The Rakuten Group's financial results for the six months until June this year resulted in a deficit of more than 170 billion yen, the largest ever for this period.
The increase in the cost of constructing base stations to eliminate places where it is difficult to connect in the mobile phone business has a major impact.
The Rakuten Group announced that the financial results for the entire group for the six months from January to June showed a final loss of 176.6 billion yen.
This is the largest financial result for this period.
When we made a full-scale entry into the mobile phone business two years ago, we were planning to invest 600 billion yen in equipment to build base stations nationwide. It led to the expansion of the bulging deficit.
On the other hand, the sales of the entire group increased by 12.6% compared to the same period of the previous year to 893.5 billion yen, which is the highest record for this period. have become.
Also, regarding the mobile phone business, in May we announced the cancellation of the so-called "0 yen plan", which is free of monthly charges except for call charges.
The number of subscribers as of the end of June was 4.77 million, a decrease of 230,000 or 4.6% from the end of April.
President Hiroshi Mikitani said, "At first, we had to make a big deal, but from now on, we have made a big move in order to raise appropriate sales. There may be a certain amount of withdrawal in the future, but earnings will improve. I think it's going to fall apart," he said.