Rakuten AI Optimism vol.1
Sep 28
3 min read
Wednesday, August 5, 2026.
It's so hot, I thought to myself as I walked from my house to the station, carrying my laptop with me.
It's hot, but luckily it's sunny. That's good. If it rained...it would really spoil the mood for the exhibition.
With such a positive outlook, I arrived at Minatomirai Station.
There's even a huge sign like this at Minatomirai Station!
Wow.
It turns out it's a big exhibition, and I just wasn't aware of it.
I'm glad I found out about it by chance.
About Rakuten
to be honest
① Rakuten domestic = Losses at Rakuten Mobile
② Rakuten Overseas = Previous failures in overseas expansion
I was curious about it, so after applying, I wondered what it would actually be like, and did some research.
This shows that ① and ② are closely linked, and that Rakuten is currently aiming for a major comeback, has actually succeeded in doing so, and is on its way to achieving it.
To elaborate on point ②, it seems that after the failure of its past strategy of "taking the Japanese-style e-commerce model directly overseas," Rakuten has completely shifted its strategy to "exporting communication infrastructure technology" and "utilizing its unique global assets." Rakuten Symphony is a core company in this strategy.
Upon closer examination of the search results, it appears that they have temporarily suspended exporting their e-commerce business overseas and have instead achieved great success in exporting their own LLM-equipped communication infrastructure to various countries. This means that if local companies simply rent servers locally and implement this "communication infrastructure (hereinafter referred to as PaaS or platform)," they can establish communication companies at a low cost, similar to NTT or KDDI in Japan.
"For overseas telecommunications companies, the benefits of adopting Rakuten's system are enormous."
• Dramatic cost reduction: Previously, it was necessary to purchase extremely expensive specialized hardware (machines) from giant infrastructure companies such as Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei.
• The impact of software-based solutions: Rakuten's system runs simply by installing "Rakuten's communication software" on inexpensive, off-the-shelf servers. This reduces the construction and maintenance costs of base stations by 30% to 50%, which is why telecommunications companies around the world are all taking notice of Rakuten's system.
This includes US telecommunications giant AT&T, Australia's Boost Mobile, and telecommunications equipment giant Nokia. They also secured a massive order from Germany's new carrier, 1&1, reportedly worth approximately 280 billion yen, for the construction of Europe's first fully virtualized network.
At the exhibition, I was able to hear an explanation of PaaS directly from an Indonesian person, and I had many conversations with a Japanese manager, using a mix of English and Japanese. Thank you very much.
While not as flashy as major American e-commerce companies, they've quietly operated behind the scenes and achieved great success... They brought that platform to Japan and are testing its effectiveness as "Rakuten Mobile," recently achieving profitability and seemingly on a stable trajectory...
I was impressed; it's like the Oracle of the communications world (a database company used by many major companies, and once you implement their database, it's generally difficult to switch to another).
I thought, "Mr. Mikitani is really amazing."
I realized that he's not the kind of person who gets up empty-handed after falling.
Rakuten AI Optimism Day 1
I arrived at the venue, Pacifico Yokohama, thinking, "Wow, I got there way too early!"
I seem to be the first one here! 💦 Am I too motivated???
The sponsors are all prestigious companies.
Foreign firms, from Goldman Sachs to Bank of America, too.
Wow, that's amazing.
The conditions for disclosing information on social media and blogs were also written at the entrance, so I checked them while waiting for the venue to open.
"This feels like an amazing exhibition. Is Japan really behind the times? How far behind are we?" I wondered as I waited for a while, and then the doors opened.
As soon as I entered, I thought, "Ah, this is definitely a Rakuten exhibition, where they prioritize LTV (Lifetime Value) over CV (Conversion, sales, etc.)."
I felt like it was really fun.
cool!!
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