Gods of silicon valley. Plus, amazon launches a digital pharmacy that includes discounts and deliveries for prime members. It promises to upend the pharmacy business as we know it and may smell may spell trouble for thousands of small pharmacies across the country. Plus, what are your children watching . A new study finds if it is childrens content on youtube, it is probably littered with ads promoting violence and providing no educational content. New cases ofrge in covid19 and lockdown measures. Pharmacy stocks took a beating after amazon announced it is getting into the pharma business. Markets generally and the day down but it was a big update for amazon. How much influence did that have . Abigail lots of great headlines that you were mentioning. It was a fairly quiet day. It started risk off and ended mildly risk off with the s p 500 index down about half a percent. Betweenaq flipflopping gains and losses. At the end of the day, a very small loss. At the end of the day, amazon up just slightly, but on that news that they are opening an online pharmacy. The possibility of this has been out there for quite some time but, to my knowledge, the news seemed to come out of surprise. Health,likes of cvs walgreens, others in the drugstore supply chain really given a eating on the day that the Worlds Largest ecommerce giant getting into the pharmacy space. If they are delivering drugs to your home at a discounted price, it could create the need to never really go to a drugstore again. It is not proven right now how this will work but in concept, it does seem it could be disruptive to the space and you see that with pharmacy stocks down. Emily meantime, the nasdaq outperformed the s and p, in part because of tesla. Commonsla will be a stock linking the two in the future. What trend is did you see their . Abigail such a fun story. I know that you broke it yesterday when that news came out. This has been long anticipated. It means that any manager that has an index fund linked to the s p 500 index will have to buy tesla. At the end of the day, up about 8 . It had been up almost 14 at the highs, its best day since july. The company is so big that they may actually break it into two pieces. They are not sure how they will exactly move it into the s p 500 index. Adds morey just credibility to tesla. Two or three years ago, there were times when folks were wondering if tesla was going to be a growing concern. A real feather in the cap of elon musk and also in his wallet, quite frankly. Other tech names on the day, twitter and facebook, of course those ceos testifying. Twitter upwn 1. 4 , slightly. Both saying they are open to some section 230 reforms. Jack dorsey of twitter said they feel there was a bit of a mistake with how they handled that one story relative to the posts. Yesterday, facebook was up twitter was down. It seems like we are seeing a little bit of reverse action on the day. Emily that seems to be a typical reaction after these hearings. Abigail doolittle, thank you for rounding that up for us. The ceos of both facebook and twitter today, content moderation at their role in political discourse. Againstpeech and bias conservative voices. The hearing came less than a month after both jack dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg appeared a long alongsidepeared Google Ceo Sundar Pichai in a hearing last month. Kurt wagner was tracking the hearing for us today. Second time in less than a month on the same topic. Was this time any different . Kurt it was a little bit different. I felt that the tempers were a little bit lower. Perhaps postelection, there was a little less animosity. And i think there was a little bit of discussion about potential changes to that section 230 argument. While i dont think we walked away with any clear picture of what happens next, i do feel conversation was a little bit more productive. There were still issues from both sides of the aisle of senators who took their time to chastise these companies. But for the most part, i think we had a little bit more substance than in october. Emily there was definitely some filibustering on both sides. Jack dorsey kicked off the hearing talking about how he does not believe there is enough transparency in the way that twitter handles the actual operation process involved. Lets take a quick listen. Onour policy is focused misleading information around the election and the civic process to provide greater context so people can make decisions around what is happening with the election. That is three phases. The runup to the election coming election day im a andy phase we are in right now, postelection. On policies are focused providing more information and context to people in those three phases. Here is Mark Zuckerberg talking about election interference from foreign actors, namely russia. We cant stop countries like russia from trying to interfere in an election. Government can really push back with the appropriate leverage to do that. But we have built out systems to make sure that we can identify much faster when they are attempting to do that. I think that should give the American People a good amount of confidence heading into this election. Emily just a flavor of the tote of both ceos. They have said in the past they would be open to regulatory changes. They said today they would be open to regulatory changes. Kurt what they seem to be suggesting is more transparency. You heard jack dorsey kind of talk about it there. There is this idea that these companies are making decisions without giving people information as to why they are making a certain decision. Today, Mark Zuckerberg said he thinks may be companies should be held to a certain standard around how much context how much content they take down and how much they do proactively. Should they be held to a certain standard . There is a reason he has suggesting this. Facebook already does this. They have quarterly reports where they show, here is the things we have taken down. Here is how much was not automatically and here is how much was done with human review. They have kind of been arguing for this more transparent approach and they figure, we can continue to police the way we do but give people more of an idea of how we are doing in and maybe that can be the solution to this problem. These i wonder if some of , especially republican lawmakers, will be satisfied with what they heard. I will be speaking to Marsha Blackburn later in the show. She referred to the employees of these companies as acting like the gods of silicon valley. What would you want to hear from her as someone who would be potentially involved in encouraging the government to take stronger action . And it seems like senators congressmen and congresswomen from both sides agree that section 230 needs to be reformed and that these companies seem to have to much power as the current laws and regulations work. But they are coming at it from different angles. Republicans are saying, youre taking too much down. Democrats are saying the exact opposite. What i would want to know from thats how realistic is it they could come to a conclusion around changing a law like this if their outcomes are totally opposite. If one group wants more stuff taken down, even if you agree the rules dont work as written today, can you come up with a solution . My guess is no. But i would be interested if someone making this decision thinks that there might be a middle ground where they could come to some kind of agreement . Emily i will ask senator blackburn about that later in the show. Thank you so much for your analysis. Amazons newest venture. How the ecommerce giants newest announcement has sent shockwaves through drugstore chains and distributors. This is bloomberg. Emily amazon is making its biggest push into selling prescription drugs. The Worlds Largest online retailer is launching a digital pharmacy. Prime members who dont use their insurance are eligible for discounts on the site, or at about 50,000 pharmacies. To discuss, we are joined by spencer sober. It is called amazon pharmacy. You can order your prescriptions online, get them delivered at home. How exactly will this work . This is what a lot of people have been waiting for. A coupleht pill pack of years ago. Now, they are putting it under the amazon banner. You have to log into your amazon account, punching the drug you are looking for. Au would need to submit prescription. If you are in short, amazon would have to coordinate with your insurance company. Ultimately, you would get your prescription in the mail. When you need a prescription, you generally need it now. Sometimes, you would prefer to have in two hours rather than two days. How efficient will this be in practice . Ofncer think about a lot maintenance medications. If you go to the emergency room ,nd have some kind of infection this will not be the answer. There are people who take a lot of regular maintenance medications. It is going to be more for them. People who are constantly renewing these things and there is a cycle to it. This is where it will be advantageous for amazon. It would be something consumers would want. Into how does this fit jeff bezoss overall strategy. Obviously, youve got other Pharma Companies shaking in their boots. A number of stocks plunging today. Talk to us about the ambition here. When you think about pharmacy, you cant just think about somebody going to the pharmacy to get their bills. You have to think about the overall basket. Walgreensnto a cvs or , all of the other products in there. All of these trips are potentials to purchase other things. It is a sticky thing. Often, people on these maintenance medications are getting medications once a month or so. It is another thing to get them in your establishment, your store, potentially buying other things. It is about those regular touch points with the customer. They want to be able to provide things that people buy with high frequency. Be thewhat are going to Biggest Challenges . The pharmacy business is obviously incredibly complicated. Of entrenchedt competitors. There are questions about how amazon will verify these prescriptions. Drug addiction is a huge problem in this country. How will they handle all that . What they are offering here is not exactly new. There are other folks already doing this. The question is, will amazon size and trust factor, will that pull people into the fold . One of the companies that got clobbered today, group rx. Million, 90bout 80 million prime members in the u. S. And those are households. If we see a big shift in prime members who count on amazon for more and more of their daytoday needs, if we see customers go to them for drugs, if amazon moves and if they are able to deliver. Just the hassle of changing. It is easy to go on amazon and start buying general products. But, to switch your prescription from a traditional pharmacy to amazon, you have to call your doctor, amazon has to contact your insurance company. There is some friction. That will be the hold up. 90ly we will be watching million prime members all getting prescriptions on amazon. Sounds like quite a challenge. Filed to, airbnb has go public on the nasdaq. We will look at the companys journey to the market next. This is bloomberg. Has filed for its ipo even as it outlines widening dropping revenue amidst a pandemic. But, when the economy does recover, the airbnb listing is set to be one of the biggest of the year. We are joined by kathleen smith, the cofounder of renaissance capital. We have all been wondering what airbnbs numbers look like. Now we have a glimpse into their financials and how hard he hit they took during the pandemic. What are your takeaways now that you have seen the numbers . This company has been able to and produce year positive cash flow because bookings are paid upfront. The company has had a pretty good financial picture historically. Then they took the big hit this year. In the september quarter, we saw a drop of 70 . 70 in revenue. So, the company was really hit hard by the shutdown. But, it is starting to recover. They cut 25 of their workforce and significant he cut their marketing spend. I think it may be a Better Company, a more efficient company, and is going to benefit as the economy opens up. That otheready see stocks in its group such as booking holdings and expedia have all had some very strong trading as the market is anticipating the improvement in results for all of these companies once we get beyond the athome phase and everyone gets out to traveling and booking. As airbnb went through this restructuring, they pulled back on a lot of experimental things. Hotels, flights. They are still working on experiences. The ceo said it is very much going back to home and apartment sharing. Is it as exciting a company and big of a Growth Prospect without all those bells and whistles . Or is it perhaps a Better Company without those . We think that without the bells and whistles, the company will have a better focus. There is no reason they cannot get back on the growth trajectory and expand further in ing business internationally. Took about a 20 share of the rental market. The existing market, very good opportunity. Obviously, you want to expand in an efficient way. We expect this company to be fullfocused and not to be than around so much with investments that may not make sense. Airbnb, whate of companies are you watching as we round out 2020. We are expecting some other potentially big ipos. Doordash, a firm, swift. The market has been so good for investors who have been investing in the segment. Index is upnce ipo almost 80 so far this year. That means that the companies that are going public are doing well. More returns beget more ipos. We have any rush of ipos. 2020, a record year in a long time for ipo reissuing. A big number of Companies Lined up. Billiondollar ipos, as you mentioned. Doordash, we think will be a 2 billion or so ipo. It is a segment that has really run up during the pandemic with the Restaurant Delivery business. It is the leading player in Restaurant Delivery. We are seeing, as you mentioned, a whole lot of others. Swift, ecommerce site. Ecommerce loan site. A number of them. On the calendar this week, there cked ipos. Er of pe ba there is a big rush to get it done before the end of the year. It is a good time to take a look at the ipo market. 2021, do we go into you think this wave continues into the beginning of next year, or do things slow down . We think it continues as long as the returns hold up. We expect it to continue. It should be a good year for issuance. Put it on the map for 2021. Emily all right. Always good to hear your predictions. Kathleen, thank you as always for joining us. Coming up, we will hear from a senator who grilled jack dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg today and accused their employees of acting like the gods of silicon valley. Senator Marsha Blackburn of tennessee will be my guest. This is bloomberg. Businesses today are looking to tomorrow. Adapting. Innovating. Setting the course. But new ways of working demand a new type of network. One thats more than just fast. You need flexibility to work from anywhere. And manage from everywhere. Advanced technology. With serious security. And reliable coverage, nationwide. Forwardthinking enterprises, deserve forwardthinking solutions. And thats what we deliver. So bounce forward, with comcast business. Welcome back to bloomberg technology. Im emily chang in san francisco. The ceos of twitter and facebook were grilled by senators on contact policies. Joining us now to discuss more of the hearing is senator Marsha Blackburn of tennessee. Senator blackthorn, he so desires senator blackthorn, you criticized them for acting like the gods of silicon valley, which i thought was too explosive not to repeat. This is your second time hearing from them in less than a month. Were you any more or less satisfied with what they had to say this time around . Mr. Dorseyckburn was more prepared today. As you remember, he kind of resembled tom hanks in the movie castaway the last time. He was more prepared today. But i felt like there was an evasiveness from each of them on taking responsibility for the way their content moderators, whether that is by algorithms or human beings, the way they subjectively apply section 230. And the definition within that law to frame objectionable content. As you heard, mr. Zuckerberg said today that there needed to at,more specificity in th which is exactly what we are doing in the Viewpoint Diversity act. We are going to clarify the utilizations for Liability Protection and preserve it for new market entrants and smaller bing, parlor in the social media space, all these new interests, and be more specific in the language of objectionable content, and the reasonableness standard that will have an application through the legislation, then also quite a bit of discussion today over who was a publisher, who was a content creator, who is a new outlet. And what is social media supposed to be . They are supposed to be the new public square. We are going to define a content creator in the legislation and hopefully it will help them to stay within the guardrails that they are given, it will help them to be able to explain why they are taking down certain posts. Why they are blocking, why they are putting notes on posts and questioning the validity of posts. You know, if this is something that was equally applied to liberals and democrats, you could say that is their business model. That is not what is happening. Tosee it happening conservatives, christians, entertainers, the list goes on. President is still using these platforms to claim voter fraud. There is still no evidence of that. Shouldnt these companies have a role in policing misinformation . Even if it comes from the president of the u. S. . Senator blackburn one of the things that i thought was very interesting with mr. Dorsey, he world leadersay have access to this platform. Theas never censored ayatollah for shouting death to america or has he censored xi utin, but he has censored donald trump repeatedly. Now, he can dispute what he wants to and have an opinion about the elections and how the elections played out, or if there was fraud in the elections, with some of the way the ballots were mailed out, harvested. He can have an opinion, but you know what . People are going to express that opinion. I say regularly. I may not agree with you, but im going to protect your right to be able to express your opinion. And this is called free speech. So, they kind of jump the shark a few times, if you will, when they rush to take down something. Thisned this and in the hearing today. I put something about the trump account ability project, that to be ought not blacklisted because they worked with the trump administration. Or during the trump administration. That tweet was flagged. And it said nothing about the election and nothing about election results, but it was to the fact that are they making lists, monitoring some group of people more closely than others . I believe they are, and we want to see their list. It seems like republicans and democrats on both sides of the aisle agree theres a problem and want there to be changed, but both parties have an opinion of what the best outcome is. Am wondering, do you think it is possible to get to an agreement on regulation . What is that regulation to be . Senator blackburn we dont know what that is actually going to look like. There seem to be different opinions about the path forward. But there is a path. That is the important thing. You and i have talked regularly about the need for preemption in the privacy space and to have one set of rules for the entire ecosystem with one regulator. We have a privacy bill that encompasses the act that we discussed that is moving forward, there is bipartisan participation in that, and that bill is going to the commerce committee. Likewise, as you heard today, 230,it comes to section there is agreement that something needs to be done. You i have my legislation, have the earnest act, which is senator blumenthal and senator graham participating in that. What you are going to see is we are going to take pieces of the online freedom and Viewpoint Diversity bill, other components that are there, we are going to craft a bill, and we are going to do what big tech has proven they are incapable of doing, which is to regulate them, and to put these guidelines in place and say, this is your lane, and you are going to stay in the slain, and you are not going to get inherent to these other things unless you change your business model. The issue of antitrust also came up today. And that is a different but there is agreement on each side of the aisle that this is a worthy discussion. Indeed, you have doj looking at google right now because of the monopoly on search. And the lawsuit doj has filed against google. You have the ftc in review of andbook and their policies, those components are moving forward. Emily okay. Judts judyspic, nomination failed to confirm her for the job. Do you know if she plans to try again . If so, how soon . Senator blackburn my understanding is this is going to be tried again. I dont know what the timeline is on that. Obviously,re we go, the issues around facebook and twitter do relate back to the president s refusal to concede the election. As we discussed, he continues to claim voter fraud. Do you think it is fine that he concede . Are you concerned that there will not be a peaceful transition of power, which is important to any government . Senator blackburn there is going to be a peaceful transition. Whether it is a trump second term or a biden presidency. There is a process that is laid. Ut that is followed running, theres was a 37 day process that was followed before a decision was finally made. So lets let that process play lets make certain that people are going to be confident in knowing that wh omever is elected, deemed elected, is someone who i have the tell you, its been painful to watch. Friends and colleagues across the aisle go through four years of not accepting the donald trump won the 2016 alexion. We the election. We have lived through russia, ukraine collusion, impeachment, post office, whatever they called it, and all of this daily attack, because you had those on the left say, we consider him to president andmate winner of this election. Lets make certain we do the work and solve this right now. Alright, senator blackburn, always great to have you on the show. Thank you. Up, children turning to you to for entertainment and education alike, but the Popular Platform has long struggled to police the content that its youngest users consume. A doctor from the university of michigan will weigh in on the troubling viewing habits after putting out a new and disturbing report. That is next. This is bloomberg. As if parenting in the age of social media was not hard enough, a new study argues that youtube has not done enough to ensure safe reviewing for children. Finding evidence of pervasive and inappropriate advertising, violence and other questionable content. Joining us now is one of the studys author, assistant professor of pediatrics at the university of michigan. Thank you so much for joining us. As a parent, im very disturbed by this report. Have a lot of children who like many are stuck in home and do watch a lot of youtube. What are our kids really seeing when they watch . Toys andt is titled games dominate viewing. Its what kids are actually watching. Youtube has this data, but no other Research Studies have looked at viewing consistency. So we collected the last 10 videos that kids 08 years of age had watched. My Research Team just watched those videos come over 472 hours over 472 videos, hours of video. We evaluated the videos by the Common Sense Media standards for positive and negative content. We really wanted to be rigorous and say, what are kids being served on youtube . How can parents of a gate this space better . Emily so, some of the screenshots on your report are quite disturbing, especially when youre looking at the videos that are recommended to watch next. They have some political ads, for example, which i dont think any of child any young child necessarily needs to see. What is the most disturbing, creepiest content that you found . We did see plenty of gamers. Gamers posting videos of themselves playing video games. Shooter games and had blood, gore, Something Like that. Scary videoa lot of games, where people are going through a house and someone is trying to kill them, that sort of creepy stuff. A bunch of gamers go into todblocks or they are rude gamers in roadblocks. Another creepy part is some youtubers really pressure their viewers to make comments and engage and by their merchandise, and im a pediatrician, so i always get great that when a year anyone trying to persuade a child to do anything. The message here for parents is, it is not just the violence or the scary things you dont want your kids to see, or the the political aspect. Its also about watching a and making sure the youtubers your kids like him are the actually good models . Some of them are, but some are acting more outrageous, more rude just to get more likes, because that is what the algorithm prioritizes. Says protecting kids and families is a priority. They recommend you to kids instead of youtube. Do you let your kids watch youtube . In limited amounts. I usually watch with them. Informationher some that really recommends that parents go to the Common Sense Media site. They can see those screenshots for themselves, look at her conclusions, we made info graphics for how parents can understand what is being said to their child from the algorithms, be smart about ads and monetization, how they can find the best content. Because there is good stuff on youtube, its just not being prioritized by the algorithm sometimes. As far as my kids, we have learned our lessons about googling. ,hey now have access to youtube watching pokemon videos and things like that. Its been pretty frustrating realizing, there is so much sticky and mindless content on youtube, and that is what little eyeballs are drawn to. Such an important topic. We are running into a hard commercial break. Were going to have to leave it there. We will have you back to talk about this. Think is much for joining us. Still ahead, we will hear from top Business Leaders in china about how they are navigating the pandemic, as it continues to unfold. That is next. This is bloomberg. The travel industry in china is taking back up after they were ravaged earlier in the year due to the pandemic. As part of the number new economy for them, i sat down with the founder and managing partner at latoya capital china and the director at the m. I. T. Sensible city lab to talk about what it was like for them to navigate trying times. Its been a crazy month and the most memorable moment was chinese new years eve. I remember very vividly, you know, at the time, they had Just Announced a lockdown, and there was no public transportation, so we got together and discussed the next steps. I remember my colleague volunteered himself to go out there and organize the task force, basically volunteering driver fleet to support the staff. Ealth care we heard kids chattering in the background. That was the most memorable moment for me. You are not only an investor, you are the cofounder of one of the most prominent travel companies in china. At the beginning of this, did you think this was going to be catastrophic . Absolutely. Fortunately, i have the from 17 years ago, when the virus in china. I remember i was president and cfo. Looking pretty much down to zero within short time. In the beginning of the new year, i think everyone was very concerned. Especially people in the travel industry. I am pretty sure the good thing is covid is well under control within a short period of time. We see china coming back quickly. Business travel is back to normal, probably toward the end of the second quarter. Travel has been picking up to local destinations, into the suburbias, the you see dramatic pickup, because people cannot travel overseas. Emily carlo, york involves gathering your work involves gathering unprecedented amount of data from around the world. I love this 360 degree view. How are cities around the world doing midpandemic . Theres hope for a vaccine, but still no vaccine yet as we head into winter months. Certainly will get back to normal. We dont know if it will take a few months, a bit longer, but were certainly going back to normal. However, there is one lesson that is very important that we should probably keep up with the pandemic. Have seen in cities all over the world the ability to used risis approach isnd error something cities a lower the world experiment did with that i hope the stays with us in the longterm. Because it will really make our cities much more responsive, especially in the wake of all the new technologies that are going to transform. Emily are there any cities in particular that are changing faster than others . One of the things tured mostly in europe cities to be featured mostly in europe was my was milan. They tried something, seeing how people responded eventually. Stockholm is also moving very fast. I dont think we can generalize different countries. Its more a matter of city by city. Emily i actually lived in beijing from 2008 2 2010. I remember most among how quickly change happened there. Even back then, it was probable. No i have friends in china that say it is changing faster than ever before, and the Chinese Government is rapidly moving to digitize the entire country using covid is a way to sort of push that through. Im curious, neil, is a stereotype from the outside there is a stereotype from the outside of the model guns of thermometer guns on a large scale. What is happening there . Think china was wellprepared even before covid. From a smart city perspective. An application where every citizen can check their tax payment, they can check with public facilities around him or her, and obviously, with covid, now you have additional healthn, which is the code. You can use that and check if there are any venues that you should avoid. Obviously, if you have a cold, green code, that means you are safe. It is digitization of the private sector and the public sector. In the private sector, ridesharing has been very popular in china. I think china can use those tools to quickly tackle the issues i the issues and challenges when covid happened earlier this year. Emily my conversation at the Bloomberg New economy forum. That does it for this edition of bloomberg technology. Im emily chang in san francisco. Asia is upaybreak next. Haidi account asias major market open. Shery our top stories this hour. Wall street pulls back from record highs over worry about surging virus numbers and potential like dont new lockdowns. The u. S. Ramps up pressure on china. Considering danley mainland companies
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