Hosted by L2 founder Scott Galloway, we recap the week’s news and our take on who is thriving and who is diving in a digital age.
By popular demand, Scott and Aswath Damodaran discuss topics in cryptocurrency, from why it's impossible to value to why people choose Bitcoin over gold.
For more on Aswath Damodaran: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/
Episode 137
Loser: Unsustainable internet companies. Pureplays like Wayfair and Blue Apron are getting Amazon-like valuations without a critical component: a business that works.
Loser: The brand-industrial complex. Startup Brandless sells generic household items for $3 each, pointing to a larger shift in consumer behavior.
Loser: The smartphone generation. Three-quarters of American teens own iPhones, and the devices are making them more lonely -- but also less likely to do drugs.
(0:13) “Meal-Kit Maker Blue Apron Goes Public, Demand Underwhelms As Amazon Looms,” Reuters, June 2017. http://reut.rs/2toDqYV
(0:13) “Pioneering Beauty Startup Birchbox Turns Profit After Tough 2016,” Forbes, April 2017. http://bit.ly/2fvh96f
(0:13) Google Finance, August 8, 2017.
(0:25) “New Amazon Data From Wall Street Should Terrify All Retail Stores In The US,” Business Insider, September 2016. http://read.bi/2bX6tG6
(0:30) “How Many Americans Are Amazon Prime Members?” The Motley Fool, April 2017. http://bit.ly/2fuXqmU
(0:30) “Share Of Internet Users In The United States Who Live In A Household With An Amazon Prime Subscription As Of November 2016,” Statista, November 2016. http://bit.ly/2vn3eob
(0:30) “Sixty-Four Percent Of U.S. Households Have Amazon Prime,” Forbes, June 2017. http://bit.ly/2usxrU8
(0:38) Value Investors Club, April 2016.
(0:43) L2 Analysis Of SEMRush Data, June 2017.
(0:47) “AMZN Cash Reserves,” Quandl, June 2017. http://bit.ly/2vIetIY
(0:53) “Burning Cash And Losing Customers, Wayfair Is Running Out Of Options,” Seeking Alpha, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2rqZ5dJ
(1:00) L2 Analysis of iSpotTV Data.
(1:12) L2 Analysis Of SEMRush Data, June 2017.
(1:31) “Blue Apron Significantly Lowers Its Valuation With Slashed IPO Pricing,” techcrunch, June 2017. http://tcrn.ch/2t1AIG0
(1:37) “Blue Apron Is Spending More Than $400 For Every New Customer — And That's Creating A Major Problem For The Company,” Business Insider, August 2017. http://read.bi/2vIHeVL
(1:45) “Form S-1,” Blue Apron Holdings, Inc., June 2017. http://bit.ly/2qGf2No
(1:50) “Blue Apron Vs. HelloFresh: A Look At Multiples And Valuation History,” CB Insights, June 2017. http://bit.ly/2uK03Dl
(1:50) “Blue Apron: 5 Things To Know About The Meal-Kit Delivery Company,” Market Watch, July 2017. http://on.mktw.net/2rtG3VH
(2:51) Cadent Consulting Group, 2016.
(3:42) “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, September 2017. http://theatln.tc/2u3JDX6
(3:42) “Millennials Surpass Gen Xers as the Largest Generation in U.S. Labor Force,” Pew Research Center, May 2015. http://pewrsr.ch/1KAFrQ0
(3:54) “2016 Overview Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use,” Monitoring The Future, January 2017. http://bit.ly/1WumBiz
Episode 136
For economies to thrive, companies need to hand over a quarter of their profits.
But the Four Horsemen - Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook -- pay far less than the average US corporate tax rate.
Loser: future generations, who will have to pay off the debt racked up by politicians unwilling to tax the most profitable companies in the world.
(0:20) S&P Global Market Intelligence.
(1:21) “Google’s EU Fine Is a Small Price to Pay for Scale,” The Wall Street Journal, June 2017. http://on.wsj.com/2wakRWL
(1:48) “Case No COMP/M.7217 - Facebook/ WhatsApp,” Office for Publications of the European Union, March 2014. http://bit.ly/2cxoGyC
(2:08) “E.U. Fines Facebook $122 Million Over Disclosures in WhatsApp Deal,” The New York Times, May 2017. http://nyti.ms/2pZh1ex
(2:33) “This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook,” Buzzfeed, November 2016. http://bzfd.it/2vm5htp
Episode 135
This has been an awful year for Uber, which was the most valuable startup in the world. We'll see...
(0:41) “‘Apple Is Sex’ Scott Galloway Cannes Lions 2017,” YouTube, June 2017. http://bit.ly/2uDOG3S
(0:56) “Uber Loses at Least $1.2 Billion in First Half of 2016,” Bloomberg, August 2016. https://bloom.bg/2bYHoz5
(1:32) “Lyft Is Valued At $7.5 Billion After Raising A $500 Million Round,” recode, April 2017. http://bit.ly/2ufgXwN
(1:32) “As Uber’s Value Slips On The Secondary Market, Lyft’s Is Rising,” Tech Crunch, June 2017. http://tcrn.ch/2tyTaFH
(2:27) “Marissa Mayer Defends Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 2017. http://bit.ly/2tW5kZm
Episode 133
They're catching up to Netflix with original content, producing more innovative hardware than Apple, and about to lead the biggest consumer sector in the world. Prediction: this company will hit a $1 trillion market cap by 2020.
(0:09) “Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods Market,” Amazon, June 2017. http://bit.ly/2rynJxL
(0:39) “Amazon.com Market Cap,” Y Charts, July 2017. http://bit.ly/2uWnj2y
(0:45) Yahoo! Finance, June 2016.
(0:56) “Supermarkets & Grocery Stores in the US: Market Research Report,” January 2017. http://bit.ly/2tNg3r1
(0:56) SelectUSA, 2016.
(1:06) “Global E-Commerce Grocery Market Has Grown 15% To 48BN,” Kantar WorldPanel, September 2016. http://bit.ly/2piz4jZ
(1:29) “7 Price Tags That Prove Whole Foods Has Gone Too Far,” Spoon University, June 2016. http://bit.ly/2uefckp
(1:56) “Time Warner Boosting HBO Budget As Netflix, Amazon Keep Spending,” FierceCable, December 2016. http://bit.ly/2o8CFkE
(1:56) “Amazon Is Spending An Insane Amount Of Money To Catch Up To Netflix,” Vanity Fair, April 2017. http://bit.ly/2pjCxij
(2:09) “Exclusive - Amazon To Charge $2.8 Million For NFL Ad Packages,” Reuters, June 2017. http://reut.rs/2t3rNGd
(2:45) Synergy Research Group.
Episode 132
Winner: Food videos. BuzzFeed's Tasty is one of Facebook's most popular pages, and Chinese toddler Xiaoman scored major ad deals by eating on camera.
Loser: Brands as the percentage of consumers who can name a favorite brand declines.
Plus, Scott's advice on how to find a mate.
(0:13) “How Food Brand Tasty Is A Template For BuzzFeed’s Vertical Expansion,” Digiday, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2q1ovTn
(0:17) “Facebook Statistics - Media,” socialbakers, June 2017. http://bit.ly/2lPzFXX
(0:27)“Food Brands Seek Taste of Social Success,” L2 Inc., March 2017. http://bit.ly/2tpvNAZ
(0:35) “How a Toddler Who Loves Eating Transfixed China,” The Wall Street Journal, May 2017. http://on.wsj.com/2qaR6kf
(0:35) Miaopai, June 2017.
(0:44) YouGov & Time Inc., April 2015.
(1:01) L2 Inc. Digital IQ Index: Personal Care, October 2016. http://bit.ly/2pYxdgZ
(1:06) “50 Most Important Marketing Charts for 2017,” Percolate, 2016. http://bit.ly/2qYiEuL
(1:25) “Super Cities,” Knight Frank, 2016. http://bit.ly/1ODJv6d
(1:42) “The 20 Most Populated U.S. Cities Where Women Outnumber Men,” Equinox, October 2016. http://bit.ly/2u1ZBRT
(1:42) “U.S. and World Population Clock,” United States Census Bureau, June 2016. http://bit.ly/1mULN4x
Episode 131
Winner: Niche brands, which are grabbing share from established CPG enterprises.
Winner: Zola, a startup that disrupted the wedding registry industry by getting digital right.
Loser: Remote workers. IBM will no longer let staff telecommute, following in the footsteps of Bank of America and Aetna.
Plus, how Scott really spends his workday.
(0:23) “CPG Growth Leaders,” IRI, March 2017. http://bit.ly/2tSYMtT
(0:40) “Online CPG Industry Report,” 1010Data, March 2017. http://bit.ly/2sZPlvE
(0:53) L2 Digital IQ Index: Personal Care, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2pYxdgZ
(1:20) L2 Insight Report: Retail: Wedding Registries, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2rH5SRe
(1:50) “IBM, a Pioneer of Remote Work, Calls Workers Back to the Office,” The Wall Street Journal, May 2017. http://on.wsj.com/2q1oERK
Episode 130
Loser: Facebook, which keeps messing up ad metrics and is refunding advertisers. In contrast, Google can now tell when you watch an ad and then go to a store to buy the product.
Winner: Best Buy, an oasis in the retail sector's desert of bad news. The brand grew its US online sales 23% as in-store sales declined.
Winner: Airbnb, which gets more traffic than any hotel brand or metasearch site. Prediction: Airbnb will be worth more than Uber by the end of this year.
Winner: Ayahuasca, the hallucinogen gaining mainstream appeal. Scott tries it out.
(0:14) “FAQ: Everything Facebook Has Admitted About Its Measurement Errors,” Marketing Land, May 17, 2017. http://mklnd.com/2hinoZU
(0:14)“An Update on Metrics and Reporting,” Facebook Newsroom, November 2016. http://bit.ly/2rAX9PW
(0:14) “Facebook Strikes Back At Marketers Suing Over Inflated Video Metrics,” MediaPost, June 8, 2017. http://bit.ly/2rll7zt
(0:34) “Google Expands Ad Tracking In The Real World,” CNN, May 2017. http://cnnmon.ie/2rNJy90
(1:00) “Google Adds YouTube to Suite of Ad Tools Tracking Retail Sales,” Bloomberg, May 2017. https://bloom.bg/2rRjieh
(1:28) "Best Buy Defies Retail Doldrums, Posting Higher Sales," The Wall Street Journal, May 2017. http://on.wsj.com/2qq4CAD
(1:32) “Best Buy (BBY) Stock Surges on Q1 Earnings & Revenue Beat,” Zacks, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2t6Dh9n
(1:35) “Best Buy’s Surge In Online Sales Shows It Won't Be Toppled By Amazon,” CNBC, August 2016. http://cnb.cx/2bfUoeC
(1:35) “Best Buy Reports Better-Than-Expected Fourth Quarter Earnings,” Best Buy, March 2017. http://bit.ly/2lWbw09
(2:06) “Airbnb Traffic Surges, Surpassing Older Brands,” eMarketer, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2qvBH30
(2:16) “Airbnb Closes $1B Round At $31B Valuation, Profitable As Of 2H 2016, No Plans For IPO,” TechCrunch, March 2017. http://tcrn.ch/2mncTVz
(2:16) “How Uber’s Funding and Valuation Stack Up Against Competitors Like Didi and Lyft,” recode, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2rvh2gh
Episode 129
Loser: All of us addicted to the numerous screens in our lives. Guest star Adam Alter, NYU marketing professor and author of Irresistible, discusses what makes our devices so hard to put down.
http://adamalterauthor.com/irresistible
(0:18) “Smartphone Addiction Tightens Its Global Grip,” Statista, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2qZSxFQ
(0:26) eMarketer, February 2016.
(0:31) “Dealing With Devices: The Parent-Teen Dynamic,” Common Sense Media, May 2016. http://bit.ly/1Y5Wcd5
Episode 128
Winner: Voice technology, which is accelerating the decline of brand.
Loser (again): Brands as Amazon and Walmart compete to lower prices.
Loser: TV networks, which are getting desperate as views keep declining.
(0:26) “The Rise of Voice Platforms - Comparing Voice Related API’s,” Christian Rebernik, February 2017. http://bit.ly/2ruUmLI
(1:01) L2 Analysis of Keyword Tool IO Data.
(2:13) Amazon.com and Alexa.
(3:54) “‘Roseanne’ Revival in the Works,” The Hollywood Reporter, April 2017. http://bit.ly/2oGEtlm
(4:00) Nielsen. http://on.wsj.com/2rgaoZh
(4:09) “NBC Wins 2016-17 Season In Ratings Demo; CBS Takes Total Viewers,” Deadline Hollywood, May 2017. http://bit.ly/2rJDjq1
Episode 127
