Mickey’s Voice
Insights from our CEO
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Why we are partnering with the Golden State Warriors
In just a couple of days, I’ll be court-side as the 2017-18 NBA season tips off with a must-see clash between the reigning champions the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets. It will be a very special moment for Rakuten – the first regular season match played by the Warriors since we became their jersey-badge partner, and one of the first games Rakuten.TV will show live in Japan as…
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Hunters, farmers and bureaucrats: Balancing personality types for team success
I was fortunate enough to have dinner recently with Nobel Prize winning economist Myron Scholes and we talked about the kind of people an organization needs to succeed. We discussed the mistake leaders often make of focusing too narrowly on skills when it comes to hiring. While skills are important, it’s also critical to recruit with personality types in mind. Scholes described three personality t…
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Brand unification: An optimistic perspective
In July, we launched a groundbreaking project to unify our brands across the globe. As Rakuten has grown from a Japanese e-commerce company into a global innovation company, with unique Japanese roots, we have added many unique and inspiring businesses to our ecosystem. Now we are entering a new stage of connecting those dots to provide a user experience that is unified by the Rakuten brand. Rakut…
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E-commerce as a catalyst: New and old retail principles
An e-commerce site is not just a neatly organized catalog of products; it can be a catalyst for engaging and enriching shopping experiences. We launched the Rakuten marketplace 20 years ago and since then I’ve seen some competitors woo consumers with an approach that bears more similarity to an online vending machine – an experience based solely on price, speed and convenience. Certainly, those ar…
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0.1% improvements: Don’t be afraid to innovate
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 telecom…
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Work in the age of AI
I recently heard some interesting news about perfect pitch. People used to think that only small children were able to acquire perfect pitch through training. But new research has shown that with AI-based training, even adults can achieve it. In other words, computers are now encroaching on something once thought to be the exclusive domain of human “talent.” So, could computers make music? I’d say…
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Why I’m excited about e-commerce in Japan
Japan’s e-commerce scene is lively, dynamic and enjoying double-digit growth. While Rakuten continues to enjoy the largest market share among major players with over 25% of e-commerce transactions*, consumers are benefiting from healthy competition among platforms and retailers. Years ago many thought that nobody would bother with online shopping in such a dense and sophisticated brick-and-mortar…
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