Rakuten and SG-based SQREEM launch new AI marketing joint venture

Japanese internet service provider Rakuten has partnered with Singapore-based AI company SQREEM Technologies to launch its jointly established company Rakuten SQREEM. The new company will provide AI-based marketing solutions to companies and advertisers in Japan.

The new company will marry Rakuten's data with SQREEM's AI behavioural pattern analysis data to come up with marketing solutions and enable media buying for Internet advertising through partners. It will also provide advertisers with a real-time picture of increasingly complex consumer behaviour, hoping to improve advertisers' ad performance and cost efficiencies. SQREEM is a Singapore-based AI company founded in 2006. It provides a marketing solution not dependent on individual identifiable data but by utilising an AI-automated behavioural pattern analysis platform that analyses consumer behaviour data.

Taking in greater considerations for user data amidst the rise of awareness in protecting personal information in data-based marketing, Rakuten SQREEM said it will be developing and providing marketing solutions that are not dependent on personal attributes. By doing so, it hopes to provide digital marketing services that are both effective for advertisers and safe for users.

Rakuten SQREEM will be led by Ryugen Shimizu, representative director and president. Shimizu is also president of LinkShare Japan, the software company that operates Rakuten Marketing Japan. Shimizu said he believes Rakuten SQREEM will take Japanese programmatic advertising market to the next level. He also hopes that the company can help to accelerate the growth in the digital marketing industry.

In a statement to Marketing, a spokesperson from Rakuten SQREEM said the company has a core team of eight people who are based in Tokyo. The team will leverage the larger Rakuten sales team when selling to advertisers, agencies and brands. She added that Rakuten SQREEM currently has an office in Tokyo, and will be focusing on the Japanese market.

The spokesperson also said that SQREEM will be supporting its Japanese clients through Rakuten SQREEM. Some of the Japan brands that SQREEM works with are Dell, Porsche, Microsoft, Sompo Insurance and Suntory Beverage and Food.

Ian Chapman-Banks, CEO of SQREEM Technologies said with Google announcing the removal of third-party tracking cookies, advertisers and agencies are searching for alternative solutions to understand and reach consumers while allowing them to retain their privacy.

"With SQREEM’s cookieless AI tech stack, we are able to automate and achieve precise digital media buying. This enables us to serve both brands and agencies in GDPR compliant ways that can withstand privacy scrutiny in even the strictest markets," he added.

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