. In the first quarter of this year Viber’s revenue was up 80% compared to last year – with much of the lift coming from content. The service is now clearly on the road to profitability.

https://www.viber.com/blog/2017-06-05/...changes-make-big-difference/
 

This week, Alphabet led a $1 billion financing round in Lyft, according to Recode. The investment, which valued Lyft at $11 billion, helped Alphabet diversify its bets on a self-driving future while deepening a relationship with a potential key player in the nascent space.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...ocks-week-ibm-paypal-150600263.html

Investors in Lyft’s latest round were not named, but previous rounds included Fortress Investment Group, Rakuten, Carl Icahn, and Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing (listed under its former name, Didi Kuaidi). Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) invested $1 billion in Didi last year and Didi has also invested $1 billion in Uber.

http://247wallst.com/services/2017/04/06/...w-valued-at-7-23-billion/
 

https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/viber-stats/#.WexbvbpuIdU  

Viber and Olympique de Marseille Sign A Four Season Agreement
18 Oct 2017

There’s no doubt 2017 is shaping up to be quite a year for us here at Viber! Not only was Rakuten named FC Barcelona’s Main Global Partner, making us the team’s official communication channel, but we also became the Official Messaging App of Shakira’s El Dorado World Tour and the Official Instant Messaging and Calling App Partner for the Golden State Warriors. All this makes our most recent news that much more exciting: We’re happy to announce that Rakuten Viber signed a 4-year agreement with Olympique de Marseille!

The renowned French football team has been around since 1899 and is a 9 time Ligue 1 champion, a 10 time Coupe de France winner and a 1 time UEFA Champion League winner.

https://www.viber.com/blog/2017-10-18/...marseilles-official-partner/