Rakuten reported revenues from its Japanese mobile business up 21 percent year-on-year to JPY 55 billion in the third quarter, driven by a growing subscriber base. The operating loss widened to JPY 105 billion from JPY 61 billion a year earlier due to the costs of expanding the company's own mobile network.
The operator said it reached over 5.1 million mobile subscribers at the end of September, including 0.99 million on the MVNO and 4.11 million on its own network. The company last reported the milestone of 5 million customers in late August.
Rakuten expects to transition away from its roaming agreement from Q2 2022, as the network gains scale, helping to improve profitability. Rakuten said the switch from roaming service was underway already in 38 prefectures since October, with over 30,000 base stations on air.
Altiostar one-time gain
The increased losses from the mobile business results in an adjusted operating loss for the Rakuten group of JPY 58 billion in Q3, compared to a loss of JPY 29 billion a year earlier. Revenues were up nearly 13 percent to JPY 407 billion, and the reported operating loss narrowed to JPY 7.5 billion from JPY 40 billion a year ago thanks to a one-time gain of JPY 59.5 billion on the acquisition of Altiostar.
At the domestic e-commerce business, revenues was up a healthy 13 percent to JPY 168.5 billion, and operating profit jumped 39 percent to over JPY 21 billion, helped by the reorganisation of the logistics operations in a joint venture with Japan Post.
Viber passes 1 bln users
Viber also continued to grow, reaching over 1.3 billion unique IDs, up over 8 percent from a year earlier. Rakuten said Viber revenue rose 36 percent year-on-year, with a growing share from content (65%).
