>> from pier 3 in san francisco, welcome to the best of "bloomberg west," where we focus on technology and the future of business. i'm cory johnson. every weekend we'll bring you the "best of west," the interviews with the power players in global tech and media companies that are reshaping our world. to one of the most pressing issues in the united states today and an issue that is near and dear. republicans racked up huge wins in te elections. president obama promised action soon by executive order if

necessary. >> before the end of the year we will take whatever lawful actions i can take that i believe will improve the functioning of the immigration system that will allow us to search additional resources to the border where i think the vast majority of americans have the deepest concern, and at the same time i will be reaching out to mitch mcconnell, john boehner and other republicans as well as democratic leaders to find out how it is they want to proceed and if they want to get a bill done, whether it is during lame duck or the next year, i am eager to see what they have to offer. >> for more i spoke the to the new executive director of forward u.s. he recently took over for joe green and is calling for big and old action from the president.

we think ultimately it is absolutely critical that there is a legislative solution here. that is the permanent legislative solution that so many people need in the tech community. we hope he does those things. he said he is going to. he said he was going to do this before the ends of the year. >> you have your feet on the ground there. the bill has passed the senate that could come up in the house but the speaker will not allow a vote on it. david axelrod sent a tweet out to say the president should promise not to go on executive order if they can get a vote on that bill. do you think that approach has any chance in the current congress? >> i think the speaker has made it clear he will not put that on the floor. we think it is disappointing the house, unlike the senate, couldn't get a bill done. we are encouraged by the much

broad support around the country. three in four americans who support immigration reform. what we like to see is a legislative solution that now but there are steps the president can take through legal authority and it is our job to lay the foundation, and this is what we're doing, for that permanent legislative solution, whether that is in the next couple of months, over a year from now -- we want it soon. every day that congress doesn't act, there is $37 million lost to our economy, families being torn apart and entrepreneurs who have to go elsewhere. we want to see as much as we can now. >> what is one thing you want the president to do before the year is up? >> if there is one thing i would have to say, we think he can do more by doing more than one thing. to flip the question here, we think there are things he can do to help families being separated to some sort of expansion of the dock of program.

we think there are things he can do to help companies by clearing the green card backlog. we think there is things he can do to help entrepreneurs. we want to see all of that stuff. we're hoping for a broad solution to the president as well and we think that is best way to lay that foundation. >> comprehensive always sounds good. that is the problem in congress. there are republicans who would instantly like to help the skilled workers come here and help keep the unskilled workers and the people who are already here, not allow them to be citizens. binding that all together in one bill seems to be the political problem. do you accept the approach of unpacking that angling for piecemeal reform when you can get it? >> first, i would say there are a lot of problems in d.c. i think the approach where you do these things together, it is

wen out in the conversations have in washington. when you put all of these things together, it is a compromise in -- and people want people to compromise. people care more about thers. what we're focused on is you have this incredibly broad coalition. that is how this become so popular. whether that was last year when the senate did one big bill or bills, house did three we think the reason and will be successful is it is such a win on some different issues. >> why is technology so important in the killed worker set? >> the thing you hear so much is when people are out there and trying to create jobs, finding

talent is so important. this is a program right now that is creating a lot of jobs, not just for the people coming here ut for native-borne americans. we think that is absolutely critical. they have had an amazing competitive advantage. a system that welcomes people. we accept the best and the brightest. that is a lot of what the program does. we think it can be expanded and reformed to do a better job with that. it is absolutely critical. >> i have no idea what the answer is to this question that i'm going to ask you. why is this more important to other industries? >> i think it is a couple of things. at a moral gut level, there is this idea that our country should be meritocracy. the very active entrepreneurs is so entrepreneurial. it hit that a cultural level. 40% of fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants by

-- or by the children of immigrants. it helped creates jobs. historical level, american level and economic level. it hits home to so many people. we have had 300,000 different people taking action in support of immigration reform. that is a lot of people and i think it speaks to the energy ou were talking about. lobbying spending continues to increase, $13.7 million from google. facebook, $7.4 million. we sat down to an interview with michael beckerman. we asked him why he calls our current immigration status

roken. >> we are sending away some of the best and brightest educated in the united dates, clearly it is a problem when you start seeing the canadian government and the others advertising trying to draw away startups to internet companies to bring jobs there because we cannot have a qualified workforce. that is clearly a problem. >> how do you propose we change it? >> clearly there are things that the administration can do. we are looking for a comprehensive approach that deals with the border. higher skilled h1b visas to be increased and we need to educate the young people so we can have more stem graduates in the future. >> now silicon valley heavyweights are spending more and more on lobbying, but how much influence can they buy with all of the wealth we have here? >> education is crucially important. it is very important what you see from silicon valley, others

taking a leadership role. other corporate leaders need to do that. a more they speak of, and help moves the ball forward. education is key and that is what they are doing. >> tech executives have all been invited to the white house many times. how much have they pushed president obama personally on the immigration issue? >> this is clearly an important issue for all of them and all the companies. also it is an important issue for the entire country and future of american competitiveness and they think they should be commended for the leadership role they have taken and would be great to see other executives following suit. >> i know your organization is focused on h-1b b says what about the unskilled workers very much unfocused right now? the people that are pouring across the southern border? >> that is an important component. i think you're seeing a push to see a more robust bill signed

into law, passed by the president and congress because you will not be able to fix any one piece. obviously for the companies it is very important to have h-1b visas but for the full immigration system and the economy we need to deal with those issues. >> there are two sides to every story. what do republicans have to say? we'll talk to one of the president's top critics on immigration reform next on the best of "bloomberg west." ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west". i'm cory johnson. president obama is promising aggressive action to introduce immigration reform. republicans are not in favor of that.

i sat down with lamar smith of texas. >> i think it is disappointing the president is threatening congress and the american people with executive orders. 3/4 of the american people do not think the president should do it himself. he should not go it alone. these kinds of threats, the president himself has said he does not have the authority to do that. several times over the last several years he has told groups i cannot do that. i hope we'll go back and read what he said. >> are you going to keep these programs from going into an -- into effect? >> if the president pushes ahead and gives amnesty to millions of people and work permits to

millions of people who are going to compete with unemployed and underemployed americans, there is going to be a price to be paid. we will try a lawsuit and there may be actions we can take otherwise. when he does this, he will poison the barrel and make it awfully hard to work with him on other issues, in particular immigration. if he wants to accomplish anything on immigration he was to work with congress and not just issue these executive orders. >> it will not come before a vote because he will not let it. would you vote for that bill if it comes before you in front of the current congress in the session? >> the senate amnesty bill early this congress cannot be sent to the house because it is unconstitutional. tois contrary for the senate

include revenue increasing measures in the legislation. the reason the senate majority leader harry reid hasn't sent it to the house is because we cannot take it on. we cannot have that kind of putting off the secure borders. meanwhile, giving amnesty which would encourage more people to come into the country illegally. we need to start over. secure the border first. even under this administration, the government accounting office said only 15% of the border is under full control. hundreds of thousands of people coming across the border every year right now under this administration. secure the border first and then we can talk about the other measures. >> does granting amnesty hurt the american work force? >> if the president grants amnesty by himself this will absolutely hurt unemployed americans and underemployed

americans. almost every study done when you have that many more people getting permits it will have two harmful impacts on american workers. it will depress wages and cost them jobs. that is irrefutable and i am surprised and disappointed the president isn't going to put the american worker first. >> i ran across a quote. it is about the dream act. it allows children of u.s. high schools overseas or people are -- who served in the military to get some kind of conditional citizenship that are good, moral citizens. you called it a nightmare for the american people. is that an accurate quote? what do you mean by that? >> the so-called dream act is a nightmare for a couple of reasons. first of all, it basically gives amnesty to anyone the country who is 30 years old who came

into the country when they were younger. the administration when we quizzed them said there is no way for them to double check to try to avoid the fraudulent documents everyone would use. it is an open invitation to massive fraud. it is an open invitation for half of the people to say they came in when they were younger and get amnesty. everyone in the category is getting work permits. this kind of a piece of legislation should not be done alone or in isolation and we shouldn't be doing any kind of bill like this that will encourage more people to come into the country illegally. >> that was congressman lamar smith, republican from texas. you can bank online. but you can't vote online. at least not in the united states. we're going to look into the challenge s of bringing online voting next. ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i'm cory johnson. you can renew your business license online. you can file your taxes online. you can find a wife online but as an american, you can't vote with your mobile phone or over your desktop. i spoke with mcafee's gary davis and asked him what the potential s for voting line.

>> i think one of the challenges they see today is the fact that if it becomes really popular, when there are midterm elections are presidential election and it gets a lot of hype. but after the hype cycle fades away, the incentive for doing this goes with it. i think the potential there and the technology is there. >> are there reasons why this hasn't happened that are technologically-based? >> i wouldn't say today. i think the technology exists to make this doable. every device you buy today has a biometric member. you have the means of using things like biometrix. we have better encryption technology. we have better means of making sure that that transaction can take place with some of the requirements for online voting. i believe that the technology exists today.

it is just a matter of getting the electoral boards to embrace it in a more meaningful way. >> how much cheaper would this be? >> i don't have hard numbers. how much more or less expensive it would be. but if you think about it, it would open up the window for new voters. younger voters who are very tech savvy, i think about the elderly and infirm that would open up the opportunity for them to vote. i think about my son. he is a first lieutenant in the marine corps. he is stationed in spain right now. i bet he is not going to be able to vote, just because of the complexity of doing voting from remote locations. >> as an american, i'm embarrassed that countries like estonia are leading the way here. what other countries have adopted online voting like this? >> we've success in countries like switzerland. india it uses a lot of e-voting technology. it is a bit dated, but they have some 900,000 machines deployed around india.

it helps when they have a high degree of illiteracy. it helps as part of the voting process to allow e-voting machines in india. there are been successes in places like canada, india, estonia, switzerland, brazil had some success, australia had some success. we are a late bloomer when it comes to some of our online voting habits here in north america and the united states. >> late bloomer makes us sound like there is blooming happening. i wonder who would be voting more of the voting were allowed in this kind of way? who is being disenfranchised by the lack of online voting? >> that is a great question. i think one of the big dating factors is that if i'm an elected official, does my party benefit by having online voting? if you think about the fact that more elderly could vote, younger voters could vote, the infirm could vote, who best benefits from that? is it part of my constituency? part of my party that would most benefit to help drive this going forward?

>> can i suggest that the sort of myth of voter fraud is really -- the people who don't want more people to vote are behind this effort to keep this technology away from people who would vote if it were easier to do so? >> i don't believe that is the case. if you think about the electoral process, the intent is to provide everyone with the ability to vote and give them the means to vote. as simply and convenient as possible. >> i have to push back on you a little there. there are repeated cases across this country where there are new laws, especially in this election, this week, being enacted to keep people from voting. >> agreed. there has been some legislation which has disadvantaged some segments of the population. but i don't know if that same statement would be disadvantaged by online voting, and opening up these means. the intent was to help stamp

down fraudulent voting. people cags multiple ballots or having people who were not even alive anymore having the opportunity to vote. >> to be clear, does not happen in any statistical significance whatsoever. >> agreed. that is well documented. a very well documented outcome, that the number of people who are doing that are very small. >> again, does online offer the potential to allow for more people to vote who are being disenfranchised? or just the opposite? would this further exclude people who are poor? people who don't have english as their first language and so on? >> it depends on how is publicized. if you are trying to get someone who doesn't have a smart phone and able to online vote. if you could send them to a folding place that had e-voting machines, that would allow them to use it in a language

that they are familiar with, then that would allow that. it depends on how you educate consumers versus the historical poll process that we had. >> just real quick. i wonder if the nature of an election that has to be right on one day doesn't allow for like, healthcare.gov, a flawed rollout, but they have had time to get it right. that's not the case in an election. >> good point. this happens every couple of years. the fact that it is so infrequent by comparison, that would introduce some level of challenges. one of the big issues is getting consumers comfortable with voting, using online devices. e voting machines and things like that. when they do it every couple of years, it's different but when you go in and engage health care online, for example.

mcafee's chief security -- of security. we're going to look at whether lofty ant deserves the market it achieved next on the best of "bloomberg west." ♪ >> you're watching "bloomberg

west." i am cory johnson. alibaba is off to a good start. first earnings report since going public in september, revenue rose 54 are sent there in -- 54%. the company invested heavily in digital entertainment and mobile. alibabaang spoke with from hong kong and asked about the mobile growth strategies. >> we just reported that our

mobile revenues have increased by over 10 times on a year on year basis. if you look at the monetization rate that is been tracking very well over the last few quarters, we feel very good about global -- mobile monetization. on the user side, we are doing very well. if you look at september, our total monthly active users that wereto use our apps, they 217 million active monthly users. , we did $95h basis billion in gmb on mobile. that is very exciting to us. the reason that is happening is ever use of the comes to use our app, that accesses are apt through mobile device, they have very strong commercial intent.

that helps us convert the users into real purchases. result, the merchants are very happy and allocating more marketing budgets to us. they are earning commissions on our platform. our monetization rate is going up. >> you have been known as the chief dealmaker from the beginning going all the way back to softbank, lay out your strategy for us. what you are graffiti's, what kinds of companies are -- ofgraphies, what kinds companies are important to you? >> we take a long-term strategic approach. us, aou report on particular investment or acquisition may not make a lot of sense. when you look at it on a long-term basis, we have been able to take a disciplined approach and a very strategic approach to these types of deals

area --. there are several criteria that we use to make investments in acquisitions. we always want to add more users and more user engagement. any acquisition helps us create that, we are very interested. we acquired you see web. uc web. this is been a tremendous addition to our business. the other criterion that we use is if it is something that improves the customer experience, we will do that. on the logistic fronts to cover the white goods area, in terms of delivery and large white good items like refrigerators and installation, that is the type of investment

that is going to be interesting to us. inare always interested making investors and partnering with people who will expand our product categories and service categories cousin are long-term vision is to gain more wallet share of the consumers. we now have over 300 million active buyers and 300 million chinese consumers that are making purchases on our platform. theirng that adds to product offering and service offering, we are interested in that. >> what about taking a stake in something like paypal? we think the transaction it won't happen until next year. what we are focused on is the china market. is payment market in china relatively underpenetrated. a lot of focus is being put on by the financial company, which

is an affiliate company of hours. ay.y own alip we are very focused on growing the payment business in china and growing additional financial services off of those payment accounts. platformsgot english already a top shopping site in russia, which approach is more important for you? lay out the global expansion strategy step-by-step for us. >> if theyare -- want to sell overseas, they can our expresson platform. we have all a lot of retailers all over the world that want to

sell into china and access are 300 million consumers. platform, an example of that is cosco. they set up a virtual store. when you think about a company like cosco, you think about warehouses or the membership club. all ofsically throughout those rules when they entered the china market. their first foray into china was to set up a virtual store and they have been very happy with the results. buying consumers are things that they otherwise would not have access to. because of examples like that, ara coming onto our platform and selling apparel. we are getting a lot of cross board interest. executive vice

chairman of alibaba. it has been a rough time for virgin galactic. this was just a few days after a rocket exploded on the east coast. is the future of private space travel in doubt? that story is next. ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am cory johnson. hopes to resume test flights after its spaceship crashed in the desert. the investigation is underway with signs pointing to a pilot error. it killed one pilot and injured the other.

sir richard branson says he is confident there is no fundamental flaw with the spacecraft there it he is vowing to push ahead in the private space race. andpoke with leroy chow deborah hershman. >> we have more information. they have made official announcements of they found the fuel tank and the motor is intact. that means that those elements did not explode. they have video showing the copilot unlocking the device. he moved that lever apparently a few seconds early. theas only to unlock feathering device and not to engage it. a separate command would have to have been sent or malfunction to cause the feathering device to activate, which apparently it did. they are telling us that is what happened and that caused the error dynamic loads to break the

vehicle apart. this is not unlike a few airline accidents of happened over the years where a thrust reverser accidentally deployed in flight. when you land on a runway, sometimes you will feel the engagess the airplane and the exhaust goes the other way to slow the plane down. that has caused airplanes to break up in flight. this is not exactly the same thing it, but similar. >> i want to bring in deborah hershman. deborah, richard branson explained just how much trust these pilots but in the hands of humans on the ground. listen to this from sir richard branson earlier today. ande've got to feel couple safe about taking people up. that is why test eyelets put their lives on the line to see if there are any things that the 400 engineers on earth have missed it --.

>> do we need more trust in technology? why aren't more of these automated? >> you are going to have to test the boundaries and test in aviation the edges of the envelope. this means taking the aircraft not just having models or predictions about how it will perform, but actually seeing how it does perform. it will be casting doubt in conditions that it may unlikely face in service. you want to test the edges. it what to make sure that you know how that aircraft will perform in any scenario. >> let me ask you, am i right to be suspicious when the initial investigation terms of blame on the one person who can defend himself? i think we see that a lot. think the ntsb is

being objective. they want to get to the bottom of this. they don't want to do anything like that. showing the video copilot moving that lever a little bit early. there had to be a second failure. just unlocking the feathering device would not have cause it to deploy on its own. think -- i think they are being objective on this. do you imagine investigators to doing right now and how does this investigation of a spacecraft differ from a to aircraft or airplane? is the ntsbnews does have protocols and procedures. they have used them for decades. they have investigated test havet failures that resulted in fatalities.

they will be doing some of the exact same things they have done the past. they will be interviewing anybody who was directly involved with this program. the need to understand procedures and protocols and some the pressures that might be there. i think it is important to say it is early and there is so much that is not known it. there are going to be a lot of pieces of information that are going to come out. i know it is hard to hold judgment, but the facts will speak for themselves eventually. he just need to give them time to develop them all. >> that was leroy chow and deborah hershman. investors don't seem to care, we will see why tesla shares keep rising. that is next on "bloomberg west." ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am cory johnson. tesla's ceo elon musk missed his projections for the last quarter. now he is projecting several years a 50% growth in the future. they delivered 35,000 cars this year. to 33,000.e forecast is going tol s arrive six months late. analyst and a tesla jamie butters. >> they beat estimates for earnings per share.

they only beat it by a couple of cents. i would have thought the market would've responded more negatively to the operating setbacks. projection ofhe another year of 50% growth next year. he did say on the conference call they expect 50,000 sales next year. they are making a lot of money on those. i've got to push back a limited they are losing money. this is not a corner of the business. >> they make money on the sales of those cars. it seems like there have been concerns raised about the demand for the vehicles, maybe they had already saturated demand in the u.s. or elsewhere and that doesn't seem to be much of a concern. they are projecting another year of robust sales growth. >> your reaction? thehey effectively cut

guidance to 11,000. they are getting 12,500 per quarter. they are saying that these sales have peaked arian --. >> if they hit an unprecedented pace next quarter, they will have to stay at that number and b-flat for the year? that isn't much above the guidance. you been predicting they would miss the number for this quarter and you were wrong. why were you wrong? >> there are two possibilities. they do have their own leasing business. the other thing that is suspect is they had a rush of the liberties at the end of the quarter. -- deliveries at the end of the

quarter. get ahead of their ,nnouncement for the upgrades they try to get every existing vehicle without those features out into customers hands. on aey did not want to sit customer who thought they were getting the latest greatest thing and then introduce a new product. they got every delivery done that they could a quarter. >> they do it to some extent. it was greater this quarter. the registration data picks up the registered cars. they could've had sales the were actually registered in october. sale?s it count as a >> yes. there can be a delay in between. that was a tesla analyst for unit economics.

the viral lottery. was it all set up? we will look at the value of viral marketing next. ♪

welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am cory johnson. was anom target unassuming retail employee, then a media darling. the ceo of a marketing firm is taking credit for the whole thing. target and alex denied

knowing anything about it. was it a hoax or was the hoax of hoax? what does this popularity mean for target? . spoke with ben hoo i asked if breaker was involved in this? >> there seems to be no real proof or data to back up that they had any involvement with this. it is a bit bizarre. deeper and find that there is somebody trying to take credit, i am fascinated. where credit is not due, that is an amazing thing. >> let me rant for a few seconds. this is nothing new. hustlers have been trying to sell snake oil. it gives companies like us a bad name.

they can't really deliver on this when they try to sell it. they need to stop doing this. brands and agencies need to stop trying to "go viral." that is not a strategy. it is a strategy based on winning the lottery. they need to stop. take it from a guy who was one the viral lotto more times than anyone. they need to make sure that when a mind to go viral, they should call me. i will walk you off the ledge and talk some sense into. >> you promised to rent. thanks for delivering. the kid is cute. the thing it did have a viral notion to it. the thing was a hoax, it's that the hoax was a hoax. viralitya reality --

is really there. getting good customer engagement, if you don't have any of that, you can't build a business around it. whoage girl hormones radically spot a target boy has nothing to do with how businesses see it. >> i think you are just jealous a little bit. >> what is the value of something like this to target? if you just look at what is imageing with the target or the buzz around them, it is working for them. people are talking about it. from what i have read, they have denied having been behind it .

alex said he had never heard of the company until they try to take credit for it. if this were a meme that you were trying to start, bennett knows better than anybody how challenging it can be to start a meme. -- you have to be transparent. the agency has to be honest and transparent. there seems to be a lot of gray area here where they just can't show the data. this is interesting to see where this is going. in terms of creative this positive buzz or publicity for the brand, people are talking about target. this is somehow backfired. it seems very shady to me. that does it for this edition of the best of "bloomberg west. you can catch us monday through friday.

we will see you next week. ♪

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