Speaker 1: From Marhart where Innovation, Money and Power Collie in Silicon Valley, NBN.
Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed loved Love.
Speaker 3: I'm Caroline Hyde, Bloomberg's WORLDEAD quarters in New York.
Speaker 4: Ed Ludlow here in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 3: Coming up Meta, It's taken on Twitter. Threads officially hits
Speaker 3: the app store and one of thirty million people as
Speaker 3: signed up already.
Speaker 2: We'll bring you the details of the launch classes.
Speaker 4: Elon musk rapples with competitors to Twitter. He's agreeing to
Speaker 4: a truce with China's top auto makers.
Speaker 5: Will have more on the pledge.
Speaker 4: Tesla and others have agreed to maintain fair competition in
Speaker 4: the world's biggest ev market.
Speaker 3: And we'll have an exclusive conversation with the CEO of
Speaker 3: Japanese robotics firm. It's Ali driven tell Existence SoftBank maxa
Speaker 3: company and just raising one hundred and seventy million dollars
Speaker 3: for its Series B funning round. Well, that is so
Speaker 3: much coming up. Let's focus on these markets because the
Speaker 3: exuberance on Threads is not being reflected by the lack
Speaker 3: of exuberance in the markets today. We're currently off by
Speaker 3: one point threew percent on the Nasdaq, a pullback. We're
Speaker 3: worried about basically good news being bad news ed. We're
Speaker 3: looking at jobs growth, really strong numbers from the private
Speaker 3: sector when you're looking at ADP, the jobless claim. Still
Speaker 3: looking at the strength here of a labor mark in
Speaker 3: the US, A federal reserve still going to want him
Speaker 3: to be tackling that MSCI Country World Index on the
Speaker 3: downside as well, and in fact, we seeing Europe's sell
Speaker 3: off hard so too has China, so really a global
Speaker 3: risk off field to trade today, and it means that
Speaker 3: money is actually though interestingly, coming out of the bomb market,
Speaker 3: sending yields up some ten basis points on the two
Speaker 3: year we sawt of course that eclipse more than five
Speaker 3: percentage points and an overall yield for two year dead
Speaker 3: at the moment, as we think that the Fed is
Speaker 3: going to have to tackle this really strong market and
Speaker 3: over all economy here in the United States. Let's move
Speaker 3: on what's happening in terms of the world a bitcoin,
Speaker 3: because that risk asset have been higher. In fact, we've
Speaker 3: top the thirty one thousand level high at least eight months,
Speaker 3: but now we come back down to earth a little bit.
Speaker 3: We're off by two tens of percent. We're still above
Speaker 3: that thirty thousand level overall ed.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when we.
Speaker 4: Look at the public markets, there's not, excuse me, a
Speaker 4: lot of green to talk about.
Speaker 5: That's how excited I am.
Speaker 4: But Tesla is a downside mover two point two percent.
Speaker 4: We will go to our reporter later in the program
Speaker 4: here on Bloomberg Technology, it's all about agreeing with domestic
Speaker 4: Chinese ev makers to normalize pricing. A very interesting move,
Speaker 4: but that stock down in line with the broader market.
Speaker 4: One big name we're watching is Meta Meta formerly known
Speaker 4: as Facebook, and all about threads. It's been really interesting,
Speaker 4: right the open Meta was up more than one point
Speaker 4: three percent. It's kind of chop traded. We're now down
Speaker 4: two tens to one percent. Analysts kind of somewhat bullish
Speaker 4: on this move with Threads the headline. As you said, Caroline,
Speaker 4: thirty million users signed up. Let's get more details on
Speaker 4: Threads day one with the Bloomberg Technology editor who literally
Speaker 4: wrote the book on Instagram, Sarah Fryar. Sarah, what do
Speaker 4: we know about Threads day one?
Speaker 6: Well, it's just been an incredible amount of enthusiasm. I
Speaker 6: think this is the first time Meta has done a
Speaker 6: covey cut product that people are actually hankering for. Everyone
Speaker 6: was looking for an alternative to Twitter. Given all the
Speaker 6: turbulence from Elon Musk, including over the weekend with rate
Speaker 6: limiting people who are posting on Twitter trying to limit
Speaker 6: the number of tweets they could see. There was a
Speaker 6: lot of searching for an alternative, and Threads is seeming
Speaker 6: to build that critical mass that people need if they
Speaker 6: want to post something that could have impact. And we're
Speaker 6: seeing very high engagement, you know, thirty million users, as
Speaker 6: you said, just blew up overnight. And this is this
Speaker 6: is a really exciting moment in the rivalry between Twitter
Speaker 6: and Meta. I just think, you know, we're a couple
Speaker 6: decades into that now and it's been really incredible to see.
Speaker 6: This is the moment of all the times that Meta
Speaker 6: could have copied Twitter. I don't know that it would
Speaker 6: have worked until now.
Speaker 3: Mistiming seems to be really painful, probably on Twitter's pot
Speaker 3: as you say, amid the swirling chaos of limitations to
Speaker 3: certain numbers of tweets that you can see, Sarah. To
Speaker 3: that point, Twitter's response Linda and Gakarina. We're going to
Speaker 3: dig into that later in the show has been responding
Speaker 3: to all of this, But ultimately, what does thirty million
Speaker 3: look like in comparison to historical levels of growth.
Speaker 6: Well, it's a big start for a new social media app,
Speaker 6: and I think the reason that it is getting so
Speaker 6: much enthusiasm is because it has that existing connection to
Speaker 6: the Instagram network. Now, that's also been a point of
Speaker 6: frustration for Threads users. People who don't use Instagram, or
Speaker 6: who don't like their Instagram handle, or have an invested
Speaker 6: in that platform, or have a different community there than
Speaker 6: they have on Twitter. They're not exactly excited to copy
Speaker 6: that over to a new app where they want to
Speaker 6: build a new identity. However, it has made it a
Speaker 6: lot easier for those key users, the celebrities, the public figures,
Speaker 6: the brands, those that use Instagram already for professional reasons
Speaker 6: wanting to pour it over all of that influence to
Speaker 6: an app without having to start from scratch. And that's
Speaker 6: really a big motivator. So if everyone else wants to
Speaker 6: follow those people in Threads becomes the place to do it.
Speaker 6: I think we're going to see those issues work out
Speaker 6: of her time, but of course Instagram is going to
Speaker 6: try to deal.
Speaker 5: With some of the pain points as they can.
Speaker 3: J Lo Paris Hilton many a funny post coming from
Speaker 3: them already. I'm sure joyous for those that have been
Speaker 3: overseeing the launch. Blomberg, Sarah Fry, thanks for that update. Meanwhile,
Speaker 3: let's just dive into the conversation also, perhaps some of
Speaker 3: the financial drivers that obviously follow success. Just when Enburg
Speaker 3: and Police to say is right here in New York.
Speaker 3: She of course leads coverage of influencer marketing and social
Speaker 3: commerce and inside Intelligence you focus on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 3: Let's focus on threads first, because well, it looks like
Speaker 3: it's going well, what do you think is the monetization
Speaker 3: angle ultimately here for the investors that are listening to us,
Speaker 3: because I've seen already Zuck post about monetization not coming immediately.
Speaker 7: Absolutely well, just to put this into perspective, I mean,
Speaker 7: thirty million users is an incredibly strong start. At Insider Intelligence,
Speaker 7: We're expecting Twitter to have about fifty six million users
Speaker 7: in the US by the end of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 7: so that just gives you some context for how many
Speaker 7: people Threads was able to have signed up just overnight.
Speaker 7: In terms of the monetation, monetization ads are metas bread
Speaker 7: and butter, and I would assume that any monetization strategy
Speaker 7: for Threads would include advertising. That said, I'm expecting that
Speaker 7: Meta will wait until Threads really reach his scale before
Speaker 7: they bring on any sort of monetization opportunities.
Speaker 3: Zak and self saying, look, we want to get to
Speaker 3: a billion here. How quickly do you think they can
Speaker 3: scale to a billion?
Speaker 4: And is it really.
Speaker 3: The area, the focus, the number you want to see?
Speaker 7: Well, I mean Meta obviously has a scale, it has
Speaker 7: the resources, and it has the execution strategy to scale Threads.
Speaker 7: I do think, you know, the challenge will be in
Speaker 7: keeping up the momentum that we saw yesterday and that
Speaker 7: continued into this morning. You know, it is a new app,
Speaker 7: and there are very few new new apps that are
Speaker 7: able to keep up that growth rate that Threads has
Speaker 7: seen already. And I also think that you know, Meta
Speaker 7: will have to continue innovating, will have to keep Threads interesting.
Speaker 7: Right now, it's simplicity and it's bare bones. Ux are
Speaker 7: some things that really are attractive to users, especially those
Speaker 7: that are tired of the chaos and the ad hoc
Speaker 7: changes at Twitter. But eventually it is going to have
Speaker 7: to innovate to keep people engaged and on the app.
Speaker 3: And as many would say, innovation is elon strong point.
Speaker 3: And Lyndia Karino ed brings well the monetization strategy for
Speaker 3: Twitter as well. But you've been tracking ultimately how the
Speaker 3: growth of Threads compares.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, and I'm interested, Jasmine in the mechanics of
Speaker 4: how they got Threads off the ground. You have to
Speaker 4: have an Instagram account, and what I did was I
Speaker 4: went through Twitter's S one back in twenty thirteen, and
Speaker 4: they hit thirty million users at the start of twenty ten,
Speaker 4: sort of four years into the.
Speaker 5: Life of the platform.
Speaker 4: This link with Instagram seems to have given them a
Speaker 4: fast start.
Speaker 5: What's your assessment of that.
Speaker 7: I think it was incredibly smart. It was really easy
Speaker 7: to sign up for Threads. You could port your Instagram account,
Speaker 7: you could port your Instagram followers directly onto Threads. I
Speaker 7: think there are some people who don't necessarily want to
Speaker 7: transport their Instagram followers their audiences over to this new
Speaker 7: app and want to keep these two separate, but overall
Speaker 7: in order to sort of supercharge the growth. I think
Speaker 7: this was a spot on move from Meta, Jasmin.
Speaker 4: What's your experience been using the platform?
Speaker 5: What do you like about it?
Speaker 7: I mean, it's been really easy to use. The user
Speaker 7: interface has been fantastic. It's been fun so far. I
Speaker 7: don't know how long that will last, but for now,
Speaker 7: it feels like in early Twitter one point zero with
Speaker 7: an Instagram twist, some more photos and visuals on the platform.
Speaker 7: I haven't left Twitter yet though, I'm still on both,
Speaker 7: which just means that there are more apps now than
Speaker 7: ever to post.
Speaker 3: On and we are kind of exhausted by it, Jasmine.
Speaker 3: To a certain extent. One group of people who aren't
Speaker 3: going to be exhausted by Threads is Europe, because it's
Speaker 3: not there yet. We understand the regulatory overhang. What do
Speaker 3: you make of that, well, delay, is it opportune for
Speaker 3: Meta to push backing as regulators in Europe?
Speaker 7: Well, it's certainly going to be a challenge for Meta.
Speaker 7: I mean, Meta needs to convert one in four Instagram
Speaker 7: users in order to make Threads as big as Twitter
Speaker 7: is worldwide at the end of this year. Europe is
Speaker 7: a really big market for them, and it's going to
Speaker 7: be a challenge. It's going to be an issue if
Speaker 7: it's not able to launch there Now, some of the
Speaker 7: reasons that you know it has delayed the launch of Threads,
Speaker 7: potentially being the DMA, are issues.
Speaker 8: That will affect all of the social apps.
Speaker 7: It's not just Threads, and it's not just Meta, but
Speaker 7: it does point to this larger picture of how difficult
Speaker 7: it is really to bring new apps and products to market.
Speaker 5: Let's go back to the technology.
Speaker 4: There is an algorithmic and machine learning powered part of
Speaker 4: each feed. What is your assessment of which is better
Speaker 4: Twitter or Threads at this point?
Speaker 7: Well, I think it certainly depends. You know, Threads is
Speaker 7: very new and I haven't had a lot of time
Speaker 7: to tinker around with it. I think what's really interesting,
Speaker 7: and what I've been thinking a lot about is how
Speaker 7: people are going to be using threads. Are they actually
Speaker 7: going to be using it for the same use cases
Speaker 7: as we were using Twitter or continue to use Twitter,
Speaker 7: meaning keeping up with news and world events. Now, News
Speaker 7: has been somewhat of a source spot for meta on
Speaker 7: its other platforms, Facebook in particular, and I'm not sure
Speaker 7: that you know the Instagram usage translates naturally into news
Speaker 7: and world events the same way that it does on Twitter.
Speaker 7: I don't necessarily think that Meta needs to be as
Speaker 7: strong a player in those arenas though, to make Threads
Speaker 7: a real threat to Twitter as it is.
Speaker 4: Insider intelligence principle analyst Jasmine Enburg. Day one of Threads done.
Speaker 4: Let's see what happens next. Let's get out to Japan.
Speaker 4: Tokyo based robotics startup tell Existence has just raised one
Speaker 4: hundred and seventy million dollars for its Series B funding round,
Speaker 4: backed by SoftBank and other big names. Joining us now
Speaker 4: for more is the co founder and CEO of Teleexistence,
Speaker 4: Jim Tomioka. In an exclusive interview, Good evening. I suppose
Speaker 4: to you, mister Tomyoka, thank you for joining us big
Speaker 4: Series B. What do you need this money for in
Speaker 4: your robotics?
Speaker 9: Brush of all, thank you for having me today.
Speaker 10: So, yeah, we raise one hundred seventy million from a
Speaker 10: source group and the fox on the other.
Speaker 9: Investors, and they mainly we're going to use.
Speaker 10: This kepto to extend to the US, the United.
Speaker 4: States folks on an investor. But I'm really interested in
Speaker 4: that relationship. Are they going to help you scale and
Speaker 4: manufacture your robotics correct.
Speaker 10: So right now in Japan, we are in the process
Speaker 10: of defoying the three hundred robots to the convenience clods
Speaker 10: and we see the strong demand in Japan because you.
Speaker 11: Know, we are facing the aging issue, labor shortage, so
Speaker 11: we we aim to increase our manufacturing capacity to result
Speaker 11: next to you, and in order for us to do that,
Speaker 11: we think you.
Speaker 12: Know best to work with the Fox from the manufacturer
Speaker 12: Globbo outside Japan Jin.
Speaker 3: What's interesting is demographics an issue in Japan. Here in
Speaker 3: the US, the labor data show there's a real tightness
Speaker 3: here too. Are you looking at coming to the United
Speaker 3: States to alleviate the labor issues here too?
Speaker 12: Yes, so we don't we're not We're not intend to
Speaker 12: take a job from people. But as you said, even
Speaker 12: with the different context, you know, we see there's a
Speaker 12: big gap between the labors necessary and labors.
Speaker 9: Who intends to go back to the market.
Speaker 10: So we want to feel that get to solve the
Speaker 10: labor shortages, especially in retail and logistic using our robots.
Speaker 3: Already your partnership with Family March. For example, in Japan,
Speaker 3: across thousands of convenience stores, there are hundreds of thousands
Speaker 3: of convenience stores in the US. I'm sure you can
Speaker 3: deploy it. How has the art offgital intelligence mania affected
Speaker 3: the appetite to invest in you? Because these robots are
Speaker 3: powered by AI?
Speaker 10: Yes, so you see a fever is a learning control
Speaker 10: the Globo. So the current recent a trim obviously you know.
Speaker 9: Supported us to raise the firm and do think know
Speaker 9: that AI is pushing.
Speaker 12: The boundaries of the Lobo food work only the human.
Speaker 9: Months or every the people's life, so we want to
Speaker 9: do that industry.
Speaker 4: Jin, where did this round value your company?
Speaker 5: What was the valuation?
Speaker 10: It's a bit hard to disclose, but I think while
Speaker 10: or two step before Unicorn.
Speaker 4: A unicorn status around. Well, congratulations to you on that.
Speaker 4: What is your point of differentiation? What is it technologically
Speaker 4: that you do differently from the other robotics makers. Caroline
Speaker 4: was talking about AI. Do you have a deep foundation
Speaker 4: in machine learning?
Speaker 11: Yes, so you know we use the AI machine learning
Speaker 11: to detect every different shape of.
Speaker 12: The products sold in the inconvenience so that we can
Speaker 12: find the optimal grasping point of every different product and
Speaker 12: the taking post on.
Speaker 9: Top of that, because the current AI is pretty linked.
Speaker 12: So our company's goal is to bring bring the robo
Speaker 12: outside practice and try to control.
Speaker 9: Them in people's everyday life.
Speaker 12: For me, in the we try to control able in
Speaker 12: more dynamic environment and the current AI cannot really adapt
Speaker 12: to the environment. So one feature we have really combine
Speaker 12: the air machine learning will be more control mean before
Speaker 12: using the internet to control the level and fix the
Speaker 12: issue if we face. So that that's the combination of
Speaker 12: air and remote controls one feature we have.
Speaker 3: Jen, it's great talking to you. Thank you for bringing
Speaker 3: us the story exclusively. Fascinating to see the robotics in
Speaker 3: the background as well, Tamioko of course tell existence CEO Meanwhile, Ed, well,
Speaker 3: you had some big interviews as well exclusively yesterday.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been a busy week so far.
Speaker 4: Coming up, Rivian ready to take on more commercial partners
Speaker 4: beyond Amazon. That's after, of course a recent bout of
Speaker 4: production success. We'll get to my exclusive interview. There we
Speaker 4: are with the CEO. Next, this is Bloomberg Technology electric
Speaker 4: vehicle maker. Rivian's had a bit of a rebound of late.
Speaker 4: The technology fix on its EV pickup and suv helped
Speaker 4: Rivian beat on production in the second quarter, and the
Speaker 4: companies started shipping delivery vans to Europe for its biggest investor, Amazon.
Speaker 4: I traveled to the company's HQ in southern California sit
Speaker 4: down for an exclusive conversation with the founder and CEO, RJ.
Speaker 5: Scarrange.
Speaker 13: We have a quad motor set up in our R
Speaker 13: one vehicles. It's two motors per axil, so four motors
Speaker 13: per vehicle, and we've just launched a dual motor setup
Speaker 13: which leverages a new motor family, which we call the
Speaker 13: Enduro motor family. And that Enduro is completely built in house,
Speaker 13: the rotor, the stator. Of course, just like on the
Speaker 13: launch configuration, we build the inverter in house, the yearboxing house.
Speaker 13: But when we sourced the power semis for the inverter
Speaker 13: in Enduro, we sourced in a really thoughtful way that
Speaker 13: gave us enough capacity and much more confidence around that
Speaker 13: supply chain than some of the challenges we've had on
Speaker 13: the launch configuration.
Speaker 8: And so that not only.
Speaker 13: Provides a high confidence production capacity on the Enduro, but
Speaker 13: it also provides risk mitigation on any shortcomings in terms
Speaker 13: of supply on the quad motor.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The big news of the last five days is that
Speaker 4: you have you're out of the United States. Yeah, a
Speaker 4: small number of Amazon EDVS electric delivery vans are being
Speaker 4: shipped to Europe Germany in the instance, Why was that
Speaker 4: a significant milestone?
Speaker 13: Well, you know, it's important to get those vehicles are
Speaker 13: Amazon has a lot of business in Europe. But it
Speaker 13: also represents not just turning on production of vehicles that
Speaker 13: get shipped overseas, but all the supporting infrastructure. So we
Speaker 13: have parts distribution capabilities, we have service capabilities, and the
Speaker 13: EDED program is really a wonderful way for us to
Speaker 13: open those markets with highly predictable and planned service intervals
Speaker 13: and deliver intervals. So it's the beginnings of us opening
Speaker 13: up the European market for our products.
Speaker 4: As you know, I always ask Twitter, what would you
Speaker 4: ask in this case RJ Scaringe. Lots of people want
Speaker 4: to know about the Amazon relationship. You don't break down
Speaker 4: production by product type are one to and S or eDV,
Speaker 4: but a lot of people want a sense of how
Speaker 4: many bans you're building proportionately to your consumer products.
Speaker 5: What is the main part of the business over if
Speaker 5: you think.
Speaker 13: About over the full year we've guided to roughly twenty
Speaker 13: percent of our production is the commercial vans. You know,
Speaker 13: as we think about the business going forward, the consumer
Speaker 13: side of the business will grow disproportionately relative to the
Speaker 13: commercial side, especially as we bring in our next generation products,
Speaker 13: with the R two and the R two platform representing
Speaker 13: a significant stuff up and volume and a much lower
Speaker 13: price point, much larger adjustble market with that with that product.
Speaker 4: What is the status of the relationship with Amazon? They
Speaker 4: have exclusivity, but you would like to sell vans others
Speaker 4: in the future.
Speaker 13: I mean, the relationship with Amazon is outstanding. The van
Speaker 13: is loved by the drivers. There's lots of content all
Speaker 13: over the web on just the creature comforts who built
Speaker 13: in the ease of use. The operators of the vehicles
Speaker 13: are feeling it, you know, with with the increased efficiency.
Speaker 13: So we've we've we've done i think a really nice
Speaker 13: job of capturing that feedback as we went through the
Speaker 13: development process to make sure the van delivered. We're now
Speaker 13: in the final hopeful stages of negotiating allowing us to
Speaker 13: sell the vehicle outside of the Amazon relationship to other
Speaker 13: so that the exclusivity provisions that originally built into the
Speaker 13: contract are accelerating. When we opened that up to Bill
Speaker 13: will sell to not on Amazon.
Speaker 4: My interview Caroline with the Rivian CORJ Scaringe and the company,
Speaker 4: the stock, the factory has a bit of a momentum
Speaker 4: behind it right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure if it's a smile on his face.
Speaker 3: Does the one question you were going to ask him
Speaker 3: when we talked about it yesterday is whether he's enjoying himself?
Speaker 3: And I mean is he amid some of the turbulence
Speaker 3: he's experienced.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I did ask him. I mean, it's been
Speaker 4: a really long road for him. He founded the company
Speaker 4: in two thousand and nine. But what was astonishing is
Speaker 4: they kept in stealth mode till twenty nineteen without any leaks.
Speaker 4: Huge IPO twenty twenty one, the biggest since Facebook, and
Speaker 4: then everything kind of went downhill. And he said, with
Speaker 4: a right smile, Yeah, I'm having fun, but it's tough.
Speaker 4: Expectedly tough was the phrase.
Speaker 5: That he used.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And as you pointed out, of course founder CEOs,
Speaker 3: there are few and far between that managed to ride
Speaker 3: out the IPO successfully in that way.
Speaker 5: The future, the.
Speaker 3: Guidance the area in which now analysts can continue to
Speaker 3: think that there's opportunities in the stock.
Speaker 4: What did you think they didn't restate guidance I asked
Speaker 4: him why they didn't upgrade it, but he said, our
Speaker 4: aim is to outperform our own goals, and you look
Speaker 4: at the numbers, it seems like they'll do that. He's
Speaker 4: got more help experience execs with him. You know.
Speaker 5: The big question for him is what he's focused on.
Speaker 4: And without teasing too much, I'll have a little piece
Speaker 4: coming next week where we'll dig into RJ. Scarringe the
Speaker 4: person and how he deals with things day to day.
Speaker 5: That should be fun.
Speaker 3: Wow, it was a great interview. Fascinating backdrop there as well.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Bluemot Technology. I'm Caroline Hide in New
Speaker 3: York and.
Speaker 4: I'med Ludlow here in San Francisco. Let's get a quit
Speaker 4: check on the markets, Caroline, a lot of red. I'm
Speaker 4: focusing in on the Nasdaq one hundred. We're down about
Speaker 4: a percentage point zero point ninety seven percent. All about
Speaker 4: that private hiring data you were talking about earlier in
Speaker 4: Bloomberg Technology g the idea being the Fed might have
Speaker 4: to be more aggressive on hikes to fight inflation. Higher
Speaker 4: rates discount the present value of future cash flows.
Speaker 5: And that's why we.
Speaker 4: Care about it here on Bloomberg Technology We're down two
Speaker 4: days straight on the Nasdaq one hundred. Not a lot
Speaker 4: of individual movers to the upside. One big drag from
Speaker 4: a points perspective to the downside is Tesla. The news
Speaker 4: coming out of China that Tesla, along with a number
Speaker 4: of producers in China's electric vehicle space, committing to maintain
Speaker 4: fair and balanced practices within the market, basically to normalize price.
Speaker 4: Total of sixteen automakers, including Tesla, BYD and Neo Signer
Speaker 4: pact to rein in quote abnormal pricing in the competitive space. Tesla, though,
Speaker 4: was the only foreign brand in that deal, joining us
Speaker 4: with the latest Bloomberg's David Wells, what do we know
Speaker 4: about this kind of compromised David, between all these auto
Speaker 4: makers in China.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really interesting to read the highlights of
Speaker 2: this thing. Among them reining in marketing actions, one of
Speaker 2: them was preserving socialist principles or some such. You know,
Speaker 2: these are all very vague things that don't set certain
Speaker 2: prices or say control pricing, or it's almost as if
Speaker 2: it was written by a bunch of American attorneys who
Speaker 2: wanted to avoid saying price fixing. But it is telling everybody, okay,
Speaker 2: stop dropping prices. And look, the government does have a
Speaker 2: great interest in stability here, in selling more vehicles but
Speaker 2: also keeping preserving the health of the companies, and you
Speaker 2: can't do that if everybody's on this big price bench,
Speaker 2: another price cutting bench, i should say. And another part
Speaker 2: of it is consumers really hated this. There were people
Speaker 2: who were essentially rioting at dealerships because they bought a
Speaker 2: car and then they saw the price drop a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks later.
Speaker 9: So you had some.
Speaker 2: Unrest with consumers about this. You have the government wanting
Speaker 2: everyone to stabilize things, and I think everybody felt a
Speaker 2: lot of pressure to just kind of cool it and
Speaker 2: find a floor for prices, and then the price war.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's interesting the Ministry of Industry and Information
Speaker 3: Technology directed apparently the Automobile Association to basically get these
Speaker 3: sixteen players together and to sign along to a non
Speaker 3: binding agreement. But ultimately, how is it for tas they're
Speaker 3: doing business in China.
Speaker 2: I think they've struggled to a degree with everybody in
Speaker 2: the sense that you had this malaise kind of post
Speaker 2: COVID hangover that had depressed vehicle sales, had pressed depressed
Speaker 2: economic activity it's sort of starting to recover, but everybody's
Speaker 2: having a tough time there, and I think that's why
Speaker 2: you saw some of the price cuts to begin with,
Speaker 2: to basically generate some vehicle sales and get people back
Speaker 2: to dealerships and looking at cars. I think the market
Speaker 2: will recover, but in talking to other automakers who do
Speaker 2: a lot of business there, General Motors, Volkswagen, you know,
Speaker 2: they all kind of say the same thing that it
Speaker 2: may not get back to the hugely profitable levels they
Speaker 2: had a few years ago because of increased domestic competition,
Speaker 2: Tesla having to face off with the a really strong
Speaker 2: player like Bid and some others. So I think the
Speaker 2: price levels that we have now, which are down from
Speaker 2: where they were a couple of years ago, I think
Speaker 2: that's here to stay. And I think everybody's really going
Speaker 2: to have to fight it out with a lot of
Speaker 2: serious competition from the Chinese automakers.
Speaker 3: And look, that's something you can spread globally. Elon Musk
Speaker 3: has been cutting prices here in the US and worldwide
Speaker 3: because he's basically said, look, profit is my sacrificial lamb.
Speaker 3: If I'm going to be able to go over market
Speaker 3: share at the moment, Does it feel like that has
Speaker 3: won or can he now in China, for example, depend
Speaker 3: more on new models helping drive forward sales.
Speaker 9: Well, he's going to have to.
Speaker 2: And keep in mind he has cut prices significantly over
Speaker 2: there and in every market. I kind of go back
Speaker 2: to my first economics class in college. Tesla basically had
Speaker 2: a monopoly on evs for most of the past decade,
Speaker 2: and now that's changing. It's changing in Europe too, because
Speaker 2: the European automakers are bringing vehicles out and the European
Speaker 2: market tends to be pretty nationalistic in terms of brand loyalty.
Speaker 2: The Chinese market is starting to look more that way,
Speaker 2: and there is more competition in the US with Ford
Speaker 2: Handaikia General Motors selling more electric vehicles. The German automakers
Speaker 2: are coming on here too. None of their volumes are
Speaker 2: really big, but if they take ten percent of the
Speaker 2: electric vehicle market this year, they're eating away at Tula's
Speaker 2: market share. And if Elon Musk wants to protect that,
Speaker 2: he's going to have to drop prices, and he has,
Speaker 2: and he's got the margin to do it. Keep in mind,
Speaker 2: he sold very expensive vehicles for a long time. You're
Speaker 2: talking about mid sized sedans and mid sized crossover suv
Speaker 2: selling for sixty seventy thousand dollars. That's all had to
Speaker 2: come down because he doesn't have the only vehicle for
Speaker 2: sale now.
Speaker 4: David Welch, another Bloomberg Technology editor, Caroline who literally wrote
Speaker 4: the book on GM, The Reinvention of American Icon. We've
Speaker 4: just got sales data from GM. David, how's that ultim
Speaker 4: battery platform in the vehicles that it's attached to going slowly?
Speaker 2: They only saw about fourteen hundred of them. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: They sold about fourteen hundred evs in the quarter. And
Speaker 2: it's really it's been a lot of promise and a
Speaker 2: lot of slow ramp up with the Ultium vehicles. They're
Speaker 2: getting their batteries from this plant in Ohio, the ultimam
Speaker 2: plant there, and that's really not going to be ramping
Speaker 2: up a lot until the second half of the year.
Speaker 2: I think they're kind of doing final install of their
Speaker 2: last line this month in July, and GM has been promising,
Speaker 2: promising that you'll see much more of the catalog lyric,
Speaker 2: maybe the Hummer, the Chevy Silverado electric truck, and the
Speaker 2: Chevy Blazer mid size suv you'll see that really coming
Speaker 2: on in the second quarter, and it's because of that plant.
Speaker 2: What it all means that is they won't have any
Speaker 2: excuses anymore. In the second half of the year. They're
Speaker 2: really going to have to show that Ultimum is cranking,
Speaker 2: that they've got the bugs out, that this is the
Speaker 2: right strategy that's spending all this time working on a
Speaker 2: dedicated electric vehicle, battery and platform, retrofitting existing internal combustion vehicles.
Speaker 2: I Ford did with the Machi and the Lightning that
Speaker 2: what GM did is the smart way for the long
Speaker 2: term and that we're starting to show results. And they've
Speaker 2: had a lot of different fits and starts, and now
Speaker 2: they really have to get it moving and this is
Speaker 2: you know, I'd say third quarter and fourth quarter are
Speaker 2: the ones to watch and see if they're really finally
Speaker 2: executing because they've had serious execution issues with electric vehicles
Speaker 2: at General Motors.
Speaker 3: And then Robber hits a row. David Welch, thank you.
Speaker 3: Let's look at the world of seed investing right now,
Speaker 3: in particular fintech and SaaS. We've got obviously spotlight moment
Speaker 3: and I'm pleased to welcome Cowboy Ventures partner Gillian Williams,
Speaker 3: who's been investing in fintech. She says, before it was cool.
Speaker 3: I'm pleased to say fintech is cool. Always been cooling
Speaker 3: my heart, jill In. But tell us a little bit
Speaker 3: about the environment with which you are currently writing checks.
Speaker 3: Is it active for you? Seed seems to be an
Speaker 3: area that's been really resilient.
Speaker 1: Absolutely so, thank you so much for having these. And
Speaker 1: the seed stage market is definitely more resilient, especially compared
Speaker 1: to the later stage market. But all of it really
Speaker 1: trickles down, and so while I think this is a
Speaker 1: great time for new founders and new ideas to be built,
Speaker 1: we still do have to look at what's happening at
Speaker 1: the IPO market, the later stage market, and even get
Speaker 1: like the series being Series A markets to understand what's
Speaker 1: happening at the seed market. It's getting harder for a
Speaker 1: lot of founders that raised in twenty twenty twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one to raise their follow on rounds, and so because
Speaker 1: of that, vcs are being to spend more time with
Speaker 1: their portfolio companies and really just kind of re understand
Speaker 1: what's really happening with the market right now and understand
Speaker 1: what valuations that we need to be focused on what
Speaker 1: metrics that companies need to hit, because all of that's
Speaker 1: gone through recalibration at this point, and so that's really important,
Speaker 1: and so that really has had a trickle down effect
Speaker 1: in terms of what's happening at the seed stage. So
Speaker 1: overall it's definitely more resilient to what's been happening, but
Speaker 1: it's still or seeing down across the entire market.
Speaker 3: Well, the one area of resilience, of course, has been
Speaker 3: anything that's had artificial intelligence in its name. What portfolio
Speaker 3: companies are leveraging that innately, and what companies are able
Speaker 3: to pivot to start to make the most of this
Speaker 3: sea change in technology.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think that it's become definitely a buzzword and
Speaker 1: something that helps you raise a ton of capital at
Speaker 1: this point, and it's something that we are really excited
Speaker 1: about just we think that it's a technology that across
Speaker 1: all sectors is something that whether it's existing portfolio companies
Speaker 1: or new companies that we're looking at, should be thinking
Speaker 1: about because it can really just expedite the use of
Speaker 1: data and technology in ways that we really haven't thought
Speaker 1: about before. And so we're really excited about it and
Speaker 1: we have Two of our portfolio companies are really innovating
Speaker 1: in the space. So one actually that's been around for
Speaker 1: it's a serious c company called AI. They are an
Speaker 1: accounting company that applies and integrates AI into the accounting
Speaker 1: process for enterprise software companies. And so what we are
Speaker 1: most excited about this is especially using private data, and
Speaker 1: this is something in fintech why areas that are more regulated,
Speaker 1: like fintech and healthcare will be a little bit slower
Speaker 1: in our minds to adopt AI because you're using a
Speaker 1: lot of private data and the ability to trade some
Speaker 1: of these language learning models will just take a little
Speaker 1: bit longer. And so with vic dot Ai, they've been
Speaker 1: able to do this over the past few years, and
Speaker 1: so they're able to continue innovating a lot faster and
Speaker 1: being able to apply new use cases and new AI
Speaker 1: models on top of the data that they've already had
Speaker 1: to continue to improve and make their AI software and
Speaker 1: their platform even more efficient for their customers.
Speaker 8: So we're really excited about them.
Speaker 1: And then another one that's actually not in the fintech
Speaker 1: space is called co Rise then the learning development space,
Speaker 1: and they provide expert led courses to learners to help
Speaker 1: them develop their skills and level up. And the founder
Speaker 1: King from Coursera, and what they're doing is really using
Speaker 1: applying AI to their existing platform to help them scale
Speaker 1: learner and like learners even more so and apply personalization
Speaker 1: and support in real time.
Speaker 8: And so that's a great use case of something that wasn't.
Speaker 1: Necessarily applying AI and making it even investor in better.
Speaker 8: So we're really excited about that.
Speaker 4: Jillian here on Bloomberg Technology and in particular Venture Spotlight.
Speaker 4: Over recent weeks, we've been talking a lot about the
Speaker 4: ideas Cerebral Valley, that the kind of energy and AI
Speaker 4: is here in San Francisco.
Speaker 5: You're joining us from New York.
Speaker 4: Where do you see the talent and the opportunity geographically
Speaker 4: in terms of the portfolio companies you have in those
Speaker 4: you're looking to invest in.
Speaker 8: Absolutely so, Cowboy Ventures we are split between.
Speaker 1: Palo Alto and New York, so we do have coverage
Speaker 1: across the US, and for the most part we focus
Speaker 1: on the US.
Speaker 8: Invest In terms of where our portfolio they was split,
Speaker 8: I want to.
Speaker 1: Say it's it's around sixty seventy percent West Coast and
Speaker 1: thirty forty percent East Coast. But that has definitely continued
Speaker 1: to evolve. I mean, I think obviously COVID was a
Speaker 1: huge driver of that, but we continue to see our
Speaker 1: founders kind of first of all, move around even after
Speaker 1: we invest the sort of they decide where they want
Speaker 1: to live, but also in terms of the talent that
Speaker 1: they are hiring, and this drive for obviously wanting to
Speaker 1: cultivate and build an incredible culture of their team, but
Speaker 1: also wanting to make sure that they're able to get
Speaker 1: the best talent that they can. And so we see
Speaker 1: a lot of them maybe the early days, wanting to
Speaker 1: all be together, but at the same time making sure
Speaker 1: that they can hire the best people no matter where
Speaker 1: they are. So oftentimes it's split between New York and
Speaker 1: the Bay Area, and so we'll do a lot of
Speaker 1: off sites together and making sure they're getting together at
Speaker 1: a pretty regular cadence. And so, especially for me within
Speaker 1: the fintech space, a significant portion of the companies that
Speaker 1: I've invested into are on the East Coast.
Speaker 8: However, we're extremely flexible.
Speaker 1: We're kind of flying back and forth, and we really
Speaker 1: take a team approach in terms of our coverage on
Speaker 1: both coasts.
Speaker 5: Valuations how they look to your.
Speaker 1: Mind, absolutely I think there's As I mentioned earlier on,
Speaker 1: there's definitely been every calibration and I think we'll see unfortunately,
Speaker 1: a lot of companies that raise over the past three
Speaker 1: years have to level sundations are.
Speaker 8: For that next round.
Speaker 1: We've had We've seen it with some new companies and
Speaker 1: even had to have some conversations with some portfolio companies
Speaker 1: that you can hit the metrics that you were told
Speaker 1: you needed to hit for that next round, and the
Speaker 1: problem is that the bar has raised, and so your
Speaker 1: expectation of getting that dream valuation might not be real anymore.
Speaker 3: Especially for the fat trick seer point. How are they
Speaker 3: incentivizing their talent? How are they making the most more
Speaker 3: talent coming to the market and have been laid off
Speaker 3: by some of the big tech companies.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and so I think there's sort of two different ways,
Speaker 1: and that's something that is kind of continuing to be
Speaker 1: talked about in terms of how you can incentivize the
Speaker 1: incredible talent that is now out there, because actually it's
Speaker 1: gotten so much easier to bring in talent now.
Speaker 8: A year and a half ago, trying to find great.
Speaker 1: Talent with like it was taking months and you actually
Speaker 1: have to make decisions so much faster that was problematic
Speaker 1: because people were making the wrong decisions. I think that's
Speaker 1: honestly part of the part of the reason why you're
Speaker 1: seeing these layoffs grow, and especially with some of the companies,
Speaker 1: Obviously there's sort of runway issues, but also they hired
Speaker 1: too quickly, and so you can't hire the best telling
Speaker 1: all the time if you're hiring that quickly, and so
Speaker 1: being able to kind of take your time in terms
Speaker 1: of hiring is actually a huge benefit. But then also
Speaker 1: I've seen some companies where they're actually having conversations, especially
Speaker 1: with their senior execut team or with the talent that
Speaker 1: is that is there key talent that they want to keep,
Speaker 1: especially if say they are to take a down round
Speaker 1: and talk about how they can help make them whole
Speaker 1: or help and really incentivize them or reissue some options
Speaker 1: at the new valuation because of the fact that they're
Speaker 1: stoff may be underwater at this point and so definitely
Speaker 1: is more of an art to it, but people are
Speaker 1: really thinking about how to protect their employees.
Speaker 3: Art and science always in this game. Cowboy Ventures partner
Speaker 3: Jilly Williams, great.
Speaker 5: To have you on the show. Come back.
Speaker 8: We hope, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, Ed, we've got some more talking tech.
Speaker 5: Yeah, let's get some talking tech. First up.
Speaker 4: Attacks of spikes significantly in the past six months and
Speaker 4: pose a vital risk to India's economic ambitions. That's according
Speaker 4: to a Google Mandian unit. They say industry from manufacturing
Speaker 4: to pharmaceuticals are becoming more vulnerable as they digitize operations.
Speaker 4: In China, Ali Barber signed agree meant to work with
Speaker 4: its home province to develop AI in the digital economy.
Speaker 4: The development suggests official backing for Ali Barber's efforts against
Speaker 4: the bank drop in recent years of regulatory moves against
Speaker 4: the firm. Plus, Daniel Friedberg, ftx's former chief regulatory officer,
Speaker 4: is now being pulled deeper into the intrigue surrounding his
Speaker 4: former boss, Sam Bankman Freed. In a lawsuit filed last week,
Speaker 4: the new management of FTX accused Friedberg of enabling Bankman
Speaker 4: Freed's alleged crimes and helping to orchestrate a quote wide
Speaker 4: ranging con game to raid billions of customer dollars.
Speaker 3: Going viral. Mark Zuckerberg posted his first tweek more than
Speaker 3: a decade on the day, of course of Meta's Threads launch,
Speaker 3: The founder of Meta, appears to be making a pretty
Speaker 3: obvious jabb at elon Musk, posting a popular Spider Man meme,
Speaker 3: wile Mask responded shortly after with his own retort about Instagram.
Speaker 3: This comes just two weeks so after Musks zuckerbern cage
Speaker 3: fight was first discussed. Yeah, to become a real one
Speaker 3: for now ed a figurative one and taking place on
Speaker 3: the various stage.
Speaker 5: Social media platforms.
Speaker 4: It's like the most accurate use of that meme ever seen.
Speaker 4: It's episode nineteen B of the nineteen sixty seven animated
Speaker 4: Spider Man. The title of that episode is double Identity.
Speaker 4: And Zuck's point is they're the same thing. I mean,
Speaker 4: Threads and Twitter, to all intents and purposes, Carro, they're
Speaker 4: the same.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and are you enjoying it?
Speaker 4: I am enjoying it, And I think we better get
Speaker 4: into like the momentum behind this, bringing Aasha counts from
Speaker 4: Bloomberg Technology. You wrote in the Tech Daily Instagram's Twitter
Speaker 4: copycat meets pent up demand.
Speaker 5: What's the evidence for that?
Speaker 14: Well, thirty million people being on threads in less than
Speaker 14: twenty four hours is pretty crazy, I don't. I mean,
Speaker 14: we've seen other Twitter alternatives pop up. I don't think
Speaker 14: that they had that sort of growth within twenty four hours,
Speaker 14: so it's pretty impressive phenomenal growth.
Speaker 3: How about the in which we're starting to see things
Speaker 3: that are popular on Twitter, like polls, like hashtags and
Speaker 3: all that sort of good stuff.
Speaker 5: Will that eventually creep in to threads? Do you think?
Speaker 9: You know?
Speaker 14: I would imagine it's still early. So both Adam Asri,
Speaker 14: who is head of Instagram, and then Mark Zuckerberg himself
Speaker 14: have been posting on thread and saying, you know, it's
Speaker 14: still early. We're still planning to add features. I imagine
Speaker 14: maybe they wanted to roll it out now take advantage
Speaker 14: of kind of like where Twitter has been over the
Speaker 14: past several months that aret elon Musk, it's been struggling
Speaker 14: a bit. There's been things like great limits and people
Speaker 14: were not able to get into their Twitter count, and
Speaker 14: it was all sorts of things happening. And so it's
Speaker 14: a good time, I think for Threads to come out,
Speaker 14: and I think that's evidenced by the amount of people
Speaker 14: that have signed up in such a short time.
Speaker 4: Caroline makes a really good point on the functionality. There
Speaker 4: are clearly ux differences I was number one hundred and
Speaker 4: thirty two thousand and nine to sign up on threads.
Speaker 4: What are your takes on the platform? What of the
Speaker 4: feedback that users have been giving you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's a mix.
Speaker 14: I think some people are really excited I did just
Speaker 14: to have another place to go because maybe they were
Speaker 14: unhappy with some of the changes on Twitter. Some people
Speaker 14: are like, well, my Instagram friends are very different than
Speaker 14: my Twitter friends, and I don't know if it's gonna
Speaker 14: be the same vibe. But I think generally people seem
Speaker 14: to be optimistic. And yes, it's still early and the
Speaker 14: features are not there yet, but it does have a
Speaker 14: lot of the same field of Twitter, and people are
Speaker 14: posting and I'm seeing some of the similar conversations that
Speaker 14: I might see on Twitter.
Speaker 5: So we'll see what happens next.
Speaker 3: I've seen some fun memes that I could respond to
Speaker 3: that brag by ed about which number he was on
Speaker 3: the partaking on the threads, but Asia Ultimately, at the moment,
Speaker 3: all we've heard from Nindi Akarino, we've heard her speak
Speaker 3: out about that you know Twitter is you cannot duplicate it. Ultimately,
Speaker 3: what do you think the comeback has to be from
Speaker 3: Twitter right now.
Speaker 14: I mean they say that you can't duplicate it. We
Speaker 14: do see thirty million people on threads time will tell.
Speaker 14: She didn't name threads by name, but she was kind
Speaker 14: of hinting at some competition there. And I think Twitter
Speaker 14: has road ahead to try to give back advertisers, clean
Speaker 14: up content on the platform, maybe removing those rate limits.
Speaker 14: I know that they were temporary, but making some of
Speaker 14: those changes that benefit users. I think that's going to
Speaker 14: be the key.
Speaker 3: I wonder how Malsden and Blue Sky are doing today
Speaker 3: as well. I have a feeling a few more invitations
Speaker 3: and suddenly being sent out. I finally got my one
Speaker 3: for Blue Sky. Anyway, Asha counts, thanks so much. And
Speaker 3: that does it for this edition of Bloembag Technology yet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, real mega show, so much to recap. Check out
Speaker 4: the podcast where you get your podcasts. In just a
Speaker 4: few minutes time, Karen and I taking to Twitter spaces
Speaker 4: to talk threads.
Speaker 5: This is Bloomberg Technology