Winner of Rakuten-Viki Global TV Recommender Challenge Announced – 17 September 2015

The Rakuten Institute of Technology has announced the winners of the Rakuten-Viki Global TV Recommender Challenge at the grand presentation and award ceremony held last evening at IDA Labs @ National Design, crowning Team Merlion the top winner of the challenge.

Team Merlion receiving their award and prizes from Mr Masaya Mori (left), Global Head, Rakuten Institute of Technology

At the ceremony last night, Guest of Honour, Mr Kiren Kumar, Director, Infocomms & Media Singapore Economic Development Board said: “It is Singapore’s vision to be the Digital Capital of Asia. As a country with no natural resources, Singapore recognizes that data is fast becoming a new “resource” that can be refined and modeled into a form that can be used to drive economic growth. Beyond establishing ourselves as a regional data management hub, Singapore seeks to help companies unlock the value of their repository of data through analytics”

“I am glad that Rakuten has made the decision to set up its Rakuten Institute of Technology in Singapore to tap on our ecosystem of talent, start ups and research to develop new analytics applications for its businesses. In closing, let me thank Rakuten for its continued confidence in Singapore. I hope that Singapore can continue to be the location that enables Rakuten to succeed in a world drive by digital innovation.”

Commenting on the successful outcome of this challenge, Masaya Mori said: “In line with Rakuten’s goal of empowering businesses globally, we look forward to collaborating with our partners for future initiatives, to identify and nurture talent within the growing data-science and internet service industry.”