[Rakuten vs PayPay] Taxis are a battlefield too. The partnership between Uber and Rakuten signals the final war of economic zones trying to dominate even our movement 🚖

Taxis are no longer just a means of transport 🚖

Hey, it's me 🕶

Say, friend. Don't you think you see fewer people hailing a taxi on the street these days? Everyone calls them with their smartphones and finishes payment before they even get in.

Into this scene comes the news of the expanded partnership between "Uber Taxi" and "Rakuten". You can now call an Uber taxi from the "Rakuten Pay" app, and earn or use points. Don't just stop thinking and say, "Well, that's become more convenient."

This is a Hiroshi Mikitani-led "Rakuten Economic Zone" making a Masayoshi Son-led "PayPay (SoftBank) Economic Zone" move, a decisive gamble to reclaim territory called mobility 🔍

[Battle Map] Latest trends of the ruthless "5 Major Economic Zones" 🌐

Right now, Japan's point war is intensifying with taxi apps as the stage. Take a look at each camp's hand.

1. [King] PayPay (SoftBank) Economic Zone

• Weapon: Taxi app "GO"

• Strategy: Overwhelming market share. "GO" is the undisputed No. 1 taxi dispatch app in Japan. It has deeply integrated with PayPay payments, instilling in the public the habit of "just call with GO and pay with PayPay." This infrastructure status is its greatest strength.

2. [Challenger] Rakuten Economic Zone

• Weapon: "Uber" (Foreign giant)

• Strategy: Gave up on in-house development and teamed up with the black ship, Uber. They were already collaborating on Uber Eats, and now they've expanded that to "people (taxis)." They are trying to break PayPay's stronghold with the power of "Rakuten Points," the strongest point system in Japan.

3. [New Force] V-Point (SMBC x CCC) Economic Zone

• Weapon:"S.RIDE", etc.

• Strategy:In 2024, T-Point and V-Point merged, and a massive "Blue and Yellow Allied Forces" was born. They are partnering with taxi apps like "S.RIDE" to capture the business professional demographic. Their goal is to "corral both cash users and credit card users alike."

4. [Telecom Giants] d-Point (Docomo) & Ponta (KDDI)

• Weapon: "d-Barai" "au PAY"

• Strategy:They are entering as payment methods within apps like "GO" and "S.RIDE." Instead of having their own specific app, they leverage the strength of carrier billing to wage guerrilla warfare with campaigns like "If you're a Docomo user, using d-Barai with GO is a great deal."

[Goal] Why "taxis" now? 🚖

Why is everyone targeting taxis? "Because they want the point transaction fees"? ...That's not the small-time story here.

The goal is the complete mastery of "offline data (movement history)".

• Until now (EC sites):
  We know "what was bought."

• From now on (mobility):
  We know "where you are now and where you are trying to go."

For example, if there is data that you are "heading to Roppongi on a Friday night," they can notify your smartphone with "coupons for Roppongi izakayas" before you arrive. Turning movement itself into an advertising medium. This is the fruit that the IT giants are dying to get their hands on.

[Consumer Trap] Realize the curse of points ⛓️

The ammunition in this war is us, the users. Here, a terrifying"lock-in effect"is at work.

"Actually, Company A's taxi is nearby, but I won't earn Rakuten points, so I'll wait for Uber." "I have a PayPay coupon, so I'll wait for GO even though it's raining."

This is thepinnacle of mindless thinking. For the sake of a few dozen or a few hundred yen in points, aren't you throwing away more important assets like "time" and "comfort" down the drain? The more you pledge loyalty to an economic sphere, the more your options are narrowed, and you become theirsustenance.

[Today's Lesson] Don't be a slave to an economic sphere; be a mercenary 🪖

Listen, remember this.Points are something you receive, not something you should be tied down by. In the territorial battle being waged by giant platformers, you don't need to be a loyal soldier 🕵

1. Calculate your hourly wage.
This is the biggest blind spot. "I'll wait 10 more minutes for an Uber that earns Rakuten points..." How much do you intend to earn in those 10 minutes? If the taxi fare is 2,000 yen and the return rate is 1%, you only get 20 yen. You havesold your time cheaplyfor "10 minutes = 20 yen (120 yen/hour)." If you just got into the empty taxi in front of you, you could have worked or had a beer at home in those 10 minutes. People who becomepoint-poorfail to do this calculation.

2. Apps are your armory. Keep them all stocked.
It's a foolish strategy to only have Uber installed because "I'm a resident of the Rakuten economic sphere." That's like saying "I only use a knife" on a battlefield. You should just install "GO," "S.RIDE," "Uber," and "DiDi." Then, youruthlessly choosethe one that arrives fastest or is cheapest at that moment. Don't feel obligated to a specific app. Platformers won't protect you. The only one who can protect you is yourself, by having multiple options.

3. Don't forget the risk of system failures.
The greatest fear of relying too much on an economic sphere is that"if it dies, you die with it."Communication outages, system crashes, or an "account ban" due to AI misjudgment. What if your PayPay or Rakuten account gets frozen? You won't be able to call a taxi or make payments, and you'll be left standing in the rain. That's why you should always keep ananalog backuplike "cash" or "another company's credit card" in your pocket.

4. Throw away your loyalty.
Companies flatter you by calling you a "loyal customer," but theirtrue intention is that you're a "sucker who won't escape."It's common for things to get worse as soon as a campaign ends. "Switch immediately if things get worse."That agility is the consumer's strongest weapon against corporations.

This article is a trigger for you to break out of mindless thinking. Decide for yourself how you will act in the end. You can't erase the past. But you can decide how to live tomorrow. See ya 🚬

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