WEBVTT - Roblox CEO David Baszucki (EXTENDED VERSION) 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.360 So in real life you're the CEO of Roadblocks, but 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:08.600 on Roadblocks your builder man, you know that name. We 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.680 just thought it up when um is, maybe two weeks 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:14.720 after we launched, and we were all picking our own 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:19.360 user names and everyone picked one night. So you've had 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.520 the same avatar since two thousand four. That's right, that's awesome. 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.560 Do you still play? I do. I wish I could 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:27.639 play the whole day. I have to be a CEO. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.720 So how often do you play? I'm probably on every day, 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:33.640 but not as much as I would like. I have 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:35.360 four kids. I have a nine year old son who's 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.879 on Roadblocks a lot. He said his favorite games are 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:44.360 the Tycoon games. Oh, lumber Tycoon, theme Park Tycoon. I 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:47.120 love those. I love all of those. I have a 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.879 bit of a theory. I have four kids, and yeah 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.440 they're now they've grown up watching me do this and 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.680 other they're pretty savvy social media people. But I'm optimistic 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.600 someday they're going to be using Roadblocks for some other reason, 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.400 like communicating or more working or something like that, and 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.000 then they're going to be, oh gosh, as like forest 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:14.920 to the Roadblocks. Hi everyone, I'm Emily Chang and welcome 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:16.840 to this edition of the bloom Brook Studio One point 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.360 Oh podcast. On this edition of Boombrook Studio at one 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.480 point Oh, we're speaking with Roadblocks CEO and co founder 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:29.400 David Bazuki, or as he's known on Roadblocks Builderman, a 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.920 portmanteau of robots and blocks. Roadblocks started as a three 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.400 D world where users could build, share, and play games. 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.720 Thanks to the pandemic, it has boomed into a global 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.760 online gaming juggernaut that kids are obsessed with, racking up 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:47.560 ten billion plus hours on the platform a quarter. It's 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.640 been a slow build. Roadblocks launched in two thousand four 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.880 and was building its version of the Metaverse long before 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.960 Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook's name to Meta. In this episode, 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.040 Bazooky paints his vision for the immersive and interconnected future 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.720 where users can not only play roller coaster games, but 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:10.000 attend town halls, go to school, industry conferences, concerts, and 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.080 even political rallies one day. Is this future really possible? 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.440 And how far out is it? And how do we 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:21.000 cultivate a civil digital society within it that keeps kids safe? 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:23.720 Joining me now on this edition of Bloombrook Studio At 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.160 one point Oh, Roadblocks CEO and co founder, David Buzuki. 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.040 David's so great to have you here. I really appreciate it. 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.080 It's wonderful to be with you. Well, I'm a parent, 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.800 I'm a mom, and so I've been really excited um 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.000 to have this conversation for parents and anyone out there 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.440 who still doesn't quite understand what exactly our kids doing 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:48.359 on roadblocks. Yeah, kids on roadblocks aren't just playing, they're learning. 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.920 They're hanging out together when they can't be together in 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.160 real life. They're hanging out on roadblocks. They could be 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.840 playing hide and go seek. They could be pretending they're 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.920 running a store or a pizza arler. They could be 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:05.079 making the next big game or adventure. So it's really 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.480 a wide range of things, and it involves doing things together, 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.440 pretending you're together. So right now it's mostly games or 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.760 experiences for kids by kids. How old are these players, 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.200 How old are these developers? Yeah, so what's really exciting. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.880 It's almost like in the old days people to have 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.560 a paper route or something like that, and now in 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.600 today's world, we see young players starting to build these 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.679 experiences on roadblocks. And one thing that a lot of 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.760 people don't realize everything on Roadblocks has been built by 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:40.520 the community, millions of experiences, avatars, what people wear, the clothing, 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.800 all of that. We have young players who are getting 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.360 interested in coding, who are getting interested in designing things. 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.280 But more and more of the community on Roadblocks has 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.920 blossomed into this super rich ecosystem. Thousands of developers making 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:57.920 a living on the platform. Some of the studios this 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.600 year will have over a hundred people in the studio. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.080 Some of these developers are making tens or twenties or 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.840 fifty millions of dollars a year. A lot of people 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:08.920 are starting to make a living on the platform. So 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.280 how many of these developers are really kids? And how 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.920 many of these developers are now grown ups? Yeah, well 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.280 I think two million plus developers. A lot of them 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.279 are grown ups, and more and more, in addition to 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.800 the natural organic people that started on Roadblocks, we're starting 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.040 to studios come in on the platform as well. Professional 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.440 game developers who are developing on other platforms starting to 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.359 take a look at it. So our developer demo naturally 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:38.080 leans a little bit older, although we've had kids as 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.400 young as thirteen come to our developer conference and actually 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.840 pay to bring their parents to the Developer Conference, which 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.160 is ACT, which is amazing. Of the users on roadblocks, 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.240 which there's over fifty million every day we recently passed, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:56.160 the majority of them are over thirteen rather than under thirteen, 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.320 so they've they've grown up with us and they've stayed 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.680 with us. Interesting. Is there something about preserving the ability 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.240 for young kids to be able to make games for 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.520 other kids? I mean, because obviously if you have you know, 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:13.880 fancy studios muscling in UM, does that change the dynamic 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:15.760 of the PLATF I think it does. I think we 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:20.880 see more interesting new ideas that are maybe riskier that 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.719 we might not see from a professional game studio. We 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:28.480 see interesting game dynamics. UM. One of my favorite experiences 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.720 as natural disasters that's been on the platform forever by 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.400 one of our early developers. It's not the kind of 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.680 thing that I think a normal studio would ever think of, 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.520 but when developed by young creator, you know, we're gonna 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:44.839 be we're gonna be hanging out together and there's gonna 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:46.679 be a hurricane and we've got to like run away 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:48.960 from it, or there's gonna be a lightning storm, like 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.080 that kind of stuff. We see a lot of that 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:56.160 creative gameplay coming from the younger developers. Um, what were 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.680 you into as a kid? Were you a gamer? I 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.360 was kind of a nerd when I was a kid. 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.240 I was studied really hard. I luckily grew up in 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.880 Eden Prairie, Minnesota. At the time, it was out in 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.640 the boonies from Minneapolis, Minnesota's there were sand pits and 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:14.600 so we did a lot of model rockets, and we 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.160 built go carts, and you know, it's kind of one 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.080 of these idyllic childhoods. The one key thing that happened 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.360 to me very early on as we had a computer 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.600 lab in the school, and then my parents bought me 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:27.919 an Apple two at the time, and that kind of 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.360 got me interested in this. I also heard you were 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.839 the captain of your high school TV quiz team. Yeah, 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:38.400 so think of think of Minnesota in the nineteen seventies 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:43.640 and eighties where every weekend two different schools compete for 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:47.080 students from each school, you know, in a really funny 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.159 four by four configurations on a quizzble thing. So yeah, 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.160 Eden Prairie had a pretty good quiz Bowl team. I 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.400 love that. You eventually made it to Silicon Valley, went 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:01.320 to Stanford. You started a company called knowledge revolution in 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.000 the eighties where users could create and test physics experiments. 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:09.200 That's right. So the science kid in you coming to life. Yeah, 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.559 you know, went to school, had a couple of hard 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.920 years with jobs that weren't really that exciting. Took a 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.640 few months off and I got really excited about there's 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.920 this whole blossoming educational software marketplace in the Macintosh had 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.240 just been introduced, and it was just really interesting, exciting. 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:27.720 I did a survey of all of that, and a 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:31.160 lot of the educational software was very pre canned. So 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.360 when we looked at physics, it was a whole different idea. 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.440 Could we make a wide open laboratory where you could 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:41.240 build anything, any physics experiment, bring it to life, measure it, 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.480 see what it feels like. And a funny anecdote of 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.560 all of that is when we went to watch students 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.480 playing with interactive physics at the time, a lot of 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.560 them were just building stuff, building cars and buildings and 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:58.320 playing around. Really, you sold that company, made some money, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.280 you became an investor, and you invested in friends Ster. 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.800 Oh yeah, wow, I had a friends Store account. I'm 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:07.920 dating myself a little bit here, but I had a 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.160 friend's stir account. Um, I'm curious what you learned from 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.880 the early days of social media. Yeah, so one thing 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.280 I learned is it was really fun to invest, but 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.760 it's not my sweet spot. Like my sweet spot is 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.040 trying to build and create things. I remember I think 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:27.720 having account number seventy nine on Friends there and just 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:32.080 seeing that wonderful thing of finding other people friend of friends, 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.679 playing around with that early user interface. It's a little 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.839 bit almost thinking of interactive physics where we were simulating 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.480 the world, and then friends they're seeing how important social is. 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:44.719 Those are a couple of the components that have come 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:49.520 together in roadblocks. Google almost bought friends stir right, and 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.600 I don't know, but those are the early days of 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.800 social networking, you know, Friendster or kid my Space, pre Facebook. 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:59.240 I mean, this was things were just getting rolling. I 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.360 just wonder if that had happened, what if something might 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.760 have been different? Right? Yeah, I hate to, of course 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:09.080 roll back the clock on that company. Um, you know, 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.560 there there were some things I think that added friction 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.120 to them, and ultimately they didn't end up being the 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:19.040 dominant player. Any thoughts about Twitter, who should buy it? Oh? 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.560 Such a difficult thing, you know, I think the philosophical question, 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:27.080 is Twitter and newspaper that's heavily edited, or is it 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.319 a platform which is kind of the spigot of all 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.120 the world's information or somewhere in between. Is a very 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.800 difficult job to be the CEO of Twitter and figure 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.679 out what how do we moderate? What's our vision of 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.120 what kind of content is on that platform? Do you 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.480 think Elon Musk could do it better than the job 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.400 has been done so far. I'm a big believer in 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.720 these platforms trying to have a lot of consistency, and 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.679 we think about right now roadblocks when we think about 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.160 how we run civility and safety, which is just so 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.920 important for us. Because we lean so heavily into civility 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.680 and safety, we almost have an easier job. Whereas a 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:08.160 platform like Twitter, with just such a wide range of 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:12.839 stories and news and people. What is information? What is disinformation? 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.000 What is fact? What is not? I think it's a 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.719 very difficult job. Interesting, So what do you think the 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:22.120 solution is we, I mean are I'll talk about roadblocks 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.839 and our vision because we we do imagine there's a 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:29.240 time when platforms like Roadblocks are for play, for learning, 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:34.280 for working together. Someday there may even be political rallies 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.600 on a platform like Roadblocks, and so thinking through when 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.360 would we allow that, when would we not? It takes 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:43.760 a lot of visionary thinking. One thing that's very interesting 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.880 about these platforms is that we do have a set 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:50.320 of laws and guidelines and things that we're used to 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.720 in the real world. Like we're we kind of know 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:54.880 what we can do in the physical world. Could you 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.120 do this? Some things, of course we could. We can 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.120 rent a stadium, we can get together with people. Some 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.079 things of course we can't. You know, we can't call 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:06.000 for violence, we can't sell certain things. So tuning in 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.319 on the laws of the physical world is actually an 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.560 interesting starting point for thinking about how we might run 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.360 a metaverse that someday has a lot of different people 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.360 on it. So when you started Roadblocks in two thousand four, 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:22.520 were you thinking about any of this or what was 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.440 the idea back then? I wasn't thinking about this question 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.440 right now, which is so difficult. Um what I was 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.520 thinking about And I think this started well beyond before 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.240 two thousand four. There was a trip I was taking once. 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.840 I was driving across the country to northern Canada. It 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.880 was snowing for two days. I was visiting my grandparents, 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.320 and in the midst of that, the feeling of this 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:49.000 new category for me started feeling almost inexorable. It's a 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.200 category that people have been talking about in sci fi 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.640 for many, many years. We've seen futurists talk about it. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.680 We've seen a lot of movies. So I started seeing 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.600 this category is going to happen. But we weren't thinking 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.200 about all these complex issues. We were thinking, Yes, immersive 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:11.640 three D coexperience. What's the next evolution from the from 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.240 you know, telephone to video call to immersive three D call. 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.079 That started to seem very very natural. Kids flocked to 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.160 Roadblocks during the pandemic. We went public in the middle 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:27.720 of the pandemic. Dollar market cap we spoke on that day. 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.120 Even you have said that kind of growth won't keep up. 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.640 What kind of growth can we expect from roadblocks in 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.920 normal times? Yeah, well this is It's what's so exciting 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:42.120 for us running this company. It's almost as if um 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.560 it's ten years after Mr Bell developed the phone. You know, 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.600 it's very early on in this, but this is ultimately 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.440 a category we believe every It's gonna be a part 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:53.960 of all of our lives. It's going to be the 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.960 way we communicate how people get to go to school 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.760 when they can't get into school, how people they're going 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.600 to go to school in roadblocks. I think ultimately some 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.200 people who can't go to physical school will use immersive 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:09.160 three D technology to go beyond video school, so that 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.760 if we if I happen to be taking my science 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.400 class and I can't get into the classroom and we're 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:19.200 dissecting a frog, will probably dissect a frog in something 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.200 like roadblocks on a simulation, which I think is going 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.240 to be very, very powerful. And for our company, where 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:26.920 there's a lot of people that are going to end 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.439 up working all around the world, some of us will 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.600 be in the office, some won't. Having a common three 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:36.479 D place where we can have those water cooler conversations 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.000 where everyone has a desk, but we get that serendipitous 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:41.960 thing where we both happen to go over and chat. 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.640 I think also is going to be very big. So 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.400 UM this is a very big category. I believe it's 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.959 ultimately going to be just as natural as video or phone. 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:56.120 We're all gonna have it. But it's very early on 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.320 in that UM. There are now more than two million 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.600 experience ances on roadblocks right you mentioned the possibility of 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:07.280 political rallies. We've seen concerts. A Little nas concert drew 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:13.880 thirty three million people. How is it that experiences right 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.880 now rise to the top and how do you see 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:22.000 that evolving as the platform grows. Yeah, so it's really exciting. 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:26.000 I met Little Naz at the Grammys. Awesome, And the 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.600 concert was really exciting for us because for artists who 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:34.840 are used to either Okay, I'm music online streaming or 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.920 I'm doing a physical concert. It's almost as if it's 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.840 the third possible way. It's an immersive, three D concert 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:46.080 where so many people can come. What was his feedback, Oh, 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.160 we talked about the songs that we used. I shared 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.160 that I watched the concert with my daughter. Um. I 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.720 got a really great picture with him. He was very 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.160 busy because he had just performed, so we didn't get 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.080 to hang out too much. Um. But anyways, No, I 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.360 I do think that, I mean, artists really excited about 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.680 that this potential, right, I think so, I mean it's 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.160 it's almost like when Disney said We're going from black 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.840 and white to color. There's a new medium here for artists. 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.120 I really think this is a third way to perform 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.240 and connect with fans, and I can see I see 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.760 a future where artists who might want a more intimate venue, 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:25.000 maybe a thousand people, they can connect with simul performing 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:28.600 with a live audience of a thousand and a digital 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.280 audience of ten million, all at the same time, so 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.040 they can kind of get feedback from that. So I 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.800 really think it's early and it's a huge opportunity for 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.000 artists to connect with their fans. So what happens to 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:45.000 real world concerts? What changes about the real world if 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.040 there are so many opportunities in the digital world. I 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.200 think real world concerts are here forever. I mean, they're 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.160 so intimate and they're so awesome. But I think what 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:59.080 may happen is some artists may choose more intimate venues 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.720 where you know, the fans they're participating with our closer 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.359 to them, so they can connect and make eye contact 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.480 and all of that. And it may be that the 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.160 fans that are all the way in the top of 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.680 the stadium still want to be there in person, so 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.240 that's not going to go away. But instead of sixty 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.880 thou fans, I think there'll be ten million fans and 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:21.960 there'll be a lot more room for other fans. There's 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:24.120 a big concern about how, you know, the rise of 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:29.680 digital experiences or the metaverse will impact real world connections, 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.680 real life connections. So you know, you and I have 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.440 done interviews virtually, and I can say, sitting with you 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.640 here right now, it's a it's a totally different and 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:41.760 much richer experience. Do you worry about that at all? Yeah, 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.040 we think about this a lot, and we think about 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.960 other technologies that have influenced that. You know, the telephone, 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:52.880 pure audio versus in person. It's sometimes harder to get 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.440 a connection when we're on the phone then we're in person. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.160 We're pretty optimistic about this, and we're pretty optimistic that 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:05.040 between all all the different ways people connect phone, video, SMS, 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:09.760 ultimately super high quality immersive three D, the people will 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:14.120 naturally choose the balance of them. But yeah, even within 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.879 our companies, M me personally, I think it's hard to 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.520 beat physical connection in most cases. Everybody is talking about 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.840 the metaverse as something that's going to happen in the future, 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.080 but there's an argument to be made that Roadblocks has 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.400 already built a metaverse. What do you think I think 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.200 we've started And um, it goes back to how exciting 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.800 it is to have a company in this space that 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.960 I think is ultimately got so many years of growth 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.960 to it, and as a new category following other types 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:47.440 of technologies, there's still so much innovation to be done 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:49.760 and there's so much invention to be done in this 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.560 category that's mind boggling. We're still very far away from 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.320 that that little nas concert having fifty thousand people in 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.880 the stadium and having it feel real. Um, we're still 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.919 far away from when you and I communicate rather than 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:05.880 calling on the phone, we're gonna do a roadblocks three 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.800 D call. You know, we're ways away from that. So's 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.000 just still so much innovation and invention to happen here. 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.640 The critics think that metaverse, the term is just marketing. 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.159 How do you respond to that? Yeah, I I really 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.840 think this is a huge new category, going all the 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.440 way back to snow crash. You know, it's inexorable. This 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.160 type of technology is much more difficult than the net 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.040 or the web, which was another huge thing that we 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.639 saw predicted and has started to come. But but I 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.320 think we're seeing early signs of it. We're seeing in 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:42.520 addition to playing on roadblocks um first robotics, for example, 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:47.199 getting into learning where you know, building robots in a competition. 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.520 Not everyone has access to all of that hardware and 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.560 all of those tools. So starting to think about, oh 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.280 my gosh, there's a digital version of it where we 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.560 can build their robots together and go compete. We're starting 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.040 to see those kind of things, and so I'm I'm 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.600 very optimistic that this category is really big. When Mark 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.600 Zuckerberg announced his plan to own the metaverse and change 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.080 Facebook's name to Meta as if it was something new, 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:16.000 did that kind of bother you, Um, No, of course not. 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:19.480 I mean, this is the This is so big and 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:23.320 so early, it's really hard to predict. In five to 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.480 ten or twenty years, what are the companies that really 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:30.000 figure it out. And there's so many elements of innovation 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:34.040 that are needed. Um, having a U g C community 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:35.880 one of our strengths. We think that's like a huge 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.119 starting point for us. But we're early in our quest 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.520 for innovation here. I think having these platforms based on 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:48.280 civility is a huge thing. I'm very proud that we 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.520 started from a younger audience because we've had to focus 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.919 so much on that. So so thinking of these platforms 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.200 is a place where the world ultimately gets better. People 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:01.159 learn civility on platforms like this, maybe even where they 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.560 don't in the real world. So I'm very optimistic about that. 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:07.760 Are you optimistic about Meta's ability to do that? Because 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.760 I've spoken to other gaming executives who don't think Facebook 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.199 is an innovative company. You know, I can't call like 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:18.199 I get. I think everyone's trying really hard, and I 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:23.560 think everyone realizes this is a huge emerging opportunity. Once again, 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:28.280 following on telephone video, what's it going to be? It's 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.000 still so early. Every company is trying to figure out 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.760 their own view of this. It's so early that everyone 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:36.879 has a different viewpoint on what this is. And the 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.160 key point is, I think there's five or ten more 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.040 big inventions and innovations that are going to have to 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:47.840 happen along the way to make this possible. So still 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:52.400 very early. Roadblocks has built a huge business selling row bucks, 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.040 the in game currency. I want you to talk to 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.080 us a little bit about what that is. You can 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.480 use it to buy a new outfit for your avatar, 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:04.480 for example. Does this evolve into a much bigger marketplace? Well, 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.679 I think, um, this is how we've been able to 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:11.800 go from hobbyists to that paper route for a thirteen 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:14.399 year old who maybe earns a hundred dollars a month, 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.480 to deciding whether to make this a full time job, 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.480 to start a studio, and everything in between. And it 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.879 was this revelation that people would ultimately make a living 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.680 on platforms like this that started this digital currency is 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.520 very roadblocks centric in that where a system's company or utility. 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.159 So rather than being a roadblocks way that people monetize, 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:43.200 our developers are very creative. They in birds Simulator UM 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.000 it's all free. The majority of people on our platform 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:48.879 never pay anything, but if you want to be an 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.720 eagle more quickly, you can use a few roebucks and 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.680 the developer will contribute that. Or if you want to 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.320 buy motor scooter and work at a pizza place, you 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:00.199 can use a few roebucks. So it has formed this 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.639 robust economy. It's allowed us to keep robocks, you know, 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.520 roadblocks is free for the vast majority, and it's created 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.359 this new living. I think it's very very early because 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.240 as we start to get into UM ways of working 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:18.520 on platforms like this, on concerts, on other forms, there's 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:22.919 a there's a huge economic opportunity on this platform. So 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:27.000 you have Roebucks. Meta is working on something similar. Internally, 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:32.000 they call it zack Box again you Um, we're very 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:35.280 proud of Roebucks, right, it's it's tied into our name. 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:38.560 UM would Roadblocks have a partner with some of these 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:41.679 other companies working on the metaverse, whether it is Meta 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:47.119