reporter: you are watching "bloomberg technology." let's start with a check the first word news. president trump doubled down on his initial statements that all sides share the blame to the deadly charlottesville nationalist march this past weekend. he spoke at trump tower. president trump there is blame : on both sides. you look at both sides, i think there is blame on both sides. i have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it either. reporter: meantime, he isn't saying what happens next with chief strategist steve bannon. the leaders of four minority house caucus groups called for his removal.

ending government payments to help low income americans would raise a federal spending by $194 billion over the next decade. president trump threatened to cut off payments to force democrats to the negotiating table. alabama is expecting a low voter turnout for the primaries. they are competing against ray moore, for attorney general jeff sessions' senate seat. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm emma chandra. this is bloomberg. "bloomberg technology," is next. ♪

emily: i'm emily chang and this is "bloomberg technology." coming up, president trump defiantly defends his criticized reaction to protests in charlottesville, virginia, and calls out ceos leaving business councils for grandstanding. full coverage from trump tower. plus, a bloomberg exclusive. nba champion and m.v.p. steph curry making a big play in tech. the golden state warriors -- based on their off court investments at the technology summit happening here at the bloomberg office. a damaging lawsuit and embarrassing settlement were just some of the challenges for uber this week, as the pr nightmare continues at the world's most valuable startup. president trump speaking from trump tower defends his decision to wait two days to condemn white supremacists amid violence in virginia, saying he needed to gather the facts. since the deadly attack, several ceos have cut ties with the white house.

yesterday, under armour ceo and to fourrought the total ceos resigning from his manufacturing counsel. the intel ceo said -- today, the president fired back. president trump we want products : made in the country. willof the folks that leave are leaving out of embarrassment because they make , their products outside. emily: for the latest development on this ongoing story we have our chief washington correspondent kevin cirilli standing outside trump tower. with me in the studio, our editor at large, cory johnson. kevin, you have to give us a roundup of what happened in this press conference. president trump very defiant and very hesitant, to lay blame essentially. kevin: president donald trump

defiant against criticism for his response to the charlottesville tragedy over the weekend. he said there are faults on both sides. i can tell you that already a crowd of protesters had gathered about a block away from where i'm standing outside of trump tower. president trump taking on the media as well as others for what has gone on and what he feels is unfair treatment. he criticized heavily and defended heavily his very own position following the charlottesville tragedy. it comes as he is facing intense criticism from ceos and also from republicans within his own party. this was supposed to be a press conference or public commenting period to announce a second -- his infrastructure executive order. the headlines will be dominated by his comments on charlottesville. emily: cory,

the press conference became very contentious, the president was very combative. what was your reaction? cory: i was doing a live radio show and could not speak afterwards. it was pretty amazing to see the president refusing to criticize nazis and the kkk, are -- sort of the suggesting there was equivalency between protesters supporting a confederate general statue that was only built in the 1920's, when jim crow was enacted -- which is when a lot of the statues in this country for confederate soldiers were put up, not after the civil war -- which is really a statement about racism, keeping african-americans in the country down. amazing to see the press conference. it is worth noting that this plays to his base. he might actually just agree. but this notion -- there's a dialogue that says black lives matter itself is akin to

rightsts like alt- protests, kkk protests, nazi protests. that dialogue doesn't reach the mainstream media, but it is happening, and is in his playbook. emily: playing to the base is in -- is something we have seen the president do again and again, but shouldn't he be trying to expand his base? kevin: i think there are many republicans who have forcefully denounced white supremacy, kkk, neo-nazism, and criticized the president for his response. when you look at the states the president won, ohio, michigan, 70,000 independent voters switched from former president obama and then voted for donald trump, they were really the swing voters. when you look at independent polling over the last couple of days, if you look at gallup,

president trump's approval rating has dipped to around 34%. his team around him has tried to focus on the economy, but president trump, less than 24 hours -- we are seeing police vehicles. i just want to say this. we are seeing an increase of police presence a block away where a growing crowd of protesters have gathered chanting against president , trump. that is something that i think many outlets will be monitoring throughout the next several hours. to conclude my thought, i would note that this is something that while the president, trying to focus on economic issues, and if you look at what he tweeted, criticizing ceos, and even at the press conference, criticizing the ceos who left the business council as well as criticizing senator john mccain on the issue of health care, this is a president who really feels that going after his critics will help him reach legislative goals.

so far, he has yet to have a major legislative accomplishment on health care, infrastructure, tax policy. if you look at the month of september, he has 12 legislative days left. congress has to raise the debt limit, pass a government spending bill to avert a shutdown and get to issues like tax reform and infrastructure, which was supposed to be the basis of his comments about one hour ago. emily: you have interviewed the intel ceo a number of time. what do you make of the calculation that he and these other ceos are making to publicly rescinded their support? cory: i think for brian, it was very personal. no one at intel was pressing him to make diversity his biggest job at intel, but he was. it is really important to him. he is a guy like me that has young daughters and is thinking about the future of this world. having a quality it is -- at his

company and making it a top goal, i think he looked at what happened, and instant criticism the president had for the merck ceo, and that was a tipping point for him. it is worth noting that the president said you need to take time and study the facts about neo-nazis and kkk, but was quick happened, and instant criticism the president had for the merck with criticism of the merck ceo leaving the board. emily: and being part of the councils could pay off handsomely, given that the president is the most powerful person, arguably in the world. cory: if you remember, bk was in the oval office with the president showing him a semiconductor, and announcing a plant that had already been announced that president trump had taken credit for. even obama himself had spoken when the plant would be erected. a lot of corporate leaders

thought they would be able to use the president's desire for publicity about hiring and building in the country as a way to publicize efforts, and maybe get input into the white house and into the trump administration. i think it is just coming at too big a cost right now. the president's closest advisers were saying, "don't go off the rails and take questions." talk about infant structure -- talk about infrastructure. he immediately went off the rails and spoke little about infrastructure. emily: apple ceo tim cook says he did not join in the first place because he doesn't find it productive. so you wonder how much they are participating and how much it is worth anyway. cory johnson, editor at large, and kevin cirilli following the action at trump tower. thank you for that update. meantime, amazon is selling bonds to finance the $13.7 billion acquisition of whole foods. people with knowledge of the matter say the online giant sold $16 billion of unsecured bonds in as many as seven parts. it is the fourth-largest jumbo deal year to date. the first bond market for a for

for amazonket foray since coming up, weighing in on 2014. the hot topics in the tech industry right now, including the contentious relationship with the white house. "bloomberg technology," is live streaming on twitter. check us out 5:00 p.m. in new york, 2:00 p.m. in san francisco. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: the first ceo president

is losing more ceos as advisors amidst controversy surrounding his reaction to violence in charlottesville, virginia. several ceos have made their exit also earlier this year , following disagreements over the president's approach to immigration and climate change. here to weigh-in is keith rabois from khosla ventures. i can't wait to hear your reaction.

first of all, the president just had a very contentious and combative press conference in which he blamed both sides from what has been happening in charlottesville. i know you, over the course of your career, have been a free speech crusader. what do you make of all this? keith: i think the president is clearly struggling with lots of issues. first of all, as i mentioned on your show two years ago, i think the president is sort of a sociopath. he is revealing under pressure his characteristics. under pressure, people tend to reveal their natural characteristics. at the end of the day, when he gets attacked, he will punch back. you saw this on the debate stage. but none of his opponents were willing to punch back with him. right now, it is playing out on an international stage and it is not helping him. emily: where do you draw a line when it comes to free speech? is it white supremacy, racism? what counts as crossing the line? i think people have a

right to file for protest for any view in the u.s. what they don't have a right to do is instigate violence, and they don't have the right to have the president defendant. -- defend them. when i was growing up in the 1970's, the nazi party in the u.s. marched in illinois where there are a lot of holocaust survivors. the court said they had the right to march, but the president denounced them. it was a one-day story. the president is not willing to take sides. free speech doesn't protect you from people having an opinion on one side or the other. and you should clearly be on the side of freedom and liberty. emily: what do you think of the calculations the ceos are saying timeout, no more counsel for me. i think there is a difference between partisan and policy behavior. i don't think ceos engage in partisan behavior, but this was not a partisan issue. if you look at any prominent

republican, including most were conservative members of the republican party, they were very explicit and announcing the protest in charlottesville. this is not a partisan debate. it is basically president trump and a small sliver of his party of republicans and conservatives. emily: what is your take on how tech companies should handle speech like this? like the twitter @yes you are racist account. google shutting down that --nnel, facebook the leading the leading posts related to this content? keith: i think most of the content companies have to be careful as they start deleting specific viewpoints. they run the risk of liability. once you start pulling down pieces of content, you're technically liable for all the content on your site. emily: what if it is nazi content? keith: there are some constraints, particularly in citing violence. but after that, i don't think technology companies can censor content legally or prudently.

emily: so you don't think they should? keith: i don't think content should be censored. emily: ok. what is your take on this google -- on james damore, this google engineer who was fired after he , sent a memo circulated in the company suggesting there are biological reasons for the underrepresentation of women in tech and leadership? keith: i think he made several points. one i agree with. i definitely believe google is an intellectual monoculture. if you survey google and ask what fraction of google employees voted for trump? what section of silicon valley it is probably 2% or 3%. ,it is clearly not representative of the american people. that is a different point than what are the roots of employee-based and engineering based differences of google. i am not an expert at what causes that or google or biology. i do think google is taking some risk in being very draconian about some views. i think personally if i was running the company, it's

ridiculous that anybody spends 10,000 words and distracts the entire company. but google has a culture with mailing list for these off-topic mailing lists. there is a general rule people should not be able to take business time and distract 70,000 employees regardless of , views. emily: i did speak to james damore the day after he got fired. take a listen to what he had to say. james it is hard to regret it, : just because i do believe that i'm trying to make google and the world in general a better place by not confining us to our ideological echo chambers were -- where only one type of story can be heard. emily: ideological echo chamber, political views are one thing. what if those political views exclude members of the population? keith: i think the company has the right to say, you cannot

express any range of views on a political -- particular topic. for example it would be , inappropriate to write a religious crusade document on either side. judaism, christianity, muslim, and publish it to a company. but once a company allows people to have a format in a mailing list that is open-ended, they are playing with fire selecting some views that are acceptable and some are not. it may be much better to say religion and politics don't belong in the company. for example imagine a mailing , list where people are debating abortion. they would offend both sides, legitimately right away. it would distract everybody from their work. it would be perfectly acceptable for a ceo to say we are not having emails about abortion in the company. that's not the reason for our existence. emily: final thought, should he have been fired? yes or no, 30 seconds. keith: no. emily: why not? keith: google's culture, if you look at the historical context on the mailing list at google, they are wide raging. without changing the policy -- i only worked at google for two

weeks, but fundamentally, i believe from what i have read those mailing lists are pretty wide-ranging. in so far that that happened at a different company then , absolutely i think it would be acceptable to fire someone for distracting people. emily: keith rabois from khosla ventures, joining me this hour. coming up, steph curry of the golden state warriors has been busy investing in tech companies. where is he putting his money? we'll hear from curry next. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: microsoft founder bill

gates just gave away a sizable chunk of his fortune. a filing shows he gave away 64 million microsoft shares valued at $4.6 billion in june, making it the largest share donation this year. it is also his largest single donation and nearly two decades. while the recipient was not

specified he made the majority , of his foundation to the bill and melinda gates foundation. two of the top players in the nba helped kick off the inaugural player tech summit here at our bloomberg office. the summit brings together top leaders in tech, venture capital, and sports to exchange ideas. in an exclusive interview, our editor at large cory johnson caught up with steph curry and andre iguodala of the golden state warriors who are cohosting the event. he asked about curry's investment in pinterest. >> it is something i use, something my wife uses, so for me it was an opportunity that a couple years back, i waited to get some skin in the game. it is not something i'm involved in day-to-day, but just to see the growth of the company and have a feedback of q1, q2, seeing how the company is doing, keeping track of it. i started with my business partner at slice. that was another early investment that i could follow and grow with.

it has been fun learning from that and hopefully i can continue to grow my expertise in the investing game. cory: you are all over the place with some of your investments. last time i talked to you, you talked about skincare products and a shaving company. you invested in a company that sounds like it is competing with bloomberg. >> yes, a bond trading platform. you can do it mobile across your phone. when you think about silicon valley, you think about disruption, efficiency, and that's what it is. bond trading hasn't changed since the beginning of time. you sign a piece of paper and give it to someone else. that movie with eddie murphy "trading places."

that was something that was approached to me in how to disrupt the market. the vision was great by ronnie matteo, who started it, and i have had good conversations with him. this whole thing for me pretty much started with an e*trade account, and i started investing in a lot of tech companies. that is what drove us into this space. it was a perfect marriage for us to be aligned with the company like that. cory: i guess i should back up when you think about the history of athletes and investing, there are bad stories that make the news, but there are bad stories. your father was in the nba. i think about the athletes who have had fathers. ken griffey jr., he had a father that was a great baseball player. but they have also sort of probably raised their kids, remember that guy i used to play with, he blew everything.

we have come a long way from charles oakley and is carwash investment. that was a notion of what nba players did. it is more sophisticated now. >> i would think so. we have been blessed to play this game and make a certain amount of money, and with a responsibility of, what do you want to do with it? you want to grow the money in a smart and responsible way. things have changed. the tech space is booming. to find open doors to that space is huge, but finding people close to you that you can trust to give you the right guidance, not just blindly throwing money at a company or at an idea and hoping it takes off just because you have that prestige. you have to be smarter. emily: steph curry and andre iguodala of the golden state warriors. go warriors. coming up, uber continues to rack up troubling headlines from being sued by one of its biggest investors to legal trouble in the u.k. we will bring up the latest. this is bloomberg. ♪ got you outnumbered.

the dinosaurs' extinction... don't listen to them. not appropriate. now i'm mashing these potatoes with my stick of butter... why don't you sit over here. find your awesome with the xfinity stream app. included with xfinity tv. more to stream to every screen. >> it is 11:29 a.m. in

singapore, 12:29 in tokyo. i am haslinda amin with the latest news. president trump has stoked the flames, claiming both sides -- blaming both sides for the violence. protesters confronted them and said liberals had violently confronted the right-wingers. blaming many sides for the violence. has unrolledlipay a partnership with yelp in four u.s. cities to attract chinese investors.

they will be able to pay in yuan for retailers that except alipay. it is available in new york, los angeles, san francisco, and las vegas. they can already shop at 4 million u.s. margins. preparations for the funeral of the king are scheduled outside the palace in bangkok. he will be cremated one year after his death in a ceremony expected to be broadcast around the world. the crematorium is an area where buddhists say the gods reside. the government is paying $20 million for the funeral. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am haslinda amin. this is bloomberg. >> i am sophie kamaruddin. asian stocks set for a third day higher, led by them kospi.

ip shares a rally at head of tencent's result. check out what is happening in singapore, falling more than 1%. banking stocks, sensitive shares falling ahead of the fed minutes tonight. the dollar firmer for a third session, putting pressure on asian currency. the yuan back above $11.41. fading.ical risks are looking at tie shares -- thai shares, they are falling. cut its purchases of five-year tenure debts. not seeing much in terms of reaction, what might call initial tapering with that action. last with commodities, we have golden oil rebounding. aluminum trading at november 2014 highs. copper on the back.

iron down 2/10 of 1% in singapore. tonding around the 70 per range. it could be the best for iron ore so far this year. ♪ i'm emily chang and this is "bloomberg technology." back to the top story. in remarks delivered at trump tower, the president defended his decision to wait two days to condemn white supremacists for the violence in virginia, saying he first needed to gather the facts. trump said there was blame on both sides for the violent clashes that interrupted in charlottesville, equating the violence of neo-nazis with those of liberals who challenged them. joining us is marty schenker, the senior executive editor for international government. you have been covering washington for two decades. what was so extraordinary about this press conference? marty: simply the very vigorous

embattled nature of the , questions and answers. donald trump had given a scripted defense and clear condemnation of the right in the charlottesville demonstration of violence. then he comes out today and goes right back to where he was on saturday, basically showing that -- saying that the right and the left are both to be condemned for what happened. it was an extraordinary performance and something even those of us who have gotten used to donald trump over the last seven months were really unprepared for. we are all working back here in the newsroom trying to figure out what the significance of this will be. there will be significance. emily: let's take a listen to one of the more explosive moments in this press conference. take a listen to president trump. pres. trump: there's blame on both sides. you look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides.

i have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it either. emily: how do you think this will affect president trump's ability to lead? reporter: i do think it's going to be a challenge. there are beginning to be some reactions from people in the republican party who were supporters of trump, who are concerned already about his agenda being offset by this kind of narrative, and saying that this is not helpful at all. what we have not heard from our are the gop leaders, the mitch mcconnells, the paul ryans, and people in the white house to associate themselves. one of the things that happened is david duke, the former leader of the kkk, came out to praised donald trump's remarks. it will be interesting to see if donald trump feels he has to disavow that complement, and how the gop positions itself in the

context of these remarks. emily: marty schenker, our bloomberg senior executive editor for international government. thank you. meantime, another rocky week for uber, after benchmark capital doubled down on its lawsuit against travis kalanick in an open letter to employees. in the u.k., uber is being accused of failing to properly report sexual assault by its drivers, according to several reports. uber responded to the reports saying that this is an incredibly complex issue and they always strive to get the right balance between supporting the police while supporting the rights of individuals. joining me is caroline hyde in london, and with me in san francisco is keith rabois at khosla ventures. i will talk to you, caroline. talk about this situation with bloomberg when it comes to the sexual assaults that were failed to be reported. caroline: this is a rather explosive report that came out, reported by the sunday times.

there was a copy of a letter sent by the senior member of the metropolitan police alleging to the transport for london authority that uber is failing to report sex attacks and other crimes. they went as far as to say they were six assaults on passengers, and an assault that has gone unreported. they also say they think this is because uber is trying to avoid any reputational damage. this letter does go back all the way to april. what is also notable is they say in this letter, by the way, the license is under review for uber, and it is coming up september 30. could this be under consideration for the extension to operate here in london? the general manager, trying to

find details as to how they have been working with metropolitan police. they have former police officers insuring they can get across help when these events do occur. they outlined how they work and how they hire experienced former metropolitan police officers and they have an uber law enforcement portal, where the police can interact directly with uber. they said that they don't routinely report things on behalf of individuals, they feel it is up to the individuals. it was a very lengthy response, but certainly a very heated report that came out throughout the weekend and on monday. emily: uber is now extending tipping options for drivers. the drivers are saying it is just uber trying to brush up its image and reputation. what is the latest? caroline: the year of the

driver, happening here in the u.k. as well. some olive branches going to drivers. you get tips back as soon as today, and getting potentially paid for waiting for customers. also, easier cancellations, better destinations. the cynics say that the timing is everything. we understand drivers have been quite forceful, and many cases in the u.k. saying, you don't make it easy enough to boost earnings. some drivers took this to an employment tribunal last year and won, saying they should get holiday pay, rest breaks. now it is up for appeal in the next month. some say the timing of this olive branch is a little bit too obvious. but it is the year of the driver. emily: keith, i always have to

couch the fact that you are a lyft investor when we talk about uber. what do you make of benchmark travis kalanick? prettyit is unprecedented. obviously, you're asking the easy questions today. [laughter] served as a director in silicon valley for 14 years, so i have a somewhat detached perspective, it is clear uber is a mess. running a company with 14 operating executives and no ceo is a disaster. secondly, it is clear they have somewhat unsolvable issues. it is what people caution their founders to keep it -- pick their companies carefully. it is hard to get divorced in business, especially when you are on the board. they have to reconcile this. i think a lawsuit is very weak. it is clearly a strategy.

it may be effective but the , substantive claims, the fraud claims are pretty weak. i think the case, at least what is in the public domain -- there are things not in the public domain yet, like what is an older report, what concessions benchmarks may have made to give the board seats or to get travis to resign. there may be a lot of new information. but in the public domain, the case is weak, but it can be effective in terms of coming to a compromise. emily: no venture capitalist wants to be considered the investor who will oust the ceo. if benchmark is doing this, it must have been a very difficult calculation. what does this mean for benchmark and its reputation among entrepreneurs? >> it is always a difficult cut -- calculation when you remove a ceo. emily: and then sue them. keith: that is a little different. but i do remember google founders were almost sued by sequoia and kleiner perkins in 2001, for similar reasons like not hiring a ceo as soon as they

promised. it did not come to that, that the -- it did not come to that, but they came very close. it is not completely unprecedented. in terms of removing a ceo, only time i saw it is if a management team loses faith with a ceo and lobbies the investor to get rid of the ceo. it is a bottom-up groundswell. or, cofounders get into a massive dispute and somebody needs to mediate. that is on the venture capitalists gets caught in the crossfire. those are the only two things i've ever seen. i've never seen this. i have seen ethical issues lead to a ceo departure. emily: do you think this will hurt benchmark's reputation among entrepreneurs? keith: i don't know. it is definitely controversial. it depends how things play out. if uber ends with a great ceo and has a successful outcome, it will be fine for benchmark. if not, if travis comes back and takes over, rides uber to its glorious victory, there will be people shooting at benchmark. totally unpredictable.

it is difficult, so i not -- so i am not criticizing them at all. being in the middle of that crossfire when you are on the board, you are making hard trade-offs when half the team is saying do one thing and the other have says the other. emily: thank you. caroline hyde with us in london, thank you for that update. coming up, the latest startup taking on the e-commerce space. how they plan to take on the likes of amazon, next. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: competition in consumer

packaged goods is heating up. brandless, a san francisco-based startup, has added their hat to the ring.

they have a recently launched online grocery store. they have a variety of brandless branded foods and household goods. they caught the eye of investors, scoring $50 million in funding from venture capitalists, but in the age of amazon, can startups keep up? joining us is the brandless ceo. thank you for joining us. everything is literally three dollars? >> actually, it is all three dollars. sometimes it is two for three dollars or three for including three. your first order, if you use hello3. emily: where does this come from? all -- it comes from all over. we launched with 200 products across pantry, cleaning, beauty, housewares, etc. everything gets sourced with the brandless promise, which is cruelty free, non-gmo, all the things we want to see in products. partners have to live up to

those standards and manufacturers are mostly in the u.s., but also in other countries around the world. emily: you are billing yourself as procter and gamble for millennials. who is your target market? is it just millennials? is it everyone? >> the media bills us as procter & gamble for millennial, but we are for everyone. the reason that they say that is because 70% of millennials one they do not want to buy the products they grew up with. that is the market that is coming in and becoming first-time head of households. 80% of the new parents in this country today are millennials. they are rethinking the products they use and buy and the way in which they live. they are an entry point, but brandless is for everyone. emily: i was doing comparison shopping, and i really want to pay three dollars for quinoa chips? but then i looked at whole

foods, and they really are three dollars. tell me about the pricing strategy and what has gone into this number which is probably , across these products, and why it makes sense. >> when you look at what is called the better for you marketplace, when you go to a store like whole foods as an example, they use a better for you strategy. whole foods is not all organic, but it is all better for you. brandless has a similar philosophy. when you are comparing those products, you have to look at an ounce by ounce basis. we offer a three dollars by eliminating the brand tax, the price you pay for all the inefficiencies in the system and national brands. on average across the entire brandless assortment you will , save 40%. and some of our beauty products that are sulfate free save 370% , brand tax savings. the reason we chose three is because it is memorable and

easy, and makes the entry into that market so much broader than people otherwise thought that they could afford organic for their family. eating healthy is expensive, but it doesn't need to be. we are debunking that idea. emily: amazon has made it very clear they are aggressively tackling the grocery market. why enter a market that amazon is trying to claim? >> amazon is awesome, but brandless is building a community. we are building a community of people who believe that everyone deserves better. we are reimagining what it means to be a brand. we are trying to redefine the false narrative that is caught up in all the national brands, and saying that brandless is about you and your family. brandless is about this chef. and when you check out at brandless, we are also -- because not everybody can afford three dollars -- we will also work with feeding america and donate a meal, and we are launching field guides to

brandless life, where we are donating to food banks, going to college campuses. we believe kindness is a way to live as americans. brandless as a community is reimagining consumption, but we are trying to make everything better for everyone. emily: a strong pitch. brandless ceo tina sharkey, thank you for stopping by. great to have you today. airbnb is eyeing asia. why it thinks the region represents its biggest opportunity yet. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: time for today's

revolving door. waymo, owned by the self driving car company owned by google, alphabet. a veteran staffer for senate republicans will lobby waymo's efforts

to lobby congressional lawmakers to shake rules on autonomous cars. he will direct company's dealings with congress, the department of transportation, and the national highway traffic safety administration. now to a bloomberg exclusive. airbnb says asia represents the biggest opportunity on the planet. we caught up with the chief strategy officer. >> intra-asia travel is a big deal. we have been promoting airbnb in a number of countries, singapore and australia, we are ubiquitous. we are most well known in those countries. we have been investing a lot in china. chinese travelers are going all around the world. it's the fastest growing segment. they are the number one spenders on international travel. we are running a big campaign over there right now. a lot of our growth in singapore and elsewhere is happening as a result of chinese travelers using airbnb to explore the world. haslinda: with chinese in

particular, you have companies tied up with expedia. a 450,000 listings and growing. you have been competing with more players. >> there is local competition in china. they are largely focused on domestic travel. our focus has played to our strength which is international , travel. we have been marketing airbnb as a way for chinese to explore the world. none of the local competitors in china have the numbers. we had played to our strengths and not engaged in any direct competition. haslinda: are you adopting a different strategy compared to the u.s. in asia? it does seem like airbnb is pretty low key. you are pretty aggressive in marketing strategies elsewhere. >> in every part of the world we are trying to partner with government. it is the new model. new policies have to be passed to realize the full potential of home sharing.

we do that government by government. most recently we have seen success in japan. japan passed and international law saying, home sharing up to 180 days is now legal. it is a huge opportunity. japan has been our number destination in asia for a number one of years. haslinda: even in japan, it is a matter of implementation. that is still a work in progress. in singapore, they passed a law stating it is illegal to rent a place for less than six months. what is your take on the regulations across the board in asia, the differing regulations? it has to be a more competitive marketplace for you. >> it's not a simple topic. this will play out over time. we tried to be proactive and be a partner to government as much as possible. figuring out the right model and implementation details will take time. it is not a one and done situation.

i am sure things will continue to evolve here in singapore. haslinda: give us a sense of how important the asian market will be in the future. you turned profitable last year. how do you see asia contributing to profitability? >> asia has been the fastest growing region for us. this has been the story for probably three years. it has been our top growing origin region. if you look at all the industry numbers, it is the biggest opportunity of the planet. china specifically. the numbers are incredibly promising. emily: that was the cofounder and chief strategy officer at airbnb. breaking news. afl-cio president richard trumka is resigning from president trump's manufacturing council. he said in a statement, "we cannot sit on a counsel for a president who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism."

that would bring the number of resignations to five in the last two days. that does it for this edition of "bloomberg technology." thank you for watching. we will see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪

track your pack. set a curfew, or two. make dinner-time device free. [ music stops ] [ music plays again ] a smarter way to wifi is awesome. introducing xfinity xfi. amazing speed, coverage and control. change the way you wifi. xfinity. the future of awesome.

"best of bloomberg markets: middle east the following is a paid program. >> following is a program. opinions and views expressed do not reflect those of bloomberg lp, as affiliates or its employees.