1
00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:12,600
Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with

2
00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:16,599
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm

3
00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:20,840
Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My

4
00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:25,040
Speaker 1: guest is Jim land Zone, CEO of Tinder. Tinder is

5
00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:28,840
Speaker 1: one of the Internet's most recognizable brands. It's the juggernaut

6
00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:32,479
Speaker 1: of online dating services and one of the highest grossing

7
00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:36,280
Speaker 1: non gaming apps in the world. The Tinder has largely

8
00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:40,200
Speaker 1: been a one dimensional experience on the platform until Landzoonne

9
00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:44,160
Speaker 1: arrived last year. He spent the previous decade leading CBS

10
00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:47,680
Speaker 1: Interactive during the Great Disruption brought on by the Dawn

11
00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:51,639
Speaker 1: of streaming. He led the pioneering launch of the CBS

12
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:56,080
Speaker 1: All Access subscription service in twenty fourteen. When he arrived

13
00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:00,720
Speaker 1: at Tinder, Lanzonne realized that content and video based connection

14
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:03,520
Speaker 1: tools would be key to growing the services user base.

15
00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:07,319
Speaker 1: It's gen z consumers have told them that they want

16
00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:11,440
Speaker 1: more immersive experiences, so Tinder is rolling out a host

17
00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:14,920
Speaker 1: of video based bells and whistles. That list includes that

18
00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:19,200
Speaker 1: Choose your Own Adventure TV series dubbed Swipe Night, and

19
00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:22,840
Speaker 1: new tools that allow individuals and small groups to gather

20
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:27,800
Speaker 1: around movies and TV shows and other forms of content. Tinder,

21
00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,600
Speaker 1: which turns ten next year, also has a growing profile

22
00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:35,480
Speaker 1: on TV, including a partnership with the Australian edition of

23
00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:40,080
Speaker 1: the reality series Love Island. In our conversation, lands Own

24
00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:42,959
Speaker 1: offers his thoughts on how the Tinder brand has thrived

25
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,720
Speaker 1: as a digital native, and he weighs in on the

26
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,480
Speaker 1: state of play in the streaming wars from his new

27
00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:52,480
Speaker 1: perch as a well informed consumer. That's all coming up

28
00:01:52,520 --> 00:02:04,560
Speaker 1: after this break, MHM. Welcome back to Strictly Business, Jim

29
00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:07,560
Speaker 1: Land's Own CEO of Pinder. Thank you so much for

30
00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:12,640
Speaker 1: joining me today. Good beer, Cynthia, So, Jim, you spent

31
00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:16,000
Speaker 1: almost ten years in the deep in the world of

32
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:20,800
Speaker 1: traditional media in CBS, and you were one of the

33
00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:24,639
Speaker 1: one of the people that brought CBS into the century

34
00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:29,200
Speaker 1: with the launch of I will say it the industry's

35
00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:37,640
Speaker 1: first mainstream subscription streaming service to take mainstream television assets

36
00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:40,240
Speaker 1: like CBS. It doesn't get more mainstream TV than that.

37
00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:47,080
Speaker 1: Into the online O T T direct consumer world, into

38
00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:51,079
Speaker 1: the online O T T direct to consumer world. All

39
00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:55,120
Speaker 1: the buzzwords that everybody's talking about now you were tackling

40
00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,680
Speaker 1: almost ten years ago, the CBS with the very successful

41
00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:01,359
Speaker 1: launch of CBS All Acts, which is now morphed into

42
00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,440
Speaker 1: a paramount plus and is now pretty much the centerpiece

43
00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:10,160
Speaker 1: of the entire viacom. CBS is future growth plan. So

44
00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:12,920
Speaker 1: you know, quite a foundation that you helped launch. But

45
00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:17,400
Speaker 1: almost a year ago now you left CBS and back

46
00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:23,040
Speaker 1: to venture capital world and the world of entrepreneurialism. And

47
00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:25,920
Speaker 1: and as in that journey you wound up the Tinder.

48
00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:29,040
Speaker 1: How did all the experience of the previous ten years

49
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:35,920
Speaker 1: inform how you laid out a plan for Tinder? Yeah, well, look,

50
00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:40,560
Speaker 1: I I my whole career, even going back before CBS,

51
00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,360
Speaker 1: has been Internet products. And I spent almost a decade

52
00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:47,760
Speaker 1: in search and navigation. And then my startup Clicker that

53
00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,600
Speaker 1: we sold the CBS was you know, at the next

54
00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:54,560
Speaker 1: generation TV guide meets search engine. That's how you got

55
00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:59,840
Speaker 1: the very beginning of streaming. Uh. And you know, and CBS.

56
00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:02,360
Speaker 1: You know where I really ran was CBS Interactive, which

57
00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:06,920
Speaker 1: had all these different divisions and thirty plus brands across entertainment, sports, news,

58
00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,880
Speaker 1: tech gaming. So what I really love to do is

59
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,880
Speaker 1: Internet products. Uh. And you know when When the opportunity

60
00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:16,719
Speaker 1: move to Tinder came up, it's just it's one of

61
00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,360
Speaker 1: these iconic brands. It's it's probably one of the most

62
00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,800
Speaker 1: iconic brands in Internet history. And the chance to take

63
00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:27,320
Speaker 1: what they had built uh in this space and really

64
00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,040
Speaker 1: you know, blow it out over over the next uh,

65
00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:33,719
Speaker 1: you know generation of what that brand could become. I

66
00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:35,960
Speaker 1: just thought it was an incredible opportunity. And in my

67
00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,200
Speaker 1: mind it was you know, Tinder had really redefined the

68
00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:43,159
Speaker 1: category of how to meet somebody online. But with that brand,

69
00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:46,280
Speaker 1: like with you know, several internet brands, it starts as

70
00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:49,360
Speaker 1: one thing, but it could become a platform if you

71
00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:52,480
Speaker 1: start to kind of break it apart, uh and and

72
00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,400
Speaker 1: think about all the different ways you could take that brand.

73
00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:58,000
Speaker 1: And so that was about a year ago that I joined.

74
00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,480
Speaker 1: Now and you know, we can talk about all the

75
00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:02,919
Speaker 1: all the ways we're gonna take it, but about a

76
00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:05,600
Speaker 1: month ago we had you know, I would say, is

77
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,800
Speaker 1: my first major product launched since I joined. One of

78
00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,200
Speaker 1: the biggest things that we launched was was video, which

79
00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:15,360
Speaker 1: hadn't existed on the platform before. So Tender members are

80
00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:19,760
Speaker 1: now able to upload videos of themselves, um and show

81
00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,120
Speaker 1: off more about themselves express themselves differently. I should say

82
00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:24,760
Speaker 1: at this point that you know, more than half of

83
00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,960
Speaker 1: our audience is gen Z So it's very much meeting

84
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,159
Speaker 1: them where they are and how they want to express themselves.

85
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:34,239
Speaker 1: But we also announced uh what we're calling the Explore tab,

86
00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,400
Speaker 1: which is going to be an area of Tinder where

87
00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:41,320
Speaker 1: you could do all kinds of things, uh, from you know,

88
00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:46,920
Speaker 1: from experiencing uh piece of media with another person or

89
00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:50,160
Speaker 1: with groups of people, um, you know, to all these

90
00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:54,080
Speaker 1: different ways now that you can uh discover people within

91
00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:57,799
Speaker 1: tender and um. And so that is is a huge

92
00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:00,640
Speaker 1: new opportunity for us down a more multi dimensional or

93
00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:05,280
Speaker 1: multimedia pathway. And we're just getting started without Okay, now

94
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:08,200
Speaker 1: I have to ask you the idea of people uploading

95
00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:12,320
Speaker 1: video to Tinder. You must have some content guidelines. Are

96
00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:15,599
Speaker 1: there specific maybe parts of the body that you don't

97
00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:19,320
Speaker 1: want them to do? Yeah? Well, well, look, I mean

98
00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:24,200
Speaker 1: the especially for gen xers and people. You know, we

99
00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:27,279
Speaker 1: kind of came to the tinderbrand a while ago. You know.

100
00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:29,760
Speaker 1: The thing is at this point, Tinder is number one

101
00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:33,640
Speaker 1: in over a hundred and ten countries. Uh. It is

102
00:06:34,279 --> 00:06:37,840
Speaker 1: the number one grossing app in the world for non

103
00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:42,560
Speaker 1: gaming apps, and it's much more than U. You know,

104
00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:46,200
Speaker 1: people upload photos of themselves or videos of themselves now

105
00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:48,880
Speaker 1: in order to help meet the right person. Now we're

106
00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:52,320
Speaker 1: not judgmental about that. Could be that might you know,

107
00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:54,840
Speaker 1: be one date, and it may be getting married. I

108
00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,440
Speaker 1: mean there are status that basically show that tinders the

109
00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:00,440
Speaker 1: number one source of marriage in the United States. Uh

110
00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:03,280
Speaker 1: and everything in between. You know, we facilitate that. Well,

111
00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,680
Speaker 1: we're great at is the matching right is bringing to

112
00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:09,840
Speaker 1: people together. A lot of cases people who didn't you

113
00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,160
Speaker 1: wouldn't have normally met or you wouldn't expect to be

114
00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,760
Speaker 1: attracted to um. And so you know, their incentives to

115
00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:19,480
Speaker 1: upload something about themselves that shows them off them rock

116
00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:22,520
Speaker 1: climbing them at a forty niners game, you know, their dog.

117
00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:26,600
Speaker 1: A photo is pretty one dimensional for that. And a

118
00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:30,680
Speaker 1: video again, especially for gen Z, which lives in forms

119
00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:34,600
Speaker 1: of social media entirely in video in a more natural

120
00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:38,560
Speaker 1: way to express themselves. But I have to ask, I mean,

121
00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:42,160
Speaker 1: do you have guidelines there? So one of one of

122
00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,000
Speaker 1: our one we have three main product groups. The one

123
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,920
Speaker 1: of those is trust and safety and so on a

124
00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:55,840
Speaker 1: global basis, whether it's fighting spam or fraud um or yes, uh,

125
00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:59,040
Speaker 1: you know, content moderation. Those are all things that we cover.

126
00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:03,119
Speaker 1: It's not just uh images, it could also be somebody

127
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,040
Speaker 1: saying something you don't like. All kinds of AI that's

128
00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:08,760
Speaker 1: in there that alert to you and says, you know,

129
00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:11,560
Speaker 1: did this offend you? Or we actually now and we

130
00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:14,720
Speaker 1: just launched this in uh the first half of the year,

131
00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:18,520
Speaker 1: we have something that intercepts somebody and says are you short,

132
00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:21,600
Speaker 1: like meaning are you sure you want to send that?

133
00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:25,400
Speaker 1: Because we can actually sniff out that it might be offensive. Uh.

134
00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:29,440
Speaker 1: And that's that's purely AI. I mean, that's that part

135
00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:30,800
Speaker 1: of that part of I mean, we have a huge

136
00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:34,079
Speaker 1: team behind it obviously, both on product and on member experience,

137
00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:37,880
Speaker 1: like uh, you know, working with people on that. But um,

138
00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:40,520
Speaker 1: but yeah, look, we there's no company in this space

139
00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:46,240
Speaker 1: that puts more resources or technology or manpower people power

140
00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:50,760
Speaker 1: into moderation. Uh. And you know, in addition to safety

141
00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,000
Speaker 1: and so that is part and parcel of how we

142
00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:55,800
Speaker 1: how we do this. It's also one reason why we

143
00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:59,960
Speaker 1: launched in English speaking countries first, because that's where those

144
00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:02,400
Speaker 1: technologies are are the most developed, and then we'll roll

145
00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:04,400
Speaker 1: them out around the world. You know as we go

146
00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:08,120
Speaker 1: or in a hundred and nine countries. That's that's a

147
00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:12,000
Speaker 1: that's a that's a that's a wide footprint print of

148
00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:16,480
Speaker 1: bringing people to model languages to to deal with And

149
00:09:16,520 --> 00:09:18,920
Speaker 1: I know that you know from our conversations, I know

150
00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:21,560
Speaker 1: that in addition, you know, you've added video for for

151
00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:25,520
Speaker 1: people that the people on the site can communicate through

152
00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:28,640
Speaker 1: video now. But I know you have also some ambitions

153
00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:31,320
Speaker 1: in the television era, you have ambitions for video for

154
00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:35,440
Speaker 1: Tinder that are in the you know, beyond the individual

155
00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:39,480
Speaker 1: user video. It's been one of the richest areas for

156
00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,120
Speaker 1: innovation for us. And I think something that you know,

157
00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:44,400
Speaker 1: we now have a multi year roadmap ahead of us.

158
00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:47,080
Speaker 1: Some things that we could do. Um you know, look,

159
00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:48,880
Speaker 1: one thing that people want to do is more ways

160
00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:51,800
Speaker 1: to express themselves on on Tinder. Another thing is they

161
00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:55,199
Speaker 1: want more ways to navigate. So rather than just uh

162
00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:57,680
Speaker 1: you know, leaning back and letting us do the matching

163
00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:00,439
Speaker 1: with our algorithms and our product, people want to lean

164
00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:04,160
Speaker 1: forward and actually choose some of the pathways. So uh

165
00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:06,480
Speaker 1: so we're launching many different ways to navigate. So you

166
00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,360
Speaker 1: can just look at at thrill seekers or people who

167
00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:13,400
Speaker 1: have pets, and and just navigate that way. But the

168
00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,559
Speaker 1: more robust version of this is they want experiences within

169
00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:21,120
Speaker 1: Tender that they can they can participate in as a

170
00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:23,560
Speaker 1: way of meeting people, which really, if you think about it,

171
00:10:23,679 --> 00:10:26,880
Speaker 1: mirrors real life. Right. No matter how you met somebody

172
00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:29,520
Speaker 1: in real life, whether it was at a bar, at school,

173
00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:32,760
Speaker 1: um it you know you then we go do things

174
00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:34,760
Speaker 1: together and this is how you would figure out, you know,

175
00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,520
Speaker 1: whether you like somebody or what you had in common. Um,

176
00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:39,480
Speaker 1: those are all things that we can bring to the

177
00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:43,920
Speaker 1: to the app itself, not because we want to compete

178
00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:47,200
Speaker 1: with entertainment. In fact, we want to partner with entertainment

179
00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:51,040
Speaker 1: because our job is not to get attention, to monetize,

180
00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:53,880
Speaker 1: you know, through advertising, or to help you get followers

181
00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:56,760
Speaker 1: or likes. Our our jobs connect you with the right person.

182
00:10:57,800 --> 00:10:59,360
Speaker 1: So there's all kinds of always that we can partner

183
00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:01,720
Speaker 1: with with me of partners to bring that into the app.

184
00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,880
Speaker 1: And one thing that we did and this actually predated

185
00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:08,560
Speaker 1: me at first and then we launched it again last October,

186
00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:14,280
Speaker 1: was our own uh episodic essentially television show as you

187
00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:18,080
Speaker 1: and I would think about it, streaming television show within Tender,

188
00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:22,000
Speaker 1: and it was a grand slam in terms of how

189
00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:27,400
Speaker 1: many people participated and what it drove in terms of engagement. Um. So,

190
00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:31,280
Speaker 1: it was called swipe Knight and it was an event,

191
00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:35,600
Speaker 1: multi episodic over several weekends, and it was a choose

192
00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:38,079
Speaker 1: your own adventure television show. You know, the one you

193
00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:40,439
Speaker 1: would that should come to mind for you is is

194
00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:44,720
Speaker 1: you know the Bandersnatch episode of Black Mirror right where

195
00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:48,199
Speaker 1: it was their choose your own Adventure attempt at Netflix.

196
00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:51,960
Speaker 1: Swite Knight was that within Tender, except it was it

197
00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:54,839
Speaker 1: was actually interactive physically, like with your finger. You were

198
00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:58,560
Speaker 1: swiping through and you were choosing in the show what

199
00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:02,360
Speaker 1: would happen next? So you know, does somebody go downstairs?

200
00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:06,920
Speaker 1: You know, does somebody Actually? Rico Nasty was actually in

201
00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:10,280
Speaker 1: it driving. It was an end of the world theme.

202
00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:12,559
Speaker 1: There was a kind of like this is the end

203
00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:15,880
Speaker 1: with Seth Rogan, but uh, you know, the world is

204
00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,120
Speaker 1: kind of ending and you could get into time for

205
00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:21,280
Speaker 1: last year I'm guessing exactly. You can get in the

206
00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:23,520
Speaker 1: car threeco Nasty and go one way. You could save

207
00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:25,480
Speaker 1: the dog, you know, They're all these different things you

208
00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:28,160
Speaker 1: could do, and at the end you would be dropped

209
00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:31,200
Speaker 1: into you, you would be massed with people who had

210
00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:33,840
Speaker 1: the same outcomes that you did and had made the

211
00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:36,720
Speaker 1: same decisions that you did. Uh. And it drove a

212
00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:42,200
Speaker 1: increase in messages between people and matches. And we just

213
00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:45,480
Speaker 1: won four Grand pre Awards at can Lions just for

214
00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:50,199
Speaker 1: that first attempt. So what we're announcing now here, this

215
00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:52,440
Speaker 1: is the first time I'm talking about, is we'll have

216
00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:56,240
Speaker 1: We'll have season two of Swipe Night in the fall. Um.

217
00:12:56,280 --> 00:12:59,480
Speaker 1: It's gonna have a really interesting theme and be even

218
00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:01,800
Speaker 1: more in active with some of the products that we've

219
00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:05,960
Speaker 1: recently launched embedded into it. But would you ever just

220
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:10,600
Speaker 1: do a flat out Tinder branded dating show or reality show?

221
00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:13,880
Speaker 1: I don't use to break on that, but I would

222
00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:18,280
Speaker 1: say you never know. But actually, in a serious, um

223
00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,240
Speaker 1: sort of serious way, could there could there be Well,

224
00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:23,600
Speaker 1: certainly there could be a downside to something like that,

225
00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,880
Speaker 1: But at this point with an established brand, is that

226
00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,720
Speaker 1: since it seems like such a natural, I gotta believe

227
00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:32,960
Speaker 1: that they're somebody along the way has said, maybe that's

228
00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:34,959
Speaker 1: not right for this brand? Is there? You know? Because

229
00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:37,240
Speaker 1: people tend to think of TV is the end all

230
00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:41,280
Speaker 1: and be all, but maybe not. We were approached weekly

231
00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:45,240
Speaker 1: on this for for the Tinder brand. So yeah, I

232
00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:47,959
Speaker 1: think um to your point. I mean, I think it's

233
00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:50,720
Speaker 1: an iconic brand. It definitely has some edge, and it

234
00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:54,040
Speaker 1: also is the number one way people meet for relationships, uh,

235
00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:59,440
Speaker 1: you know, in in over a hundred countries. So so

236
00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:01,640
Speaker 1: I think that's why they're coming our way. And you know,

237
00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:03,840
Speaker 1: I think I learned a long time ago you also

238
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:05,800
Speaker 1: have to be careful you partner with and not to

239
00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:08,280
Speaker 1: just say yes to everything. I think if we go

240
00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:11,319
Speaker 1: down that pathway, it'll have to be something pretty special.

241
00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:14,720
Speaker 1: It's interesting though, because again, you're you're at a company,

242
00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:17,480
Speaker 1: at a at a place in its history where you

243
00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:20,760
Speaker 1: know a startup would be dying for any kind of exposure,

244
00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:24,200
Speaker 1: but you don't. You don't need that exposure. So it

245
00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:29,200
Speaker 1: is an interesting and just the technology leap, you know,

246
00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:33,680
Speaker 1: moves ahead, leaps and bounds. You can look at media,

247
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:38,040
Speaker 1: you know how media can help Tinder in very creative

248
00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:41,000
Speaker 1: ways that don't have to fit into the box of

249
00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:43,720
Speaker 1: a half hour show or an hour long show. That

250
00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:45,880
Speaker 1: must be kind of exciting, especially since you have the

251
00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:49,240
Speaker 1: background to really know what's you know, what's possible at

252
00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:52,920
Speaker 1: the high end of production versus what the cutting edge

253
00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:56,400
Speaker 1: tools you have to work with. Yeah, and it was

254
00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:58,720
Speaker 1: again part of what attracted me to the company. And

255
00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:00,920
Speaker 1: I think once you have a mentioned at this level

256
00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:04,000
Speaker 1: in a brand that that that's this good, there's just

257
00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:06,280
Speaker 1: so much history has proven there's so much you can

258
00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:09,480
Speaker 1: do with a brand like that online. So you know, again,

259
00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:11,960
Speaker 1: we're we're just getting started in many ways. And by

260
00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,800
Speaker 1: the way, I mean, we're still just coming out of COVID. Uh.

261
00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:18,880
Speaker 1: You know, I started here a year ago. I still

262
00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:21,040
Speaker 1: have not had a full work day in the office.

263
00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,840
Speaker 1: It has still been all over zoom. So we're we're

264
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,640
Speaker 1: we're cranking relative to to all that. But um, but

265
00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:29,960
Speaker 1: there's a lot more to come, especially in this this

266
00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:33,040
Speaker 1: notion of of multimedia and kind of you know what

267
00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:36,280
Speaker 1: what we internally we have called tender three D just

268
00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:39,160
Speaker 1: a much more multi dimensional version of tender to which

269
00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:42,480
Speaker 1: also allow people to express themselves, you know that way.

270
00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:45,960
Speaker 1: What is the basic kind of ballpark figure for your

271
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:50,400
Speaker 1: platform the number of you know, monthly or annual users

272
00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:55,360
Speaker 1: that you have. Uh, they don't historically give the you

273
00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:57,680
Speaker 1: know what we think of his dow ur now and

274
00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:02,440
Speaker 1: and uh and on on line consumer Internet so men,

275
00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:04,840
Speaker 1: monthly active users and things like that. Those are all

276
00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:09,360
Speaker 1: private numbers, and we're but um, you know, we have

277
00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:13,680
Speaker 1: over seven million subscribers who are you know, very similar

278
00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:17,560
Speaker 1: again to my background the streaming industry. It's a freemium product.

279
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:19,280
Speaker 1: A lot of people use it for free, a certain

280
00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:23,720
Speaker 1: number of people pay for extra features and extra access. Uh.

281
00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:27,760
Speaker 1: And but we we have some incredible broad stats like,

282
00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:32,160
Speaker 1: for example, the majority of of days last year each

283
00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:36,000
Speaker 1: had over three billion swipes per day. We had our

284
00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,480
Speaker 1: first three billion swipe day in March of last year,

285
00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:40,320
Speaker 1: and then we had over a hundred and twenty more

286
00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,680
Speaker 1: during the year, over three point five billion. We tender

287
00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:46,840
Speaker 1: has had over five trillion swipes since inception in two

288
00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:50,560
Speaker 1: thousand twelve. Uh, it's pretty huge. We've had over sixty

289
00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:57,520
Speaker 1: five billion matches of people. Uh. And yeah, again, I

290
00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:59,720
Speaker 1: think sometimes the one that blows people away as tenders

291
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:04,280
Speaker 1: than umber one grossing uh, non gaming. But you know,

292
00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:06,680
Speaker 1: that's how they kind of break out the category app

293
00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:10,159
Speaker 1: in the world. So it's if you think about it,

294
00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:14,600
Speaker 1: above food and shelter, you know, human connection and bring

295
00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:19,440
Speaker 1: people together relationships is probably the next level thing on uh,

296
00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,639
Speaker 1: you know, and and and human needs and and so

297
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:25,560
Speaker 1: you know, that's why I just think it's it's so

298
00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:27,960
Speaker 1: big and why people pay a lot of attention to

299
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,960
Speaker 1: it as a category outside of the subscription fees. What

300
00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:34,679
Speaker 1: what drives that revenue was a partnership because you have

301
00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:38,840
Speaker 1: a traditional advertising. We do have a little bit of advertising,

302
00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:44,080
Speaker 1: not a huge amount on the free products UM the

303
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,800
Speaker 1: the way and so the subscription product, which again is

304
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:50,639
Speaker 1: global UM. There are three levels of it again something

305
00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:54,359
Speaker 1: you might you're familiar with from from OTT services UM

306
00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:56,200
Speaker 1: and then are the only rest of and that's the

307
00:17:56,280 --> 00:17:59,040
Speaker 1: vast majority of our revenue. The rest of it is

308
00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:04,320
Speaker 1: is people paying for individual activities UM to be able

309
00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:07,840
Speaker 1: to see more in the service or be promoted ahead

310
00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:10,160
Speaker 1: of other people in line kind of you know, within

311
00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:13,000
Speaker 1: the service, and you can pay individually for that. And

312
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:15,720
Speaker 1: that differs by regions. You'll see more of that in Asia,

313
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:19,800
Speaker 1: which is our number one growth area right now. UM

314
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:23,640
Speaker 1: and uh, you know versus the subscription service in more

315
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:27,919
Speaker 1: mature markets. UM. But it's actually a pretty simple revenue model.

316
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,399
Speaker 1: And and that's why you know the methods of growth,

317
00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:33,840
Speaker 1: which is always the mission statement really for any CEO

318
00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:37,080
Speaker 1: is growth at the end of the day, um, you know,

319
00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:43,040
Speaker 1: happens on delivering a better consumer experience. Do you see

320
00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:46,520
Speaker 1: any more like you know, kind of more mass marketing

321
00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:51,200
Speaker 1: or even more even more of an image campaign or

322
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:54,080
Speaker 1: a brand messaging campaign. Have you do you feel like

323
00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,760
Speaker 1: the brand is at that stage or do you like

324
00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,480
Speaker 1: being still more of a word of mouth than a

325
00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:04,040
Speaker 1: you know, internet traction type of Yeah, it's hard to

326
00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:07,800
Speaker 1: see Tinder being a classic uh you know, like a

327
00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:12,280
Speaker 1: super Bowl ad kind of a marketer, right. Um. And

328
00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:15,480
Speaker 1: that said, you know, we already are really good partners

329
00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:18,200
Speaker 1: with TikTok and Snap and Instagram and others and as

330
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:21,400
Speaker 1: you know, YouTube and as you know, that's that's every

331
00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:24,400
Speaker 1: bit as important now, especially for the generation that we're targeting.

332
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,080
Speaker 1: So I think there's a lot of ways that we

333
00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:29,199
Speaker 1: can be creative, and you know, we already are with

334
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:31,399
Speaker 1: things like the Love Island partnership and smother things that

335
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:35,320
Speaker 1: we've done. Um, but but it will be interesting to

336
00:19:35,320 --> 00:19:37,000
Speaker 1: see like the different ways that you can take the

337
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,359
Speaker 1: Tinder brand if you start to play offense, which I

338
00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:45,879
Speaker 1: intend to. Don't even think about swiping again. We'll be

339
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,440
Speaker 1: right back with more from Tinder CEO Jim land Zone

340
00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:01,399
Speaker 1: and we're back with Tinder CEO Jim land Zone. Tinder is,

341
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:04,400
Speaker 1: as I understand, found the cornerstone of a large publicly

342
00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:07,680
Speaker 1: traded digital company called Match Group. Can you talk about

343
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:12,400
Speaker 1: sort of how the ecosystem there and how Tinder fits in. Yeah,

344
00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:15,520
Speaker 1: for sure. So and this goes back to my roots too,

345
00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:19,080
Speaker 1: because a long time ago I ran asked jeeves mass

346
00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:21,800
Speaker 1: dot Com within i C, which Barry Diller ran, So

347
00:20:22,359 --> 00:20:26,520
Speaker 1: I worked for Barry for three years. UM, and I see,

348
00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:30,399
Speaker 1: as you know, you know, spins companies out, so they

349
00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:34,480
Speaker 1: owned Expedia. It's spun out Ticketmaster. Uh. And one of

350
00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:37,280
Speaker 1: them was mass Group, which was bought by i C

351
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:39,480
Speaker 1: years ago and incubated over a long period of time,

352
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:43,399
Speaker 1: became its own public company about six years ago, and

353
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:46,240
Speaker 1: Match Group is now a forty five billion dollar market

354
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:51,919
Speaker 1: cap conglomerate essentially of mostly dating apps, um, with Tinder

355
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,200
Speaker 1: being the largest. They owned others like match dot Com,

356
00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:57,840
Speaker 1: which was the original, but also Hinge, which is a

357
00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 1: really up and coming brand which is great in the space.

358
00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:04,680
Speaker 1: Plenty of fish okay cupids, so those are all under

359
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:07,840
Speaker 1: one roof. We also own ones in Japan and Europe

360
00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:10,680
Speaker 1: and other places. One of the most interesting things is

361
00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:13,439
Speaker 1: that uh, you know, match Group is now starting to

362
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,119
Speaker 1: branch out beyond what you would think of as dating.

363
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:19,400
Speaker 1: So we just uh, you know, a couple of months

364
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,320
Speaker 1: ago closed on a deal called for a coming called

365
00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:25,480
Speaker 1: hyper Connect, almost two billion dollars that we spend that company.

366
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 1: They're based in Soul, South Korea, and they're very deep

367
00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:35,199
Speaker 1: into video live streaming, so between individuals or someone's you know,

368
00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:40,080
Speaker 1: broadcasting out themselves with products called Azar and Hakuna, which

369
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:42,280
Speaker 1: you probably haven't heard of, but they're they're huge in

370
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:45,600
Speaker 1: in in Asia and the Middle East. And so that's

371
00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,680
Speaker 1: more what we call social discovery where you're you're which

372
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:52,480
Speaker 1: is another trend among gen z of just meeting people digitally,

373
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,600
Speaker 1: and that really really became a much bigger thing during COVID,

374
00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,080
Speaker 1: where people were stuck at home, they were lonely, and

375
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:03,680
Speaker 1: just meeting people platonically online became a much bigger thing

376
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: again for Tinder. That's never gonna be our objective to Tinder.

377
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,000
Speaker 1: It's about meeting people with the spark with the hope

378
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 1: of something more um but we are seeing a lot

379
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:17,920
Speaker 1: of these apps again developing a new foothold with consumers

380
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,360
Speaker 1: down this pathway of social discovery. And I think that's

381
00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:23,240
Speaker 1: a uh something that match group itself is leaning too

382
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:27,280
Speaker 1: strongly to your point about you know there's food shelter

383
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,800
Speaker 1: and you know, somebody to watch the baseball game with

384
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 1: at night. Um. Clearly, if if there's a billion dollar

385
00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:39,920
Speaker 1: market cap out there and then somebody wants to connect online, Um,

386
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:42,840
Speaker 1: do you see you know, bringing in that a company

387
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,399
Speaker 1: with live with good live streaming technology. Do you see

388
00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: some element of that potentially being added to Tinder down

389
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:51,320
Speaker 1: the run. Yeah, I mean I think that's one of

390
00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:53,840
Speaker 1: the best things about the hyper Connect deal, is it? Really?

391
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,760
Speaker 1: You know, if you run consumer internet products, the one

392
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:04,320
Speaker 1: thing that's always a bottleneck is just your your resources

393
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,040
Speaker 1: and and to to build new things. It's it was true,

394
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,639
Speaker 1: it's CBS all Access. It's true for me a Tinder.

395
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,160
Speaker 1: It's I hear people of Google and Amazon complaining about

396
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 1: not having enough resources sometimes and uh and the hyper

397
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 1: Connect team is beyond world class with many different technologies.

398
00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,480
Speaker 1: Streaming is one of them, VR and a R is

399
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:27,920
Speaker 1: one of them. They have a great avatar platform. There's

400
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 1: a lot of things that we're gonna be able to

401
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:31,960
Speaker 1: bring over to Tinder. Uh. So very excited about that.

402
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: In fact, we were supposed, you know, COVID is against

403
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:36,840
Speaker 1: slowing down us all being able to be together in person.

404
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 1: But that's coming out of COVID. That would be one

405
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,160
Speaker 1: of the biggest, the first things that we do. Well.

406
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 1: It sounds like you have no shortage of plans and

407
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:48,200
Speaker 1: additions and iterations of tinder um. Let me ask you, though,

408
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:49,480
Speaker 1: if I could just ask you to step back a

409
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 1: little bit, having been early into the space and now

410
00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: that you're a little bit outside of the the core

411
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: of the television world, what I'd love your perceptions on

412
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,400
Speaker 1: sort of how the dynamics, how the streaming wars are

413
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 1: shaping up. Having been in that business but now just

414
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 1: a little bit arms length, has it given you perspective

415
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,680
Speaker 1: about you know, do you do you think our media companies,

416
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:18,639
Speaker 1: you know, are they are they chasing? Are they chasing reality?

417
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 1: Is there enough audience and subscription revenue out there for

418
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:26,199
Speaker 1: for the biggest players that have put there, you know,

419
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 1: planted their flags now to prosper in this world? Or

420
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:32,520
Speaker 1: do you think we're going to see more consolidation and

421
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:35,960
Speaker 1: more bulking up or something different. I don't mean to

422
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 1: make that in either war I'll work backwards. I do

423
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 1: think more consolidation is likely. But that said, um, and

424
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,440
Speaker 1: we can use Paramount Plus and Viacom as an example

425
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:51,400
Speaker 1: of this. I think people tremendously underestimate the category, and

426
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:54,159
Speaker 1: for some reason, there's a lot of skies following predictions

427
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:58,119
Speaker 1: about it that only a few people can win. I

428
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 1: don't think it's infinite, you know that. The but there

429
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:04,080
Speaker 1: aren't them? Is that many people who spend as much

430
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:08,119
Speaker 1: money as Viacom CBS does you know Again, I have

431
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 1: no affiliation with the company anymore, but I just to

432
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,639
Speaker 1: use them as one example. Um. Who who puts as

433
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: much money into making as much content as they do

434
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,440
Speaker 1: per year? If it is good, if it's original, if

435
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 1: it's scarce and only available in their platform? Uh? And

436
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 1: that could be original, scripted, unscripted, you know, NFL football,

437
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: the Grammys, whatever it may be. Uh. You know, people

438
00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 1: are going to find it. And I think people still

439
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 1: underestimate how big just CBS all Access was, Uh, and

440
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 1: how many people historically had subscribed, now keeping people subscribed,

441
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:46,639
Speaker 1: and again we would think of them as going on

442
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:49,960
Speaker 1: pause in any given day. The biggest source of new

443
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,400
Speaker 1: subscribers was old subscribers. People were always kind of coming

444
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:57,280
Speaker 1: back through the service and the only thing that you

445
00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:59,680
Speaker 1: need and they they've announced recently that they're going to

446
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: make a fifty original shows, and of course they're putting

447
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 1: movies in the platform and others. Is great content and

448
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 1: you know, Netflix, I'm sure we'll have great quarters ahead,

449
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 1: but just lost four hundred thousand subscribers in the quarter

450
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:16,160
Speaker 1: despite how much money they're spending on content. And at

451
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: the end of the day, and this is why, you know,

452
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:20,159
Speaker 1: for me personally, it's probably a good time to move on.

453
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 1: Is I really believe at this point it's a content

454
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: game and your your you know, the products have been built.

455
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:28,919
Speaker 1: You know, our first business plan for CBS all Access,

456
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:32,359
Speaker 1: or at least the first pitch about it was in

457
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 1: the fall of It took us three more years to

458
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 1: get it approved and launched in October. Uh, and we

459
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:42,919
Speaker 1: definitely were ahead of our time, and I think probably

460
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 1: could have been Uh, you know, there's probably more we

461
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:46,800
Speaker 1: could have done with it if we've leaned it even

462
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: harder during those five years before Disney and other others launched.

463
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:54,119
Speaker 1: But at this point those tracks are laid down and

464
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:58,120
Speaker 1: now it's about content. Who makes the best content. Uh

465
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:00,400
Speaker 1: and and to me that's still to be And I mean,

466
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:02,639
Speaker 1: Disney has done a great job. I've been loving the

467
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 1: Marvel shows. The Mandalorian was awesome. I almost cried when

468
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 1: a spoiler alert, but when you know Luke came back

469
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:14,400
Speaker 1: in the last episode. Um, Hulu is doing a great

470
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 1: job with content. I mean. But at the same time,

471
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 1: you know this may resonate with you. I have a

472
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: six hour flight on Sunday. There aren't that many shows

473
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,239
Speaker 1: I really want to go download to watch. It's like,

474
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: with all its money being spent, you still don't have

475
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: that many great shows that are just being demanding to

476
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:33,879
Speaker 1: be watched. And so I think in there is still

477
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 1: an opportunity. It's not a product game, too content game,

478
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 1: but that is still to be written. I think. Thanks

479
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: for listening to Varieties Strictly Business podcast. Please be sure

480
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 1: to leave us a review at Apple Podcasts. We love

481
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,919
Speaker 1: to hear from listeners, and be sure to tune in

482
00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:00,280
Speaker 1: next week for another episode of Strictly Business to be

483
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: did ut spilm teams decat siply tings detail