Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg West 20140522 : vimarsan

BLOOMBERG Bloomberg West May 22, 2014

Cutting another 16,000 jobs, 48,000 job cuts in total. In secondquarter profits but yet another drop in the 11th quarter in a row. Facebook taking steps to improve user privacy. From new users will now automatically default to friend. That means it can see be seen by friends only. They are also rolling out a privacy checkup tool that will remind you about privacy setting. Air b b has agreed to provide the new York Attorney general about with data about its host, new york city. They will have to provide names if the attorney general chooses to investigate. Our lead story of the day, shares of j. D. Com are off to a good start as the company went public today. Shares rose after being priced at 19 last night. They raised about 1. 8 million for jd. Com. They have a Business Model similar to amazon. They now have a market cap of 28 billion. They are the largest chinese internet listing in new york. Of course, alibaba will easily take that title once a goes public. Cory johnson is here with me in the studio. These companies are often compared. They are very different. Principally because jd. Com is an oldfashioned internet retailer. More like amazon. They take on inventory and sell that too. Unlike amazon, they are not experimenting with delivery. They are very big in the world of delivery. They have warehouses all over china. They will deliver right to the door. Theyre right there delivering product. There is also sameday delivery. 86 warehouses. When you look at the revenue story, you see a company that is selling a lot of stuff. You translate that to u. S. Dollars 3. 3 billion in revenue and growing. Still growing at a 60 clip. That is a very impressive growth rate on a very big number. What are the prospects for a company like jd. Com. It seems like investors are enthusiastic. The valuation is very high. Things will get better. Part of this deals very interesting. They are selling 15 of the shares at ten cent. They will say this is a ten cent platform. That is next with the deal that goes many years beyond me payment. They will get to a place where they could tell all of their products. They are losing money, but the losses are Getting Better with every quarter. On a dollar basis, because it is a seasonal basis, they are Getting Better and better every quarter. It looks like you can see the improvements you want to see, at the same time that revenues are growing. We are going to be speaking with the cfo in just a few moments. I want to ask him about that partnership. Cory johnson, thank you. Now to another big tech story of the day. Roughly one year after Edward Snowden of first unveiled some surveillance secrets, the house has approved its first legislation designed to rein in the nsa. Critics say that the bill does not go far enough. Peter cook is on the hill with more. What does this bill actually do . Supporters say it is a signal moment in this whole debate over the american surveillance program. They insist that this bill balances National Security with americansright to privacy. Critics contend it does not strike the right balance. They still basically to give the government too much latitude in terms of searching records. Let me tell you what it does. The bill, according to supporters, bans the government from bulk collection of data. It also requires phone company to store that data. The government can still search it, but they need a court order. There is more oversight of that court under this legislation. Theres is also greater disclosure on the part of companies that request information from the government. They can disclose more about that, something the Tech Community has lobbied for. They say there are two main loopholes in this bill and it gives the government too much latitude. Supporters insist the balance has been struck and detractors say no, we need to look at this more. Take a listen. In the postfreedom act world, we have turned the tables on the nsa. We are watching you and we will. These changes appear to allow multiple interpretations as to what the nsa can and cannot do. The bill now confuses what it intended to make clear. It seems we are back where we started. Though today was overwhelmingly supportive. More than 300 votes in favor. The white house supports this bill. What will happen in the senate, where leaders insist they will take a look at this legislation and likely propose something quite similar as well. And what about the Technology Companies . They are not too happy with this bill. They are not too happy. They were initially supportive, as were a number of privacy groups. At the end of the day, there were late changes with requested by the intelligence community. They say there are loopholes here that will allow for the bulk collection of Internet Users data. There are a number of companies, google and microsoft, who said they could not support this bill at the end of the day. They urged congress to dig deeper into this. The specific area they are worried about the terms of surveillance community, the language used in the bill like terms identifying a person entity, town, address they say that language is too broad. They worry they are going to pay the price from a business standpoint in terms of reputation around the world. Not just in the united states. Theyre still playing ball with the government too much. All right, we will continue to follow the spill is a progresses. Thank you. Still ahead, jd. Com stars trading on the nasdaq and the biggest offering ever of the Chinese Internet Company in new york. We will speak with their cfo next. You can watch a streaming on your phone, tablet, bloomberg. Com, apple tv and amazon fire. I am emily chang and this is bloomberg west. Jd. Com rang the opening bell as they went public in the united states. He raised 1. 78 billion in their ipo. Shares are 19 a piece. They have been compared to amazon and this comes ahead of the highly anticipated ipo of alibaba. Cory johnson is still with me and we are joined by jd. Coms cfl. Thank you for joining us. I would like to start off with the comparison to amazon. Is that a fair comparison in your opinion . Yes, they do share the same of session for customer experience. But jd does go one step further in providing our own inhouse logistics services. Namely, the last Mile Delivery to our customers. What about alibaba . You hold inventory and theyre more of a middle man. That gives the margins that you may never people to achieve. We have control over our product quality and authenticity. We also have control over the service level. So this is a very important differentiation of our business versus the pure marketplace Business Model. Sidney, talk to me about the partnership with ten cent. I wonder if Revenue Growth might rick sorry because you have so many customers on that mobile platform. This is really a very important part of jd. Com, combining the largest Ecommerce Company with the largest Internet Company in china with the largest user base on pc and mobile. Now, talk to me about what youre investing in fulfillment sectors. That is really the key to your continuing to grow and be able to reach the rural and western parts of china. It also puts the pressure on your timing when it comes to making a profit. If you look at historically and in the past few years, for example, the cap level was pretty manageable. We have been able to have Free Cash Flow over the past two years. I think investment is actually more measured than most people expected. And moving ahead, we will continue to invest, especially for the seven major fulfillment centers. We will make sure we have control over the key geography. Sidney, as a former kpmg auditor, you probably know more about auditing than i will ever learn. I do not know why your company has a Material Weakness in your control. We have recruited a very large number of professional finance and accounting teams. We have more than 30 staff with accounting backgrounds. In fact, if you look at the nasdaq or the Chinese Companies that initially go public everyone has this Material Weakness. Certainly, as a company in a foreign country, we will continue to improve our competency in the u. S. Cap. I guess it makes it even more concerning that they cannot even check the audits of your auditor. When do you expect the Material Weakness to be corrected and how can you keep that from happening in the future . We have confidence that this Material Weakness will be lifted in the near future. Last question about your founder. Analysts have expressed concerns that he maintain Something Like 84 of voting power. How do you assuage those concerns Going Forward . It is very important for an Entrepreneurial Company to have control over its operations. This is also very common in the internet space. If you look at facebook in the u. S. Or baidu in china the shareholding structure is pretty common. All right, cfo on your first day of trading as a Public Company in the united states, thank you so much for joining us. Anonymous social media apps have surged controversy in Silicon Valley. Is it warranted . We will ask the founder of secret coming up next. Welcome back. Secret is one of the highest apps in Silicon Valley right now. It has also been called a scandalous. It allows users to post their thoughts anonymously. Secret expanded to Android Users this week and internationally. With me now is their cofounder and chief of product officer. Thank you for joining us. Everyone is talking about you guys. I have been looking forward to this. I was looking at the app and they pulled a few secrets to give people an idea of what they can see on it. Number one, the best part of my day is when i see his face. Number two, i am gay. That is better. Three, i have not washed my hair and 11 days. What is your vision for this . David and i have worked on social networks for several years. Over the years, we notice that something is missing. We have all these thoughts and feelings that we have every day. We do not have a place for them. They do not belong anywhere. Like some of those things you just mentioned, or i want to get engaged. Or i want to quit my job or i am falling in love or him falling out of love. All the software we have every day, they just dont have a place. Secret is a place to share those thoughts with your friends. These ideas start a secret. They start as private and personal to you and theres nowhere to put them. You both worked at google. David, i know you worked on buzz, google plus there is a lot more guilt with using secret than a typical social app. Is that a good thing . Yeah. I think being provocative is good and interesting. Can you give us an idea how many are using it . It is a secret for now. All right. You asked for my email, my phone number when i set up. Why do you need that information . Can your employees see that . Absolutely not. Security is most important. We ask for those so you can connect with your friends. You immediately build your social network and social graph. You can start sharing with friends and friends of friends. Anonymity breeds negativity. How concerned are you about negativity . Safety is a top priority for us. We want secret to be a safe place. We do not want it to be a place where people can hurt each other. We have invested a lot in our Security Team in moderation team. We have worked with experts to build out our internal guidelines. When things are flaggeon our oes not lines. Were having to grow up really quickly. In terms of taking down posts, what does that invol . How actively are you watching and removing . Some of the post si raltarueybey soly we want this to take place for private individuals. Newsworthy individuals is a different story of another. We should be able to talk about obama or whatever. What if it is not true . We are not in the business of deciding between true and false. When people in the community flagged content, that is when we look and make a judgment call. Do you worry that could open you up to legal issues . Well, we have really good lawyers and we are prepared for this stuff. In the case that someone does do something illegal and we are subpoenaed, we do have the ability to turn that information over. Ultimately, this is not a place for him awful or illegal activities. Ok. You have a lot of reporters and bigname investors. You also have Mark Andreessen who went on twitter never singled you guys out, or when for it by name, but tweeted that such experiments start out as naughty fun and, in the end, everyone regrets participating. How do you respond . He has experience, but it is our job to solve this problem and make a productive product using anonymity. This is Silicon Valley. Secret is not only in Silicon Valley. People are using this around the world now. When you see it, it is more like a dinner conversation. You go around the table and add your story. That is the majority of the stuff we see on secret. People like to predict the future. It is very hard to predict where they will go. When you look at the product, it is somewhat of a reflection of who you know and of your friends. A lot of things you see are actually things that are being said in public or in private. Evan williams and jack dorsey are two of your mentors. I know that they have been helpful. In various ways. We spoke early on about the idea of this product. He helped us think about and talk about it. Jack is just a very deep thinker. He was the one who helped me realize that this could he a powerful force for selfawareness in the world. How can you make money . It is still really early. We have only been out for four months. We have a lot of ideas, but it is not a priority. Were focusing on the product to make sure it is successful before we consider that. Last question, about whisper. They seem to be focusing on content and breaking news. How do you see yourself as different . We are a communications platform. We went deep, meaningful conversations. We will keep watching you guys. I will. Secretly, on my app. Thank so much for joining us. Well, intel is betting big on the Maker Movement and we hit the maker fair with Brian Krzanich next. Lets get you caught up on where stocks traded today. Wall street finished higher for the second day in a row. And hsbc survey suggested the slowdown in chinas economy is flattening. Lets check the boards, the dow industrials finished up 10 points. The s p 500 up for, and the nasdaq up 22 points. Youre watching bloomberg west. Intel is one of the godfathers of moderate Silicon Valley. They have tried to establish themselves in the modern world. Making tools for hackers and hobbyists. Our editoratlarge, cory johnson, met up with Brian Krzanich. That word, hobbyist, makes it seem like this is not a big movement. It is a big movement. It is packed. When our producer and i were going to this thing, we were stuck in traffic for miles around the event. What are they making . Everything, firebreathing dragons, computers that control trash cans. Electric cars, wild stuff. It takes us back to the earliest days of technology. Every member making a heat kit. They are making all kinds of things. Brian is at the center of it. Check this out. I was born and raised in Silicon Valley. In my backyard was a plum orchard. That is absolutely true. That is old Silicon Valley. This is the future. This is a galileo board. Yes. The cork in the center there. It is designed for just this kind of environment. So, that is what we developed. It is made for the maker. We are starting to use it in wearables, stuff like that. Do you see the makers gravitating towards this chip . We are sold out. This has taken off we gave 50,000 of them away to universities. We are not building them as fast as demand was six times what we forecasted. Really . Why is that . Intel chips have been i think it is probably because there seeing it and we embrace it in the community. The board itself is a beautiful board. If you would have asked intel 10 years ago where the direction would be pc, pc, maybe mobile pc. Not robots, lights, stuff like this. How do you make sure that intel is an integral part of this movement . I think it is by me spending days like today. Hiring guys like joey, that you just saw. We have a whole group focused on this Maker Community now, making products for them. These are the people who will be the next steve jobs and the next google and everything. These are the people who are being raised up with technology and innovation. That is really what we saw the last couple of years. If they are not aware of Intel Technology and what we are capable of doing and if we are not aware what their needs are, then we will not line up together. It is really interesting to see intel in that environment. You imagine him being so buttoned up and formal. What about the rest of the business . How are they planning for their future . Theyre not a big and mobile. They are thinking, how can we get so far ahead of the next development . We are just part of that atmosphere. Part of it was not just the makers. They are very involved in encouraging young girls to stay with math and science through that age when they stop. Brian has young daughters, i have young daughters. It is dear to both of our hearts. We met some girls theyre doing this really cool project and technology, using intel chips. The button releases look at that. That is one of those galileo boards. Very cool. That is what turns it off, when it closes . That is very clever. We really discovered this in sixth grade. Part of the reason is so that we can capture them in third grade. We went to keep them through college. Once they get high school, there is no

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