All articles tagged with #rakuten
You can get an Apple Airtag for just $2 by signing up for Rakuten and purchasing the Airtag and a Belkin holder strap for $41.95 through their portal, which offers a $40 cashback for new users. This deal is available once per email, and if you've already used Rakuten, Amazon offers discounted prices on Airtags as well.
Kobo has unveiled the new Kobo Clara Colour and Kobo Libra Colour, the first e-readers from a major company to feature colored displays, available for pre-order and set to release on April 30. Priced at $149.99 and $219.99 respectively, these devices offer E Ink's Kaleido 3 screen technology with support for 4,096 colors and 300 PPI resolution, making them affordable alternatives to other color e-readers. With access to a vast library of books and a reading subscription similar to Kindle Unlimited, these e-readers provide a compelling option for those seeking a colored display on a Kindle-sized device.
Japan and Singapore both missed GDP expectations, with Japan entering a technical recession as its GDP contracted for a second straight quarter, causing it to lose its spot as the world's third-largest economy to Germany. Asia-Pacific markets rebounded after Wednesday's sell-off, and Indonesian markets rallied after Prabowo's presumed electoral win. Rakuten shares spiked more than 15% after posting a smaller annual loss, while Renesas shares fell after announcing a $5.9 billion deal to buy Altium. Additionally, Australia posted sharply lower-than-expected employment growth, and Japan's fourth-quarter GDP showed a surprise contraction.
Japanese tech giant Rakuten is planning to launch its own proprietary artificial intelligence language model (LLM). The company, which has a diverse range of businesses including banking and e-commerce, believes it has a unique dataset that can be used to train its LLM. Rakuten intends to use the AI model internally to improve operational efficiency and marketing, and also plans to offer it to third-party businesses. While major U.S. and Chinese tech giants have already launched their own large language models, Japanese firms are now trying to catch up and create LLMs specific to the Japanese language. Rakuten's CEO, Hiroshi "Mickey" Mikitani, believes the push into AI will lead to significant profitable growth for the company.
Shares of Rakuten Group surged after the e-commerce giant reported narrowing losses at its mobile unit and reassured investors about its ability to cover its debt burden for the next financial year. The company's cost-cutting efforts, including a roaming agreement with KDDI, have started to show positive results. Rakuten has also listed its successful units to generate cash and announced plans to consolidate its payments and points businesses. The group aims to reduce its debt burden through equity-related financing and has committed to taking on no additional gross debt.