On Friday, Japanese e-commerce and fintech behemoth Rakuten Group Inc (4755.T) reported an operating loss of 76.2 billion yen ($564.24 million) for the first three months of 2023, weighed down by its mobile phone operations.
Mobile Rakuten lost 102.7 billion yen in January-March.
Rakuten CEO Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani originally planned to become Japan’s fourth major carrier by employing cloud-based software and commoditized hardware to construct a low-cost countrywide mobile network.
Analysts note Rakuten’s challenge to win market share from cash-rich incumbents with high-quality networks due to the build-outs capital burn.
