♪ emily: i am emily chang. this is "best of bloomberg technology" where we bring you the best in this week's interviews in tech. into consideration google and other giants.

could new sales stats boost investor confidence? bitcoin surges, investor interest is growing stronger. are we in a cryptocurrencies bubble? when will it pop? first to our lead. it is a redefining moment for the samsung note line as the company unveiled the samsung note eight. isis their largest phone howevg confident in their new phone. we have that story. manhattan --dtown i am in midtown manhattan for the unveiling of the samsung note eight. it is the latest version since the galaxy note seven was recalled after reports of

catching on fire and exploding. let's take a look at it. ♪  the note eight has an improved camera with two lenses on the back of the device. it also supports faster networking for browsing the web and content. samsung killed off the smartphone after customers reported issues with earlier modelsphones catching fire. the whole fiasco cost the company an estimated $6 billion. >> we will not know if they have gottththere lopeople

have tested it. that is not the only issue the company has faced. the former head of samsung was of the company. tim cook is different in that he represents the company, and so i feel verya.apple pla to unveil r highly anticipated phone eight in a matter of weeks. in the global smartphone shipments with 23% of the market after losing ground in the note seven scanl. can samsung hold on to it spot

in the increasingly crowded smartphone market? only time can tell. still, by keeping the same note branding, samsung is making it eight has noe note prlems of the past. emily: in the meantime, the latest edition of the smartphone that started it all, the 10th anniversary edition of the apple iphone is still shrouded in secrecy. expectations for the new flagship product. we haven't some details. >> we have three -- we have some of the details. ,> we have three differen their and it will be easier to hold, not as heavy. the 3-d sensor and the

fingerprint sensor of going to be the crown jewels of the phone. >> the face scanner will allow the phone to unlock and even do it in the dark. being on a swat teamso, imagine with your helmet that can see in the dark, and it is thing -- it is something like that. phone will be able to read your face based off little light in the dark. >> i did sit down with tim cook back in june, and he had this to say about being first to market. being us, it is not about first, it is about being the best. it is about giving the user

inexperience that the lights every time. inpatientsot let the -- the impatience result to us e is really behind. >> so, the os screen which is something that has been appearing in samsung phones for vertical integration, motorola the essential phones we have had on the show alhave them. the app store, it is something they created. we saw the android, google play store come out after that. to profitsn it comes

speed, apple has them first. before a couple months that, i think i said the phone chip, but the big they did come out with the 64 bit chip. they are still use ahead when it comes to processors. the more onbout screen real estate. what does that mean. >> to make the phone smaller, they had to chop off things come of so they are getting rid of the home button which will now be part of the screen. essentially, there will be a home button area. there will be some new sweating gestures to navigate between apps, and it will be to the point that you do not really need the click buttons around it. volume buttons will go away in the future, too. >> how does it stack up to the

competition? note seven was one of the highest reviewed phones when it came out. it was one of the most highly anticipated and successful phones when it comes to the product reviews, but then it came down to the exploding batteries and everything. so, i think the note eight will be a serious challenger in people's eyes. >> so, the new iphone has been dog know? >> there are going to be three models. initially, the mix will be much higher for the new updates. out a little less. bloomberg's mark

gurman. in india, there is a new -- chairman.rman the founders group has clashed with the board in recent months which led to the previous ceo's departure in the last week. coming up, mutual funds are looking closer at uber. plus, mark flips on bitcoin. the outspoken skeptic is now a believer. our digital currencies now becoming a mainstream investment? we will discuss. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: since going public in june, blue apron has lurched from one challenge to another.

they have lost their's human resources chief, and they have gone through a hiring freeze. the shakeup comes just as the company ramps up a new center which will handle half of its production volume. vanguard group and others have ubered their valuationsf by as much as 15%. they have faced a persistent drumbeat of bad news including court battles. this comes after an ongoing ceo search. thatis trying to signal they are a transformational once in a generation company. seem less viable than it is may scare off future investors. we are here to talk about their latest develop and's. >> the mutual funds -- their latest developments. >> the mutual funds marking down

uber by several percentage points, it is a useful violations of the secondary shares are going to be bought. people doing the selling, having these professional assessments, the company valuation could give them a guidance. >> you talked about new investor interest. is that happening with this new valuation? is it significant that they are flat and not increing? >> there is certainly in interest from insiders to see theon given the circumstances of flat given the--

circumstances, a flat valuation is about the best they can expect. in terms of what they are actually paying netted out, it is going to be a lower value. emily: who is selling these shares? investors, ployees, former employees? >> that is the big question. is benchmark doing the selling? is travis doing the selling? the range of the secondary sale was as much as 2 billion to 10 million. -- 10 billion. you can get a sense of what the appetite for the sellers is going to be. emily: in the meantime, uber is showing for the successful revenue numbers and growth numbers. falling.ses are what you make of the numbers? >> they are good. it is a stalled out perspective. uber is losing short amounts of

money. if you analyze the amount of losses they have had this quarter, you get to about $2 billion which you can compare to amazon when they had their worst loss which was about $300 million. so, the scale of their losses which have fallen are still humongous for any company. emily: for most of that quarter, even if thead a ceo investigation was still ongoing. -- labor dayearch is fast approaching, and they said they would have someone in place by then or have at least voted on it. there is only one name out there. >> yes, and he remains the frontrunner. there is the possibility that meg whitman is back in the mix, helde had hold -- we have

our tongue on the fact that there are some who are also denying it. so it is unclear. it seems like there is a main candidate, but there are also some others who are reportedly still in the mix. emily: is labor day still a realistic deadline? >> i think everyone would like to see the deadline being met, but it would require groups of investors eating along -- getting along. but they are tired, so we will have to see if they can get along. emily: coming up, after the events of charlotte so, virginia, various tech companies have taken a stand against new not to groups. neo nazi groups.

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♪ emily: the former ceo of uber has been namedresident of h&r block. he previously served as chief marketing officer at target. the move is part of a greater move by the company. they are continuing to compete with online services like turbotax. since president trump took office, tech leaders in the white houseversateech and hate groups after the events of charlotte's foe, virginia. -- charlottesville, virginia. could have implicated -- and communication practices which could have far-reaching

implications. thesementioned some of cultural issues such as the banning of trans members of the military. these are places where the administration and companies have clashed in a very public way. those kinds of clashes have consequences especially in this administration where loyalty is a big deal. there is not a love -- a lot of love lost between those companies and the white house especially considering the events in charlottesville more recently. it is important to realize there is a policy dimension to issues like privacy. issues like neutrality are on the table, and more and more washington is looking to take them on. we do not necessarily know what they are going to go. it may seem like tech is kind of losing in them. so, there are a lot of ways in which these companies are being

surrounded right now. obviously, the trump administration has not had the be of luck pushing through their policy initiatives. tax,are nsidering energy, immigration reform which are all important to silicon valley. white house is clearly not on the side of silicon valley. how much of a concern i number of things whh are important such as net nengs h are important such as net neutrality, skilled immigration. issues, have the gender but more broadly we have issues which are important to tech companies. one of them is consumers. these are companies with hundreds in millions of users, and they are very afraid of some sort of consumer activism. so, they want to focus on their values. they are willing to bend their values when it comes to things which are important to their companies. two examples are upgrading the

government's infrastructure with the contract breach of these pcompanies -- contract reach of these companies. the other is tax reform and foreign earnings. there was the tweet about amazon doing great damage to companies throughout the u.s. and many jobs being lost. are we getting to a point where tech companiesclass i do not nk we are at that point yet. i think we are at a point where some people in washington come up both liberals and conservatives -- >> i do not necessarily think we are at that point yet. i think we are at the point where some people in washington, both lirals and conservatives,

are starting to look at it. there is a lot of market share here. there are a lot of companies like amazon gobbling up smaller ones. democrats are saying this as well, we need to take a look at what is going on here. i think it is important to realize as well that some of these companies are on the chopping block when it comes to these issues. emily: how have tech companies change their techniques when it comes to lobbying? what is happening right now? t is what it comes down to. there was some talk that these companies did not have any republican representation, and they needed to bring in conservatives. i think that was a little overstated. in d.c., big companies are always in play for democrats and republicans. still, google did have a record spending amount when it came to lobbying spending.

are really spending athey lot of money, because they know that a lot of things are coming their way. either coming or going. they want to be a part of it. emily: we are looking at potentially three years, three and a half years in the trump administration still. what are you going to be watching? >> any potential efforts that are about hampering tech companies, because we cannot stop the march of technology. facebook,ple, google, these are companies which do not just impact the united states, but they have an impact globally. we have to be aware ofies which

can be threatening to people in the administration but also other businesses. emily: since the events of charlottesville, virginia, a surprising topic has come to the forefront of silicon valley. how far should tech companies go to salads he groups such as -- asnazis?ence he groups such we of donald trump. that is partially because, even before the election,here was all this controversy around companies like facebook or google about if they were media or technology companies. if you are a technology company, you do not have to take responsibility for the content on your platform. if you are a media company, you

. most of these companies want to be a technology company,ecause you do not have to spe as much on content moderation. however, a week ago, suddenly theomthese companies realized te need to take some responsibility . that came to the forefront when google and go daddy and a bunch of other companies took down the daily stormer which is a nazi publication had been on the internet until then. was theight, cloudflare last company to cut off the daily stormer. this was a company that had taken a more free speech approach to things should we did have the ceo on -- to things. we did have the ceo on the show and he said he was still uncomfortable about taking down the site. pers, no company should have the power to take down sites.

here's what he had to say. we go to law enforcement, regulators, and we show them the content and ask them what they want us to do. nt a ask them what they want us to do. that feels like the process of due process. these are the people enshrined with the responsibility of knowing what to do rather tha someone like myself or mark zuckerberg or jeff bezos. emily: the idea>> i do not knows thought through this one. if you are regulated like a utility, the net puts way more of a burden on you to moderate the content on every website. however, there is also price control and a whole bunch of other things where if you really dobitcoin is

bigger than ever as ey soar $4000. we get investment perspective on the future of digital currencies. all episodes of liver technology are streaming on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪ 

emily: welcome back to the best of bloomberg technology. i'm emily chang. outspoken billionaire mark cuban thinks there is opportunity and cryptocurrencies after all. he tweeted in june that bitcoin was in a bubble and is now investing in a fu called one confirmation. given tells bloomberg in any mail, i have always looked at this as a foundation platform from which great application can be built. hopefully we can find a few. caroline hyde sat down with the head of level 39 to get an investor perspective on crypto currency. enormoust chain has

potential in much of the interest is in finding expression in the valuation of bitcoin. we are seeing a galloping ahead of interest in the technology manifesting in the price of bitcoin. >> not only in the price of bitcoin but it is also tempting companies to come out and raise companies in a novel way of ico's, initial coin offerings. within minutes you are able to go to the crowd and raise millions. is this something we are seeing in europe as well as the united states? >> there is huge engagement with ico's, token sales, the fcc in the united states is clarified recently, the authority and the u.k. has taken a keen interest. that it encourages innovation while protecting markets and consumers. is real potential of ico's very exciting but it comes with a health risk.

it is an extreme sport. >> do you think we will see u.k. regulations come in and say theseill be asset securities that we want to be regulated, be registered, in the same way? >> they have been consulting on this over the last few months. they have not declared a clear position forward just yet. they are prioritizing protection of the marketing consumer while seeking to encourage innovation. that is one of their key , thegths, the superhero u.k. is keeto make sure it supports innovation and maintains its position as a great place to innovate. >> you are a hub f startups but you are in the middle of morgan stanley or jpmorgan, where they are based in london, how much are you seeing the banking sector respond to the

reat question. actual application of these technologies into the grave financial institutions of the world is a long and complex process. you have to look carefully, listen, and look what people are building. that is what we seek to support at level 39. it is not genetic. it involves drilling into the -- it is not dramatic it involves drilling into the details. >> how can it change the way they operate? >> ifetworks, many compare thiso the early stages of the internet -- there is a comparison that is useful. much of the interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies right now looks like the hype that surrounded the internet in the late 1990's. in the same way the fundamental transformation not --

transformation potential is hard to see in full now as it was in 1995. >> that was an interesting point that mark cuban made. from the ashes of some of these bubbles like bitcoin, you will see the ico's, the digital currency versions of amazon, google, facebook, come to be the game changers. where will they be based? san francisco, london, switzerland? switzerland is trying to claim president encrypt a. >> we can look further afield as well, and chin russia, japan. great invation and cryptocurrencies. we should be ready to be not surprised where the real progress arrives. is also important to look beyond cryptocurrencies and consider for example the implications of smart contracts. there are very exciting developments which are also builds from the same essential foundations. >> there been questions as to

whether one digital currency will win out over all. do you believe one will or can we have many? >> i think we will probably have many. if you look at the governance debates and the technology debates that have been sping the recent developments of bitcoin -- i don't think any major currency is immune. governance is a challenge. scaling is a challenge. it is systemically useful to have real diversity of currency. just as it is useful to have diversity in almost every other. >> what is interesting is government interaction between yourself and level 39. are you discussing with government how they should be adopting and looking at cryptocurrencies? you are someone who used to get startups connected with investments. are you saying that ico's would be a good way for companies to start? >> as a regulator it does a great job of balancing

protections for markets and consumers while also being permissive. it is the envy of regulators around the world and i've seen plenty of evidence in my travels. as far as the central government is concerned, there is no doubt in any of the mines that i've brabin.aging with-- with ben combating the problem with lines. outlawg an ordinance to using a cell phone while crossing streets. it is $30 per violation. there are no statistics to show whether texting played a role in

fatalities. strategyook copycat paying off? y tenet user base could be waning. the solar eclipse got everyone's attention. even president trump got the glasses to watch at thwhite house. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: this year facebook is expected to see a decline among teenagers users in the u.s. will useion people facebook in 2017, that is a 3% drop from the prior year. time a the first

research company has predicted a fall in facebook usage from any group. teens are migrating to snapchat. will snap be able to capitalize? sarah joined us to break down. >> we have seen the stock climbed today after a long drawn out fall since the ipo. one of the main reasons that snap has fallen is because facebook has been copying its most popular features on its main cap and on instagram -- on its main app and on instagram. this continues to be compelling young people. how much of a concern is this for facebook, given that they own pick -- they own instagram, is it still a big problem that they lose teen users? >> they use facebook with people

from spanish class. it is the kind of thing you have to be t survive in high school and college in a social setting with your teachers. it is more of a tool. it is not fun. the way that teens are communicating, images, video, it is less the status updates that we have seen on facebook which has become an increasingly political or heavy. the light communication on instagram and snap -- does it harm facebook? i think facebook made a smart that a few years ago acquiring instagram. it has become so crucial to their future. i would love to see more color from the company in the future of how much instagram continues

and contributes? >> when it comes to snap, cnn is doing a daily show on it, how much traction are these things getting? >> a lot. millions of years. it is very interesting. -- millions of views, it is very interesting. mobilef all, it is first. second of all, it is short bites that people consume on the go. it is something that caters to a millenial audience that is increasingly not paying for cable. not watching conventional tv. it is a way for brands like cnn and nbc reach the new generation that may not be on facebook. >> how well do we see facebook copying of instagram and snapchat working?

making the camera primary and adding st >> i would not say it is backfiring. with a user base of more than 2 million people -- more than 2 billion people, people are going to use whatever they create. i have not seen people use facebook stories on my own facebook. that is anecdotal. they have not released information on it. have you? >> no. maybe we are old. >> it is something we have not seen gain traction. it was the top think mark zuckerberg talked about at the developer conference earlier this year. that part is embarrassi -- that they made such a big dealal copycat effort. emily: that was sarah frier.

competition in the streaming space is set to get intense. apple's $1 billion spending on original content in 2018 will allow it to produce 10 shows. while it may seem that apple is using deep pockets to launch shows, it is entering a crowded field dominated by netflix and amazon. to weigholff, joins us in on the new media landscape. >> apple brings a lot to this party. they have devices, people watching video on their phones and on apple tv and computers. at the same time -- they have a lot of data. they know what people are watching and people are doing. at the same time, it is very difficult to produce hit tv shows. youtube is using data to be able to decide what shows they will produce. for example, they are doing a spinoff of the karate kid because they know people are watching old clips of the karate

kid or doing shows about dancing because they know what people are looking at. in apple's case, it is not as easy as going to the video store or the content store is saying, serve me up some hit series. it is very difficult. to know what to produce -- there are no lines in hollywood, no one knows nothing. make the next show successful. e will be interesting to how apple evolves and they are competing against others. facebook, youtube, as well as, other companies that are already established in the tv business. >> they are set to unveil original series, youtube is as well. of the two, is it a tossup in

terms of who is better positioned to compete or are you optimistic about both? >> it is hard to make the judgment based on their platforms. it comes down to who is able to produce it shows. -- hit shows. a lot of that revolves around talents. erectors, stars, writers, then lock. writers,ors, stars, and good luck. one of the advantages that facebook has is they have hundreds of millions of people in this country who are in a constant basis going to that platform. more nothing -- if nothing they will click on the watch button to see what is there. when you look at an average of $3 million an episode and you are talking about 10 episodes per season, it will take a long time to burn through that billion dollars.

at the same time it will take a while to ramp up. you cannot just go out and buy it, you have to build it. emily: that was michael wolff with activate. coming up, the once in a lifetime out of this world event that unfolded before our eyes. we explain horadio.you can lien, on bloomberg.com, and a sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: the total solar eclipse has come and gone this weekend and put the u.s. power grid to the test. utility owners and link electricity generators braced for more than 12,000 megawatts of solar power possibly going off-line. sunlight is the largest independent solar company in the u.s. the best part about the sun is that it is so reliable. when these happen, once a generation as you mentioned, we have a lot of notice. with gridrking operators and ey were able to procure power to meet the needs during the eclipse. it is important to put it into

context, when you look at the overall traditional power sources, they go off-line all the time and without notic annually, they will go out toths reliable and we are asking our customers to turn their power down and enjoy it. is this testing how you react in an event where we have solar power as a dominant force in the provision of power generation in the country so you can look at what the options are in terms of switching between one and the other? that is of solar power, the most reliable source of energy that we have. >> it is. cost oduction has been so significant that it is becomingy operates, on the rooftops, also adds a different dimension.

we often think about renewables as one and the same. but there is a difference buthere is a difference between the large utility scale renewables and what we do at the home level which is really pushing out, using the rooftop to produce power, using electric vehicles, getting a battery on this grid. sged loor tat >>u'po wve powerbout operators, scientists using this as an opportunity to test systems and software. is there anything you are doing during the eclipse, are you testing battery capacity? what will you be observing? >> for our customers, we have 150,000 customers across the country so a full gigawatt of

power -- we certainly contest to see how our systems will produce during the eclipse and we will do that and record the data. we will look at what the consumer patterns are. where we successful when we asked consumers to bring their consumption down? those are important learnings. at any given point across the world happens once every 300 or 400 years so it is rare. we are more focused on how do we get the storage fees to be cost-effective. when there is a situation like event. take a look. >> we used everything from very

that you test it out earlier in the week. >> yes. >> we saw people looking with their naked eye. i wanted to shout at them. here in san francisco, it was a little cloudy, a little foggy. >> 70% of the sun. >> a little anti-climactic year but the thing about this eclipse given the ubiquity of social media -- when we got into the office could hear and look on facebook and twitter, see the experiences of people across the country w were in the path of totality. i saw people posting photos saying, hey my son just took this, it changed his life. i was listening to people in south carolina cheer as the sun went completely dark. f some people it had a profound impact. >> i covered a solar eclipse in

china in 2009 and in the path of totality so going to complete darkness there is a magical erie feeling, the temperature cools. you heard people talking about it across the country -- as you say, a communal moment. even the president watched. he got a lot of flak on twitter for looking up briefly without the glasses. he just took them off. when he came out onto the balcony -- there he is. >> very briefly. hopefully he did not do much damage to his eyes. but you can hear in the video people down below the balcony shouting, hey don't look. this was one of those moments, i have seen essays about this, when this was an opportunity for the nation to come together and focus on something different. hopefully wearing glasses, without the moment being upset by washington, d.c. and yet, here is what happens.

the president found the way to steal the thunder from this event as well. >> yet again. channel. had a different live it was all over cable news and it was interesting to see how various tech companies from google to twitter to airbnb turned this into a business opportunity. >> we talked to airbnb -- there were thousands of people along a path who rented homes. in some instances, for the first time. remember the exact number, they had a surgeon listings. people were wanting to be there. if yot ofty. >> there were some folks in idaho who spent a lot of money and it rainednd yet they were still happy about the experience. experience,l-around i guess, to commune and watch.

looki at people in the path of totality. >> people throwing parties. tech's tomplane and bloomberg giles there. we will bring you all the latest tech throughout the week. remember, all episodes of bloomberg tech are live streaming on twitter. check us out on weekdays. that is all for now. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> >> how today's nba stars are learning to score as tech investors. while donald trump is busy in the white house, his sons are running the family business like dad. oliver: that ahead, on bloomberg businessweek. at the