tv Tech Check CNBC April 15, 2021 11:00am-12:01pm EDT
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do not see this having an impact to the overall business. >> end of the show leave it there congratulations on the ipo hope you'll come back and talk in the future. that does it for "squawk on the street." "techcheck" sharts now. starts now. good thursday morning. welcome to "techcheck. i'm carl quintanilla day two public company, cathie wood buys in stocks higher. not just coin, though. another massive ipo at the nasdaq a $30 billion video game company backed by kkr making its debut and bezos addresses his
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shareholders in what could become a significant change in amazon strategy. we dig in on that. >> also a big day for tech stocks nasdaq outperforming broader indices pss&p all-time high and nvidia and others, faang plus index up better than 1%. tesla in the red and gamestop down 6%, jon >> today's most important tech story, day two for coinbase. watching crypto's newest king. the company opening for trade yesterday afternoon. $381 a share 52% above the reference price rising as high as $429 before settling the day lower as of yesterday's close, $86 billion, roughly, market cap made from the most valuable publicly traded exchange in the u.s. if you think that's what it is cathie wood jumping into this trade as well buying $246 million worth of shares to add
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to the investment funds. so many storylines in tech right now, carl, that hinge on the idea that the rules of a particular area have changed whether that is cloud or ai. work from anywhere cloud gaming platforms, commuting domestic chip supply, reddit and retail trading. seems in ss in coinbase, two sts colliding. robinhood, access to markets coinbase story argues blockchain opens access to markets and somehow coinbase will be able to keep charging a premium. i don't know if both it be true. >> all of those topics, jon, make it, make sense why we launched in the first place this de, interesting the issues jon raises and all the players right? a few weeks ago, not sure how many viewers knew the name brian armstrong. jon's known him a long time, but to what degree will he become more visible and vocal given the
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fact his twitter account to now remained fairly steady >> you know, guys, it struck me we heard from federal reserve chair jay powell yesterday on the day we had momentum moment for cryptocurrencies echoed what he said. cryptocurrencies, vehicles for speculation. heard similar skepticism from janet yellen's it misses the point ignoring the most important function of the crypto revolution we see. the technology behind it what's emerging isn't in fact -- its use to pay for stuff, but it's rule into centralized finance and potentially the technology's role in central bank digital currencies. jon, to your point when you say, can't keep up these enormous fees and margins forever, that's a side point i think if we talk about it becoming the google, netscape or yahoo! of cryptocurrencies it eventually has to do a lot more than that, carl?
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>> de, bring in kindred vench vs talking about this more. thanks for kicking off the hour. a day or so, at least a couple days, to chew on the business model over there the reference price. the open what do you think has not yet been said that needs to be said about this particular company and the opportunities that at least the bulls argue it will bring about? >> thanks for having me back on. a pleasure to see you all, and i was actually interested in hearing the conversation between jon and de, because there is a question as to whether or not coinbase is building an exchange whether they're building a bank or whether they're building something different, and i think the most enlightened reading and the reading those optimistic about the company would say, it is indeed something different. it's an on ramp on to the global crypto network a software company building that
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on ramp. same way it wouldn't make sense to think of social media as media because it's so much more and so much differ and encompass ises media but extends it further. same is true for programmable money, what cryptocurrency actually is and what coinbase has done created the first secure, focus on security, scalable and institutional grade on ramp into this global crypto network. i actually think that's the most important story going forward. >> hmm you mention the on ramp. the exact same phrase btig uses in their initiation. go to buy 500 leveraging for institutional investors. think of blockrack on-air this morning said the conversation with his clients regarding crypto remains minor what happens if crypto etfs crop up all over the place? how much like the is in the
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coinbase name if those things do happen >> a fair question first thing to note even from the very, very beginning of coinbase hired their first employee, focus wag on security. even at the expense of other things like performance and moving fast. it's my belief first of all they're going to actually be a really resilient company because of the infrastructure built in cold storage and off-line storage in protecting it as for the volatility, something the market has the to be educated about and changing currency by currency look at bitcoin over the course of the last ten years its volatility actually slowly tightening, and moments of volatility but tightening. meanwhile, the 30 other currencies added to the platform are still in early german angs pha germination phases mow to think about this is different whether or not there's a fundamental concern for liability for the platform
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itself. >> and with us yesterday, talking about this as the google of transactions, digital transactions online. i just wonder how as an investor you can tell whether it's the google or the yahoo! or aol? right? a big difference between those things being first isn't always best. across so many of these big breakout ideas in tech over the last couple decades. thinking google search, facebook apple graph design and vertical integration, leaders often said we were so afraid that the big companies were going to come in and eat our lunch before we had the chance to get the right lead and the right moat does coinbase have that lead and moat or will they get yahoo! and aol here >> very early days in cryptocurrency higher mark still on the order of $2 trillion sounds like a lot but it's very little compared to almost all
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other global mature currencies i like to think about terms ow how you quantify whether someone h has -- to suck seed. developers in the ecosystem are building with and on and for them at scale. if they're doing a really good job focusing on a long-term basis along with the capital coinbase led by emily choi the most dynamic and creating an alumni network that contributes back to the system, ecosystem. develops protocol methods engaging think cryptocurrency that are deeper. a good example of ecobuilding, a market leader feature and terms how to think about the business long term what i love about coinbase, bought a brokerage, thinking and supporting staking,
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really it skewed about defi and happens in the decentralized finance infrastructure added 20 tokens in the last couple of months and really trying to push to make it a true it ecosystem play for the entire crypto network, so it rises at once. >> already ramping up. brought up crypto's skepticism from powell and yellen a few moments ago. all comes, i noted, as coinbase goes public and more institutions are getting involved with crypto and china is pushing ahead with a deitch it the yuan. does the u.s. risk falling behind decentralized finance, if it is a financial revolution that changes the way we look at markets, trading and finance at large? >> such an interesting question. the reason it's an interesting question is, there's people in the u.s. and then there's the u.s. government. one of the competitors, in my view, to the primacy of crypto
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networks and bitcoin and other currencies is traditional fiats. the most powerful traditional, franka so positive steek globally is the u.s. dollar and the government backed by the united states. if i'm the united states government i'm thinking hard how to balance this supporting an ecosystem and primacy of the dollar, which is so important. one thing i would consider the other element i consider is the fact that with respect to geopolitical risk, the cryptocurrency is actually trying to speak to a very important trend. trend of decentralization. seeing it in cloud, in the media, seeing it as we talked about market participants. people want more control, more agency at the individual level, and that's something that is really playing out across so many different sector of our economy. crypto is a really important story there, but governments and institutions of all types will have to grapple with that,
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because they are fundamentally centralizes forces and a little bit of a, a little bit of a tension there to manage. >> yeah. no it's definitely true one thing to strip out some layers of media, much different if you're stripping out layers and currency to your point turn to amazon's letter from jeff bezos interesting strategy shift for the company and talks about the alabama union vote saying does your chair take comfort in the recent vote in alabama no, he doesn't i think we need to do a better job for employees while voting results were lopsided in our direct relationship with employees is strong it's clear we need a better vision how we create value for employees, a vision for their success goes on, we've always wanted to be earth's most customer centric company and won't change that. it's what got us here, but i am committing us to addition, earth's best employer and earth's safest place to work
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on the union front, what do you think between the lines here bezos is saying about the labor structure at the company in the future >> a profound statement, actually the way i was reading it was that he was recognizing the fact that end of the day people powered company. not putting people at the center of your company you have an existential risk that needs managed. think back to 2018, costco moves tos 14ds amazon quickly move the to $15 costco proved to $16 federal min much wage, $7.25 a lot of progressive states of $10 ors 12ds an hour retailers need to meet workers where they're at and a matter of competition. labor markets will tighten again. talent wars have been on for about a generation most importantly, i think the most powerful to have for a company, really happy employees. one of the things a number of competitors, costco a notable
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example, used as a metric. seems like an implicit acknowledgement that's something they'll put at the primacy of the next generation and i note as a quick follow-up point is that he said something else that's profound, which is that what got us here isn't necessarily what's going to take us to the future entirely. extremely interesting he added best employees and safest place to work as implicit acknowledge, amazon requires different going forward. >> saying this the quarter before he hands over the ceo reins to andy jassy, who, you know, has built a somewhat different culture at aws from the larger amazon culture. granted, a different sort of employee base, too, and i talked to jassy over the years about the focus on employee education, on developing a pipeline of talent on the future of work in the u.s. and we're out of time.
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when there's increasing focus on data, on workplaces, employees, how that affects the customer. i mean, if amazon and bezos are really serious about this it could be a sea change not just for amazon but rippling out into retail, warehouse work, ecommerce and commerce in general. right? >> one of the most interesting things, the place where the war for talents and the labor market is absolutely the most tight is in software and software development. the funny thing, amazon is running a software company, massive cloud services company amazon services right next to a large consumer retailer. they actually have to think about integrating those cultures in a thoughtful way and the transition to jassy is part of recognition, cloud services and software company that amazon is building will take the foreground frankly, also it's imprissant acknowledgement of the fact labor is so, so important to the future of this company.
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kany great to see you thank you, kanyi maqubela. asking you to participate on the heels of coinbase's public debut, interested. what would it take for you to invest part of your retirement savings in bitcoin or, you know, maybe eherethereal >> tell us if you have already. and where in the world is jack ma? breaking down the latest on china's now rue collusive billionaire. and next, mclovin' nope app lovin' the ceo of that company joins us next we are just getting started here on "techcheck."
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stock. 2.5 of company about this a month after pennsyapatea his stock. half of what they were trading in february. jon? >> and applovin' set to go public ceo joins us ahead of the first trade. adam, good morning. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> so -- a couple weeks ago, almost a month, maybe, we had on iron source. they did a spac merger with tomo tomobravo. seems you're in a similar space. from what i can tell applovin' works on apps. and what is the state of the gaming app need for discovery and what kind of consolidation you expect to see from here? >> we knew that the app, mobile app ecosystem would be very big when we started the business and
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built a technology platform to enable app developers to get their content discovered we've been building that up over the last nine years. a little different than other players in the ecosystem three years ago launched our own content that has grown immensely. we now reach over 200 million active players playing app lovin' games and that feeds back into our software engine to help our systems better recommend content to the consumer, both for clients and ourselves. that's really what we're in the business of doing. >> adam, good morning, it's deirdre. is the future of gaming, the metaverse, roadblocks and "fortnight" created, if so, hoe sdo how do applovin' play into that? >> on the platform playing traditionally casual games
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this is more of a professional adult audience playing games that are 30, 45-minute engagements every single day. >> so they -- they don't compete with each other? >> they don't compete with each other for timeshare? >> or in the future? >> both great experiences for the same and different audiences. >> adam, when we think about apploveinshould we think of you as a competitive for iron it source or zynga at long term playing in both spaces how do you despine the addressable market and how do you get investors to kind of see that play as both a provider of games and a provider of tools for other app companies as an advantage? >> the market is huge. $100 billion a year and growing over 10% a year. we're doing well but only 1% market share we look at our business is different than both of those two companies. we built this discovery platform and then we built the content to enhance the audience insights
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that we could get from first-party players of our content back into our software improving efficacy of the solution both for clients and ourselves. again, we're in the business of helping customers discover the best content for them. >> data, tools, and content, got a lot of different spaces that you're able to play in with your software i look forward to seeing you as a public company adam, thank you. >> thanks for having us. meantime, look at dell shares popping after news plans to spin off its stake in vm wear we break it down plus, julia boorstin is next with a disrupter in the social space. >> right, deirdre. helps celebrities and brands own their relationship with consumers and just raised $40 million. an expanse diving into the companies helping creators avoid the so-called facebook task. that's coming up after the break.
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welcome back to "techcheck." i'm jon fortt. a check on major indices touching new record highs today. s&p, dow and nasdaq up about a percent. dell popping high er sat the sam time spinning out vmware and a cash dividend for 81% stake of dell. dell shareholders getting 4.4 of vmware dell technology continuing to hold shares. might clear of a haze over valuations even though vmware has its own kicker, a public company, it was controlled by dell analysts had trouble deciding on the right multiple on vmware a software company owned by a
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company with pcs, networking, storage and software a lot of different businesses and expected to close in q4, carl >> yep morgan stanley weighing in and saying that it's going to allow them to pay down debt faster maybe get investment grade sooner than we thought and as you say close the valuation gap, maybe, between dell and some peers. de >> yeah. deidre -- >> yep. >> michael dell gets the award for best enterprised coming out of the 2010 -- look at where hp and hp enterprise are, kind of market value-wise and where dell and all of its components are now, and that says it all. >> living in a legacy tech world for the moment at least in 2021 a bit of a reversal from what we saw last year. true, jon. time for cnbc news update. get to rahel solomon. >> hi, deidre. good morning jon mentioned, s&p 500 and dow
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industrials set new record highs held from a nearly 10% surge in march retail sales and weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level in 13 months. u.s. imposing a new round of sanctions on russia holding the cremekrecreme rinne accountable solarwinds hack. barred from buying russian bonds. and delta, big recovery since earlier this year. saying that bookings doubled between january and march. that the company is no longer burning cash. >> of all that i'm most amazed by doing this while still missing 50% of our revenue base. international still largely closed business travel continues to be quite muted and still not selling the middle seat until next month our team's doing a great job. >> now up to date. back to you, carl. >> rahel, thank you. you know, companies and
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celebrities use facebook all the time to interact with customers and fans some start-ups are trying to flip the script. julia has more. >> celebrities with millions of fans, just a few hundred fans also turning to platforms where they, not facebook, can control their fan relationships and all that data. one of those companies is called community. it enables celebrities to text directly with their fans. so community has 26 million people signed up to receive texts from thousands of what they call leaders including ashton kutcher, jennifer low paz, doctors and yoegga teacher. they pay a fee to market directly to them just raised $40 million from salesforce to fuel growth with businesses here's what the ceo told me. >> social media and marketing
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channels are noisy it's very competitive. difficult to cut through that. we think there's a need on both sides of the marketplace for a more direct connection ultimately when you're able to text somebody you're instantly cutting through all the noise and instantly delivering value we think that's just something that just doesn't exist today on the current landscape. about allowing your community to be a part of the conversation and building a much more long term relationships with your consumers, versus simply trying to remarket and retarget to them. >> now, community is one of a range of tools fueling the creator economy. pate tree patrian and others, online classes and coaching and cameo so keep can be paid for appearances. facebook, twitter and snap want to hold on to creators and working on ways to cash in directly on their fans facebook with a subscription
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newsletter platform, twitter experimenting with premium subscription and snap has a spotlight program which pays creators daily jon, carl, what we're seeing now is really a land grab in terms of getting these creators, jon, and making sure that their getting the creators and fans to stay on their platform. >> yeah. julia, this is interesting, because the subscription piece of this, it's like you're moving away from advertising in a way where so many of these social networks spent their time focused. i don't know if the creators really want to spend all their time within facebook, within twitter, within youtube. they seem to like kind of diversifying where their revenue sources are? >> i would argue, julia, it's too late right? i mean, these social media giant platforms haven't focused on, you know, allowing the creator to make money off of their
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platforms. they're so late to the game here that we have all of these start-ups giving creators way to monetize what they've created and be paid for the work they pout out there right? can he ever catch up the twitters and facebooks even youtube had revenue, but is it good enough >> yeah. look, i would never count out facebook and twitter and snap and the opportunity they still have to help monetize creators the challenge, creators have so many followers on these play forms they don't want to lose themmer tirely ashton kutcher, text me directly if you want to interact on text versus on twitter or versus on instagram? you know, i'm sure people are skeptical how many of those texts are customized just for them, but i think we're going to see a really diverse economy in this creator economy come up where people interact with fans in different ways on different pla platforms. i think a lot of moving away from advertising and more
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towards sup description services interesting with community, the celebrity that's the one that's paying the fee because they see so much value in monetizing their fans down the road, guys. >> yeah. well, in some cases you get what you pay for. we'll see how successful community and others are, jewell r j -- julia, thanks. will this chip shortage last into 2022? we break it down. listen to us on the go join the "techcheck" podcast wherever you get your podcasts we are back in just two. some say this is my greatest challenge ever. but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;)
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warning global chip shortage could last through 2022. echoing statements by other leaders in the industry. earlier this week the white house holding a summit with top execs to discuss the crisis. intel ceo pat gelsinger telling us ahead of the meeting he hopes the u.s. can manufacture again a third of the world's chips on american soil. the supply crisis impacting all major automakers with production halted and the plants across the country. we have to see how it affects 2021 product rollouts from companies like apple carl
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shares of crowdstrike, price target $265. bullish or crowd adoption, and punk music and leadership, what they have cmoinomn. we'll tell you right after the break. stay with us. with a bang, energy and change came to every part of our universe. seismic or small, it continues. change is all around us. shaped by technology and human ingenuity, we can make it work for you and your business.
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high back in '17, jamie dimon called it a fraud before walking bab comments a few months later. treasury secretary yellen a few months ago saying not widely used, inefficient way of conducting transactions and oracle of omaha itself called it a bubble speak ing with our own becky quick. i don't have cryptocurrency and never will. >> someone sold on the idea and very early our next guest, co-founder of initialized capital. he was the very first coinbase investor turning a $300,000 investment into a stake worth more than $2 billion today gary, great to you have on the show today thanks for being with us. my question to you is simple what should public market investors know that private investors like you have known for years?
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what do they need to look at that tells them to hold, buy or sell coinbase? >> coinbase to me is this decade's microsoft, google or facebook, and just as a revolution as, you know, the web browser, the internet in society, we needed those companies. that's what coinbase is for crypto crazy thing about these things is that the technologies stack the computer enabled the web browser allowing you to have facebook and google. pretty clear facebook is incredibly powerful, it's the arbiter of online identity and they do it in a way that sells your data and in a centralized way. really, the power and the reason why decentralization and cryptos our powerful, it's your wallet, your data, your coins and standing in the face what we're worried about. increasing power of tech giants. >> gary, what's the insight or
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strategy coinbase haw that will differentiate even if competition from fees brings revenues down? what's the thing they have that's similar to what google had with page rank what facebook had with the socialgrapher and so on? >> thinking about these things as layers and stacks just as microsoft had the operating system first and then that gave it the incredible advantage to create what is now a giant cashcow. office even today is such an incredible piece of technology that it's spitting out cash that's why this is fundamentally valuable we are in the earliest sort of first half of the first inning of crypto remaking society the applications are coming. what everyone's talking about is the price of bitcoin stored up value. digital gold that theme actually doing, is
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doing pretty well. $2 trillion in value in gold that's why people are talking about coinbase today but in 10 to 20 years what we're really going to talk about software eating every other sector, all other transactions people do or have online and seeing shades of it now. defi, decentralized finance to lend, ensure, underwrite, settle between multiple parties all in the open using software? $50 billion locked in e as of this morning that's actually 4x up since beginning of the year. you're seeing explosive growth in things further up the stack bitcoin and coinbase the enabler and coinbase will be the enables force, the clean, well-lit place to be that on ramp for the next 20, 10, 50 years. >> so, gary, we pay a lot of attention how central banks view
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this i wonder what goes through your mind when you hear jay powell talk about digital currencies as a concept? are you encouraged by the way he appears to be leaning? at least in this answers >> ibm said there would only ever be five computers in the whole wide world to do everything that you would need from computers so i think we're no stranger to, frankly, really, really smart, really -- people we should listen to say things that actually turn out to be wrong. i think that's the case here. >> gary, everyone, i think everyone that's come on the program who has put money into coinbase calling the google of crypto how do you know it's happening, the google and not the netscape? what do public investors now need to look for. you should look at what moves coinbase has been making not only the earliest investor in coinbase at 15 cents, we were
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actually the earliest institutional and largest investor in trails, which coinbase late last year purchased. that company over the past couple years became the gold standard for returning proof of stake. the next shift how blockchains will reach consensus that was a huge, strategic buy actually sets coinbase up to be a cloud infraprovider like aos you can see ow profitable those things are >> right i argue, though, same time you got to look at what paypal, square and gemini and competitors are doing? right? making similar moves and quick moves in the space >> absolutely. i think that's a really good point. what i would point to is the type of design and product that coinbase can come out with i think that you can see this sort of play out over and over again as tech investors, this is what we look for one thing that stood out to me
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from the beginning that they've carried through is incredible focus on product and design. so when we say microsoft i actually think we probably should say apple, because that's how they're able to be that clean, well-lit place that users can actually trust >> okay. got it gary, thank you so much for being with us today. >> thank you thank you for having me. >> breaking news on gop efforts to target big tech elon has that. hey? >> a company gop lawmakers are circulating. potential options poor reining in big tech company after holding that hearing with ceos of facebook, twitter and google last month, we all remember. one of the things they want to do, fine big tech companies those with revenue of at least $1 billion or more define them. not looking to get rid of are section 230 entirely but could look at carving out big tech
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companies in section 230 liability protections especially if they use targeted behavioral advertising and require potentially five-year reauthorizations for section 230 protections and as well as potentially requiring an an appl process for moderation decisions. they're also looking to expand the law that protects children online and encourage tech companies to work more closely with law enforcement officials guys, this is really important because republicans have been all over the map on this issue this is an effort to build some consensus among the gop for one course of action, and then potentially introduce a bill on that that could possibly get bipartisan support this is about building that momentum and building consensus on capitol hill to actually make good on those threats of going after big tech deidre. >> ylan, actually i'm looking at the memo now with you. i mean they're talking about social edia, app stores, and a
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i'm quoting here, other tech companies engaged in certain activities that seems kind of broad. >> yeah, and one of the criticisms, as i'm sure will come out of this memo, you know, is that billion dollar threshold could certainly take in a lot of different companies, not just sort of the social media platforms that were the target of that hearing. so this is a discussion draft that is intended to get lawmakers sort of talking about these issues and see where there is that consensus and desire to move forward i mean some of the options are more dramatic than others, so this is also a little bit of a test to see how far republicans are willing to go and are they willing to remove those section 230 protections for companies all together or is it more about trading off, right is it more about ensuring that they have -- are following certain rules if they want to have certain privileges. >> right so some alignment on the gop side, but the democratic side another story.
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ylan, thank you so much for bringing that to us. we will keep you guys posted on developments meanwhile delivery shares taking a beating today the company giving cautious guidance and warning growth could decelerate this year and chinese millionaire -- billionaire, excuse me, jack ma, a fascinating look at his journey. that's up next
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tech check's live on tv and it lives online. every week we will bring you a variety of exclusive content you can find on techcheckcnbc.com. today from my fort knox online show we pull back the curtain on four tech leaders and their unconventional rise to the top where they started might surprise you in my fort knox conversations with ceos and founders over the last five years there's been a thread that connects many of them the path to the top isn't a straight line. what do a punk band, the gap and a cello have in common they shaped these four leaders. >> i worked at the gap in college. >> i worked at the theater. >> a lot of common questions my cello students would ask me. >> kmel owe students >> i played in a band.
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it was a straight up punk band. >> i had a cover band around '99. i was trying to jam out with friends. i was just trying to get a date, you know and you can look at this qr code, scan it, take out your phone. it will take you to our website where you can watch this piece in full. there's a lot more to it, or watch our interview with ron conway, coinbase board member. lots of stuff, cnbc.com/techcheck you can follow our show on linkedin there's a page for that, and our twitter account of course as well carl >> all right, jon. great stuff. alibaba's co-founder gentleman ma spotted in public amid months of secrecy and speculation about his whereabouts. on a video call with putin china's richest man out of the spotlight after he made comments critical of the regulatory system in china, spurring rumors and theories about his
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whereabouts. he used to dress up as michael jackson and dance on stage the piece, "the vanishing billionaire, how jack ma fell foul of xi jinping" is in the paper. thanks for the time, ryan. >> thank you for having me on. >> can you help us understand what ma's status is right now in china, at least culturally >> well, he's definitely fallen afoul of the upper echelons of the chinese government, and so i think it is kind of unclear what is going to happen to him long-term. at the moment we have heard from officials that he's been basically told to lie low. i guess that's a pretty common occurrence when your businesses are going through restructuring and under regulatory scrutiny. so that is the current state what will happen next is unclear, but it seems like he is going to have to lie low for at least a while longer
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>> ryan, jack ma has been known as sort of the people's billionaire, chinese consumers, chinese population really appreciated his origin story as an english teacher, but public opinion has been changing as well, right? how are they viewing him and did that play into, you know, the government's ability to crackdown on such a popular figure >> yeah, well, the government definitely, they control the media so they also lead where people are thinking and feeling. but definitely after the -- he made some comments supporting 996, which is the standard tech work hours here, 9:00 a.m. to wrt p.m. six days a week and he made comments supporting it last year after that there's definitely been a backlash against him and other capitalists that they feel are kind of breaking the rules and overworking workers. so that's definitely led some of it, and now if you watch his videos online, they'll stream
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comments across the top. in china all of the streaming websites have comments streaming across the top, and there's lots of, like, pro-markist, anti-capitalist comments streaming across his recent videos. >> a remarkable turn after such a vocal entry at least into the global zeitgeist ryan, it is a great piece. look forward to having you back. thanks so much for the help. >> yeah, thanks for having me. now for our crowd source, we asked what would it take for you to invest part of your retirement savings in bitcoin. suresh chiming in. another viewer hoping teacher's pension funds will lead the way. patrick looking for regulators to weigh in. deidre i think many with patrick on that that will do it for "techcheck" today. "halftime report" starts -- guys, i'm jumping the gun.
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i'm sorry. we won't pass just yet carl, if you are waiting for regulators to chime in, you may not be all that optimistic as we've been talking about throughout today's show, u.s. policymakers seem to be less willing to embrace cryptocurrencies than other governments around the world >> yep, that's definitely something to watch let's get to "the half." ♪ ♪ all right. carl, thanks so much i'm scott wapner, welcome to "the halftime report." surging past expectations, is all in on the roaring 20s trade the best bet for your money right now? we debate that jim lebenthal, brenda vinjello, pete najarian is here and josh brown as well. the do you w and the s&p hittin record highs on the back of the blow-out retail number take you to the wall, show you where we are now dow, 34,000, topping that today, the s&p above 4150 a strong day for the
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