Tech & Innovation
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Blog
New drone delivery trial sees groceries sent to isolated community in Iwate Prefecture
Rakuten chalked up another successful drone delivery trial last month, this time demonstrating the service’s ability to reach a remote mountainous location in Iwate Prefecture, where many elderly residents struggle to go shopping for food. Having launched in September 2016, the Rakuten drone team aims to eventually provide sustainable delivery infrastructure where Japan’s conventional network cann…
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Rakuten Mobile unveils its new UN-LIMIT plan with a “Bang!” thanks to pop sensation MIYAVI
As Rakuten Mobile launches its groundbreaking mobile phone carrier service, it makes sense that it would team up with one of Japan’s biggest and most innovative pop sensations: the so-called “Samurai Guitarist,” MIYAVI. Known for edgy, aggressive electric guitar licks and his dramatic “finger-slapping” play style, MIYAVI burst onto the global music scene with a new album last year and a prominent…
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Abel Avellan wants to connect your mobile phone to space
In the not-so-distant future, Rakuten Mobile users could be connecting directly to space. To coincide with the official reveal of Rakuten Mobile launch plans for April, Rakuten also announced its investment in space cellular broadband network startup AST & Science. The company is in the process of launching a revolutionary cellular network called SpaceMobile — a constellation of low-Earth-orbi…
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Tech & Innovation
How to overcome barriers to global collaboration: technology, cultural understanding and trust
How do you coordinate a global workforce spread out across 30 countries and even more locations? Kaoru Tanaka is tackling this collaboration conundrum head on as executive officer and general manager of Rakuten’s Corporate IT department. She spoke on a panel at the recent Rakuten Technology Conference in Tokyo about the logistical, cultural and linguistic challenges companies face when operating a…
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Rakuten Mobile redefines expectations with new unlimited mobile carrier plan: Rakuten UN-LIMIT
Rakuten Mobile unveiled the details of its mobile plan today at a press conference in downtown Tokyo. Dubbed “Rakuten UN-LIMIT,” the new mobile carrier service plan is available for the industry-disrupting price of 2,980 yen per month, and offers both unlimited data within Rakuten network areas and unlimited domestic calls through Rakuten Link, a communication app developed by Rakuten. The company…
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Reviving abandoned houses, connecting isolated doctors & empowering asylum seekers: Rakuten Social Accelerator
Rakuten Social Accelerator is not your typical startup incubator. Created to connect social entrepreneurs, NPOs and other organizations with Rakuten resources, the second round of the program kicked off in summer 2019 with five new startups, each dedicated to solving an important social issue. Startups were paired with volunteer Rakuten employees and tasked to work together over a period of six mo…
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Rakuten trials autonomous drone delivery to remote island residents
Since making its first pioneering delivery on a golf course outside of Tokyo in April 2016, Rakuten has been at the forefront of drone delivery innovation. The Rakuten Drone UGV team continues to break new ground — both on land and in the air — with tests and trial services across Japan. The technological advances achieved in this field also have the potential to address a broad range of social ne…
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From art college to telecom: In conversation with Rakuten Mobile’s Zein Badaro
This article is part of a series of interviews with Rakuten Mobile employees. In this edition, we speak with Zein Badaro, who works in Rakuten Mobile’s International Roaming Department. A 22-year-old graduate of the University of Edinburgh College of Art, she relates her experience beginning a career at Rakuten. Zein and the Rakuten Mobile team recently launched the world’s first end-to-end c…
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A C2C revolution: Eight years of Rakuma
The humble web auction was a staple of the early days of e-commerce. But as online shopping hit the mainstream and the marketplace model took center stage, auction sites began to fall out of fashion. But a question remained: What do you do with all the stuff you’ve bought after you no longer need it? In the early 2010s, this question was answered in a uniquely modern way: with a smartphone app. Ei…
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