Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Technology 20171111 : vi

BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Technology November 11, 2017

Encounter with a 15yearold girl in 2012. In the 1970s. Abner gomez was criticized for taking a vacation less than a month after Hurricane Maria slammed puerto rico. His resignation came a day after demands by the governor that cabinet members submit unsigned letters of resignation and devote themselves completely to recovery efforts. A potential formal meeting between Vladimir Putin and donald trump at the asiapacific summit was scratched. The white house cited a scheduling conflict. Global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. This is bloomberg. Emily i am emily chang and this is bloomberg technology. Alibaba singles day clock 8. 6 million in just an hour. How chinas oneday shopping bonanza stacked up against americas. Plus, a touch of ai. Short form video platform has agreed to a merger. How it opens up markets around the world. And another dent in ubers london operations. What a judges decision in favor of drivers means. First, to our lead. Alibaba singles day is underway. Analysts expect another record for chinas biggest shopping bonanza, which morphs u. S. Events like black friday and cyber monday. Shoppers from at least 190 countries and regions swarm the ecommerce giant and servers could clock up to 175,000 Transactions Per Second during peak activity. We spoke with alibaba president mike evans and asked about boosting efficiency this year. This years singles day is boosting efficiency by implementing a whole lot of new technologies and capabilities as part of our retail strategy. The momandpop stores you just refer to, the small stores that typically have access in a very small local market. Today with the capability of technology and the digital invasion, we are expanding their capability to sell products to a much larger group of consumers. Alibaba had invested billions into Online Retail several years before amazon announced its acquisition of whole foods. Is china ahead of the u. S. When it comes to emerging online and Offline Retail . We do not necessarily look at it as a competition between the u. S. And china, but the work has been done in the integration of online and offline, not just in terms of Technology Integration , but the data and efficiencies for brands and Consumer Experience through personalization has been enormous. We see the impact of it in our day to day business. We are going to see the impact of it today where many of the new retail initiatives are being rolled out. We believe this is the retail of the future, not just in china but all over the world. It has been almost a year that jack ma told donald trump that alibaba will help spur job one million jobs in the u. S. What is the update on that . Is there a tally on how many jobs alibaba has helped create . The update is we had a fantastic event in detroit for , farmers 3000 smes and entrepreneurs. Many are participating today in 11 11, selling their wares for chineseese to consumers. We have literally tons of fresh produce. Apples to blueberries to fresh vegetables also being sold as part of this day, so a great deal of work has been done and we are making good progress. Are you able to say just how much more u. S. Participants are joining the platform . We are not going to disclose look atmbers, the web the contribution they are making to the process, not just the you the United States but canada and around the world, are becoming a seriously important factor in the growth of our business. Bloomberg news reported the Chinese Government is considering taking 1 stakes in some of chinas biggest tech companies. How would this potential oversight impact the company . First of all, it has not happened, so we cannot speculate on what would happen. But i can tell you this, the government seems to be most interested in Media Companies and we are not a Media Company. We are a massive ecommerce payments and Cloud Computing company. Chinese regulators have also been making Outbound Investment more difficult for Chinese Companies at the same time the Trump Administration is making it difficult for Foreign Investors to make investments in strategic industries. Alibabass impacting u. S. Investment strategy . It is not really impacting our u. S. Investment strategy at all. We are not really focused in the u. S. To make advancements in our ecommerce business. Our investments are in Platform Technology to allow brands, retailers, and Small Businesses to capture the can the china consumer opportunity. So trade is really moving in the other direction. Alibabas International Revenue had triple digit growth last year mainly driven by southeast asia. What is the next market you are preparing for . When we think about our globalization strategy, it really breaks into two pieces. The consumer component, which is really targeted at 5 billion to 7 billion people that live in emerging markets around the world merging into the middle class and who will be the big consumers of the future. So when we think about investments and think about our strategy in that part of the world, look there for the next steps. On the product side, most of the best products, highest quality products in the world come from the developed markets of the world. Our partnerships and association s and the work we do with retailers and brands and Small Businesses will be providing great products to those consumers. Emily that was selina wang with alibaba president mike evans. In a new Company Twist that pits jack dorsey against himself, square has surpassed twitter in market value for the first time. Dorsey is ceo at square and twitter. He helped found both companies. Twitter shares have lost about a quarter of their value over the last two years. Coming up, alibaba is in listing is in listing Hightech Solutions and oldschool brick and mortar stores. How moving the online experience into the offline world will be the future of retail. And we are Live Streaming on twitter. Check us out. This is bloomberg. Emily the two biggest apps for uberlike Truck Services in china are in talks to merge. This is according to people familiar with the matter. They have had a frosty relationship the past with the ies trading accusations about harassment that have even prompted police investigations. A merger would be the latest example of chinese Tech Startups getting together. Alibabas singles day is well underway, but theres growing concern consumers could be facing fatigue from the annual 24hour online flash sale. To combat this, alibaba is testing futuristic popup Stores Building on the idea of new retail. Hans, i want to start with you. You were an early investor in alibaba. You have seen alibaba grow by leaps and bounds, singles day growing incredibly over the years. Are you seeing any signs of singles day fatigue . Not. , were we have been fortunate to be an investor in alibaba since 2003. They continue to innovate. We look at the first singles day sales in 2013, and it was only about 5. 7 billion. The transaction this year could 13 billion. A massive scale you have seen is already quite unprecedented. On top of that, alibaba started with new retail combining online and offline, trying new technology, it just adds more excitement every year. Bob, what do you think about this new retail trend marrying the online experience with the experience in the physical world . Is that the only thing that will get shoppers to go out in the real world . I dont think so, but i think it is an important way to drive those kinds of sales. The traditional retail environment clearly is challenged. We have seen what amazon has done in the u. S. , what alibaba has done in china. And other equivalents around the world. People love the convenience of saying i want to get this and they just get it, but theres a certain physicality of experience that people still like to have, so i think there is a need to drive people to retail to experience things in a different way. Ar and vr are an interesting way to do that and frankly a good way to expose people to that technology, but in generally i think it will be more baby steps, because i think it will take people a while to understand what these are, and if there are benefits, or a unique thing you do want to twice. Emily we just looked at video of a customer putting makeup on herself in front of a digital mirror in a store. What kind of experiences do you think will be compelling enough to truly transform the offline experience . Hans at the end of the day, something that is functional and offers great value for the money you pay will be the number one reason why consumers in china or elsewhere, quite frankly, will want to shop in the new Retail Experience they are talking about. Stores, you can buy a lobster from australia that in an offline supermarket would cost you 100 u. S. You can do that for only 100 renminbi at the same quality. The reason that is possible is because alibaba has so much scale and can cut out the middleman and deal directly with the source and lower the cost for consumers to shop. Inside the store, you can scan any product and figure out the story and information behind each product, which makes shopping more fun. Once you order, it can be delivered to your house or you can pick up in the store or actually consume in the store, have them cook for you. The choices people have and the ways they want to consume them, it is completely up to them now. Experiencemaking the more seamless and more free for users to choose. Emily bob, there is a sense that alibaba may be beating amazon in the offline world. We are seeing amazon with whole having their own brickandmortar initiatives. Do you think that alibaba is ahead in that respect . Bob they are willing to experiment. In general what you see in china is more experimentation with different models of retail. The notion of qr codes never really caught on in the u. S. People in the u. S. Would not go to a store like that and expect to buy a lobster. We just would not do that. Just a totally different cultural difference, but we have to think about the fact that each company has to react to the environment they are in. They are going to do these things. I think amazon clearly does recognize that they do need to have a physical presence, not only obviously with bookstores, ironically, but of course, with whole foods and these other kinds of brickandmortar stores. Because again, there is that physical experience and people do still want to go out on certain occasions and go shopping and i dont think that is ever going to go away. Emily hans, how would you compare alibaba singles day to prime day and the initiative that amazon has . Gos if you look at amazon as an example, is an extremely interesting idea thinking of amazon as an example. With a digital camera, you will be able to tell who you are, but there are limitations in that it is hard to scan more than 20 people at the same time. China, in the meantime, uses something as simple as qr codes and enables hundreds of millions of people to have access to services that were not possible before. So how to combine tech in a way that makes it accessible to the mass market is increasingly important. In that area, i think alibaba is ahead of most of the giants in the u. S. I think what a lot of people dont realize is that in the u. S. , most of this model surrounds advertising, so the entire engine behind that is to monetize that well. In china, it is a different environment. Eunice based on a transaction engine. The experience that tencent and alibaba have built in new retail is something you do not see in many parts of the world. This is why when mike evans said the new Retail Shopping would not only be popular in china but the rest of the world, what we will see over the next few years is tencent and alibaba exploding expanding the model beyond china and that is extremely exciting. 11 11 bob, do you see expanding into other countries . Bob i think it would be a challenge especially in the western world because we have to remember a lot of this is based around timing of the year. 11 11 is way too close to traditional western Holiday Shopping because of christmas, whereas Chinese New Year is not until february, typically, so it is three months away. It is a big enough gap that you can get away with it. Amazon prime day is an interesting thing. Maybe we will see an 11 11type prime day and i think there is an opportunity to do things there, but i do not see the whole concept transferring at all, especially the way they do it in china. Emily bob, you are sticking with me, as well as hans, speaking with both of you after the quick break. Coming up, we are talking about the hit social Media Company that turns users into hit social media stars. It just got bought. We look at the 800 million deal next. This is bloomberg. Emily facebook has set its sights on yelp. The company relaunched its standalone offense app. It combines events and permanent places to a single Search Engine powered by the social network s 70 million business pages. This is not the first Time Facebook has tried to imitate the success of other platforms. It created facebook at work. That was meant to mirror slack, and a craig flick craigslist like service. Video app musical. Ly has been acquired, representing the biggest venture abroad for the chinese start of valued at 20 billion. Its best known for a mobile news app with 120 million readers and viewers, which pairs well with musical. Lys 100 million users, which has been increasingly popular among american teenagers since 2016. Our guests are still with us. Hans, this is good news for you, an early investor in musical. Ly. Talk about the motivation behind the deal. Hans as you know, i am a board member of musical. Ly. We call it series b, and series musical. Ly. While i cannot comment on the price structure of the deal, and after all, the deal was just signed. It is not closed yet. I think the synergy between the companies is very interesting. They put up a press release 12 hours again hours ago. They clearly indicated that musical. Ly is the First Chinese team to build a mainstream app accepted in the u. S. And western world. They have a strong recommendation engine and algorithm. Its a very natural fit both from a product capability standpoint as well as geographic fit. So i think together, we will be able to build a very interesting platform for global expansion. Emily the founder of musical. Ly was in our studio about a year ago and we shot a fun little musical. Ly ourselves. Im curious [laughter] when a company is making a decision about whether to sell or go long, why sell now . Was musical. Ly at a point where they were starting to see growth plateau . What is the strategy . Hans musical. Ly has a lot of inbound interest and is one of the fastestgrowing social networking apps. To be able to go from zero to over 200 million in registered universe, 60 million daily users. The growth is incredible. As with any fast growth, there will be areas where you can get more help. On monetization, technology, aibased algorithms. I think the founders quit founders quite frankly like each other and see that they could work well with each other so that if there is a deal and it gets closed, it could be quite synergistic. Emily it is interesting, this is one of the First Chinese apps to have success in the u. S. , but at the same time, we saw tencent taking a 10 stake in snap. An american company. Bob lets not forget they did try to launch this service in china and it did not do very well, so you wonder how this can really transferred other places . The other thing is, i respect the Technology Discussion and all the capabilities, but fundamentally, we have to think about the audience. I did a little bit of research myself. I have a 20yearold daughter in college, and i asked her from her perspective, and she said it is really just a tween kind of thing and you grow out of it pretty quickly, and the concern is how to drive a business around that. Technology aside, the other things aside, fundamentally, if people stop caring about it, you have this challenge. Look at the challenge snapchat is having already. This to me seems even more specialized than that. I think that is a real question. Emily hans . Hans i think musical. Ly found a great audience presnap that had a lot of traction. Over the next year or two, they will continue to refine the product. They had a revamped team in august that diversified the format and user base. I think it would be interesting to see how it can evolve. Musical. Ly is quite popular in america, europe, latin as well as southeast asia. We see users from india using it as well. The social networking experience could be transcendent beyond beyond geographical boundaries. Sure, you will have users who will play with it and decide they do not want to use it anymore, but new unit is new users, the experience they have will be different from what users had six months or a year ago. The product can easily evolve. Emily ok. Hans, great to have you on the show. Bob odonnell, you are sticking with me. Coming up, why broadcom is making a push to become the biggest chipmaker in the world. Up next, we discuss how it plans to be inside all your digital devices. If you like bloomberg news, you can check us out on the radio, listen on our radio app, bloomberg. Com and sirius xm. This is bloomberg. I am alisa parenti. You are watching bloomberg technology. China is taking another step to liberalize its financial industry and will remove limits on Foreign Ownership of banks. And fund companies. Less, plus, overseas firms will be allowed to take controlling stakes in chinese securities businesses. Bloomberg spoke with j. P. Morgan ceo for asia. This is probably going in the right direction

© 2025 Vimarsana