Rakuten’s Enterprise Services Launched at Mipcom

Rakuten TV, a leader in European streaming and FAST channels, will unveil its new business line, Rakuten TV Enterprise Services, from Mipcom today.

Enterprise Services will offer content owners and distributors access to Rakuten’s cloud-based suite of tools as well as the company’s market knowledge to help launch and monetize FAST channels and video apps on devices and platforms worldwide, featuring monetization models such as AVOD and TVOD for all major operating systems including Tizen, webOS, Android, iOS, Fire, ROKU and more.

Rakuten TV’s CEO and President Cédric Dufour is announcing Enterprise during Tuesday’s Global Streaming Talks at Mipcom as part of a larger conversation with Evan Shapiro and Maxime Carboni, the Chief Business Officer at Euronews, one of the first Enterprise Services clients.

“This is a continuity of what we’ve done at Rakuten for the past 15 years,” Dufour explained to Variety ahead of the service’s market debut. “For us, it’s the most logical next step forward, and we’ve been planning it for years. We have the experience, we have the tools, and now we’re looking for partners.”

Although there are countless tech companies capable of developing streaming apps, Dufour says Rakuten’s offer is unique because his is not a tech company but a streaming platform that also develops its own tech. Rakuten’s streamer-first approach stands to benefit potential partners, Dufour argues.

“For 15 years, we’ve been building Rakuten into what it is today, and all that time, we’ve been scheduling channels, monitoring viewership, and we thought, ‘Okay, why are we doing all of this only for us and not making the full use of our technology and expertise?’ So we decided, after more than a decade as a B2C operator, to launch this B2B service.”

According to Dufour, the ideal Enterprise partner will have “lots of content but doesn’t know how to organize it, doesn’t have the technical capability to connect to the main platforms and doesn’t know how to best monetize it.”

One thing a rightsholder will need is an existing distribution network. Although Rakuten is offering to help with the technical and analytical aspects of the partnership, the rightsholders will be responsible for organizing the distribution deals for their content.

Because distribution is handled by the client and not by Rakuten, Enterprises’ expertise and toolset can be used by rightsholders in any market. “Because it’s not our content, we’re not limited by borders,” says Dafour. “As long as the app can be downloaded in the country, we can develop it for our partners.”

Dufour is quick to emphasize that all the technical tools Rakuten uses to set up apps and channels are developed in-house. The company does its own research into viewing habits and programming strategies, monetizes its content entirely in-house – through Rakuten Advertising – and has its own dedicated team to work with all the largest global platforms. According to the CEO, this means that Enterprise partners are always one step away from a solution to any need or problem that arises.

Another factor that Dufour says sets Rakuten apart is its propensity to adapt along with and often ahead of the market curve.

“We’ve been a B2C company for 15 years, and our interface has evolved a lot during that time. Today, the Rakuten app doesn’t look like it did back then. We have all kinds of new tools, especially AI, that allow us to better understand the customer experience and pass that understanding onto our content owners,” he says.

“We’re not just offering a technical solution to our partners; we’re bringing 15 years of experience in terms of adapting to our customers’ needs,” he goes on to explain. “We understand that needs are different depending on the type of content and the profile of the clients. We know that the UI needs to be specific to each partner and the users it’s being designed for.”

“Even if a partner were to ask for something we don’t have, we have in-house developers that give us the autonomy and the agility to develop new features extremely quickly.”

There is currently no uniform pricing structure for interested Enterprise Services partners. Dufour says cost will be determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on factors such as the size of the partner’s catalog, needs they want Enterprise to address, number of markets in which they are present and dozens of other factors that are sure to be different for each client. For smaller companies, a flat fee may suffice, while larger catalog holders will likely pay based on revenue generated, although nothing is set in stone, and each deal will be unique.