Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power collive
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily jay I. Remember the Changese San Francisco, and this
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Technology coming up in the next hour. Pinterest
Speaker 1: gets Ready. New CEO Bill Ready joins us for an
Speaker 1: exclusive interview to JR. What he's learned after thirty days
Speaker 1: on the job and his action plan to evolve the
Speaker 1: fifteen billion dollars social e commerce platform in the face
Speaker 1: of tough macro conditions and a change in technoidscape. Plus
Speaker 1: a conversation with Markuetta's outgoing CEO. Jason Gardner is looking
Speaker 1: for his replacement as fintech faces rising credit card debt
Speaker 1: and consumers under pressure. He says he's no longer the
Speaker 1: right person to run the company for the next phase
Speaker 1: of growth. And who is Hoadier Oliva, The fifteen year
Speaker 1: Facebook veteran is now Meta's new CEO. Why he's being
Speaker 1: called the anti Cheryl samper Okay fintech platform Marcatta announcing
Speaker 1: strong earnings results, but news of a regime change made
Speaker 1: shareholders anxious. Marcatta is on the hunt for a new
Speaker 1: executive team share is plunged after the credit card issue.
Speaker 1: Or announced this shake up a search for a new
Speaker 1: CEO and CEO. Joining me now to talk about it
Speaker 1: is outgoing Marcatta CEO Jason Gardner, who is now searching
Speaker 1: for his successor. So Jason tell us more of the
Speaker 1: story behind this leadership change, why and why now? Well,
Speaker 1: happy birthday and thank you, thank you, thank you very
Speaker 1: continue interested in Marcatta. I started with succession planning when
Speaker 1: I took the comedy public back in June nine one.
Speaker 1: The board was asking me about succession planning and it's
Speaker 1: not something I ever thought about. And then he got
Speaker 1: more intense in January regards to six session planning and
Speaker 1: you know what, if he got hit by a bus,
Speaker 1: you would take over the company. And what I did
Speaker 1: is I talked to a lot of other CEOs, other
Speaker 1: founder CEOs who stepped into the exact chairman role, what
Speaker 1: they were looking for, why did they do it? Uh?
Speaker 1: And it was really really enlightening, and I felt that
Speaker 1: I'm someone who loves people, products and our customers and
Speaker 1: finding a CEO who is much better suited for our
Speaker 1: next phase of growth, which is building a sustainably profitable
Speaker 1: company Uh. That combination I thought was really really powerful
Speaker 1: and I got really excited about it. I spoke with
Speaker 1: the board, I told him what my plan was, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to be very transparent about it, transparent to
Speaker 1: our employees, our customers, and our shareholders. And we're just
Speaker 1: really excited about this step. I care deeply about the company.
Speaker 1: It's what's best for Marquetta over the next couple of decades,
Speaker 1: and truly feel like this is the best next step
Speaker 1: for the business. I am in the role now. I
Speaker 1: am in the role and six months or a year
Speaker 1: until we find a new CEO, but really excited about
Speaker 1: the decision and what's next. Why change out the CEO
Speaker 1: and the CEO roles at the same time so the
Speaker 1: company organizations or organisms, you know. We want to be flexible,
Speaker 1: we want to be nimble, and I've always made decisions
Speaker 1: about this having a hyper growth company. Our needs changed
Speaker 1: from time to time. Video and I have been having
Speaker 1: conversations over the last few weeks. What's next for the
Speaker 1: for the business. The c r O is next. It's
Speaker 1: not a CEO. It's bringing in somebody who's solely focused
Speaker 1: on the revenue side of the business. While I could
Speaker 1: be focused on being a CEO and focusing on the
Speaker 1: day to day operations in the company and finding my
Speaker 1: the next CEO, and then creating the combination between that.
Speaker 1: I thought that was the best next step for the business.
Speaker 1: She and I had that conversation. She decided to step
Speaker 1: away while I'll focus on hiring the c r O
Speaker 1: and hiring the CEO along with the team the board
Speaker 1: of the company, and again, just excited about this next step.
Speaker 1: And it feels like a way lifted off. I've i've
Speaker 1: I don't like secrets. Secrets are uncomfortable and transparency as
Speaker 1: a core tenant of who I am. So be able
Speaker 1: to talk about this publicly is just wonderful. I'm curious
Speaker 1: what advice you have to others who might be thinking
Speaker 1: about the same thing, wondering the same thing. You know,
Speaker 1: it's I'm sure it's hard to step away from your
Speaker 1: baby essentially, but you know, what message would you send
Speaker 1: to other executives out there about you know, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what is the right time, And maybe it
Speaker 1: is the right time. You gotta do what's best for
Speaker 1: the business. As a public company CEO, you have to
Speaker 1: do what's best for your shareholders. As well, and what
Speaker 1: is the powerful combination that is going to build a better,
Speaker 1: stronger business in the future. And I ultimately decided the
Speaker 1: combination between a founder who wants to be focused on people,
Speaker 1: products and customers and a CEO wants to be focused
Speaker 1: on the day to day operations of the business, that
Speaker 1: is what's best for Marquette Up and I ultimately felt
Speaker 1: that's the step that I needed to take. It's certainly
Speaker 1: surprising to a lot of people that I wanted to
Speaker 1: do that, but I love my baby who is now
Speaker 1: a young adult, and I felt that having someone else
Speaker 1: to leave this young adult too deep into the future
Speaker 1: was the best next step. So the advice I would
Speaker 1: have to founders is is be selfless, think about what
Speaker 1: is best for the company, and be very transparent about
Speaker 1: it so that people can know what your intent is
Speaker 1: as you lead into the future. Now we are in
Speaker 1: the middle of a difficult macroeconomic environment. We may be
Speaker 1: headed into a recession. What is your outlook on the
Speaker 1: fintech landscape and the environment that your successor will be
Speaker 1: walking into. Well, we had a great first half, remaining
Speaker 1: cautious in the second half, and you're right, depending on
Speaker 1: the experts you talk to were in a recession, not
Speaker 1: in a recession. A recession is coming. It's not really
Speaker 1: clear about where we're headed. We're a very strong company
Speaker 1: where the market leader in our space. We had fifty
Speaker 1: three percent year or year A grow. We had a
Speaker 1: sixty six percent rise and gross profit. We have one
Speaker 1: point seven billion dollars in cash, a lot of options,
Speaker 1: whether it's investing more in the business we are hiring,
Speaker 1: whether it's M and A. But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: uncertainty moving forward. We have a very strong, obviously blue
Speaker 1: chip base of customers who continue to perform while we're
Speaker 1: building out more and more business around the world, investing
Speaker 1: on our product, investing in our people, and investing in
Speaker 1: our future. All right, Jason, appreciate you joining us, Thanks
Speaker 1: for sharing some of that with us, and we'll be
Speaker 1: watching to see how this shuffle plays out. Markettessy, Jason Gardner,
Speaker 1: take care. It's been one month since the executive shuffle
Speaker 1: at pinter As. Last month. Co founder Ben Silverman how
Speaker 1: into the reins to Bill Ready, the former president of
Speaker 1: Commerce and Payments at Google. On his first call as CEO,
Speaker 1: Ready said he'll lay out a plan of action and
Speaker 1: coming months focusing on the appsibility to quote help people
Speaker 1: go from inspiration to realization. Bill ready joins me. Now, Bill,
Speaker 1: it's great to have you back on the show after
Speaker 1: a few years. So your first your first thirty days,
Speaker 1: what's been the focus and how are you shaping that
Speaker 1: plan of action? Well, it's it's been a great first
Speaker 1: month with the team for sure. Um. You know, we
Speaker 1: jumped right into with with earnings uh and some great
Speaker 1: engage with our investors. Um. But it's really been inspiring
Speaker 1: for me to see as I've come into Pinterest, the
Speaker 1: things that I really admired from the outside in terms
Speaker 1: of pinterest mission and vision and how much people really
Speaker 1: care about it being a positive place on the internet,
Speaker 1: a place that people can go for daily inspiration, um,
Speaker 1: whether they're looking for things to make or to do
Speaker 1: or to buy. Um. It's been really great to see
Speaker 1: what a dedicated team we have around those things, and
Speaker 1: the really great momentum the team has built over many years,
Speaker 1: as well as a lot of exciting things that were
Speaker 1: in the midstuff. Now, now, you were running commerce at Google.
Speaker 1: Before that, you were the CEO of PayPal, You ran Venmo,
Speaker 1: you ran Braintree, you were actually on our show, uh
Speaker 1: several times in that role. How did the conversation start
Speaker 1: with Pinterest and how did you both come to the
Speaker 1: decision that this was the right call. Um, So you know,
Speaker 1: have admired what been in the team here built over
Speaker 1: many years, uh, and more recently Ben and I started
Speaker 1: talking about, uh, you know, not only you know, how
Speaker 1: he was thinking about what he wanted for himself, but
Speaker 1: also what he hoped for from Pinterest. UH. And there's
Speaker 1: just a lot of really great alignment on those things
Speaker 1: around the vision for the business. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: as as you touched on, you know in the intro, uh,
Speaker 1: the opportunity to go from inspiration to realization, I think
Speaker 1: it's just a really unique thing, uh that doesn't exist
Speaker 1: to any places. Finding inspiration and intent in the same
Speaker 1: platform is really unique and uncommon. And I think as
Speaker 1: much as there's a tremendous amount of discovery and inspiration
Speaker 1: and intent on Pinterest, the opportunity to help people take
Speaker 1: that all the way through the realization, I think is
Speaker 1: going to be a great next chapter and where Pinterests
Speaker 1: can go. Uh. And of course you know, making sure
Speaker 1: to continue on all the really great inspiration discovery that's
Speaker 1: already the core of people love about the platform. There
Speaker 1: was some surprise that Ben laughed. Obviously, he's a founder,
Speaker 1: he has been there for years. Can you give us
Speaker 1: any more insight into why he decided that now was
Speaker 1: the time to move on? Well, you know, Ben has
Speaker 1: done an amazing job over the course of twelve tyears
Speaker 1: building a business from zero. Uh. And so you know,
Speaker 1: tons of admiration and respect for Ben as an entrepreneur. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the great thing is, you know, Ben and I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time and you know, we have
Speaker 1: a lot of common vision for where the company can go.
Speaker 1: And so uh. You know, I'm excited to continue engaging
Speaker 1: with Ben. He's a very engaging and passionate board member
Speaker 1: uh and someone who I continue to spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time with. Um. And again, you know, he's done
Speaker 1: an amazing job of building Pinterest to what it is today,
Speaker 1: and it's a great partnership in terms of where we
Speaker 1: take it going forward. I'm a big pinner and you
Speaker 1: know know that it's a super useful product and as
Speaker 1: you say, it sits at this really important intersection of
Speaker 1: social and e commerce and search. Some would say there
Speaker 1: hasn't been a lot of innovation or evolution over the
Speaker 1: last several years. How do you want to better harness
Speaker 1: that power that pin or s has. Yeah, well, I
Speaker 1: think two things. I'd say One, I think the team
Speaker 1: has innovated quite a lot. I think if you look
Speaker 1: at the platform today versus where it's been in the past,
Speaker 1: I think, uh, there's a lot to be really excited about. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, you have you know, in the shift to video,
Speaker 1: for example, we share this you know, on our earnings
Speaker 1: that we now have temperas and plus of our engagement
Speaker 1: it's coming over video, while also still staying really true
Speaker 1: to what users expect in terms of, you know, bringing
Speaker 1: together a bunch of really great inspirational images and things
Speaker 1: that are interested in. So I think it's a good
Speaker 1: example of innovating with users. But I think, you know,
Speaker 1: there's also a lot that's still left to be done,
Speaker 1: and I think that really is around how do you
Speaker 1: help people harness that inspiration and intent that they have.
Speaker 1: One of the great things about interest is that, you know,
Speaker 1: people aren't just casually browsing. It's not just lean back.
Speaker 1: People are coming with an intent and a purpose, and
Speaker 1: they're coming at a part of their journey where I
Speaker 1: still haven't yet decided, you know, what it is they
Speaker 1: want to do or to buy. They may know they're
Speaker 1: looking to put together a great outfit, or plan a
Speaker 1: plan a party, or redesign a room, but they're at
Speaker 1: this moment where they're still trying to figure out, well,
Speaker 1: what I want in that room, what do I want
Speaker 1: that outfit to be, or what I want that party
Speaker 1: to look like. That's a really unique moment in the
Speaker 1: user's journey in a place where I think our platform
Speaker 1: is quite unique and where we have a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunity to now take that user from not just I
Speaker 1: could put together that great outfit, where I could put
Speaker 1: together that great room, but I can go all the
Speaker 1: way to action and finding the things I want to
Speaker 1: buy to put that together, or find the places to
Speaker 1: connect with to go help me take the next step
Speaker 1: in that journey. And so I think those are places
Speaker 1: where there's a lot of forward innovation left to go.
Speaker 1: And I think you see that continue to resonate with
Speaker 1: users and with advertisers. I think you're seeing that play
Speaker 1: out in the ads business where that combination of inspiration
Speaker 1: and intent is really what's making p interests and must
Speaker 1: buy for advertisers even as advertisers or shifting, uh you know,
Speaker 1: how they think about what they need to be doing.
Speaker 1: That combination of inspiration intent really stands out. I think
Speaker 1: makes Pinterests must buy for advertisers as well. Well what
Speaker 1: do you how do you think your Google and payments
Speaker 1: experience can play here? I mean, is the biggest opportunity
Speaker 1: Advertising is the biggest opportunity. E commerce is the dream
Speaker 1: to be able to see something on Pinterest and buy
Speaker 1: it or figure out, uh you know where that pillow
Speaker 1: came from, or how somebody can can make it if
Speaker 1: they want to make it themselves. Um, well, yes to
Speaker 1: each of those. Um. I think how you put those
Speaker 1: things together really matters. And I think if you look
Speaker 1: at what I think Pinterest does really well, it is
Speaker 1: a curated journey where yes, there's a lot of really
Speaker 1: great AI and mL that's helping put together, um, you
Speaker 1: know things that when you're trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: it is that you want to do, whether it's making
Speaker 1: or doing or buying that We're gonna bring a lot
Speaker 1: of really great inspiration together on those things. But it's curated, uh,
Speaker 1: and it's not just AI and m L figuring those
Speaker 1: things out. How do you figure out what's the you know,
Speaker 1: not just what's a really great dress that I want,
Speaker 1: but what's the right set of accessories to go with it. Well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of human curation where people are making
Speaker 1: those associations on the platform where I think we really
Speaker 1: stand out and are quite unique in our ability to
Speaker 1: bring those things together. So, yes, there's opportunity to take
Speaker 1: people from the inspiration and to the realization. But I
Speaker 1: think there's some real superpowers that the Pinterest platform has
Speaker 1: that are not just AI and m L but the
Speaker 1: community of penners that are really helping to shape these
Speaker 1: associate creations of what's a great room going to look
Speaker 1: like in this aesthetic, what's a really great outfit not
Speaker 1: just a great you know item, but what's a great
Speaker 1: outfit and really helps us think about how do we
Speaker 1: solve shopping even more than buying. I think the first
Speaker 1: twenty years of e commerce, we're really solving more for buying,
Speaker 1: not as much shopping. You know, in the first twenty
Speaker 1: years is how do I find a thing the cheapest
Speaker 1: and the fastest. But if you think about the you know,
Speaker 1: what happened in the physical world, so much more. Shopping
Speaker 1: was about the journey, walking the bizarre, being inspired, Um,
Speaker 1: finding the thing you didn't know was there. And that
Speaker 1: hasn't been well solved for in the digital world. And
Speaker 1: I think Pinterest has claimed to that as much or
Speaker 1: more than anybody else. And we see a lot of
Speaker 1: that already, and we can take users a lot further
Speaker 1: down that journey. Elliott recently took a big steak. What
Speaker 1: have been your communications with them? What are their expectations? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, we share this on our earnings. Elliott and
Speaker 1: I both made uh comments on this at our earnings.
Speaker 1: You know, we've had a really collaborative dialogue with Elliott. Um.
Speaker 1: We share a lot of conviction and vision for where
Speaker 1: the business can oh and so it's been a good
Speaker 1: engaging dialogue there. Um. And you know, the investor community
Speaker 1: I've spent a lot of time with in past lives,
Speaker 1: and that community knows that I really care about making
Speaker 1: sure we have good engagement with our investors and listening
Speaker 1: and understanding, just as I want to listen and understand
Speaker 1: to all of our stakeholders. And so we've had a
Speaker 1: good engaging dialogue with Elliott just as well. You know,
Speaker 1: continue to have good, engaging dialogue with all of our investors,
Speaker 1: and it's great to have a large, sophisticated investor that
Speaker 1: has conviction about our business and shares our optimism for
Speaker 1: the future of Interest Pinterest initially lead the way on,
Speaker 1: you know, creating a better workplace culture. Former engineer Tracy
Speaker 1: Show was really active on the representation of women. But
Speaker 1: since then the company has been accused of gender discrimination
Speaker 1: and race discrimination. Employee staged a walkout. Um in your
Speaker 1: conversations over the last thirty days, what have you learned about,
Speaker 1: how much has been done? And what is the love
Speaker 1: to do? Yeah, so I think this is, you know,
Speaker 1: these events of a few years ago. I think that
Speaker 1: the company has made tremendous progress on the easy obviously
Speaker 1: something Ben and I spent a lot of time talking about,
Speaker 1: and I spent a lot of time with the board
Speaker 1: talking about before joining. And one of the things I
Speaker 1: loved was being how much um, Ben and the team
Speaker 1: the board uh all had really leaned in on not
Speaker 1: just wanting to go take action on these things and
Speaker 1: get to better places on these things, but to really
Speaker 1: start to lead the way on these And so as
Speaker 1: we think about diversity and inclusion as we think about
Speaker 1: how we build a really positive community. Uh. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I think is so inspiring to me
Speaker 1: about pinterest is that it's it's a very positive place
Speaker 1: on the Internet where people are going to be inspired
Speaker 1: and uplifted. It's not a place where people are going
Speaker 1: to uh shout out their neighbor about their politics or
Speaker 1: those kinds of things. It's a place where people are
Speaker 1: going to be lifted up and inspired. And to say, well,
Speaker 1: of course, we want to create a community inside the
Speaker 1: company that Matt is that I think is a great combination,
Speaker 1: and I think there's been tremendous progress on that. But
Speaker 1: something where I think for any company that work has
Speaker 1: never done and there's always more to do. So definitely
Speaker 1: something that is top of mind for me will be
Speaker 1: continue to be a priority for me in the team.
Speaker 1: Pinteress has some prime San Francisco real estate. We were
Speaker 1: talking about that in the break. We're looking at some
Speaker 1: videos of inside the office right now, but in San
Speaker 1: Francisco there is concerned that this you know, heyday of
Speaker 1: office culture is over. How are you thinking about that
Speaker 1: and balancing work from home versus people coming back to
Speaker 1: the office and reinvigorating an office culture. So I think
Speaker 1: it's well Number one, it's been great to be in
Speaker 1: the office with with with Pinterest, with the Pinterest team. Uh.
Speaker 1: Great to see people back in the office again and collaborating. Uh.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think it's really good to see
Speaker 1: more of that happening. At the same time, we're in
Speaker 1: a new world that's very different than what it was
Speaker 1: pre pandemic. And I think hybrid work promobor these are
Speaker 1: all gonna be really importan and parts of how you
Speaker 1: think about building a highly talented and engaged employee base. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think there's real opportunities there that you think
Speaker 1: about what that means in terms of attracting more diverse talent,
Speaker 1: for example, as you can reach into new geographies or
Speaker 1: attract people that may be balancing different things uh and
Speaker 1: in their work life balance. I think this notion there's
Speaker 1: no one size fits all, I think is really fantastic
Speaker 1: in terms of how we not only make sure that
Speaker 1: we're meeting our team where they are, but that we're
Speaker 1: opening new doors as to how we attract great talent
Speaker 1: and where that great talent can come from. Okay, already
Speaker 1: CEO of interest on the first thirty days. Thank you Bill,
Speaker 1: appreciate with us. Appreciate it. Come up. Why Apple is
Speaker 1: putting a software update on hold? That is next. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. A few other stories we are watching. The
Speaker 1: Pentagon has certified SpaceX to use reusable boosters on its
Speaker 1: Falcon heavy rocket to launch secret spy satellites. This may
Speaker 1: give spacexit temporary edge and its latest competition with a
Speaker 1: Bowie lockeyed joint venture. The company's first spy satellite launch
Speaker 1: with recyclable boosters will take place sometime from October to December.
Speaker 1: And the world's largest asset manager is making a significant
Speaker 1: move into crypto markets, black Rock offering its first ever
Speaker 1: investment product directly in the bitcoin. The new private Bitcoin
Speaker 1: trust will track the price of the biggest currency. The
Speaker 1: firm says it's responding to demand from large institutional clients.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Bloomberg Technology. I'm Emily Chang in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at Bumble now tumbling after the
Speaker 1: dating app company top to revenue estimates for the second
Speaker 1: quarter but lowered its full your revenue guidance, taking a
Speaker 1: hit from the war in Ukraine and stiff competition from
Speaker 1: the likes of Match and Tinder. I want to bring
Speaker 1: in Schweta Cajuria for more on this. An analyst with
Speaker 1: ever Core I s I so swet. So why are
Speaker 1: we seeing Bumble struggle here? I Emily, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I guess the one of the biggest reasons why Bumbling
Speaker 1: Bumble is trading off today, it's because expectations were building
Speaker 1: in into the print. If we think about our Internet
Speaker 1: coverage universe, bumble Stop has been one of the best
Speaker 1: performing names year to date in a market that's tough,
Speaker 1: in a stock market that stuff driven by macro um
Speaker 1: and and so as we were heading into the print,
Speaker 1: expectations were for a strong quarter and a strong guide,
Speaker 1: and it's just giving back some of that. Fundamentally, however,
Speaker 1: we don't think much has changed. The guide is a
Speaker 1: little bit lower, but a lot of it is because
Speaker 1: of facts and they should probably get a pass on that.
Speaker 1: Consumer demand is holding up. It seems like they are
Speaker 1: largely resilient and a little bit of a lower guide
Speaker 1: is because of some product changes that they are pushing
Speaker 1: off until Bumble is unique in that it has this
Speaker 1: other dating app but Do, which is acquired in Europe,
Speaker 1: which is also under pressure, and then of course there's
Speaker 1: a competition from Match and Tinder. One are the biggest
Speaker 1: challenges from these competing players. The best camp for Bumble,
Speaker 1: I think is Hinge in terms of the demographics and
Speaker 1: the overlap across the user base that they have. Um
Speaker 1: what came out during the earning skull that Whitney, their CEO,
Speaker 1: mentioned was that Bumble remains the number one downloaded app
Speaker 1: in their major markets in the US, in the in Canada,
Speaker 1: and in the UK, and as of July also in Germany,
Speaker 1: where Tinder has very large presence. So what that tells
Speaker 1: us is that they're executing pretty well to the degree
Speaker 1: that now they are the most downloaded app, implying market
Speaker 1: share gains across their major markets. And so as we
Speaker 1: look what is ahead, we would compare Hinge and how
Speaker 1: that is trending in new your markets, which is also
Speaker 1: what they're trying to do in international non English speaking
Speaker 1: markets versus Bumble, and that's going to be the race.
Speaker 1: So it is a little bit of a bigger scale.
Speaker 1: Growing over thirty and year we are growth rate and
Speaker 1: they are also executing well. A couple other companies you cover.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about Etsy first, reporting
Speaker 1: better than expected results a couple of weeks weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Despite this difficult macro environment, why does etc. Seem to
Speaker 1: be bucking the trend? Etsy is very unique in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, not only in the type of items
Speaker 1: that they sell, less commoditized, the things that you may
Speaker 1: not necessarily have a direct comparison with. You can go
Speaker 1: to Amazon and find the same item elsewhere, but that's
Speaker 1: not so much the case with Etsy. And so what
Speaker 1: is really helping Etsy is that they have a very
Speaker 1: sticky seller base, a seller base that doesn't sell necessarily
Speaker 1: on Amazon or eBay as much as craft fairs. And
Speaker 1: these are five employees or lower sellers who are doing
Speaker 1: it as a side job, but have very talented skills
Speaker 1: on the buy side. They have very very sticky buyer
Speaker 1: base in terms of the retention and the type of
Speaker 1: the people that come over and over again on Etsy,
Speaker 1: driving a purchase frequency, and so as that becomes more habitual,
Speaker 1: that's what sustaining at the The key question for them
Speaker 1: going forward is in a macro environment where consumers spend
Speaker 1: is shifting away from discretionary physical goods into discretionary, but
Speaker 1: travel and services, what happens to etc. Overall growth rate?
Speaker 1: And why would they have the right to win? And finally,
Speaker 1: Peloton earnings coming up in a few days. The rivalry
Speaker 1: between Peloton its soul cycle has um you know, some
Speaker 1: call it desperate. It's certainly entertaining. But they're doing a
Speaker 1: lot of different things to try to uh get get
Speaker 1: writers and and Serciser's back. Um, you know, what's your
Speaker 1: take on Peloton under its new leadership and his its
Speaker 1: chances for a real turnaround. I have confidence in Barry,
Speaker 1: then you CEO. The challenge right now that fello down
Speaker 1: is facing is they have it seems like they have
Speaker 1: a lot of buyers to put out. Competition is one,
Speaker 1: but internally and operationally, uh, they have the biggest challenge
Speaker 1: they have is to is the inventory draw down, which
Speaker 1: is they have a lot of inventory that they need
Speaker 1: to sell. They may have overproduced, and they have they
Speaker 1: have cash issues, which means that they have to show
Speaker 1: positive free cash flow by the end of that next year.
Speaker 1: All right, Schwitzerkjuria abercore I s. I will of course
Speaker 1: be following Peloton earnings out in the next two days.
Speaker 1: Thank you now, I want to pivot to Meta and
Speaker 1: Cheryl Sanmdberg's successor, Javier oliv And, though he may be
Speaker 1: so different than her, you might call him the anti
Speaker 1: Cheryl Samberg. Olive and rarely speaks publicly or even posts
Speaker 1: to Facebook or Instagram, but he has had a hand
Speaker 1: in all of Facebook's major competitive battles and acquisitions. While
Speaker 1: Zuckerberg invented Facebook, it was all of them who helped
Speaker 1: expand the service to unprecedented size and power. For more
Speaker 1: on this, I want to bring in Bloomberg's Kurt Waitner,
Speaker 1: who just did a deep dive on Meta's new CEO.
Speaker 1: So why would we call him the anti Cheryl Sander Kurt, Well,
Speaker 1: as you pointed out, his personality is just very different.
Speaker 1: In the role he's gonna play, while it's the same title,
Speaker 1: is going to look a little different too, Right, Cheryl,
Speaker 1: we see her all the time. She's the best selling author,
Speaker 1: she's on television, she's out speaking publicly, she's shaking hands
Speaker 1: with politicians. At least she used to be. Pabira is
Speaker 1: none of those things, right. He operates behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: he's very quiet, he's low key, he's incredibly influential. But
Speaker 1: even inside his own company, there's some people who don't
Speaker 1: really know who he is, right, It is a very
Speaker 1: different personality, and yet here he is stepping into a
Speaker 1: very similar, the same title, similar job to what Cheryl
Speaker 1: had leading the business at Meta. And it's an obviously
Speaker 1: a huge job right now, given everything they're going through.
Speaker 1: So what does that mean for Meta culturally? If people
Speaker 1: inside the company don't really know who he is, does
Speaker 1: that matter? Well? I think it kind of re establishes,
Speaker 1: or further establishes Mark Zuckerberg is like the main guy,
Speaker 1: right because before, even though Mark, I think has been
Speaker 1: more forward as the face of the company, at the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, it was still a Mark Zuckerberg
Speaker 1: and Cheryl Sandberg show, right, I Mean, now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden you have Mark and and not really anyone else.
Speaker 1: I guess we hear from Nick Clegg quite a bit
Speaker 1: on policy stuff. But I just think that this kind
Speaker 1: of further establishes zuck as the person who is the
Speaker 1: face of everything Facebook is doing, not just the product stuff.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, it'll be certainly interesting to watch this
Speaker 1: all play out. Kurt Wagner, thank you, as always thinks meantime,
Speaker 1: CEOs are increasingly turning to social media to share their
Speaker 1: feelings about layoffs. In June, the CEO of Clarin took
Speaker 1: heed after a LinkedIn post included the names and contact
Speaker 1: details of hundreds of employees that were let go. He
Speaker 1: says he was trying to get them jobs. Others thought
Speaker 1: it was a little tone deaf. Now another social media
Speaker 1: post by the CEO of Hypersocial, Brendan Wallacky about layoffs
Speaker 1: is going viral. He wrote the employees might still have
Speaker 1: jobs if he had made better choices, ending the post
Speaker 1: with a selfie of him crying. Some found it a
Speaker 1: little cringe e, but Wallacky embraced the backlash and dubbed
Speaker 1: himself the crying CEO. Then there was this interview with
Speaker 1: Redfin CEO Glenn Kellman, who had this to say when
Speaker 1: I asked about layoffs, we laid off six of our
Speaker 1: workforce and I'm the one accountable for that. I feel
Speaker 1: so ashamed about it. I was so blue. I still am,
Speaker 1: but it's what we had to do to run a
Speaker 1: profitable business. And now I think we feel more optimistic
Speaker 1: about the future, but we're still running on an ice edge.
Speaker 1: Redfin CEO GluN counting there all right. Coming up, we're
Speaker 1: gonna take a deep dive into the world of crypto mixers.
Speaker 1: What are they and how could they be the culprit
Speaker 1: in the newest money laundering schemes. That's next. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Time now for our crypto reporting. Today, we're diving
Speaker 1: into crypto mixers. It's a service that mixes different streams
Speaker 1: of potentially identifiable cryptocurrency so that a buyer's account details
Speaker 1: in history are hidden, therefore making a transaction more anonymous
Speaker 1: and harder to trace. Here's the catch. While this is
Speaker 1: great for privacy, it's become a tool for global money
Speaker 1: laundering and cybercrime. Recently, the virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash
Speaker 1: was sanctioned by the U. S. Treasury Department after it
Speaker 1: was used to launder more than seven billion dollars worth
Speaker 1: of digital currency since its creation. In let's break it
Speaker 1: all down and talk about the debate which has spurred
Speaker 1: in the crypto community. CHA Analysis CEO Michael Groneger is
Speaker 1: with us, along with Bloomberg's own Katie Greifeld. Thank you
Speaker 1: both for joining. So, Michael, do you think the accusation
Speaker 1: allegation here is fair that um these mixers have become
Speaker 1: kind of dangerous. Yeah, I would say to a lodge extent,
Speaker 1: what you've seen over the many years I've been in
Speaker 1: the crypto space is that the majority of the funds
Speaker 1: that goes into mixes still a week in age for
Speaker 1: largely criminal activity. So so to that extent, it's true
Speaker 1: its course has like a lot of other purposes, you
Speaker 1: can use a mix of all which is perfectly viable.
Speaker 1: But as the entire purpose of a mixers anonymity. It's
Speaker 1: hot for them to kay I see their customers and
Speaker 1: avoid criminal activity to go through them. And so Michael
Speaker 1: administration officials have described Tornado cash as we go to
Speaker 1: mixer for criminals. Does the data that you have support that?
Speaker 1: So it supports that North Korea have been a North
Speaker 1: Korea is known to be one of the biggest problems
Speaker 1: in the crypto space in terms of organized crime and
Speaker 1: sanks innovation. So they would do different hacks stone billions
Speaker 1: of dollars of crypto over the years, and they go
Speaker 1: to mix of us Tornado cash. If you look at
Speaker 1: vansomwhere that's that's traditionally not been using Tornado Cash. It's
Speaker 1: like other mixes will be used for vensom the laundry,
Speaker 1: but it's typically not that Tornado cast has been involved
Speaker 1: with those. Can you paint the bigger picture for us?
Speaker 1: How bad has cybercrime actually been this year? So cybercrime
Speaker 1: has been in decline, So like last year, for example,
Speaker 1: crypto in general wald transaction volume grow five times over
Speaker 1: a year, cyber crime doubled. It means that you're now
Speaker 1: moving from percentages to basis points in countering criminal activity
Speaker 1: in the crypto space. At the same time, the numbers
Speaker 1: are really big, and like just as an example of it,
Speaker 1: just just this year, we've seen a new kind of hacks,
Speaker 1: bridges between different block chains getting hacked and more than
Speaker 1: two billion dollars have been stolen in those and that's
Speaker 1: not you've been North Korean hackers that's been behind that.
Speaker 1: So clearly a lot of bad things are happening, and
Speaker 1: it's big, but in relatively filmed compared to the rest
Speaker 1: of activity in crypto, it's really really small. And Michael,
Speaker 1: this has been such a fascinating story to watch because
Speaker 1: just a few months ago, Tornado Cash founders, at least
Speaker 1: one of them, told Bloomberg News that actually, because it's
Speaker 1: smart contract based, it's written on decided by pre written codes,
Speaker 1: you can't enforce sanctions against it. Obviously, we know that
Speaker 1: the Treasury Department disagrees. But for developers that are out
Speaker 1: there now writing and developing code, I mean, how can
Speaker 1: they make sure that what they're creating complies with sanctions.
Speaker 1: We actually have an auricle US, an OLFACT sanction rable
Speaker 1: on the blockchain that you can write into your smart
Speaker 1: contractor and then you are well sanction compliance in the
Speaker 1: sense that you check for all that that's on O
Speaker 1: fact and all the transactions that that O fact would capture. However,
Speaker 1: that's not the full picture of it. You also need
Speaker 1: to check for anything else that could be related to that,
Speaker 1: and yes, then you probably need all other to put
Speaker 1: other measures in place, and to sort of an existential
Speaker 1: topic about it feels like a lot of these hacks
Speaker 1: are happening on cross blockchain bridges, and I'm wondering what
Speaker 1: about bridges specifically makes them vulnerable. So a bridge is
Speaker 1: basically a place where you buffer or store funds, but
Speaker 1: when you move them between different dock chains. So I
Speaker 1: might want to buy wrapped bitcoin in the rent projects,
Speaker 1: and to do that, I deposit bitcoin into a wallet
Speaker 1: that's basically a hot wallet exitting in the distributed system
Speaker 1: on the Internet, and then I get something else on
Speaker 1: the other side. But now they can sit like billions
Speaker 1: of dollars in a wallet, and that of course makes
Speaker 1: it an apart And then I would say when I've
Speaker 1: been reading through the different white papers for those wallets,
Speaker 1: typically it's been a very healthy design and something that
Speaker 1: would be extremely hard to break into. But last year
Speaker 1: we saw also a huge growth in crypto and everyone
Speaker 1: wanted to be first to market, So sometimes the implementations
Speaker 1: and the actual like basic security around servers and other
Speaker 1: things that responding wotting these hot wallets have been less
Speaker 1: good and that's been exploited mainly by by North Korea.
Speaker 1: Fascinating corner of the crypto universe. Thanks for helping us
Speaker 1: explore it. Michael Gronerger, CEO of Chain Analysis, and Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: own Katie guy Felt appreciated Apples the link it's next
Speaker 1: major iPad software update, Ipaddle was sixteen by about a
Speaker 1: month from September to October. Apple made the decision for
Speaker 1: a number of reasons, including a still buggy Stage Manager
Speaker 1: multitasking interface, and in order to link the launch closer
Speaker 1: to the more similar mac os Ventura. Still, it's an
Speaker 1: unusual move. Since shifting the launches to the fall in
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, Apple has released its new iPhone and
Speaker 1: iPad software updates simultaneously each year around September. By staggering
Speaker 1: the releases, users may find some issues around compatibility with
Speaker 1: cross of ice features like retracting and editing messages and
Speaker 1: I Message, the new Shared I Cloud photo library, and
Speaker 1: the new feature for transferring FaceTime calls between iPhones and iPads.
Speaker 1: It will also make it a bit harder for developers
Speaker 1: to launch apps that run on both the iPad and
Speaker 1: iPhone that required new A P I S and features
Speaker 1: found across iPad O S sixteen and iOS sixteen. Regardless,
Speaker 1: it was still of course the right move. Stage Manager
Speaker 1: on iPad O S sixteen is still quite buggy. I
Speaker 1: don't find it particularly intuitive, and it's not compatible with
Speaker 1: most iPads and many third party apps on the App Store.
Speaker 1: The feature clearly needs some more polish, and complaints from
Speaker 1: consumers about stage Manager will now no longer probably overshadow
Speaker 1: the earlier launch of the iPhone fourteen. Those new iPhones,
Speaker 1: along with new Apple Walk series eight models are coming
Speaker 1: in September, alongside iOS sixteen and watch Os nine, which
Speaker 1: are not delayed. I'm Mark German. This is power On
Speaker 1: and don't forget. You can subscribe to Mark's weekly power
Speaker 1: On newsletter at Bloomberg dot com. Now onto the world
Speaker 1: of e vs. Electric car maker Rivian cutting its annual
Speaker 1: earnings forecast, saying it would have a larger than guided
Speaker 1: loss on inflationary wall was pushing it to tone down
Speaker 1: its spending plans, even though a posted quarterly sales above
Speaker 1: expectations and reaffirmed its delivery forecast are at ludlow here
Speaker 1: with more so mixed. What's going on? Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: interesting because you and I foughted this company for a
Speaker 1: few years and it was the first culture of like
Speaker 1: meaningful sale. Three four million real companies sells cars. You
Speaker 1: and I have been talking about how we see them
Speaker 1: on the road, but you know it's a reality check.
Speaker 1: Welcome to how difficult this is. And with inflation in
Speaker 1: raw materials, particularly fium in the batteries, they're basically saying, actually,
Speaker 1: we're not going to lose four point seven five billion
Speaker 1: dollars this year. We're gonna lose five point five billion,
Speaker 1: and we're actually going to pull back our spending because
Speaker 1: things are tough out there. And is demand still strong?
Speaker 1: I mean, as I understand, they've got a super long
Speaker 1: wit list right, demand is really strong. They are what
Speaker 1: we call supply constraint. They can't build the vehicles fast
Speaker 1: enough relative to the month for them. And what was
Speaker 1: really interesting on the earnings call, R. J. Scarringe said
Speaker 1: that he felt the products still had pricing power, which
Speaker 1: is really interesting. They raised prices in March anyway, which
Speaker 1: was a bit of a scandal because they raised it
Speaker 1: for existing reservation holders, but the idea that they could
Speaker 1: rise even further does show this confidence that people want
Speaker 1: this product. To give you an idea, the R one
Speaker 1: T on your screen, the quad motor version is already
Speaker 1: at seventy five dollars. Imagine going up from there. It's
Speaker 1: pretty expensive products. So that did show confidence in the
Speaker 1: demand is good. What's your set Obviously it's a newer company,
Speaker 1: but what's your sense of how Rivian is whether in
Speaker 1: the supply challenges versus a Tesla versus some of the
Speaker 1: other companies else. So Ribban doesn't have the scale that
Speaker 1: Tesla does, and that's part of the problem, you know,
Speaker 1: scaring as for talking about this on the call. They're
Speaker 1: having to go to their supplies and say, look, we
Speaker 1: can do this. Give us the chips in particular that
Speaker 1: we need look at our shiny factory because those supplies
Speaker 1: of chips are also supplying many others. Um. I think
Speaker 1: the ship has been bouncing around. In after hours they
Speaker 1: were down seven percent and up a few percentage points.
Speaker 1: And there is some element of relief because if you
Speaker 1: remember when Lucid had earnings, they cut their full year
Speaker 1: production forecast for the second time this year because they
Speaker 1: couldn't get enough parts. Rivian reaffirmed its guidance to build
Speaker 1: twenty five thousand this year. So even though it's tough
Speaker 1: out there, they're at least sticking to what they said
Speaker 1: they could do. What's your sense of whether this is
Speaker 1: just growing pains and that will they become a true
Speaker 1: competitor to Yeah, they certainly project confidence. You know. They
Speaker 1: have this very talented CFO, Claire mcdonno, former JP Morgan
Speaker 1: Wall Street banker, and she talks the CFO talk the numbers,
Speaker 1: but she does kind of hint that things could improve
Speaker 1: in the second half of this year. The Inflation Act
Speaker 1: and the climate that you know, Bill could help them
Speaker 1: a lot, you know, as Tail wins for demand, not
Speaker 1: just in their consumer evs. Remember they make the vans
Speaker 1: for Amazon and their hope is to sell vans to
Speaker 1: other fleet operators as well. So growing pains like all
Speaker 1: the EV makers that you cover, Tesla, Rivian or GM,
Speaker 1: which one seems best poised to weather gosh well, whether
Speaker 1: tough environment, all of them. I mean, you know, General
Speaker 1: Motors and Ford are demonstrating Ford more so that they
Speaker 1: have the legacy manufacturing experience to make it work right,
Speaker 1: But they're transitioning from gas to to ev Rivian. All
Speaker 1: I can say is they have fifteen billion dollars left
Speaker 1: on their balance sheet. They are making layoffs, they're cutting costs,
Speaker 1: penny pinching, and they're acknowledging how what it is. Let's
Speaker 1: see how it goes. All right, I'd love thank you,
Speaker 1: And that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 1: Coming up Friday, we've got the CEO of Poshmark with us.
Speaker 1: Actually I'll be out ed will be filling informally and
Speaker 1: see him with Moniche Chandra. And don't forget to check
Speaker 1: out our podcast wherever you get your podcast. I'm Emily
Speaker 1: Chang in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg