WebProNews

Category: Retail & eCommerce

eCommerce, Online Retail & Retail News

  • Uber CEO Reveals Formula To Profitability

    Uber CEO Reveals Formula To Profitability

    “Scale is the primary driver toward profitability,” says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “It’s getting big. We’ve got over a billion rides per quarter and we’ve got trips growing at 35 percent on a year on year basis. It’s a combination of growing top-line over 35 percent, technology innovation to delight the customer and take costs down at the same time, and then good old fashioned efficiency, making sure that our corporate costs don’t grow as fast as our revenue. All of those together give you a formula to get to profitability.”

    Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber Technologies Inc., discusses how Uber can continue to be transformational and ultimately be profitable in an interview on Bloomberg Technology:

    Uber Can Continue To Be Transformational

    We have resolved all of the governance conflicts that the company had. There were many legal issues that the company was involved with. We have SoftBank as a partner and you want SoftBank to be behind you and a big partner and a big investor. We have a great investor base. We’ve taken the company public and company’s revenue, gross bookings, have grown 75 percent since I joined. We now have a path to profitability. So while we’ve had bumps on the road, and every adventure has bumps on the road, I like where we are. I especially like the position we are in now for the next two years.

    I think Uber (can continue to be transformational over the next decade). Really what Uber has done is brought transportation and opportunity at this point to what we believe is just a small segment of the population. We’ve got over four million driver-partners all over the world which is a huge number. It is unparalleled. But we want Uber to be available to everybody. What we are doing now is going into the next step of introducing other transportation choices to Uber. We’ve always gone with pool, but for example, we are testing busses in Cairo now to even bring the price of Uber down to the next level, a dollar or a buck fifty, etc. 

    The Rideshare Business Itself Is Turning Quite Profitable

    We are introducing bikes and scooters for personal electric mobility. Essentially, anyway that you want to get around your city we are going to be there for you. It will be mostly Uber goods but we will also have other third parties such as transit, such as one of our partners Lime as well. Any way that you want to get around we want Uber to be there. And if you want food, if you want even local commerce which I think we will power or even Uber Eats or some of our other services will be there for you as well.

    If you look at our rideshare business, it covered our overhead less than about $100 million. The rideshare business itself is turning quite profitable. We believe that the profits in the rideshare business are not only going to grow top-line but we believe we are going to grow the bottom-line as well. Then there are other businesses, Eats, autonomous, freight, etc. These are extraordinary opportunities that we are funding. I do believe that we are going to prove to our investors that we can take on a serial basis big parts of our business, turn them profitable, and use those parts of our business to fund investments in other areas. 

    Our Formula To Profitability

    I’m very confident that Uber can be profitable. I think the losses that we reported, it was a $5 billion loss from an accounting perspective. If you live in an accounting world that’s a big loss. I live in the real world. Actually, in the real world or EBITDA losses of $656 million were lower than Q1 and were on a good path in terms of our EBITDA losses as well. None of this is going to be easy. All of this is going to take great execution from all of our teams, marketing, technology, etc. We are going to be demanding our employees to be doing even more with less and to execute incredibly effectively in order for us to grow the top-line and the bottom-line as well. 

    Scale (is the primary driver toward profitability). It’s getting big. We’ve got over a billion rides per quarter and we’ve got trips growing at 35 percent on a year on year basis. We think we can use technology to be much more efficient. For example, instead of you now having to email a call center agent or call a call center agent if you have issues, you can just do it in the app. These are technology innovations that allow customers to have a better experience and at the same time they bring down costs. It’s a combination of growing top-line over 35 percent, technology innovation to delight the customer and take costs down at the same time, and then good old fashioned efficiency, making sure that our corporate costs don’t grow as fast as our revenue. All of those together give you a formula to get to profitability.

    Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: Our Formula To Profitability
  • Bitcoin is Bad, Blockchain Is Revolutionizing, Says VMware CEO

    Bitcoin is Bad, Blockchain Is Revolutionizing, Says VMware CEO

    “Bitcoin as its implemented and implementation of blockchain and distributed ledger I assert is bad,” says VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger. “Its purpose is almost all illicit and it’s an environmental crisis. This is a terrible implementation of blockchain. I’m not saying that blockchain is bad. I think it is revolutionizing. This is breakthrough innovative technology and how you do distributed secured trust. That’s powerful. We are huge believers strongly committed to blockchain and distributed leverage technology.”

    Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, says that Bitcoin is bad, but blockchain, when done right, is revolutionizing in an interview with theCUBE at VMworld 2019 in San Francisco. 

    Bitcoin is Bad, Blockchain Is Revolutionizing

    The idea of distributed ledger technology, immutable distributed trust, I’ve said I think of that, and blockchain is the underlying technology, as almost like public-private key encryption. If we go back 40 years before RSA it’s that important. This is breakthrough innovative technology and how you do distributed secured trust. That’s powerful. We are huge believers strongly committed to blockchain and distributed leverage technology. Why do I make my comments like I do on Bitcoin? Bitcoin as its implemented and implementation of blockchain and distributed ledger I assert is bad. It’s bad for two reasons. 

    One is it’s an environmental crisis. A single ledger if you and I transacted a penny I would consume enough energy to power your house for half a day. It’s incredible. This is a terrible implementation of blockchain. Secondly, the way it’s also done as well in this totally unregulated environment, almost all of its uses are for illicit and criminal purposes. That’s who’s trading in Bitcoin. So its purpose is almost all illicit and it’s an environmental crisis. I say bad. I’m not saying that blockchain is bad. I think it is revolutionizing. Studies have shown that over 95 percent of the uses of Bitcoin is criminal. Let’s go make it good. Do good engineering and engineer for good.

    Partnership With Australian Stock Exchange and Digital Asset

    We just announced on Sunday a partnership with the Australian Stock Exchange and Digital Asset. They’re leveraging the VMWare distributed ledger technology as part of their go-forward strategy for the stock exchange in Australia. That’s good. We’re making it suitable for enterprises meeting the regulatory requirements and we’re order plus magnitude better in terms of performance and energy consumption and we’re just getting started.

    Bitcoin is Bad, Blockchain Is Revolutionizing, Says VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger
  • Zebra Tech Tracking Technology Integrating Deep Into Sports and Business

    Zebra Tech Tracking Technology Integrating Deep Into Sports and Business

    “We’ve learned this past year that the tracking system we have with the NFL is actually considered to be the best by the broadcasters, coaches, and the fans,” says Zebra Technologies CEO Anders Gustafsson. “Our type of technology works particularly well with football but it would also work for basketball, ice hockey, and soccer. With ice hockey, the challenge is the puck. How do you track the puck and put the tag inside the puck? We can do it but it’s more costly. With basketball, they have been more focused on the ball than the players.”

    Anders Gustafsson, CEO of Zebra Technologies, discusses how their tracking technology is being integrated deeply within sports and business in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:

    Our Tracking Technology Works Particularly Well With Football

    We’ve learned now this past year that the tracking system we have with the NFL is actually considered to be the best by the broadcasters, coaches, and the fans. The NFL owns the data so we can’t give (fantasy players) access to the data. I think they give access to some of the data but not all the data. Then you would have all the information you could possibly want to have about every player on all of the teams. 

    Our type of technology works particularly well with football but it would also work for basketball, ice hockey, and soccer. With ice hockey, the challenge is the puck. How do you track the puck and put the tag inside the puck? We can do it but it’s more costly. With basketball, they have been more focused on the ball than the players. 

    Zebra Tracking Technology Works Particularly Well With Football

    We Are Becoming An Essential Part of Retailers’ Strategies

    Savannah is our data platform. We can connect all sorts of devices or sensors on the south side and on the north side we can have APIs to all sorts of other applications. We can provide a lot of analytics around what’s happening there. We integrate with a lot of independent software vendors. If you look at large companies like Oracle, SAP, Manhattan, and JDA, they’re all partners of ours. We exchange data with them and we provide data that they use for their operations. We also have our own software capabilities. We bought a company called Profitect. It does any predictive analytics. This is a good example of this but we have other software capabilities also.

    We are now becoming an essential part of retailers’ strategies for building omnichannel and ecommerce capabilities. Historically, we were probably viewed a bit more as a tactical device supplier. Today we’re much more of an integral part of enabling them to execute on their strategy. We moved ourselves up the solution stack to be able to deliver more value to them.

    Companies are now tracking employees, patients, assets

    Today, more and more things are being tracked and there are more and more efficiencies out of this. Companies are now tracking employees, patients, assets, all of these things. We said we provide the performance edge to the front line of business by having every employee, device, and technical thing being connected and optimally utilized and visible to the network. 

    Tableau (a company recently bought by Salesforce) would more than likely integrate our data. We could be a source for data insight analytics for them. We aspire to get those kinds of valuations (and the higher multiples that Tableau got when they sold to Salesforce). We also overlap (with Honeywell) in a number of areas but we do quite a few different things also. We have our own strengths and we compete with them but not everywhere.

    Zebra Tech Tracking Technology Integrating Deep Into Sports and Business – CEO Anders Gustafsson
  • Uber CEO: We Expect This Business To Be Very Profitable

    Uber CEO: We Expect This Business To Be Very Profitable

    “Not only do we expect to hit cashflow break-even, but we expect this business to be very profitable at maturity,” says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “I think that going forward our spending declines as a percent of revenue. So when you’re growing trips 35 percent year on year your spending is going to increase. But we’re going to get leverage on the marketing line and we’re definitely going to get fixed cost leverage going forward.”

    Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, discusses the company’s latest quarterly results and predicts that Uber will ultimately be very profitable in an interview on CNBC:

    Uber Is Much More Than a Rideshare Company Now

    The IPO for us is a once in a lifetime moment. It was a really important moment for the company. Some of what we did like the driver appreciation award, almost $300 million that we put in the hands of over a million drivers globally were really important for us to do. It created a messy P&L from an accounting standpoint. I think it is hiding underlying trends that are actually very healthy for the company. If you look at trends for the company which is going to matter long-term, you have got gross bookings over $16 billion growing 37 percent on a year on year basis. You’ve got trip volume, and trips are units, growing 35 percent year on year. You’ve got audience, monthly active platform customers, now over 100 million, growing 30 percent. The actual revenue growth excluding the driver appreciation award was up 26 percent. 

    What I did tell our investors is to expect that to accelerate into the back half of the year. The back half of the year you are going to see if trends stay the same, revenue growth in excess of 30 percent. When you look at profitability, we beat our own internal targets and we beat Street targets as well. We came in at a loss of $656 million. It’s still a big loss but the losses are improving and the take rates are improving. If you back out some of those one-time expenses, we went from a loss of $800 million to a loss of $656 million. We got much more efficient on the marketing front. We actually took marketing as a percentage down while we were still growing the top line over 30 percent as well. This is much more than a rideshare company now, it’s a transportation company. 

    We Expect This Business To Be Very Profitable At Maturity

    We are in a situation as far as the network effect of the company where we don’t need to increase the marketing and incentives. We can go in with loyalty plans both for riders and drivers that are going to add to leverage and ultimately profitability of the company. This is a marketplace company that has over 20 percent revenue margins and revenue margins are increasing year on year. Not only do we expect to hit cashflow break-even, but we expect this business to be very profitable at maturity. 

    I think that going forward our spending declines as a percent of revenue. So when you’re growing trips 35 percent year on year your spending is going to increase. But we’re going to get leverage on the marketing line and we’re definitely going to get fixed cost leverage going forward. I think that this quarter proved that out and we have to keep hitting our marks in the next couple of quarters. It’s a super-competitive marketplace but we are confident. We like what we saw operationally this quarter.

    Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: We Expect This Business To Be Very Profitable at Maturity
  • We Enable Small Sellers To Compete With the Big Guys, Says Etsy CEO

    We Enable Small Sellers To Compete With the Big Guys, Says Etsy CEO

    “We allow small sellers to be able to compete head-to-head with the big guys,” says Etsy CEO Josh Silverman. “We do that by giving them a super simple and easy way to build a business online and market themselves while we do all the business work for them. They can just focus on making great products and serving their customers. We really are (trying to equalize and level the playing field for small sellers). Most importantly, we bring them customers and we bring them buyers. We’re not just a way to put a shop on the web. We’re a way to actually have people come and buy. That’s really powerful.”

    Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy, discusses how they are focused on driving customers and buyers to their base of 2.3 million sellers on the Etsy platform, in an interview with Jim Cramer of CNBC:

    We Enable Small Sellers To Compete With the Big Guys

    Free shipping is now an expectation in the market. Too often buyers on Etsy have said that they think shipping prices are too high. What we announced in the second quarter is that we’re going to make free shipping the standard that people expect when they come to Etsy. So we announced a number of initiatives to make that easy for sellers to adopt. Obviously, to help sellers, the most important thing is that we can do is drive traffic to Etsy. But our sellers are hungry to invest in their own success. So we also announced just the other day the launch of Etsy Ads, which is a new platform that allows our sellers to invest to grow and buy traffic off of Etsy and bring it on to their Etsy shop.

    We allow small sellers to be able to compete head-to-head with the big guys. We do that by giving them a super simple and easy way to build a business online and market themselves while we do all the business work for them. They can just focus on making great products and serving their customers. We really are (trying to equalize and level the playing field for small sellers). We give them that kind of data. We also make it really easy for them to understand by giving them tools that make it super easy for them to understand. Most importantly, we bring them customers and we bring them buyers. We’re not just a way to put a shop on the web. We’re a way to actually have people come and buy. That’s really powerful.

    To get a two-sided marketplace where you’ve got 43 million buyers and 2.3 million sellers at scale, that’s incredibly hard to do and incredibly hard to replicate. Once you’ve got it it’s durable. Just look at our growth rate. We’re incredibly excited about our opportunity here.

    We Enable Small Sellers To Compete With the Big Guys, Says Etsy CEO Josh Silverman
  • Bad Guys Can Implant Malicious Functionality From Anywhere, Says Huawei Security Chief

    Bad Guys Can Implant Malicious Functionality From Anywhere, Says Huawei Security Chief

    “Hopefully, we as a nation can have a clear-eyed focus on what really matters,” says Andy Purdy, the Chief Security Officer of Huawei Technologies USA. “As a senior Qualcomm executive said the other day, you can talk about Huawei but we’ve got to make sure our communication networks are safe. The bad guys can implant malicious functionality in hardware and software from anywhere in the world. The US has to recognize that Senator Blackburn said something that was very important. Potential national security threats to communications are very real.”

    Andy Purdy, Chief Security Officer of Huawei Technologies USA, discusses security concerns that the US has with Huawei and they really should be focused on communication security threats that can come from anywhere. Purdy was interviewed on CNBC:

    Bad Guys Can Implant Malicious Functionality From Anywhere

    Senator Marsha Blackburn is appropriately focusing on the national security implications of our communication networks. Hopefully, we as a nation can have a clear-eyed focus on what really matters. As a senior Qualcomm executive said the other day, you can talk about Huawei but we’ve got to make sure our communication networks are safe. The bad guys can implant malicious functionality in hardware and software from anywhere in the world. As Mr. Sorkin said yesterday, the Senators comments were the first person who’s ever said what she said. In fact, when you hear about the classified briefing that our customers were given, the classified briefings that the United Kingdom and Germany were given, the US government gave no allegations that Huawei has committed any such conduct that the Senator talked about.

    I certainly think when that when the Prime Minister of the UK and the Chancellor of Germany came out and said that they’d been briefed by the US and there were no allegations of significant cybersecurity wrongdoing against Huawei (and that this supports that there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Huawei). They said that they intended to use risk mitigation. This is the same kind of risk mitigation that the US government has that allows Ericsson and Nokia to do business in the United States despite their deep ties to China.

    Potential National Security Threats To Communications Are Very Real

    Absolutely, (Huawei does not implant or embed anything and its networks that would pose a national security risk to the United States). More importantly, the US has to recognize that Senator Blackburn said something that was very important. Potential national security threats to communications are very real. What she talked about was a report in a Bloomberg story not involving Huawei some months back that the bad guys can implant a small amount of code. That’s why we have to make sure that we have tested the products of all vendors to international standards so that there’s trust through verification. But right now tens of thousands of American jobs are at risk now that Huawei is in the crosshairs of these trade talks.

    There are companies in China that are government-owned. There are publicly traded companies in China that are majority government-owned. There are companies that are private. Huawei’s the largest privately owned company in China. We have about 80 or 90 thousand shareholders in China who vote to elect the governing board. Clearly, our founder Mr. Ren, who has less than two percent, he controls the company just as some of the founders and owners of other companies control with a minority interest. But we are completely privately owned. Again, we’ve got a look at the national security and the economic impact. Tens of thousands of jobs of those who supply Huawei, $11 million last year, and 40 to 50 thousand US jobs could go away if those companies can’t sell to Huawei. There’s no national security threat there.

    Our outside legal experts have said and that the Chinese government has confirmed that there is no such law that has that effect (of allowing Chinese government spying). The fact is the US government does not believe the law has any relevance whatsoever. The US government believes that China is not a rule of law nation so that the government will do whatever they want. That’s why there need to be programs like the risk mitigation programs overseen by the US government that allow Ericsson and Nokia to do business in the United States without limitation. We’re not talking about without limitation for Huawei. We’re talking about trying to continue to support our 40 rural tier-3 wireless and wireline customers serving rural America and the thousands of jobs there that are at risk.

    Nation-States Can Virtually Implant Hidden Functionality

    Absolutely, (the supply chain) should be a worry. That’s why when you look at the operations of Nokia, for example, in China, with the joint venture with Shanghai Bell, which is owned by the China government, the deep research and development manufacturing and assembly that takes place by Nokia, despite that they’re allowed to do business in the United States without limitation. This is because it’s a government monitored collection of agencies that monitor and test the products. At this point, the US government won’t even talk with us about those kinds of risk mitigation mechanisms that had been proven to be satisfactory to the US government despite those deep ties with China.

    What I’m saying is there are proven risk mitigation mechanisms, hardcore mechanisms, that are done. We do it in the UK, we do it in in Germany. In Brussels, we have a center where government and companies can come in and evaluate our products. Nokia and Ericsson products are evaluated very closely in the US. We’re just suggesting that our products and all other products need to be tested because there are five or six nation-states that can virtually implant hidden functionality in products. We as a nation can’t just be worried about Huawei, we’ve got to be worried about all the equipment. We believe those mechanisms are in place and we just want to talk with the government. We’d like to be able to show them that we can do that.

    Bad Guys Can Implan Malicious Functionality From Anywhere, Says Huawei Security Chief Andy Purdy
  • Apple Is Trying To Be A Subscription Company

    Apple Is Trying To Be A Subscription Company

    “Just think about the long term value of Apple and where they’re going,”  says Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig. “They were a phone company, they were an ecommerce company, and now they’re trying to be a subscription company. You see that in their services and their service numbers. They have the largest distribution system on the planet probably other than Google. If they commit to it there is no reason they can’t be successful.”

    Dan Rosensweig, President and CEO of Chegg, discusses how Apple has pivoted and is trying to become a subscription company selling services, leveraging its huge distribution system, in an interview on CNBC:

    Apple Is Trying To Be A Subscription Company

    Where Apple wants to make (their products) is where it’s cheapest and where they can make the best quality. They’re playing the game now sort of whack-a-mole which is watching the tariffs and all these things. Just think about the long term value of Apple and where they’re going. They were a phone company, they were an ecommerce company, and now they’re trying to be a subscription company. You see that in their services and their service numbers. The supply chain is a thing to talk about over the quarter but in the long term that is all going to be resolved. They’ll be wherever they need to be.

    They have the largest distribution system on the planet probably other than Google. They have been selling other people things through the iTunes store and through the app store. They bought companies in order to be able to sell news and other things and they sell their iCloud. They really have not gotten into content that they own in any significant way. Unless they commit to it they’re not going to be successful. But if they commit to it there is no reason they can’t be successful. 

    Most Of Apple’s Subscription Profit Is Coming From the iCloud

    If you ask what is it that Apple owns proprietarily and offers to their consumer in terms of content other than the iCloud itself, you really can’t come up with anything. Whereas, Adobe has all these software and services and Microsoft has these things. They’re sort of in the content area. They’re in the music subscription area. But even in the music subscription area, they don’t own the content. So it’s hard to make those things as profitable. Although, you can sign up a lot of people. 

    I would estimate that most of their profit from that is coming from just the iCloud. It’s selling storage that everybody needs because your phone is your home base. 

    Apple Is Well-Positioned In Wearables

    I think the iPhone is cyclical. There hasn’t been a big breakthrough. Everything has gotten a little smaller, a little better, a little cleaner, a little faster, and a little bit more secure. I don’t know what the next breakthrough is. What I do know is the need for mobility is endless. The kinds of things that are going to attach to our bodies seem to be endless. I think Apple is well-positioned to be that player. 

    Just in default mode, if you are a user of Apple products you prefer to use Apple products because it’s just easier. The payments there. The clicks there. The operating system is there. It’s just too familiar for you. They chose the highest-priced model. The highest-priced model is generally the smallest group and it ends quicker. The question is can they come up with lower-priced models and then make a lot of their money on subscription services.

    Apple Is Trying To Be A Subscription Company, Says Chegg Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig
  • Kevin O’Leary on China Trade War: What Trump Is Doing Is Starting To Work

    Kevin O’Leary on China Trade War: What Trump Is Doing Is Starting To Work

    “Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary of SharkTank got some high praise for his comments in support of the Trump Administration’s trade actions in pursuit of a free trade agreement with China. President Trump tweeted. “Thank you Mr. Wonderful, I like you too!”

    Kevin O’Leary of SharkTank on Trump’s trade policy: It’s starting to work.

    O’Leary later commented on Trump’s tweet and elaborated on why Trump is working to level the playing field for America doing business in China: 

    I was talking about the policy this administration is putting forward. Bottom line is everything has been tried for 17 years while I have actually been doing business in China. Nothing has worked to level playing field. I like what this administration is doing by trying new ideas. Let’s try something else. That’s what I’m talking about. Because to me, it’s starting to work. Everything else has not worked. I’ll keep it very simple. I don’t have a level playing field in China. They get to use our markets in ways that we can’t use theirs. That’s not okay anymore.

    Kevin O’Leary of SharkTank: I Like What This Administration Is Doing With Trade


  • Walmart Testing Self-Driving Delivery Vans, Says Gatik AI CEO

    Walmart Testing Self-Driving Delivery Vans, Says Gatik AI CEO

    “Our partnership with Walmart is a huge validation that commercialization and scalability of autonomous vehicles will happen in the B2B short or logistic space,” says Gatik AI CEO Guatam Narang. “Our autonomous vehicles will be moving goods for Walmart from one of their dock stores to their neighborhood markets in Bentonville, Arkansas. Think of our solution as filling the gap. We call it the middle mile. It’s hugely underserved and it’s a huge business opportunity for us.”

    Guatam Narang, co-founder and CEO of Gatik AI, discusses their partnership with Walmart to test B2B self-driving delivery vans near their headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Narang was interviewed on CNBC:

    Walmart Launches Self-Driving Delivery Vans

    Our partnership with Walmart is a huge validation that commercialization and scalability of autonomous vehicles will happen in the B2B short or logistic space. That’s what Gatik focuses on. Both of the companies are very excited about this. Gatik is focusing on scaling and commercialization of the autonomous vehicle technology. Think of our solution as filling the gap. We call it the middle mile. It’s hugely underserved and it’s a huge business opportunity for us. 

    We believe that while operating the vehicles back and forth on known routes we can over-optimize our algorithms to perfect these routes. This is a much more constrained environment. The promise of autonomy can be realized sooner than B2C delivery applications or other applications of autonomous driving technology like passenger transportation. With our application, we are focusing on introducing these vehicles without safety drivers before a B2C delivery application or a passenger transportation application does the same.

    Autonomous Vehicles Moving Goods From Docks to Markets

    We are actually the first company that is working with Walmart for this particular use case. What that means is we are not delivering anything to the end consumer. Our autonomous vehicles will be moving goods for Walmart from one of their dock stores to their neighborhood markets in Bentonville, Arkansas. With some of the other companies that Walmart is working with the focus is more on B2C deliveries.

    Our focus is to move goods between businesses in an urban environment. The whole idea is let’s not try to change end consumer behavior. Let’s try to bring the promise of autonomous vehicles to businesses and help them save on operating cost in the near-term future.

    Gatik Is Focusing Their Driverless Tech On the Middle Mile

    Gatik is focusing on the middle mile. It’s filling the gap between long-haul trucking and the smaller sidewalk delivery robots. The middle mile is the most underserved segment of the whole supply chain. It is also the most expensive part of the whole supply chain. The reason to focus on this middle mile is to help our customers, which are businesses, help them save a lot on the operating cost. In addition to that, there is a huge shortage of drivers in this segment. With our solution, our customers can help fulfill. For us, it’s a huge validation. Right now all the testing and all the deployment is with the safety driver. The aim of the company is to take the driver off, scale the solution, and commercialize this technology. At scale, we are talking about saving up to 50 percent for our customers. The focus is to operate the vehicles on public roads. 

    When we talk about operating these vehicles between businesses, there are a lot of constraints that we can introduce. For example, very famously, FedEx and UPS trucks, they mostly take right turns because it’s more fuel-efficient for them. If we have something similar for our solution what that means is we wouldn’t have to worry about changing lanes. We wouldn’t have to worry about solving a very tricky situation in our space, that is unprotected left turns. As a company and as the solution we have a clear go-to-market strategy by installing or introducing some of these constraints. Not taking left turns is just one example, even though the technology stack can handle left turns, lane change, intersections, and traffic light navigation today.

    Walmart Testing Self-Driving Delivery Vans, Says Gatik AI CEO Guatam Narang
  • Glint Democratizing Gold With New Gold-Backed Debit Card

    Glint Democratizing Gold With New Gold-Backed Debit Card

    “The Glint debit card launches today,” says Glint CEO Jason Cozens. “I hope everyone downloads the app. What we believe is gold is the ultimate form of money. Central banks hold it. It has been being used as money for thousands of years. It just couldn’t be used in electronic payment until now. We’ve just solved the biggest problem with gold. You can now use gold as money. We’ve created your own personal gold standard.” 

    Jason Cozens, CEO of Glint Pay Inc., discusses the US launch today of their gold-backed Glint debit card in an interview on CNBC:

    Glint Democratizing Gold With New Gold-Backed Debit Card

    To load the gold-backed debit card you just download the app from the store, you register and we go through your registration, we approve the account, and then you load it with an ACH bank transfer or debit card payment. Then you can buy gold for as little as one cents worth or millions of dollars worth. We’re democratizing gold. We are kind of making monies new standard. The gold is in the vault in Switzerland. At the point of transaction, when you swipe it, whether I’m in Mumbai, Tokyo, New York, or California, we just debit a little bit of gold to create the invoice.

    We sell just enough gold to cover the transaction. We sell it for dollars and those dollars go through to the merchant by MasterCard who is our partner. The dollar as have many currencies around the world is depreciated. It has depreciated 80 percent in my lifetime. If you go back to 1971, a hamburger cost 55 cents and today it cost $3.55. That’s what inflation has done to the US dollar. Whereas gold, one gram of gold in 1971 would have bought you two burgers and today it buys you 12. Money depreciates in ways that are outside of our control but gold doesn’t.

    You Can Now Use Gold As Money

    Money should be something that is both something you save and spend. We’re bringing a more superior form of money to everybody in the United States. Every time the customer buys or sells their gold we make 0.5 percent. So it’s the cheapest way you can buy physical gold. We’re a transactional-based business and the merchants pay us a little bit as well. 

    We’re really excited about launching today. I hope everyone downloads the app. What we believe is gold is the ultimate form of money. Central banks hold it. It has been being used as money for thousands of years. It just couldn’t be used in electronic payment. We’ve just solved the biggest problem with gold. You can now use gold as money. We’ve created your own personal gold standard. The Glint debit card launches today. 

    Glint Democratizing Gold With New Gold-Backed Debit Card, says Glint CEO Jason Cozens

    Glint App Explained In New Commercial:

    Protecting your slice of the American dream isn’t always easy. Sometimes it takes a little more than just elbow grease and saving pennies. It takes innovation and that’s where the new app from Glint can change everything. How? By using gold. For the first time since the frontier days, American’s can now easily save and spend with gold with no hidden fees, minimums, or expensive financial advisors. Simply download the app, link your new card, and start enjoying the timeless stability and freedom of gold. 

    Unlike currencies that lose value to inflation and investments that can evaporate in a recession, gold has consistently increased in value. It’s a safe harbor from troubled economic times. In fact, gold tends to appreciate with the kind of recession many experts are predicting in the next two years. You’ve worked hard to create a  good life for your family and you don’t want Wall Street or the Federal Reserve making decisions for you. That’s why Glint is the right choice for security and independence.

  • Alibaba.com Opens World’s Largest B2B Marketplace To US Businesses

    Alibaba.com Opens World’s Largest B2B Marketplace To US Businesses

    “Alibaba.com is the largest B2B marketplace on the planet,” says John Caplan, the North America B2B President at Alibaba Group. “Today is a great day for US small businesses. Manufacturers and wholesalers can join Alibaba.com today to sell to the world. The platform is now open to enable those businesses to reach the 190 countries at four corners of the globe where we have ten million business buyers on the platform. That business is $23.9 trillion and in fact, it’s six times larger than the B2C market.”

    John Caplan, President, North America B2B at Alibaba Group, discusses opening Alibaba.com to US small businesses to reach 10 million new B2B buyers, in an interview on Bloomberg:

    Alibaba.com Now Open To US Small Businesses

    Today is a great day for US small businesses. Manufacturers and wholesalers can join Alibaba.com today to sell to the world. The platform is now open to enable those businesses to reach the 190 countries at four corners of the globe where we have ten million business buyers on the platform. That business is $23.9 trillion and in fact, it’s six times larger than the B2C market. Alibaba.com is the largest B2B marketplace on the planet. What we built are simple to use tools for small businesses to have a global storefront, to market to customers, and then to reach deep into the globe so that they can sell their goods.

    Today’s the big announcement. But in fact, one-third of the demand, the buyers on Alibaba.com, are here in the United States. So those folks we’ve been doing business with for 20 years since Jack founded the company. Now what we’re saying to them is you’ve been sourcing on the platform and now you can, in fact, sell to the world on the platform. We are entirely focused on the B2B market. It is $23.9 trillion. Alibaba.com is purpose-built to help small businesses sell to the world. We’re very focused on helping digitize small businesses around the globe.

    70 Percent of US Small Businesses Do Not Sell Online

    One interesting statistic, 70 percent of US small businesses do not sell online today. This market is not yet digitized. What we’ve created are simple to use tools to help small businesses get online. It’s an interesting space because. In fact, the value chain for small businesses, the value chain for B2B is so complex that no one has digitized it end-to-end other than Alibaba.com. 

    We’ve actually created a platform that enables a small business to message, talk to, negotiate with, pay, and handle the logistics for orders end-to-end. I think we’re in a class by ourselves.  Our business has seen a triple-digit growth and this plan has been in the works for many years. I joined Alibaba.com in 2017. The transformation of our business from a yellow page business to an end-to-end procurement platform is now adding the globalized supply to the platform.

    Alibaba.com Opens World’s Largest B2B Marketplace To US Businesses – John Caplan
  • Founders Syndrome Is a Real Thing, Says Craigslist Founder

    Founders Syndrome Is a Real Thing, Says Craigslist Founder

    “I wasn’t temperamentally suited to be CEO or really any kind of manager,” says Craiglist founder Craig Newmark. “So I was thinking maybe it is time to step down. I had also read about something called founder syndrome where somebody who’s good at starting something is really terrible at keeping it going. The biggest lesson is that founders syndrome is a real thing. The faster you think about that and then step down the better off you are.”

    Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, discusses the reality of founders syndrome where an entrepreneur might be really good at starting something but horrible at managing the business going forward in an Inc. featured video:

    As a Manager I Suck

    I can applaud myself thinking that it only took me a few months to overcome founder syndrome as opposed to running the company into the ground. The history of the first five years of Craigslist was just me running the thing, one year running it with volunteers, then after making it a company, one year with me as CEO. But towards the end of that year, people were kind enough to help me understand that as a manager I suck. I needed to find people who might be much better at it than I was. They were suggesting that maybe I didn’t have the right skill mix to be CEO. These are people who really cared about the site who believed and they were right.

    Founders Syndrome Is a Real Thing

    I wasn’t temperamentally suited to be CEO or really any kind of manager. So I was thinking maybe it is time to step down. I had also read about something called founder syndrome where somebody who’s good at starting something is really terrible at keeping it going. My decision to step down, well I winced a little bit because it was my creation and I didn’t want to feel stupid if I had made a big mistake. But it’s worked out and I don’t have regrets about stepping down. The biggest lesson is that founders syndrome is a real thing. The faster you think about that and then step down the better off you are. That worked out.

    Founders Syndrome Is a Real Thing, Says Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark
  • Our Machine Learning Platform Helps Brands Retain Their Customers, Says Medallia CEO

    Our Machine Learning Platform Helps Brands Retain Their Customers, Says Medallia CEO

    “We’re a platform that helps some of the biggest brands in the world really understand their customers in live time and communicate with them while they’re in an experience,” says Medallia CEO Leslie Stretch. “Instead of a survey after they’ve left a hotel, they communicate them while they’re there, check in on the experience and improve it. This helps them retain their customer and perhaps sell them another experience. It’s this machine learning platform that does that.”

    Leslie Stretch, President and CEO of Medallia, discusses the company’s IPO and how the company uses machine learning to react to customer signals in real-time rather than after they leave an experience in an interview on CNBC:

    Our Machine Learning Platform Helps Brands Retain Their Customers

    We’re a Silicon Valley tech company. We’re a platform that helps some of the biggest brands in the world really understand their customers in live time and communicate with them while they’re in an experience. So instead of a survey after they’ve left a hotel, they communicate them while they’re there, check in on the experience and improve it. This helps them retain their customer and perhaps sell them another experience. It’s this machine learning platform that does that.

    Anything is a signal to us, a survey, an IOT signal, a transaction, somebody buys something, they have a bad experience at the pool, or they’re on an airline and they don’t quite like the service that they’re getting, they can feed that back immediately instead of waiting until the experience is finished. We’re all about platform and signal. We’re very different from the survey companies, the feedback companies, which are the old experience economy companies. It’s the application of deep Silicon Valley technology to the problem.

    The Customer Is At the Center of Every Digital Transformation

    Customer experience has become really a major theme for every big brand in the world today. I also think that our technology is innovative and very different. The application of machine learning and the platform and just the operationalization of a private Silicon Valley company are really what I’ve done in the past. Just bringing basic blocking and tackling to go to market and marketing and building up the salesforce. So very simple and taking the story out to a bigger market.

    We actually just signed a revenue share partnership with Salesforce. We have a partnership for Marketing Cloud with Adobe. They’re great alliances for us. We can present our machine learning, our unstructured data, into their Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, and Service Cloud. That’s brand new for us this year. It’s great to go to market with leaders like that. Both Adobe and Salesforce completely understand the customer is at the center of every digital transformation and we are at the center of that.

    It’s Not For the Faint-Hearted, But We Invested a Ton In It

    We spent more than a half a billion dollars building this plot platform. That sets us apart from the traditional simple survey vendor. We’ve spent a ton of money on the privacy layer and on the security layer. We’ve worked already for a decade with some of the biggest brands in the world whose customer information is precious. We’re HIPAA certified for healthcare as well. So we take that very seriously. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but we invested a ton in it and it’s worth it.

    Our Machine Learning Platform Helps Brands Retain Their Customers, Says Medallia CEO Leslie Stretch
  • Facebook’s Libra Is a Force For Good, Says PayPal Co-Founder

    Facebook’s Libra Is a Force For Good, Says PayPal Co-Founder

    “In general, Libra is a force for good,” says PayPal Co-Founder and Affirm CEO Max Levchin. “It’s a really interesting experiment. I’m glad they’re doing it in a way that isn’t just Facebook because of all the headwind that Facebook has experienced with the regulators. There are many questions to ask about the practical applications. For example, if you are buying into Libra, does that create more opportunities to do as we call it, money fraud, or not?”

    Max Levchin, PayPal co-founder and Affirm CEO, discusses Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency and how that is a good example of the use of blockchain technology in an interview on Bloomberg Technology:

    Blockchain Technology Is Inevitable

    I agree with David Marcus (the Co-creator of Libra and Head of Calibra) from his testimony where he very aptly pointed out that blockchain technology is inevitable. It’s been a hammer looking for nails for quite some time. We’re now starting to see real applications to the blockchain tech. I’m not speaking of Bitcoin or any one particular currency, just the idea of a public ledger is a very powerful idea. It will get put to good use. I think Libra is a good example of good use. 

    The most obvious application where Libre as a concept is being brought down to an individual level is cross-border payments. You could make some very very cheap remittances happen. If you look at costs being charged by companies to send money back home from wherever you are, you will see they’re making some enormous spreads. There are plenty of startups trying to attack that, like TransferWise where I’m an investor, for example. They’ve done a wonderful job in Europe. I think Libra could potentially just massively compress fees in that market and that’ll be very good. 

    Libra Is a Force For Good

    In general, Libra is a force for good. It’s a really interesting experiment. I’m glad they’re doing it in a way that isn’t just Facebook because of all the headwind that Facebook has experienced with the regulators. But there are many many other questions to ask about the practical applications. For example, if you are buying into Libra, does that create more opportunities to do as we call it, money fraud, or not? It’s going to be a set of open problems for quite some time.

    It’s the job of the US regulators to not trust large companies or any companies. I think their job is to audit, to regulate, and to provide equal treatment under the rule of law for everyone. Libra is a particularly interesting one because it’s not just a company, it’s Facebook’s sort of initiating this thing, and there’s this giant group of other companies coming together to govern it. So it perhaps is more complicated to regulate. 

    But I think, yes, government should take an extremely active stance in regulating this thing that Libre is and will be. Within that, they should not rely on this notion that Facebook is going to be a good company. They may be and I’m sure they will be, but they’re also going to act in their best interest. That is the assumption of a smart regulator. Companies will do the thing they need to do and our job is to protect consumers and make sure of equal competition.

    Breaking Up Facebook Is a Terrible Idea

    The real question that lawmakers are asking about Facebook, is it too big? That’s the underlying dynamic that they’re trying to explore. That question is a much harder question to answer. It is very very big. It is bigger than most nations. So in that sense, I think they’re right. It is hard to say Facebook is too big if you step back and ask who do they compete with. If you actually compare them to, for example, Chinese companies that they go up against in a world of ad spend, companies like Tencent are just are gargantuan. And Tencent is not at risk of being broken up by the Chinese government from last I checked. If you want a Facebook to compete to with companies like Tencent successfully I think breaking them up seems like a counterintuitive thing to do.

    I think Facebook and all US company should absolutely be regulated. There’s a huge difference between being regulated and abiding by the set of laws and regulations and antitrust and all the stuff that the US government’s amassed over the last couple hundred years of how to behave in a sane way in a capitalist society with the rule of law. But breaking Facebook up does, in fact, hurt its ability to compete, internationally most importantly. I think breaking it up is a terrible idea, regulating it is exactly what the US government should be doing, and they should do a better job by the way.

    Facebook’s Libra Is a Force For Good, Says PayPal Co-Founder Max Levchin
  • We’ve Seen Active Buyers Consistently Grow, Says eBay CEO

    We’ve Seen Active Buyers Consistently Grow, Says eBay CEO

    “The most important thing that we look at is the underlying health of the marketplace,” says eBay CEO Devin Wenig. “For me, that really comes down to three things. It’s how many people are shopping with us? How many people are selling with us? And how much inventory is in the marketplace? What’s on the shelves if you will. All three of those have never been higher. We’ve seen active buyers consistently grow, we added two million last quarter.”

    Devin Wenig, CEO of eBay, discusses their strong Q2 earnings announcement and growth going forward. Wenig also took the opportunity to slam the internet sales tax movement, saying the “internet sales tax is a regressive tax on small business,” in an interview on CNBC:

    We’ve Seen Active Buyers Consistently Grow

    The most important thing that we look at is the underlying health of the marketplace. For me, that really comes down to three things. It’s how many people are shopping with us? How many people are selling with us? And how much inventory is in the marketplace? What’s on the shelves if you will. All three of those have never been higher. We’ve seen active buyers consistently grow, we added two million last quarter. We continue to see growth in business sellers and inventory. If you look in our history every time those numbers grow GMV (gross merchandise value) grows. 

    What we’re facing right now is a couple of things and GMV can move up or down in the 90 day period. We are in the middle of a rollout of internet sales tax, which we know is making an impact, particularly on our US business. We’re also seeing the withdrawal of some of the marketing spend that we did last year, which was part of the plan. We said we would do that this year and we have a line of sight to it, and it’s explainable. So we’re not that concerned about GMV being soft in the short run. What we see is a healthy marketplace and we know when those metrics grow GMV follows, as it has in every year in our past 24 years.

    We’ve raised guidance now twice in the last two quarters. We don’t give GMV guidance. We give revenue guidance and earnings guidance. We started the year saying this year was about growing the underlying marketplace metrics and let’s get the two real growth priorities, advertising, and payments, going. And half of the way in I’d say I’m pleased but not satisfied. I’d say we’ve made a lot of progress against those priorities, although we still have a long way to go. But it’s given us the confidence to raise our forecast in Q1 and we raised it again yesterday. So that’s a good start, a good first half.

    Internet Sales Tax Is a Regressive Tax On Small Business

    At the beginning of the year, there were no states that had enacted a marketplace collection of sales tax. Now we have nine and there are 30 that have declared and 30 will be in place by the end of this year. Obviously, when a state declares an internet sales tax we must collect on behalf of the sellers. So we have a forward view as to how many states will enact that tax and where it will be in place by the end of the year. It will be 30 and it will cover the majority of our sales in the US and the fourth quarter of this year will be the peak. 

    The impact of internet sales tax will make a bigger impact before it wanes. It’ll wane as we lap out of it next year. I’ll just take the opportunity to say I think it’s a bad policy. We’ve been advocating on behalf of small businesses for years that an internet sales tax is a regressive tax on small business and that is exactly what we’re seeing.

    We’ve Seen Active Buyers Consistently Grow, Says eBay CEO Devin Wenig
  • Does Netflix Have Enough Stuff To Keep Us Coming Back?

    Does Netflix Have Enough Stuff To Keep Us Coming Back?

    “Does Netflix have enough stuff that’s good enough to keep us coming back?” asks Michael Pachter of Wedbush. “That’s the real acid test. I actually think all these metrics they’re giving us on the crap shows are telling you that people are willing to watch whatever they throw at them because they’re running out of really great stuff to watch. So you get 40 million people watching Adam Sandler, which shocks me, but it happened.”

    Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush, discusses Netflix earnings, which reported a huge drop in US subscribers, and if Netflix can survive against Disney and other content streaming companies in interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg:

    Does Netflix Have Enough Stuff To Keep Us Coming Back?

    I think this is a blip. Netflix subscriber growth is going to be like the movie box-office and when there’s lots of great stuff they’re going to see an increase in subs. The numbers on Stranger Things are pretty impressive. It is a really good show. They have a handful of really great content. They’ll probably hit their 7 million subs number. I think the real problem is next year when there’s competition. We saw a preview of next year with this quarter. So I think next year you’ll probably have a couple of quarters where they actually lose subs.

    By my count, Netflix produces about ten times as many shows as HBO and they get about the same number of Emmy nominations. So throwing 10x at the wall they’re going to have their hits. I actually think subscriber growth is going to be based on one of two things, either water cooler chatter kind of shows like Breaking Bad, Ozark, and Stranger Things, that we talked about when they were on and we told people they have to see, or good enough content, which is a high quantity of okay content. 

    Do they have enough stuff that’s good enough to keep us coming back? That’s the real acid test. I actually think all these metrics they’re giving us on the crap shows are telling you that people are willing to watch whatever they throw at them because they’re running out of really great stuff to watch. So you get 40 million people watching Adam Sandler, which shocks me, but it happened.

    Price Increases Drove Subscriber Losses

    Price increases probably drove the subscriber loss domestically. I think that they’re probably bumping up against the ceiling on what they can charge and continue to grow. I personally believe that they’ll keep 80 percent of their domestic subscribers at as high as a $20 monthly charge. Their last 10 million subscribers are probably middle-income households and they notice when prices go up a couple of bucks, which they did in January. You’re going to see continued defections as content migrates away from the site and as competition starts to materialize. 

    There’s Disney Plus in the fall, Warner and Comcast next year, and more content leaving at the end of this year and the end of next year. Middle-income households are probably going to have to think about whether they subscribe to one or two or three plans. Yes, they can cut the cord and maybe afford all of them, but the fact is that Netflix did see a decline of domestic subs. That’s what fuels international expansion and they’re about to lower prices in India. So I just don’t see how they’re really worth the $450 price target most of my competitors have on the stock. Today’s correction makes a lot of sense.

    Does Netflix Have Enough Stuff To Keep Us Coming Back? asks Michael Pachter of Wedbush

    Netflix Is an Overvalued Company

    That’s the reason we have cable TV. It was just the easy way to get 200 channels and we’re going backward. Actually, the right solution which is not going to happen is that Hulu is going to be the aggregator. You had three of the four networks that owned Hulu. If they had pooled content I think that actually was the winning formula. Disney has pretty much consolidated ownership of Hulu. I think that ESPN Plus and Disney Plus layered on top of Hulu might actually get us back to that old cable model. We’re going to go over the top (OTT) but you’re going to have a content aggregator and I think it’s going to be Disney. That’s Bob Iger’s vision. and I frankly think you’ll get HBO Max layered on top of that as well.

    Netflix has a place. They’re not going out of business. I have a price target that implies an enterprise value of $90 billion which is bigger than Warner Brothers was sold for. So I don’t think this is a worthless company. I think it’s an overvalued company. If consumers are going to try to replicate what they have with cable now at a lower price, sure cut the cord, no more CNBC, too bad, and maybe you can get Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, the Comcast service, Netflix, and Amazon for less money. That’s what Netflix is banking on. 

    At the End Of the Day, Disney Is Going To Win

    Investors are foolish to think that anybody’s going to win except the content creators. The point is we’re watching this show (CNBC) because of you, not because of the platform. We want to see you. You’re the insightful person on this platform. You’re the content and you should command a premium for the content that you provide. Disney’s going to win. I really think at the end of the day Disney has the content. They win. 

    Stranger Things isn’t going to cut it. It’s one good show out of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. You can’t name a Netflix original that they own that you actually watch other than Stranger Things. They don’t own Ozark. They don’t own House of Cards. They don’t own Orange Is the New Black. They own stuff like Flaked which you don’t watch or The Ranch which you don’t watch.

    At the End Of the Day, Disney Is Going To Win and Netflix is Overvalued, says Michael Pachter of Wedbush


  • Turo Car-Sharing App Gets $250 Million From IAC To Take On Car Rental Industry

    Turo Car-Sharing App Gets $250 Million From IAC To Take On Car Rental Industry

    “As we continue to grow and invest in our brand more and more people are sharing their vehicles,” says Turo CEO Andre Haddad. “With our app, you can actually share your car so that you can earn money when you’re not using your car. Last year we ended the year with more than 400,000 vehicles listed and our community is now more than 10 million strong. We’re growing really rapidly. We’re hoping to be in the next few years in the same realm as ride-sharing and home-sharing.”

    Andre Haddad, CEO of Turo, discusses the $250 million in new funding from IAC, the tremendous growth of their car-sharing app, as well as fights with Enterprise Rent-A-Car which has been trying to stop them in their tracks in an interview on CNBC:

    We’re Hoping To Be In The Same Realm As Ride-Sharing

    Turo is a great business. There are almost one-and-a-half billion cars around the world and they are idle the vast majority of the time. With our app, you can actually share your car so that you can earn money when you’re not using your car. In the last few months, we’ve seen people earning more than $500 a month sharing their car a few days a month. It’s a great opportunity for car owners to share their cars and earn money with them when they’re not using them.

    We focus a lot on building trust and safety. We have a great partner with Liberty Mutual to cover all the insurance for both the car owner that is sharing their cars with their guests as well as providing coverage for guests that are driving these cars. It’s all about bringing that new idea to market and building trust and building safety for our community. As we continue to grow and invest in our brand more and more people are sharing their vehicles. Last year we ended the year with more than 400,000 vehicles listed and our community is now more than 10 million strong. We’re growing really rapidly. We’re hoping to be in the next few years in the same realm as ride-sharing and home-sharing.

    We’re Very Excited To Partner With IAC

    We’re very excited to partner with IAC. IAC is an incredible company that has a lot of expertise in the world of marketplaces. We’re looking forward to collaborating with Joey Levin and the team at IAC to help accelerate our progress and help accelerate our growth. We obviously want to invest more in our expansion. We want to refine our customer experience and we’d like to expand into more markets. Those are the key priorities for us in the next few years.

    Over the last few months, we’ve seen that the average host is sharing their vehicle roughly a third of the time, about ten days a month. With that ten days a month they’re earning roughly $550 of earnings on a monthly basis. As you can imagine with $550 of earnings you can pay for your car payment. It’s an incredible deal for a lot of people who are using the app. Traditional ownership implies utilization that’s less than 10 percent of the time. It’s a very inefficient use of an asset that depreciates really rapidly and has a lot of fixed costs. Turo is a tremendous opportunity for people who want to make better use of their asset.

    Enterprise Is Trying To Avoid Competition So We’re Fighting Back

    We are faced with a lot of challenges on the regulatory front. Really it’s driven by the traditional rental car industry and by Enterprise in particular. I think the traditional car rental players are concerned that consumers now have a bit more choice. They are concerned that we have probably a better selection, better value, and better convenience as an alternative to the traditional options of car rental. We’ve definitely been battling Enterprise this year. There are 37 states in the United States alone where we have gone into government relation battles with Enterprise. They’re trying to pass laws that will restrict the ability for consumers to share their cars. They’re trying to avoid competition so we’re fighting back. 

    We’ve been building a strong coalition of like-minded people. We have great support from the car manufacturing industry and from the insurance industry. We have prevailed in all of these regulatory battles this year. We have prevailed in 25 state regulatory battles last year as well. We’re trying to be very vigilant when it comes to protecting the ability for consumers to share their cars and we’re going to continue to fight these battles.

    Turo Car-Sharing App Gets $250 Million From IAC To Take On Car Rental Industry – Turo CEO Andre Haddad
  • There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model, Says Domino’s CEO

    There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model, Says Domino’s CEO

    “What we’re going to see here in the near term is that there’s so much investor subsidy into that (delivery) business model right now,” says Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison. “We’re not really sure where it’s going to shake out long term. There’s substantial discounting and over-investment in advertising right now to drive consumer demand. We don’t know how that’s going to shake out once consumers actually have to pay the full cost of that delivery because those fees are quite substantial relative to the cost of the underlying food.”

    Ritch Allison, CEO of Domino’s, discusses how investor subsidies of delivery companies like Grubhub and Uber Eats are impacting Domino’s in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:

    There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model

    What we’re going to see here in the near term is that there’s so much investor subsidy into that (delivery) business model right now. We’re not really sure where it’s going to shake out long term. There’s substantial discounting and over-investment in advertising right now to drive consumer demand. We don’t know how that’s going to shake out once consumers actually have to pay the full cost of that delivery because those fees are quite substantial relative to the cost of the underlying food. 

    We also have not yet seen what’s going to happen with the supply of restaurants on these platforms as well. Over time it’ll be proven out whether or not that business is truly incremental and whether or not that business is actually accretive from a margin standpoint to the operators that are offering that service through the third-party aggregators. So long-term still a lot of questions but short term certainly some pressure.

    We’re not going to do foolish things in the short term in reaction. We’re still very focused on our franchisees’ profitability. That’s first and foremost in our minds and we’re still very focused on generating great returns and free cash flow for our investors. We’re generating cash flow now at a pace of about a million dollars a day in the Domino’s business. So some near-term activity here that’s creating some turbulence in the marketplace but we’re going to remain focused on our long-term strategy, great profitability for our franchisees and strong operating cash flow and returns for our investors.

    We Still Gained a Significant Amount of Market Share In Q2

    When you take a look at our business we still gained a significant amount of market share in the pizza category during the second quarter. Our retail sales were up 6.8 percent which is significantly higher than the growth in the category and frankly much higher than the growth in the restaurant industry in general. So while same-store sales at three percent were at the lower end of our long-term outlook, the overall retail sales growth driven by the combination of that same-store sales and really strong unit growth was still quite positive.

    It is a tougher operating environment than it has been in years past. We do have new competition in the marketplace that we’re fighting against every day. There are also labor pressures in the marketplace, certainly, the tight employment environment and some of the rising minimum wages across the country are putting some pressure on. But we are really in a position of strength as we enter into this more turbulent period. 

    Bringing Data-Driven Decision Making To International Markets

    In 2018 our average store in the US had operating cash flow as measured by EBITA of $141,000. Our franchisees are very healthy. Cash on cash returns in the business are really strong. That’s why when you take a look at what’s going on with units, we opened 45 units in the second quarter in the US and only closed three, it’s still a very healthy business model. We’re positioned quite well as we look forward relative to the rest of the restaurant industry to continue to be successful.

    We are we’re working hand-in-hand with our master franchisees around the world. As you look from market to market the issues in markets can be different depending upon those specific circumstances. What we’re trying to do is work with the markets to bring some of the same terrific data-driven decision-making that we’ve used to grow the business in the US over a number of years now and help our international markets in that regard. 

    Broadly, when you take a look at the international business, retail sales were up 9.8 percent in the second quarter. We are gaining share at a significant pace in the international markets as well as having great growth in the international markets this past quarter with a 158 net store openings. It remains a very healthy business despite the comps over the last few quarters being on the lower end.

    There’s So Much Investor Subsidy In The Delivery Business Model, Says Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison
  • How WEX Has Dramatically Diversified Its Payment Solutions

    How WEX Has Dramatically Diversified Its Payment Solutions

    “Over the last several years in the company’s history we’ve diversified the business so that we have less and less exposure to fuel,” says WEX CEO Melissa Smith. “But as fuel prices go up we do have some benefit from that and when fuel prices go down we do have something negative to that. When we first went public almost 70 percent of our revenues were exposed to fuel prices and now it’s in the 20s.”

    Melissa Smith, CEO of WEX, discusses how the company has diversified its payment solutions into areas such as travel, healthcare, and corporate payments in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC: 

    Wex DriverDash App Makes Fleet Fueling Efficient and Secure

    On the field card side of the business, we’ve developed a product called DriverDash, a mobile payment device. People use their mobile phones, they have our app loaded on that, and it uses facial recognition in order to allow someone into the app which turns on the pump. If you’re driving your Ford F-250 and you’re sitting next to the pump, it turns the pump on remotely. So it’s very secure. Then as you fill up your vehicle the information gets transmitted back to us and so we’re collecting data around that transaction.

    It’s a savings not just in terms of time but also in the ability to make sure we’re collecting data in the right way that allows the product to work better and making sure that it’s more secure.  It gets turned on at the point that the person hits that pump and then the pump is turned off as they turn off that transaction. It eliminates this concept of white plastic fraud. 

    We’ve Diversified the Business

    We have exposure to oil (prices), although less and less. Over the last several years in the company’s history, we’ve diversified the business so that we have less and less exposure to fuel. But as fuel prices go up we do have some benefit from that and when fuel prices go down we do have something negative to that. We’re very transparent. We talk about what the impact is and even when we give guidance we talk about what we’re assuming around fuel prices. 

    The biggest thing for us is we’ve diversified the business. When we first went public almost 70 percent of our revenues were exposed to fuel prices and now it’s in the 20s.

    Processes Consumer Hotel Payments For Expedia 

    If you think of a company like Expedia, when we go into the background they’ve got all these payments they have to make to hotels around the world and they’re getting payments in advance by consumers. What we do is make a connection to that individual consumer payment and make a payment on behalf of Expedia to the hotels around the world. 

    For someone like them or other online travel agencies, it allows them to focus on scaling their business and to not have to worry about this idea of many different payments to make. Also, if that consumer ultimately wants to buy a movie or do something that’s ahead of what they paid for we can block that. 

    A Fintech Provider For American Express

    Aa virtual card means card-not-present, no plastic. We started virtual cards many years ago and the idea behind that was being able to make a payment, typically an online payment, and doing it using an account number but without any physical plastic. You think about this concept of high integration, very seamless, you can facilitate a payment without having a card present and you can do this with huge transaction volumes. We have $76 billion worth of volume running through our company and you can do some of that with virtual cards.

    Someone like America Express comes to us because of the technology that we provide as a fintech provider. We want to make sure that we’re providing technology, integrating it through API’s, to businesses, to partners, to financial institutions, individually to companies, a whole host of different types of customer sets. American Express would be using the technology as a piece of their technology stack as they go out into the marketplace.

    Using Data From HSA Accounts To Advise Employers and Consumers

    Regarding health benefit services, if you have an HSA account or a flexible spending account we’re often the technology that sits in the background to that. When you are making a payment we’re making sure that you’re paying for things that are appropriate so that they’re health-related but also allow them to be made on a tax-deferred basis. We’re accumulating data around your purchases so that we can help advise employers around how much money should you fund into someone’s HSA account. Also, (informing on) how much should you as a consumer be directing into that account. 

    A lot of what we do is integrate the data that sits in the background and that’s important because it allows companies to do what they want to do. We sometimes grow, sometimes save money, but at the end of the day where we can pull data into the equation and we can show it to customers in a visual way that’s where the wow comes in.

    How WEX Has Dramatically Diversified Its Payment Solutions – WEX CEO Melissa Smith
  • Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth

    Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth

    “Virtual restaurants is a very interesting initiative,” says Uber Eats EMEA head Rodrigo Arevalo. “Basically by leveraging the data on our platform, we can partner with other restaurants in order to cuisine types that only exist on food delivery platforms. If there is not a restaurant in a certain neighborhood we will partner with restaurants to make that happen. In the UK we are already doing 200 virtual restaurants and we are expanding throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.”

    Rodrigo Arevalo, head of EMEA at Uber Eats, discusses how virtual restaurants are helping power Uber Eats Growth in an interview on Bloomberg:

    Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth

    Virtual restaurants is a very interesting initiative. Basically, by leveraging the data on our platform we can partner with other restaurants in order to cuisine types that only exist on food delivery platforms. That has two benefits. The first one is that it helps restaurants utilize their kitchens a lot more. The second one is that it increases their revenue on their top line. It’s a very interesting initiative to provide more choice and to increase business for restaurants. 

    If there is not a restaurant in a certain neighborhood we will partner with restaurants to make that happen. In the UK we are already doing 200 virtual restaurants and we are expanding throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It’s a type of local exercise that we are trying to tack on. It’s going really well and we’re excited about that.

    Uber East Demonstrates the Potential of Uber’s Logistics Platform

    Uber Eats fits into Uber’s overall strategy and portfolio in the way that it demonstrates the potential of Uber’s logistics platform. Just in three and a half years, we’ve been able to build a multi-billion dollar business and today we are already the biggest food delivery app outside of China. It’s all about the logistics network that we have built and how we can leverage the potential of that platform. 

    It’s about focus for us. We want to make sure that we deliver on the plan, deliver on the vision that (Uber CEO) Dara Khosrowshahi has set for the company. Focus is basically three pillars for Uber Eats. The first one is restaurant selection, providing consumers choice. The second one is customer experience for eaters, for restaurants, and for delivery partners. The third one is underpinning that with great technology and a great product that people would love to use every single day. 

    Uber Eats Partners With 220,000 Restaurants Globally

    We partner today with 220,000 restaurants globally and there is a vast variety of selection from every kind of meal that you would like; comfort food to the healthiest options such as vegan, salads, etc. We believe selection. We believe in consumer choice. We want to make sure that we provide all of those options to them. We very much focus on providing that information, providing those options, and making sure that consumers make an informed choice.

    When it comes to packaging we already partner with several companies that provide sustainable packaging. Given our platform, particularly in the UK, we already look for ways to facilitate sustainable packaging for restaurant partners, making sure we do our part in that sense.

    Virtual Restaurants Helping Power Uber Eats Growth – Uber Eats EMEA head Rodrigo Arevalo
  • The Pace of Digitalization in China is Much Faster Than Anywhere in the World, Says AXA China CEO

    The Pace of Digitalization in China is Much Faster Than Anywhere in the World, Says AXA China CEO

    “The pace of digitalization in China is much faster than anywhere in the world and in a sense, it’s much deeper than anywhere else,” says AXA China CEO Xavier Veyry. “In China we really see an acceleration in the way companies leverage digital tools. I think in China digitalization is accelerating and I believe that in a lot of ways China is really leading the innovation in terms of worldwide interaction with the customers on the digital front.”

    Xavier Veyry, CEO of AXA China, discusses how China is leading the world in digitalization and how digitalization is impacting the insurance industry and customers in an interview on CNBC:

    The Pace of Digitalization in China is Much Faster Than Anywhere in the World

    AXA has been one of the pioneers in terms of digital insurance in many places in the world. This is an industry, this is a trend, this is a fundamental shift in our industry that we have been pioneering in many geographies, most specifically in Europe and sometimes in Asia. Here in China, I would say that the landscape is very different. The pace of digitalization in China is much faster than anywhere in the world and in a sense, it’s much deeper than anywhere else. 

    In China we really see an acceleration in the way companies leverage digital tools. The fact is that China has a very unique ecommerce platform and a very unique e-payment platform. In our analysis e-payment is the key driver toward facilitating the purchase of insurance products. It’s true that some insurance products can be designed for ecommerce for digital interactions. Others require a more personal touch and personal interaction with customers. It really depends on the product that we are manufacturing and the product that we are presenting to the customers. 

    I think in China this is accelerating and I believe that in a lot of ways China is really leading the innovation in terms of worldwide interaction with the customers on the digital front.