♪ emily: i am emily chang. this is the "best of bloomberg technology," where we bring you the top interviews from this week in tech. the annual developers conference where they are doubling down on privacy. plus, we talk about melinda gates' new book where she is investing in what she thinks the biggest priority should be for the tech industry. as apple attempts to branch out in services and streaming, some current and former employees think so. first, to our top story.

it is the biggest ipo in years. uber made its public debut too much fanfare on the new york stock exchange on friday. i spoke with uber's ceo dara khosrowshahi soon after shares started trading in new york. dara: today is a tough day for the markets with all of the china uncertainty. no one knows exactly where that is going. you cannot pick when you go public. you can control how you execute a company. are you building a great service? are you bringing in happy consumers all over the world. we will focus on what we can control. we raise a lot of capital to invest and grow for many years. that is what we are focused on now. emily: we have trade talks on the rocks and you are right. there is a lot of red on the board. how much do you think this has to do with that, and how much do

you think it has to do with uber, which is still losing billions of dollars a year? dara: it is. we have a road to improve profitability. the markets, there are external issues and internal issues. i don't spend too much time worrying about what is affecting what. i am focused on building a great service. we will build value for long-term shareholders. emily: you are on the road and the price dropped to the lower end of the range, lower than what your bankers had floated a couple of months ago. what were investors responding to? what were they telling you? dara: there is a group of investors that love the platform story of transportation. i think that how hard it is to execute on that and how extensive it is an capital intensive it is, those are all

challenges. i think the good news is we have found a set of investors who are long-term oriented, believe in our vision and we have to execute to make sure that the bet they made on us is a great bet. emily: you have compared the company to amazon. you have some who think it is more like ebay. how do you deliver on the amazon? dara: we have to execute. when you think about what amazon did, they went beyond bookselling to other categories of retail. we are doing the same thing. we are expanding. as we expand, we expand our audience around the world. i think that the ones who have bet on us, the investors who have bet on us long-term will be happy. emily: one thing we did not see with amazon is growth slowing down. growth is slowing down. how much do you think you can

grow revenue in your most mature markets? dara: when you look at the platform, audience growth for q1 is at 33%. trip growth is growing year-over-year. on a $50 billion size, there are few companies in the universe that can carry that kind of a growth. when you have a $12 trillion market ahead of you, you have plenty of penetration. emily: even in the mature markets? dara: you have to have mature with a quote. emily: lyft has struggled on the public markets. how much have you been following that? dara: i think there is certainly some effect. they are a different company. we are global. we are the global player. we are the category position leader, and we are getting into

a number of different transportation categories. while we do not think we are direct consulates, some people look at it. they went through a tough opening. i think that for both companies, going after car ownership, it is an enormous market. i think long-term, they can succeed, and i certainly believe that we can. emily: coming up, she is one of the most high-profile women in tech. now, melinda gates has written a book on how empowering women is trading the world. we will talk to her about "the moment of lift." if you like us, you can check us out on the radio, the bloombergs app, on bloomberg.com, and on sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: for years, melinda gates has been working on global equality. through the gates foundation, she has fought to reduce poverty and increase access to health care and education. she wants to make sure women get their fair shot, investing in women investors and entrepreneurs and with her new book, "the moment of lift: how empowering women can change the world." i sat down to talk about where she is putting her money intact and why the moment was right for her to write this book. melinda: i have been traveling for over 20 years, and i heard these women's stories that called me to action. i felt like with the #metoo movement and so many women running in the elections, we have this opportunity to create equality, but that window could close. i want to make sure we really keep pushing and get equality for women.

emily: you talk about your decision to stop working and stay home with the kids. you said bill did not understand. you also realized you could have done it. you just did not understand. you said you had growing up to do. tell me about that. melinda: when we got pregnant, i surprised bill and said i wanted to leave microsoft. for him, i think he encouraged me. after the birth of our first daughter, even within a month, he said, "ok, so what else are you going to do?" because i knew i had that side of my brain, and that i enjoy doing work. we had to work that out over time. i came into the marriage with some bias about who does what in a relationship at home. i think maybe i gave him a pass on a few things, because he was the ceo of microsoft, and i had to learn you don't get a pass,

you are a dad. emily: my favorite anecdote is that when you decided division of labor is not fair, and he was going to do school drop off, which is a lesson to other parents, if the ceo of microsoft can do it, so can you. tell me about that. melinda: it was one of those conversations where you ask who does what. we agreed where we wanted our daughter to go to school. i said let's wait until she gets to third grade to put her in that school. it's not close to our house. bill felt strongly that she start at kindergarten. so he finally said, in my frustration, "what can i do to help?" and before i could even answer, he said "you know, i could drive a few days week." and i was like "are you serious?" because it's an hour commute for him to microsoft. what we did not realize is that by having that conversation, sure enough, three weeks in, far more dads started to drive their kids, and a mom came up to me andhappening?" i said, "yeah, more dads are driving." she said, "we went home and said if bill gates can drive, so can you."

emily: you have a chapter on workplace culture. you talked about susan fowler and some of the bad things that happened at uber. uber is about to go public this week. where do you think they would be if the change she ushered in had not happened? melinda: i don't know. i don't think any of us can answer that question, to be frank. i know what happened there needed to be called out. it takes courageous women. when one woman speaks out, other women need to come around, and men, and say this is not ok. the way we get change in the workplace, or in any culture, is for men and women to transparently talk about what is going on. the reason that is important in the workforce is because if a woman is harassed in the workforce, she leaves her job within two years at an 80% rate. that just can't be. emily: you are investing in women in technology. you are investing in tech venture capitalist firms.

one of your strategies is to invest in women. women account for 9% of venture-capital investors in silicon valley. women-led companies get 2% of funding. so despite all of this conversation, the #metoo movement, the momentum, the numbers still look that way. how much progress have you seen in the last year? melinda: i would say that the progress is slow. i think we are beginning that flywheel. but this is not just about silicon valley. if silicon valley is too stuck on what they are doing today, we can take this to other places. chicago is supporting women-led companies. they are not only mentoring and sponsoring them, they are investing in them. it is becoming a bigger part of the economy in chicago. we can do that in dallas, atlanta, and rural areas. to me, the game is changing. i am excited that more women-led businesses are starting to be invested in. we have to talk about people of color.

less than 1% of venture-capital funding goes to a woman-led business of a person of color. that to me makes no sense because i know there are fabulous ideas out there for many women who are of color as well. emily: the reality is that men are still in position of power, and they can make a difference here. we have silicon valley visionaries who are building electric cars, self-driving cars, rocket ships to space, and connecting the world. do think if men made hiring women a priority, it will happen? melinda: of course it would. emily: we can do anything. melinda: of course it was. you set a goal and reach it and don't make excuses. people say the pipeline, there are not enough women. well, fine -- create pathways in. we know the best universities in the nation are getting more women and minorities by changing that first computer science class. we can do this. we just have to set it as a goal, and then we have to measure.

the great thing that is happening is the press is putting pressure on these companies to be transparent. once you are transparent, and there is pressure there, and you have a tight labor market, women are voting with their feet. they are saying i don't want to go to companies that do not support women. i will look at other offers i have. that will create change. emily: you are working with nonprofits working to get more women investing, more women entrepreneurs. what sort of benchmark should the industry be setting? what sort of benchmark should the company be setting? should it be 50-50? melinda: eventually. i think we can get to 50-50. i think we can. we need to stop saying "that's not possible." we need to stop having excuses for it. we need to look at the barriers in society. when young women can look up and see three dozen types of women, archetypes of women doing things in computer science, engineering, and biology, when they can look up like a young man can, you can see more women going into these fields in droves.

the more we talk to young women about -- these are not just tech problems, you are creating the future. these are some of the most creative things going on in society. these are fabulous jobs. you will start having women go and decide where they want to create the future. emily: one of the biggest women-led funds, theresia was on the show yesterday. you are looking for a return. how big of a return? melinda: i will not put a number on it. i look at all of the investments bill and i make, and we have a scale in which we do them. i want a social return at first and over time, a larger and longer return. i know that it is important to not just voice our concerns and to point out problems, but it is also important to move money. we know young companies need to be financed if they are going to grow. it is just time we do it.

emily: now, you are also investing in tech ideas that you think will change some of these issues in the world -- family care, child care. how do you think technology can improve childcare, can improve family care, can improve pay inequity? melinda: if you could go on your phone in every city and rural town in america and have a rating system and say these are the caregivers and what their ratings are, do you know how much easier that would make things when you have a sick child? all of a sudden, mom or dad says, "oh, my gosh, i need to go home. i have a sick child at work or school." what if we have applications that help us fill in those gaps over time? another one that i saw that was fabulous, a woman is starting a business where if your child needs extra support, maybe they have dyslexia. maybe they have eye issues. do you know how hard it is to go find specialists in the city? if there was a platform where you could go and there were 15

fabulous specialists, and you could see ratings on them and see if they were good for other people's kids, that would change things for moms and dads. emily: there is rising concern that technology, for all the good that it does, also has too much power. you have elizabeth warren out there saying big tech needs to be broken up, and she is getting support on both sides of the aisle. do you think it needs to be broken up? melinda: i think technology has upsides and downsides. you have to look company by company, what the technology companies are doing, and are they creating the most good in society? or has the downside gotten too large, and you have to look at the company and say should it be regulated in a different way? emily: these democratic candidates will take positions on technology. what kind of positions would you like to see them take? melinda: i would like to see them take positions on making it more equal for women.

women are 40% likely to have access to the internet. we know that women-led businesses are not getting funded. i would love for them to take positions and say, you know what? this technology should be for everyone. not just these one-off ideas. emily: that was melinda gates, cochair of the bill and melinda gates foundation and the author of "the moment of lift." coming up, tweeting against twitter. the president unleashes his fury against social media once again, saying they are silencing conservative voices. we will talk about it next. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: president trump is taking aim at facebook and twitter, claiming once again in a series of tweets that they are silencing conservative voices. "i am continuing to monitor the censorship of american citizens on social media. this is the united states of america, and we have what is known as freedom of speech. we are monitoring and watching closely." the latest tweet storm comes

after a decision by facebook to ban certain far right provocateurs, including alex jones and laura loomer, for violating policies on hate speech. tim o'brien joined us to discuss come along with bloomberg social media correspondent kurt wagner. kurt: he said we are in the united states, and we have this thing called freedom of speech. the thing about these companies is they are global companies. not u.s. companies. they are building rules and guidelines for people all around the world. often times, you will see that they have these blanket policies because they are supposed to apply not just to people in the u.s. or people everywhere. people sometimes forget that. emily: they are private companies, so they get to make the rules. kurt: they do not want to use the platform because of that. facebook and twitter and others have said that there are rules

people have to abide by. emily: many folks say facebook did not do this soon enough. another tweet from the president as part of this particular tweet storm, diamond and silk, they have been treated so horribly. what has been done to them is sad. it is getting worse for conservatives on social media. diamond and silk are commentators who are supportive of president trump. you wrote a biography of the president before he became president. i know you have some insight into how he thinks. what do you believe is going on in the president's mind? tim: there are a couple of things going on. the president is arguing that a social media platform should be agnostic.

what we have to remember is over the past weekend, he also tweeted that he did not think the "new york times," the "washington post," cnn, or msnbc should be allowed to publish on twitter. so, he is not arguing from a position of free speech or freedom of press. he is defending his advocates and targeting his enemies. so i think that has to be unbundled when we are speaking about the president. when we talk about the social media platforms, i think they are entering into adulthood here. they want to be considered as technology platforms and not publishing enterprises. but the reality is they are putting published material into the public realm, and that has always been subject to regulation, whether it was radio or tv or newspapers.

and i think at some point, social media will have to come to terms with the reality of that. and it comes with a different set of regulations and a different set of responsibilities. these two things are colliding with one another. emily: i want to go back to facebook's statement when they banned these folks. "we have always banned individuals and organizations. the process for evaluating potential violators is extensive, and it is what led to us removing these accounts today." if you go back to even five years ago, weren't these policies incredibly crude? i heard something like if it was not naked and if it was not hitler, then it was fine. kurt: right. there were breast-feeding photos that were taken down, but bombings that were left up. there were people who picked up the word "always" and said it has not always work like this. we have seen facebook say time and time again that we do not

want to be the arbiters of truth and the ones who decide what should stay up and come down. in november, they said they would create an oversight committee where if you have content taken down, you can appeal to an independent board that would review your case. we have not seen that come into practice. they have announced plans for it. they are trying to say we don't want to have to make these decisions. emily: i sat down with senator marsha blackburn last week, and she has been supportive of the president. she has also been critical of the crackdown on conservative voices in particular. here is what she had to say about the issue. take a listen. sen. blackburn: what we have to realize is in silicon valley, a lot of people have a liberal slant. that is their preference. they bring that to work. they are engineering and building these algorithms. and then they probably tilt left

instead of being down the middle. we know they do not tilt right. emily: now, she is making an important point, tim, that the people who are building the algorithms, inevitably, they impact those algorithms. clearly, this is an issue that is getting increasing interest on both sides of the aisle. do you think this is something that is going to become a big deal in this election? tim: i don't know if it will be a big deal in the election, i know it is always a healthy thing for us to discuss. we have to be careful about the terms we are using. i do not know that this is conservative versus liberal speech issue. the constitution has always regulated the type of free speech we are entitled to. we are entitled to have free political speech. we are not entitled to stand up at a movie theater and scream "fire."

one of the distinctions facebook was trying to make is it felt that some of the people that they have decided to censor were trafficking in violent rhetoric. that is not political rhetoric. what they are trying to do is police violence or aggression on their platforms, which it is in their rights. i think that is something senators from both parties could get behind. this idea that louis farrakhan or milo yiannopoulos are representatives of conservative speech is a little bit cute by half, when if they are also trafficking in violent rhetoric. that is an important extension to make. emily: coming up, a pixel price cut. google debuts its newest smartphones. there is a catch when it comes to what is inside. we will head to google's i/o conference next. you can check us out and follow

our global news network on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: welcome back to the "best of bloomberg technology." i'm emily chang. google is looking to make its line of smartphones more attractive to consumers with a cheaper price tag. this after an entire line of pixel phones failed to sell in large numbers. the newer models will range from $400 to $479. nearly half the cost of their predecessors. i spoke with the vice president and general manager of pixel, mario queiroz, about the new devices at the developers conference in mountain view, california. mario: the new phones are really exciting. what we set out to do is design