>> from pier three in san francisco, welcome to "bloomberg west." where we focus on technology, innovation, and the future of business. i am emily chang. every weekend we will bring you the best of west, the top interviews with power players in global technology and media companies that are reshaping our world. it is the next chapter with amazon's bitter battle with machete and they are making an appeal to authors. they have proposed letting authors keeping 100% of revenue from e-book sales.

the idea is the lack of revenue would force both parties to get a deal done. machette said it is -- amazon responded with his own statement saying -- i spoke with bloomberg industries director paul sweeney and ron josey and i asked ron to set the stage for us. >> it is one of multiple partners at amazon and each partner is on a multiyear deal and it was up later. here we are, and there is a

bitter dispute. from my perspective, it is more amazon, i believe by taking a greater share of the dollars. probably pricing e-books. i look at amazon as focusing on what consumers can do and machette is probably looking to protect interest. >> would you echo that, paul? >> amazon has always been a low price. clearly, amazon is under pressure. especially the past couple of quarters and probably more pressure to look at is margins or lack there of. granted, amazon has been focused on growth and not necessarily profit margins. the pressure on the company has ratcheted up to look at cost across the board.

this is one small area is that their media content cost can play a tougher role when it comes to negotiating with its partners. >> who does it hurt the most? is it machette, or is it the authors? >> i would say the authors. amazon is doing what they do to make sure they have the right selection for consumers. there are pretty popular authors on machette. consumers may not be able to get those titles. it may be the biggest thing for authors and consumers. they are saying let's give the dollars back to publishers. i would say to the authors and consumers and from amazon perspective, media is important for the overall business. we project them to generate 90 billion dollars in revenue.

one publisher is not going to change much to the overall financial well-being of amazon. it is all about selection for consumers and that is what they are going after. >> how much does it affect machette's bottom line? >> i think is a big deal for machette and other publishing industries looking closely. clearly, when you take a look at the book publishing business, it is a tale of two cities. the traditional ink on paper, that business is dying, down to 25%. however, the growth of e-book sales is up eightfold. clearly, the future of book publishing is in the e-book business. machette has to do business with the amazons of the world but they need other publishers to really hold a hard line with amazon in terms of pricing and margins.

>> are we going to see more of these kind of content disputes? amazon had a similar dispute with time warner over movie distributions. >> sure. physical is sort of not growing at all as paul mentioned. it is a shift to digital. every device will be connected and people are consuming on digital weather tablets or the phone we saw. absolutely. distribution as we have known it over the past several years is changing and every single business is impacted. amazon is a leader and every publisher needs to be on amazon and work with amazon and make sure consumers and get the content. and also the overall media business is not a disruptive. to answer your question, yes, we will see these negotiations going forward. we consumers are consuming more

digital and that is not changing. >> if machette holds firm as paul said they should, who will win in the end? amazon is a giant. >> amazon is a giant and they have the leverage given their 6% share of the e-book market. there has to be a compromise down the road. machette is fighting the fight not only for itself but the industry overall because we'll have to see the other publishing houses follow-up with the deals of their own. they are really having to look at this machette/amazon as the template for how this relationship is going to go for it. it critical deal not only for machette but in the industry overall. >> ron josey and paul sweeney. what about the authors who are

impacted? we have 2 of the most vocal critics next on "the best of west." ♪

>> welcome back to the "best of west." while the dispute rages on between amazon and machette, authors are caught in the middle. amazon recently offered machette's authors all of the money. i spoke with authors on both sides. a self published author and douglas preston, co-author of "the lost island." doug wrote a letter that went viral. i started by asking, what did you think of amazon's proposal

to offer authors 100% of the profits? >> it seems like it is and offer to divide authors and publishers. it is not a serious offer. they are offering us a lot of money. we are going to be getting a large amount of e-book income. i have an advance and it would not be fair for me to be getting the money when it should be going to the publisher, machette. also, the offer assumes that all authors are motivated by money and we are motivated by readers. they are taking from our authors and taking away our audience from us. >> in response to the letter you

wrote, amazon actually had something to say. saying -- you do have a movie that is about to be made. how do you respond? >> i think it is ironic because the people were being crushed are the debut authors. if you are not a successful author, i already have an audience and they will find me. people will be crushed having their hopes are dashed. they are the ones are the ones struggling to find an audience. that is rather ironic for amazon to make that statement. >> hugh, you are an author on the other side, where do you stand? >> the only books not available

are the ones not out. all machette books are available on amazon. i am blacklisted because i publish with amazon and i find it very disingenuous we'll call it a boycott. you know, it is hard to take the complaint seriously. what i would love to see is maybe machette counter and say we will take your offer but we will get hurt more because we earn more on e-book sales than amazon. let's split it 50/50. the authors who do not need the money like douglas, hand it back to machette and taking some of amazon's money. the small authors who i am sure would love to have visit deal do

not have the freedom to speak up because of their careers could be harmed. they would really benefit from this. they have offered this a month or two ago. they offered a 50/50 split. i believe this is a generous offer. machette have their authors as a shield and there is no way for amazon to negotiate. it is a pr nightmare. amazon is saying, it is like a nasty divorce where the kids are getting hurt. amazon is saying let's get the kids to their aunt's house and where they are not safe and that will not hear of the squabble. the other thing that came out was that machette has not been negotiating with amazon. they are happier with the deal

they have now until that the force prices even higher. >> it sounds like you think publishers are a big part of the problem. how do your response? >> this is insane that some of the authors are against amazon. we like amazon. what we are asking amazon and jeff bezos is not to hurt us as he uses us as leverage when negotiating with machette. they are free to duke it out. we do not know what the dispute is. all we are saying is do not hurt us. we are innocent third-party and would've helped amazon but, one of the largest corporate -- become one of the largest corporations in the world. from the time they were a struggling start up company, i have personally written blogs and reviews and all kinds of ways i have helped amazon for no compensation at all and i am grateful to them for selling my book.

please, amazon, can't you resolve this without involving and hurting authors? that's all we are asking. we are not against anybody or for machette but we want amazon to stop retaliating against authors who have nothing to do with this dispute. we consider ourselves to be amazon's loyal business partners. >> that is douglas preston and hugh howey. he just won an auction for bitcoin. what does he have planned for all of the virtual currency? he joins us next. ♪

>> welcome back to "best of

west." venture capitalist tim draper was the highest bidder off the auction of bitcoins. draper beat out 44 other bidders for the bitcoins worth about $19 million at the time of auction and he said he will use it to grow his start up which enables companies to store bitcoins on behalf of customers. i spoke with tim draper and asked why he bid so high. >> it is an exciting technology and it can transform our entire economic system. and over a long period of time. it was a long term purchase for me. i am very excited of what it can do and where governments are merging and they have bad

currencies. i am excited about what it can do for the u.s. a transfer is a lot cheaper than one using credit cards. i am exciting about what it can do about the speed of money moving across all borders and around the world. it is really exciting and i think everyone should be trying it. everybody should buy a bitcoin and see how it works. you can buy it and go to -- if you are an institution as set up an account and try spitting it. there is a great company called tapcard that allows you to buy it on any site. you can buy it on any site. it is exciting. >> what did you bid for? we know it was worth $19 million. we heard you paid more.

>> i bid more than all of the other bidders. [laughter] >> ok, ok. >> that is the way it goes. there are so many people who can benefit from this. and there is a company that is in argentina. argentina loses the entire value of an argentinian peso every three or four years due to inflation. the company is solving that and another in africa that is doing the same kind of thing. in mexico, a lot of interesting companies that are really trying to transform the emerging economies. >> do we need it -- you mention one company, but do we need a

more big companies like amazon, like starbucks to accept bitcoins to enable it to survive as a currency? >> through snap card, you can go to amazon and buy things through amazon. it is already happening. there are many companies making it -- make it a press announcement, i have a notice of three or four since i hit the bid that have decided they will also accept bitcoin. it is happening. it is a new ecosystem and very powerfully system that is not tied to the whims of a government. if you are not comfortable with your government, bitcoin is a great edge. in fact, i think any institutional investor that is a fiduciary needs to hold bitcoin.

it is a possibility that this becomes the main currency of the world. >> why don't we have a big national exchange in the united states yet for bitcoin? >> there are. they take time. you go to bitme.com and there is an exchange and it is happening in real time. i encourage you to all go out and give it a shot. >> on the subject, some saying it is a publicity stunt and bitcoin is not that useful in developing companies. and on the other hand they meet the liquidity. what is the story? >> yes, it is an exciting time for people in governments that are not competing well for their citizens.

this is a great opportunity for those citizens to go and do real commerce and more efficient real commerce. it is a great time for them. and i have noticed throughout the third world, people are using bitcoin very, very often and that is exciting for me and exciting for the bitcoin ecosystem and really exciting for those people in the third world who are rising up. >> what are they using it to buy? >> anything. bitpagos, they are using a bitcoin to make quick transfers. they take an argentinian pesos and convert to bitcoins because they have more faith.

>> what do you think is the potential for an alternative currency, another alternative currency to replace bitcoin in the future? >> i think the bitcoin is the leader there and will be for a long time because there's a real network effect. if people are trading bitcoin and buying things, it is going to be harder for another currency to come out. that was my conclusion in a bidding on -- with the u.s. marshal office. >> i was recently speaking with reid hoffman and he said bitcoin is the number one trend on his own mind lately. he is thinking about it and you are thinking about it. you speak to so many business leaders across the country and for the people not on the bitcoin bandwagon, what is the biggest hesitation? what are they worried about?

>> they have to try it. it is simple. you go and buy a bitcoin and then try to spend it and use snap card for it. it is not hard. and then they will say, this is not a bad. it is a more efficient and they using a credit card or dollars or any currency that is tied to any government. it is very exciting times. it is a technology that i see coming up there really has an amazing future to it. i am very interested in financial technology, new financial technologies because i think the banking world and investment banking world and venture capital world will all be completely transformed in the next three or four years. and i think the bitcoin is one of the technologies that makes this very easy to happen.

through bitcoin, there are smart contracts. there are companies that are double ledgers. if i buy something from you, both of our sub ledgers get updated automatically. a company called sub ledger does that. one keeps track of all of your shares electronically. they do not have to go through other iterations with lawyers and accounts anytime shares get moved. this is as transformative to finance as the internet was to information and communication. >> that was tim draper. facebook, google, and yahoo! are out with the data with gender diversity showing men still dominate in silicon valley.

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>> you're watching the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. facebook and google released information on gender diversity. take a look at this. both hover around 70% male and 30% female. yahoo! and linkedin are slightly better. i spoke with juliet. she focuses on recruiting. the tech sector clearly needs more women. i started by asking her why she thinks silicon valley is still boys club. >> if you go back to a study that was done in 2008, what we

realized is women leave after 35. i think there are a couple of different trends to play. you've got to start working. you have to have the economic independence to afford to deal with the issue of child care. i think women will always struggle with the need to try to do it all. are you working in an environment or at a company that is going to support you as you try to grow your career? many of these topics are gender-neutral. they apply to men as well as women. >> the numbers from facebook and

google, are they not get enough? >> we will continue to have this debate and raise awareness. this is what strikes me. we have an incredible mentoring program. there still aren't enough women. that is the ratio that we have to solve. that and keeping women in the workforce. >> you are involved in creating and recruiting. is there a situation where a woman doesn't fit? >> what women always want to do is make sure that they can have high impact in work where they can make a difference. for women, we need to continue to have mentoring programs. what is really important is we have to this debate at all

levels. whether you are a ceo or an entry-level graduate, you are conscious of the decisions you're going to have to make along the journey so that you can stay in the workforce. it this is not purely a female issue. this is also a male issue. we need men to support women on this issue. >> you have advice for young women. i want to walk through some of it. opt for more demanding work. find people who support you. don't work part time. recognize that your career is valuable. let's talk through some of that. >> these are some of the things that i have dealt with in my journey dealing with women improve their careers. it is a really small number of women that i have placed in my career. you want to get the best people. for some of these issues, i have

observed that they hinder women and men. for example, working part-time. everybody who works in a career is going to continue to have a sense of responsibility. part-time diminishes your role. another big issue in the technology sector is taking a long period of time out of the workforce. technology changes so frequently that it is very easy to become irrelevant or not have contemporary skills. my advice is to be aware. stay doing what you are doing as long as possible. it is hard to try to make things work. you are a mother and i am a mother. i think you can be as good of a parent. >> my husband is traveling this week. i have experience with like to

be a single mom. when you say you should find a people who support you, my kid was screaming in the background of a conference call. everybody thought it was cute, but it was important to have that support. the other thing i would say is find something that you love. you're not going to keep working if you don't like what you do. >> i am a big believer about being passionate about what you do and having a purpose in life. i completely agree with you. >> matt lauer made headlines when he asked mary barra about this thing. listen to that exchange. >> you are a mom with two kids. you said that your kids say they will hold you accountable for one job and that is being a mom. given the pressures of this job at general motors, can you do both well? >> i have a great team and we are on the right path and taking

accountability. i have a wonderful family and a supportive husband and i am proud of my kids away they are supporting me in this. >> he got a lot of flack for asking that question. people said it wasn't fair. for me, the answer helps me think about this issue. are we unfair on women at the top? >> i'm glad we are talking about this. i am proud of them for what they had to say. her words resonated with me. i think it is possible to try to both. you have to have a really good support system around you. the comment about our women unfairly criticized, any leader in that position if they take that platform they are going to open themselves up to criticism. through generations, hillary clinton gets could a size for

her appearance. christine lagarde talked about her wardrobe and the content of her speech. this is one of the most exceptional women in the world. i think that unfortunately the media highlights these women when they are actually making good business decisions. >> there is a book written about this. you have placed so many women at the top. how much do they think about these things? how much do they worry about this kind of criticism? >> less than you might imagine. for any of these women leaders i suspect they think about the business decisions first and

foremost. it is irritating when you are held accountable for your gender rather than the impact of your business decisions. >> taskrabbit shows off a new look. we will find out about the new features from the ceo of the air and running company next on the best of "bloomberg west." ♪

>> taskrabbit has revamped its site. how exactly does taskrabbit work?

we take a look at the daily life of one of their workers. >> helmet on. seat set. it is just another day at the office. >> i might do six to 12 deliveries on an average day. >> he is a professional errand runner. he earns his living doing chores for people who find him using a website called taskrabbit. it works like an online marketplace for odd jobs. prices range from a few dollars to hundreds. it takes a cut of each transaction. technology has ushered in a new era of sharing. you can rent out your car. you can rent a room in your house. if you need to rent a bicycle you can do that as well. for now only about 10% of taskrabbit workers make a

living. the rest are part timers. back in traffic, justin has been traveling hard. on average day he earns a few hundred bucks. today he is picking up fancy juices and delivering cookies and eying a diaper bag for an expectant mother. >> i can do whatever i want. as long as i stay professional on the task i am free. >> for more on taskrabbit, i spoke with ceo leah busque i asked her about what is new. >> we have been working on it for while. we launched this in london over the last six months. we saw huge growth in the u.s. we acquired 1.25 new million users. we just need to evolve our product to match the client demands. >> is this an algorithm thing? >> on the new taskrabbit, you

know who you will work with and how much you'll pay and when it is going to get done. it was a major investment in our matching algorithm. we have made pricing and payment super easy. >> give us an overall idea of numbers. >> in the u.s. we have 30,000 taskers across the u.s. we are in 19 cities. we acquired 1.25 new million users. in this evolution of the new product we will match client demand. >> we have talked about this over the years. how big can this business become? is this a big future thing? where are you on that? >> the majority of our tasks are happening in and around the home. we focus on home services. we have been the trusted leader in the home services category.

on the new site, you can do moving help shop in delivering. those categories make up the majority of the service. we have made it simpler than ever to get those things done. >> i am sure is tasks like going to help buy some dinner clean your house. what is the most expensive or crazy task that has ever been on taskrabbit? >> as a new mom, i know how hard it is to pull everything together sometimes. we had somebody land a birthday party. i thought that was so fabulous. with my upcoming birthday party, that is going to be the new thing to post. >> you founded this one night when you couldn't get dog food for your dog. >> it was a cold boston snowy evening in february of 2008. i was out of dog food amd there had to be somebody in my

neighborhood that can help me with this. >> amazon is reportedly launching a site earlier this year. how big of a threat is that? >> i love seeing these bigger institutions come in and help us validate the market. there is a need out here for these trusted home services. having amazon even think about potentially coming in to play in this space is exciting. >> what are your plans for expansion? >> our first international market was london. we will expand over the next year. we are excited about what is happening with the new taskrabbit. >> amazon streaming television lands a big name in kids programming. we go inside the latest project from the creator of "blues clues." that's next on "bloomberg west." ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. amazon is wrapping up new offerings. that includes children shows. they have a second show called "creative galaxy." she also created "blue's clues." jon erlichman sat down with her and asked why she decided to release creative galaxy exclusively on amazon instead of cable. >> i have been a huge amazon consumer for a long time. it is really because of the head of amazon kids. her idea and vision to create a creativity curriculum and bring that to kids really fits well into what i wanted to do with the show. >> just to be clear, this is a show that is not dumbing things down.

the first episode you talk about pointillism. i am learning things about art through a show like this. amazon focused on kids program and educational programming. >> i have a background in child development and formative research. we never dumb anything down. we expose them to all of this expressive vocabulary. we are showing them the process of making crafts and how to solve problems with art. i am excited that we are showing the masters. you are showing picasso and van gogh. we are exposing kids as much as possible to an amazing art curriculum. >> amazon has a process that they launch into original shows where they will pick up a pilot and show that to their viewers and get feedback and then make a final decision. what did you learn as part of that process? >> it was a huge focus group for me. we talk to kids and parents all the time.

for me it was about listening and learning what the bigger audience once. i was sitting there forever while the pilot was up and recording what people were saying to make a better show. it was exciting and interesting and a little bit nerve-racking. >> when my daughters are watching cable, a lot of times there is stuff they want to buy because they are seen advertising. in this case you are not really exposed to advertising. i find it interesting. amazon is a big place that sells a lot of stuff. there is difference between the experience of time and watching divisional table. >> kids can get what they want when they want it. what we have been able to do with amazon is inspire kids to go out and make things. the music and everything is

really all around the idea and want kids to go out and be able to make something they might have the materials for in their kitchen. we want to get them to go out and make things. it is refreshing. >> we do talk a lot about binge viewing. when we talk about binge viewing we talk about with adult programs. as a creator, what do you think about knowing that it is quite possible that kids going to be watching maybe three episodes a one time. >> we want to make sure that every show reaches our goals and that the kids are learning. we do tons of research to make sure that the goals are being met. what we love this age group is that they are getting something out of it. you can pick and choose. if you happen to be studying, we had a boy tell us he was learning about van gogh in his classroom. he wanted to watch the episode about van gogh.

you can pick and choose which is great about having a library there. you might just be pickier about what it is you want to watch. we hope that everybody is watching all of them. >> that was the creator of "creative galaxy." theme parks are one of the key parts of disney's empire. up next week introduce you to the imagineering team that brings all of the innovative ideas to life. ♪ i am emily chang.wh you think ou

think of the theme parks.

they are more important when a new resort opens in shanghai next year. to bring the park ideas to life, disney leans on a group of employees called imagineering. we went to headquarters to see what they have been working on. >> hidden in this elena you will find a virtual room. >> when you think virtual reality you don't think disney. this is for the cool. this is the closest thing to the holideck. >> this is the show room. models park and resort attractions before it breaks down. >> they have actually looked at preparation and placements.

they want to move this cabinet over there. we can pick those up in real time and move them in a digital kitchen. >> it was created by the imagineers. walt disney imagineering is a group of 1500 artists, architects, engineers and others who help bring the park ideas to life. the new fantasyland expansion at walt disney world in orlando. they generated $14 billion in revenue last year. that is one third of the company's total sales. it includes 11 theme parks. there are 46 resort hotels. they are involved in hundreds of attractions and experiences. >> the best way to show you how this works is place it on your head it we'll will take it for a spin. >> inside, sensors pick up your eye line and you can jump into a 3-d version of the part. they can test out rides like the recently completed seven dwarfs mine train. >> what can you do now and terms

of what you couldn't do before? >> we would have to make it out of foam. it now in this environment it is completely immersive. >> they may be able to buy their work on the faces of the dwarfs. >> you are seeing mapping. we take a flat 3-d file and we animate the face and it is mapped to a protected form. >> this is led to 100 patents including one for the swinging buckets. more opportunities have opened up for the imagineering. >> we are partnering with pixar and lucasfilm and marvel. that is the future of disney. >> jon erlichman, our senior west coast correspondent. this does it for this edition of the best of "bloomberg west." you can catch us during the week. we will see you next week. ♪

>> he's been called the startup whisperer. reid hoffman is the executive chairman of linkedin and an investor in some of the most successful companies of all time, including facebook. he wasn't always on track to be an entrepreneur. a student of philosophy, hoffman at one point pursued a career in academia. but he took his first job out of school at apple, and then joined the paypal mafia. now a partner at greylock, hoffman sits on seven boards. he is the author a new book, "the alliance."