Trekking through the wilderness? Road tripping across a Japanese desert? Or even taking a trip to a remote island? Rakuten Mobile users may soon have a cell signal in these once disconnected domains. “Connectivity is a necessity no matter where you are.”Mickey Mikitani, Chairman and CEO, Rakuten Group At a press conference last month, Rakuten ..read more

Three… two… one… The halftime buzzer rang on day one of the 2023 World University Basketball Series. Beneath the bleachers and behind the stadium entrance doors stood the 12 members of “A Better Future Together” – ready and focused. The dance crew were seconds away from delivering a passionate halftime show for the crowd gathered ..read more

Mickey Mikitani, Chairman & CEO, Rakuten Group Recently, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we made what I believe was one of the most disruptive announcements of the conference: Rakuten Symphony is going to start licensing its mobile software to anyone who wants to use it. Rakuten operates more than 70 different businesses around the ..read more

Trips to Japan are back on the menu, and local hotels are struggling to keep up with demand. With the tourism industry rapidly becoming a core pillar of Japan’s future economy, new attractions and facilities are top of mind for many businesses and municipalities. The recent Rakuten Travel Conference delved into this very topic, with ..read more

On Day 1 of Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2024 the Rakuten booth theater hosted a special Rakuten International Showcase, featuring a trio of CEOs from across the Rakuten Group. First up, Rakuten International CEO Amit Patel provided an overview of the organization’s diverse range of businesses, including the potential of these entities to help mobile ..read more

More than 100,000 visitors, from across the globe, came together in-person last month for Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2024 (MWC), the world’s largest and most influential annual connectivity event. Returning to MWC for the fifth time, Rakuten made its presence felt at the event with a captivating lineup of speaker sessions at the Rakuten booth ..read more

As economies worldwide race to meet their environmental goals, understanding consumer perspectives on sustainability is becoming increasingly vital. For the second consecutive year, Rakuten Insight Global conducted an online survey with over 109,000 consumers from its own proprietary panel across APAC, providing valuable insights into consumers’ evolving attitudes towards sustainable consumption. Here’s what we discovered ..read more

From chatbots to product recommendations, AI tools are a natural presence in our everyday lives. But what is fueling AI’s astonishing trajectory, and is it even sustainable? Sean Varley is Chief Evangelist & Vice President of Business Development at Silicon Valley-based semiconductor firm Ampere Computing. He took the stage at Rakuten Technology Conference 2023 in ..read more

Japan’s esports scene ended 2023 with a bang, as gamers assembled for the 5th Rakuten esports cup. On December 19, 64 popular online personalities in Japan logged on to battle it out in popular battle royale game PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS. The primarily online event featured commentary from esports caster OooDa, professional cosplayer Enako, Twitch streamer Oniya ..read more

On February 14, Rakuten announced financial results for the fiscal year 2023 and fourth quarter of 2023 from the company’s Crimson House headquarters in Tokyo. Chairman and CEO Mickey Mikitani, as well as leaders from the Rakuten Group, shared full year highlights from the company’s diverse portfolio of more than 70 services. Rakuten reaches record revenue ..read more