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Live from New York and San Francisco. This is Bloomberg Technology coming up this hour. Apple sinks of the warning of warnings are there of weak demand for the new iPhone sixteen Pro model.
Plus the European Union's most influential tech enforcer resigns. Details about the surprise move out of Russell's.
And TikTok's courtroom battle where the US government.
Begins its freedom of speech versus national security.
Yeah, Apple is a big points drag to the downside. We're off session lows, but on track for our biggest drop intraday.
Since August fifth.
TF Security is International out with a research note a survey of early pre order data saying initial sales of iPhone sixteen generation the Pro thirty.
Seven million units.
That would be a drop of thirteen percent year on year for the first weekend of sales for the fifteen generation. That's care some panic in the market. There's several other analyst notes out today alongside TF International citing concerns from China to the timing of Apple Intelligence release. One calmer voice is Bloomberg Intelligence is Anna rag Rana, who joins us from Chicago.
Now, and Ana rag.
You're basically saying, we can't determine now that this is anemic demand. It could be oversupply of the available handset.
What's your thesis? So when you look at it.
A few weeks ago, we heard that Apple was talking to with supply, do we increase the shipments for this particular model by about ten percent? So, you know, frankly speak, there's lots of puts and takes. At this point, we think it's still too early to basically call this a dud.
So we're going to wait for another thirty days. Thirty five days, here's some official comments from Apple when they actually announce their earnings to really figure out what shipments could be for the next financial year.
Can you give us context as to how much you look at your securities. How much does this sort of pre order data tend to fluctuate with reality?
You know, it does fluctuate, and you know where sometimes there are supply constraints, sometimes there is spikes and demands in the earlier side of it, which is why I'm saying, if you look at it for a twelve month cycle, you know it could vary quite a bit before. I mean seasonally fourth quarter is fourth or the December quarter is the big quarter for Apple, and this is where we could see some jump because of some improvement in China.
On the other side, it could go the exact opposite way if China is weak of consumers, is not very good. So there is so much dependent on the next thirty to ninety days more than just you know, the first three days and.
Away from the early pre order data for iPhone. Other analysts talk about China in the context of domestic competition.
Now that you've seen what.
Huawei has to offer, how do you model that domestic competition in China?
So I would say that if you look at it, there was a big spike in demand because of Huawei releasing its five G phone. Now there has been many years since they didn't do that, and then because of that, there was a you could say, a pull forward in demand for them of the normal refresh cycle for that particular brand. For Apple, Apple has to fight quite a bit now to gain market share again in China. And I think we you know, if there are going to be any discounts from Apple anywhere in the world, we
think it's going to be in China at this point. Now, the new form that came out from ourweh the twenty eight hundred dollars one. I don't think that does that damage to Apple's iPhone sales because it's two different categories.
Frankly, we're seeing weakness and supplies to Apple as well, Anna Rag.
At the moment, what's.
The next data point, what's the next read we should focus on.
I think when the company announces their results and then you will get some official comments as to how those pre orders are. I think that's far more important than this time. The second thing we want to see is when are the AI features coming out and what kind of buzz is around it, because I think that can change consumer sentiment very quickly if there are cooler things that people can play with the phone, and that can help drive some of the sales as well.
Anna Rag, So please to get as ed put it your calm voice on today's show with Meg Intelligence, Anna Rograna. Meanwhile, let's just pivot to the EU because the top tech legislation enforcer, Thierry Breton has resigned.
Now let's her post it on X.
Bretton antline the surprise move, saying France was asked to provide a different nominee for the European Commission, writing quote, in light of these latest developments for the testament to questionable governance, I have to conclude I can no longer exercise my duties in the College. For more, Bloomberg's John Paicelli joins US now from Brussels. Bretton really had a key hand here and shaping the ease response to what
seemed to be growing power of US tech. He was the enforcer of the Digital Services Act.
Why is he out.
Well seems to be mostly because he and Bonderlion didn't go didn't get along well together. I mean, if you read the letter, he clearly said that vonderlyon president. The European Commission demanded that requested the France propose a different candidate due to personal reasons that Bretton himself was not familiar with. So he has always been a bit of a heavy hitter, a bit of a maverick within the Commission. He certainly loved the limelight and that probably wrapped some
people the wrong way. At the end of the day, you of course actually have had that to a Byton's spearheaded some of the u's most important rule books when it comes to tech and digital regulation. But those things are done, those laws exist, the bureaucrats enforcing them are in place. So even if Briton is not there in a way, his spirit, his ghost will keep living. So that's not necessarily a big worry for the Commission.
Well, his ghost leve On and Stephan Sir John, who Maconn has already tapped.
Well, we don't know yet because it depends on what kind of portfolio so John will get, and that's not clear. It's going to be for sure media than what Burton will have gotten. That was essentially the offer on the table, right Maconn was told for personal reasons, I don't like Burton, according to what Breton says. Therefore you get a media portfolio. If you propose another name and Stephan Sir John towards in threads in and let's see what portfolio gets. It's
supposed to be a big one. So well, it might be not to do with digital issues.
There are some issues vonder Lene and the new term. Right four hundred and fifty million people, most in the EU, A lot of them watched this program. Jan what's kind of on her gender informing a new commission and the team that she wants to assemble.
Well in the agenda and the team she wants to assemble at two diffil matters, we know that she's not very pleased with the fact that most member countries member states put to put forward male candidates as opposed to two candidates of both male and female. She wanted to guarantee a gender balance within the college the way they call it, but so far should the count is skewed
in favored men. When it comes to the actual agenda, we kind of got a glimpse of what it might contain last week when the landmark Drugy Report was unveiled by Mario Dragi, former Preme Minister of Italy and President of the European Center Bank ear Slemont. Lion Is made bay clear that she will use that pro competitiveness agenda to forge next mandate.
Regulation of technology has been a top priority for this term.
How big a priority.
Will it be for the next five year term.
It depends on how much Underlon decides to actually clave to the Letter of Drugs Report, because if you go by that document, the time for regulation is kind of uh. The time of regulation was the past, where the future has would be all about encouraging innovation, competitive competitiveness, big
mergers of national champions center telecom and defense contractors. So it should be less about regulation and much more about building technology, at least encouraging European technology companies to emerge. So if that's what happens, regulation will be kind of the backbone the bedrock on which a new end of agenda would be built, which would be much more about innovating regulating.
Bloomberg's gen Bob Bacelly. Great to have you on the show from Brussels. Thank you very much. Let's get to another top story. Shares of Trump media down in today's trading following another shocking development in the US presidential campaign yesterday, when members of the Secret Service engage what law enforcement described as a rifle wielding potential assassin near former President Trump. Gunfire erupted at his Palm Beach course while he was
playing golf. In the immediate aftermath, Trump emailed supporters to declare he was quote safe and.
Well and on dj T carry.
I think it's worth pointing out real quick that on Friday he had said he wouldn't sell out of his shares, and that's been a factor in that name as well.
What we got coming up.
Coming up a US appeals court ed is hearing challenges to the TikTok BANLRD. We're going to be joined by Doug Kaladas follow at the Harvard Belfa Center on what to expect.
Meanwhile, just checking on some shares for a moment, because Boeing is moving.
We understand, of course that they are looking at a hiring freeze. They're instituting that and considering temporary furloughs after some employees went on strike Friday. This is according to a memo to employees from the CFO Bran West.
This is Blue Meg Technology, Ali Barber and Small Arrival JD dot Com, both under pressure as investors a weighing the potential fallout from US plans to begin taxing packages worth less than eight hundred dollars. Washington's latest move to clamp down on tax free imports of Chinese goods is closing a loophool that Temu and Shean have employed for years to ship hundreds of millions of packages into the US annually, helping them carve out a market at the expense of Amazon.
We'll keep tracking that.
Today, TikTok is making its fight against the US ban to the next level in the American court system. The US Court of Appeals for the DC cirguit will hear arguments against the new law signed by President Joe Biden banning TikTok in the US if it's China based parent company, byte Dance, does not divest ownership by January nineteenth. Dougkladas is a Harvard Belfa Center fellow and former chief of
staff to Senator Amy Klobuchar, and joins US now. And at the heart of the argument from TikTok is the First Amendment that the law impinges upon the freedom of speech of TikTok's one hundred and seventy million or so users in the United States.
How successful is that argument going to be we'll find out ed this is the top case.
On the one side, you have first Amendment writer of free expression, which the courts are likely they don't like to circumscribe that narrowly. They're going to give that a broad read. At the same time, you have what the US government is saying is a unique security threat that has unprecedented reach and depth. So you have strong arguments on both sides, and everyone's watching to see which way it'll come out.
Doug, We the three of us, have discussed this before, and we will discuss it again. Why does the political engine not take into account more the wishes of the user base one hundred and seventy million Americans who like using TikTok.
It's very difficult for lawmakers to go against the will of the voters, but it happens when there's a serious enough threat that they're willing to reach across the aisle, hold hands and do something difficult together.
When there's law has passed.
You saw Democrats and Republicans in both chambers vote for an overwhelming numbers, which gives everyone cover. It's very difficult to criticize one party when the other party is doing it.
Just as much.
Do you think it will be justified in banning.
I don't know.
I think this is a very difficult case to predict. It's you know, people have said we're in uncharted territory here. It seems like the First Amendment questions are very profound. At the same time, the Justice Department has laid out when many believe are very compelling reasons that TikTok is a threat to national security. Of course, a lot of this justification is done in classified filings that we as
the public do not have access to. TikTok's own lawyer dom have access to this, so much of us will be decided behind closed doors by the judges and the US government, and we'll find out what happens shortly after the election if they hear to the timeline.
Talking of timeline, it feels like things have changed quite a lot since last we spoke. The fura around it has died down, and I'm wondering more broadly, whether you think the focus from lawmakers is is ardent, whether their data will be as proven out from a security threat perspective, and whether a band would fix that.
So prior to passing the law, the Executive brings and Congress gathered a great deal of information, and the filings lay this out. There's testimony from a lot of national security officials, a lot of public reporting about some of the links between TikTok and the Chinese Communist Party, and they've made the case. The question is whether the First Amendment permits this type of really draconian restrictions. This is an unprecedented action by the US government against a media outlet.
But they're saying that the facts of this case are unique. I think we know enough about the facts, notwithstanding the classified filings, to have a sense of really what the stakes are here. But no matter which way the case
comes out, people are going to be unhappy. I think even if the government proves its case and they find that n security reasons are strong enough to justify the action, there's a precedent that's going to be set for what the federal government can do with regard to technology and platforms that a lot of people can be wried about and could possibly be abused by the government in the future. It's often said that tough cases make bad law, and that may be what happens here.
Doug, as a student of the law, I love this bit. But the courts will balance the freedom of speech argument against the national security interest argument. This is what the DOJ says. Given TikTok's broadreach within the United States, the capacity for China to use TikTok's features to achieve its overarching objective to undermine American interests creates a national security threat of immense depth and scale. How difficult or not will it be for the US to prove that national security threat?
So it depends on what legal standard the court employs. There are different levels of scrutiny how closely they look at the government's motivations and justifications. If they apply what's called strict scrutiny, the bar is quite high, and the government has to show that there's a really compelling government government interest and that the law is narrowly tailored.
To meet that aim.
They go to great length and they're briefing to try to lay out the case. But it is a high war. And again, this is a case that is so unique that the presidents that are on point don't seem quite right. We know that the government can prevent foreign ownership of radio and television companies, but they do that under the licensed authority. They have much more restricted powers when it comes to print sources. So is TikTok more like a print source or is it more like a radio or television station.
It's only different.
And that's what the court is going to have to contend with.
Just briefly.
We've heard, of course from TikTok. The argument remains the same. This band would devastate seven million businesses. They also talk with the one hundred and seventy million Americans that Ed already referenced. You understand the world of lobbying, having worked in that world previously, what will it be like behind the scenes.
So what's interesting about the effort, the lobbying effort before the bill was passed, was that TikTok put a lot of money and resources and effort into trying to prevent a law from passing, and it was entirely in effective. Now we can talk about tactics, and they took some steps that people believe backfired. But it seems more important the fact that it is a foreign company, and fundamentally, foreign owned entities have different rights under the US Constitution.
They are restricted in some methods they can use to lobby. And there's a lot of US type companies that don't love TikTok and we'll be quite happy to see it go away. And they also have their own lobbyists, so it goes both ways.
Once who don't love them, perhaps competitors half in PATHA center fellow Diclidis, thanks for joining us.
Now let's talk about China a little more.
It's claimed a breakthrough in the development of homegrown chip making equipment, an important step in.
The overcoming US sanctions.
Now the Ministry of Industry and It advised state linked organizations to use a new laser based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of sixty five nanometers all better. Basically, it's a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment, which did around ninety nanometers.
Apple shares are under pressure or off session loads, but down almost three percent. A TF Securities survey showing that pre order sales for the iPhone sixteen generation down about thirteen percent year on year from the fifteen demand, not what we thought it would be. Continued to track it because supplies under pressure as well.
Cara Yeah, Mark German writing over the weekend that really was the health side of the equation that stole the show. But as Apple of course sinks this morning following last week's product launch events, the company still hasn't resolved their legal fight with Massimo court. There's a blood oxygen detection, of course that that company offers, which prompted a US
ban on Apple watches featuring the technology. Now, Massimo has partnered with Google and Qualcom to develop a reference platform to help bring more smart watchers to market with their biosensing capabilities joining us now.
Jokiani, the CEO of the company, and what is this about.
You have impressive health features, but Apple watched we just heard the new unveiling they're getting sleep apnea and the like.
How do you compete their Joe.
Well, we compete based on good science. We have continuous, accurate SPO two palsphorate. We can even measure hydration a pulsephrate variability.
Nobody else has that.
In fact, I don't understand how you can do sleep apnea without SPO two. I know clinically it's not done. So it'll be interesting to see if Apple's promising things they can't deliver again like they did with their SPO two, or they really have figured out how to do it without SPO two.
Time will tell.
So you're offering this platform with Quilcom, You're helping Google offer more smart watches, more health features. It feels as though that Joe, Look, if you don't think that Apple can deliver what it promises, does that mean more cord action.
Where does your fight currently stand with Apple and it's smart one.
Well, we, as you know, enjoined Apple from selling SPO to in the US. Uh, there's a trade secret case that's going to be reheard, and if we win that, then we'll have a broad injunction against them on photo platismography so they can't even do pulse rate and a rhythme detection.
And then if we win our patent.
Case, which is about how do you do photo pedtasmography with very low battery consumption, then that'll be even a wider injunction. So potentially our injunction could go worldwide and much broader. However, what's really cool is this partnership with Google, which I'd love to tell you more about if we're
excited about it. Every Android user now can have a real, scientifically based, continuous, accurate wearable with this reference design we're creating with them, and I think in the next couple of years you're going to see a slow slewth of products from luxury products to smart watches from the typical Android world. That will be an incredible offering for our mutual customers.
I hate to say, Joe, because we've only got a minute, so I ask to be brief. But you've got some fascinating things happening. You've got a proxy battle going on at the moment. They want to see more governance, want to have more board oversight.
How do you fight Poltan?
Well, you saw that Polton was found to have lied to our shareholders. The court, a federal judge found multiple lives held them in contempt. So you've got someone who has no integrity that talks about governance. Yeah, you have us who've done everything right morally right, not just even legally, and we've made all this progress from bringing the business through COVID and now this incredible Google partnership. I think
this should be ninety one percent to nine percent. Only person voting for him should be him.
Joe.
We wish you can have more information from you. Maybe we'll get you back.
After the vote comes September the nineteenth.
Free.
Thank you, Jokani CEO, Masimo. This is bloom meg Technology. Welcome back to Bloomberg Technology. I'm Caroline Hide, New York and.
Ed Ludlow here in San Francisco.
Another megacap named Microsoft just announced that Voda Phones signed a large deal to use AI Assistance for Office and unveiled a range of new AI tools designed to help workers create Excel charts, prioritize emails, and collaborate with one another.
Listen to this.
You can think of core Pilot as the UI for AI. It helps you break down these silos between your work artifacts, your communications, and your business parcesses. And we're just getting started.
Bloomberg's Dina bas Is here with the details, and diner I point out that when Microsoft started its presentation about eleven New York time stock was modestly lower.
It is now modestly higher.
But in Vodaphone's case, it's kind of evidence finally of how workers might use AI in the workplace for actual stuff.
Give us the details.
Sure, yeah, and this is you know, this is a pricey offering Microsoft. If you do this, they're asking me to pay thirty bucks a month per user, in addition to what you already pay for office licenses.
So part of what they're trying to do today is twofold.
They want to demonstrate new features, and there's some discussion of that, but they also want to demonstrate new customers that people are actually using this and that it's helping them do things that it's saving them time.
And so you know, one of the things they mentioned around.
Vodaphone, which has been trying it out with a smaller group of people, is that those early trials found that workers saved about three hours a week per person, which may sound modest, but it's a start. I think that that's one of the things they really have to demonstrate is that these are useful tools and not just like a fun thing or something that companies going to spend money on and not really know how to use effectively.
Call them copilots, call them agents. Everyone's discussing it. You've got salesforce now Microsoft and ultimately Microsoft competing against its own technology.
Provider here open ai. How does it distinguish itself sture.
That's a lot of what we're hearing today.
The event today is focused not on consumers but on corporate customers, and it heavily leverages Microsoft's you know, long standing stronghold in the corporate commuting space, which is office of course. So the copilots that are being discussed today are for things like Excel, Teams, Word Outlook, email, and the idea is that you know, whether it's competing with
open Ai, or Salesforce or other business software companies. The real kind of you know, stronghold beachhead that Microsoft has with corporate Customers's office, so to the extent that they can create useful artificial intelligence features that work with our that's something that no one else can offer. One of the biggest strongholds that really people have not been able
to replace Microsoft in is Excel spreadsheets. You know, financial analysts, people who really live in Excel say, you know, for
the most part, can't really use anything else. And Microsoft's been trying to figure out how to get the AI copilot working well and in a useful fashion and what they hope will be a critical fashion that Excel and they announced you know, some new features around that today, and in particular that they're going to integrate the Python programming language, which is really popular for data work, into the Excel AI copilot in a way that lets people.
Use it without having actually no programming code.
You could just make a regular you know, English language or plane speech queries.
You've covered this company for a long time, and I always reflect in Microsoft's history that they're really good at selling stuff software you could probably get otherwise for free somewhere else the co Pilot's thirty dollars per month per use. So if you have a company with thousands of employees, you think they'd start having immense revenue growth. When does the street think they will?
Everyone's trying to figure that out, and it's it's going to be even harder because let's be clear that when Microsoft reports earnings, it's not as if they're breaking it out in such a way where you can say, oh, this, you know, this increase in Office is due to to Copilot.
You know.
Again, they gave some numbers today, but they don't you know, they're positive for Microsoft, but not terribly specific. And so they said, for example, the Copilot customers increased by more than sixty percent quoter on quoter, the number of clients with more than ten thousand users doubled, But we don't know what that translates into into raw numbers.
We don't know what that translates into revenue.
And also I began by saying thirty dollars per user per month, that's the list price. Most corporate customers they use Office do that through a multi year enterprise agreement, and there is you know, the way agreements work in this industry, there there's discounting, so we don't really know if they're you know, particularly for these early customers, or they're giving them any sort of promotional pricing.
Diana Bass, thank you very much.
Indeed, let's keep the discussion going across Microsoft and more broadly and a Mentionment Portfolio Manager, Fidelities, Select Semiconductors Portfolio, and plenty of others as well. Adam, it's great to have you because some of the funds that you help manage have a sizable exposure to Microsoft.
Are they owning their moat at the moment?
Thanks for having me.
Look, you know, as you talked about in the segment before, you know, we're pretty early in AI and thirty dollars per user per month is a lot to ask, and even if it's being discounted, you know, we're talking about something that's going to take a while to play out, and having these tools be used and people figure out how to use them.
Will take a while.
But the use cases are rolling out and we're going to see this over the next you know, several years for sure.
The question is what's priced in?
And I was discussing on Earlier, which has had a massive rally last week and the chip designer a new call on the street saying that the price is already.
Reflecting a lot of the upside here.
Is that the case for the MAG seven for technology more broadly, as we start to see rates getting cut.
Yeah, sure, I mean to talk about the MAG seven in one case is hard, right. There's seven different companies. They all have different businesses. Three of them have cloud businesses of course, so they overlap, but outside of that, they're very different businesses.
And I think, you.
Know, just centering in on AI in general, I think there is a lot of you know, consternation in the market. Clearly you're talking about the FED and interest rates and the macro environment, which is, you know, one whole piece of what's going on and something I need to pay attention to as a portfolio manager.
But from a technology perspective and just.
Generative, AI is evolving and we're still really early days in this. I know the market has this desire to sort of have instant gratification that we're just going to see it all all of a sudden.
This is a super complex problem.
We need to roll out all this infrastructure, get the compute in place, train these models, retrain the models and.
Then roll them out over time. This is going to take some time.
So you know, in terms of what's priced in, it's it's really hard to talk about it. You know, broadly speaking, clearly, there's some stocks that have been overpriced, you know, that have priced in a lot of their upside. If you look back in twenty three, just as an example, there was this dynamic where everyone was an AI winner. Well look at you know, fast forward to twenty four, you've seen some separation. You know, you mentioned Inteller as an
early example. That stock was up ninety five percent in twenty twenty three. That stock is down sixty.
Percent this year.
So we're starting to see a separation of not everyone's gonna win and they're gonna be winners, there's gonna be losers. And yeah, certainly there's there's certainly stocks that have priced in a lot of this goodness and then there's some that haven't.
Adam, it's called eli in ings, and you've talked about not maybe seeing something immediately to the satisfaction faction of the market. But now the earning season's out the way. We've discussed what kind of jacket Jensen was wearing and how bullish a signal that was is this story in tact for you, the big picture AI investment cycle story.
I mean, once again, it's it's hard to say, you know, broadly speaking, to capture every company, but I think in terms of AI, you know, I still think we're very early in this in this cycle, and there's some companies that I think are going to massively benefit here, and
we're going to continue to see this out. And and I think, you know, when I look back, you know, June period, it felt like kind of everyone was in the boat, and now there's a lot of skepticism, there's a lot of concern, and that's really healthy for the market.
But I think, you know, this is going to be a journey.
There's going to be a bumps along the way, and and and the stocks also, you know, disconnect with the fundamentals at different times. You know, stocks sometimes price in too much, sometimes they get too negative, and so you know, you got to think about it from that perspective as you manage money.
And in my job for for my investors, Adam, every day I think not just about the GPU bought high bandwidth memory etheranet as well, you know, areas of the market that perhaps appreciated in that supply chain. What are the areas that you feel right now underappreciated or misunderstood.
Sure, I mean that that's a there's a long answer to that.
But but you know, I think you know, overall there's been this emphasis on chips, and I think you know where people are getting it wrong a little bit is these are really data centers, right, these are supercomputers.
You know, Nvidia doesn't sell a chip.
You know, if you look at Blackwell, they have seven different chips that day designed. It's a full system and it's a full stack solution with software, the algorithms, and the libraries that are really important to make all this work. So but within that, you know, as you mentioned high bandwidth memory. Without high bandwidth memory, that's crucial to making this.
You know, evolution of AI happened.
You know, there's a lot of interconnects that are super important in terms of networking. You mentioned Ethernet that's important, so is in Finamon. There's other interconnects like you know Esteri Labs makes that went public back in March, that is super important, and optical interconnects as well. So there's a ton of things that make this happen, but people need to be thinking about it, not on a chip by chip basis, but more.
On a systems level. Telary Portfoilio manager Adam and Benjamin. Great to have you here on Bloomberg Technology.
Really appreciate it.
Now coming out, We're gonna be joined by LTK president Amba Ben's box talk about the state of the creator economy, even as TikTok's future in the United States is up in the air. This is Bloomberg Technology. Okay, time for talking tech and first up. SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Cruz splash down off the coast of the dry Tortugas, Florida yesterday. This after their historic first commercial spacewalk on Thursday. The SpaceX capsule hurtled through the atmosphere before gliding into the
ocean for landing. Plus AI startup GROC has partnered with oil producer a Ramcodes to build out data centers in Saudi Arabia with the hopes of becoming a hub for companies across the Middle East, Africa and India. Aramco will fund the development that is expected to cost quote in the order of nine figures and a Jeff Bezos back group says it's setting up a program to attract investment
into South African power grids. The Global Energy Alliance for People on Planet says it will work with partners for investments to repair and upgrade the grids, needing nearly eighteen billion dollars for the introduction of renewable energy.
Carol, Now, let's talk about the creator economy ed as.
Today is LDKAS twelfth annual conference, bringing together nearly four hundred top global creators to discuss the state the feature the industry. LTK co founder and president Ambaven's Books joins us now.
And I'm a congrats.
A lot of ye is under the belt of this event. What are the concerns, what are they worried about?
Do things top of mind for our creators?
This year and last month we just had three billion dollars invested in LTK creators on the LTK platform. We're continuing to see dollars rotate in as our creators think about preparing for the future of their business. The two things their top of minor community. Where are they going to retain, nurture and grow that community. We know that for a creator, the plot is that they have to have a community that they can access and that has high trust with them that they're engaging with constantly.
So, first of all, in the community side.
Where are those where is that community being built, and how are they going to continue to engage them. On the other side, we released a massive suite of AI tools for both our creators and our brands.
Today are the type of tools that's not AI for tech's sake.
These are the things that are moving their business forwards. This is driving efficiencies, it's doing work for them, it's taking subjectivity out of the decision making, and we expected to drive big outcomes for both brands and creators. We now see that the vast majority of every single demographic in the United States says that they are shopping from creators. Creator guided shopping has arrived, and lt K is a platform.
That powers creator commerce.
If they're not building community in the way that they were on the normal platforms, what is happening?
And but how are they driving dollars?
Well, it's a great question connected to a lot of the conversations today. Over the last decade, they've spent their time really investing in social media platforms because those platforms actually used to be the place where they could collect, nurture and grow that community and meet them every day. And what we've seen is that over the last several years, especially acutely over the last year, these platforms have moved from being people based.
To interest space.
We see that people are spending more time on these platforms, but they are reporting much less of a productive experience there.
They really are missing out on the human connection.
So lt K has been investing in a place for creators to actually keep their audiences, grow them, reach them on a daily basis. Because the job that social media platforms have they've really abandoned as they've of course leaned into, as they would their revenue model, which they're not created to help a creator reach their community. They're created to be an advertising product. And so we filled that void for these creators and so they're.
Doing it on their LTK.
LTK is now shipped to become a video first platform that striving major outfrome comes for these creators. In the last month, we've made some shifts that have resulted in people watching over five minutes at a time on a creator's channel. Through video, we know that connection with their audience is really important. High trust is why this industry exists.
And why it works amber Exactly a week ago, I was in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park for the new iPhone event and let's say hundreds thousands, hundreds of creators there. They all use different technology to make their content and they will publish it in different paces. But I just found myself thinking, like, what a crowded field? Do you get that sense that there are now just so many creators that the value is a bit of a question.
You know, they're actually millions of creators with over a million followers, So as you think about those of consequence. Today, LTK works with three hundred thousand creators, and that's globally, about half of them.
Are here in the US.
We're working with professional creators, and really, for a brand today, they don't have to depend on looking at follower accounts or views to understand the influence of a creator. Then come to LTK and see what their community is actually doing, not just from top of funnel, but all the way through to actually purchase behavior, which is becoming increasingly important for these brands, especially in this economy. They're looking for ROI and those are the types of metrics that they need.
What I love in what you're mentioning is actually the suite of tools that's required for a creator to do their work does depend on the likes of Apple, and so that's been fuel to this whole industry. The fact that I have every tool that I need in my pocket right now for free is incredible, and so we're really excited about the innovation that we're seeing from even the hardware in the industry.
LTK President Amavn's books. Great to have you back here on Bloomberg Technology.
Thank you.
Now for a look at last night's Primetime Emmys. TV drama Showgun gave Disney the top Emmy for the first time in nineteen years. The show, film primarily in Japanese, set a record for the most wins by a single show in one year, with eighteen across the Primetime Emmys and last week Creative Arts Awards, while HBO claimed Top Comedy with Hacks being out Hulu's The Bear, Disney earned
the most awards of any entertainment company. Let's get more and bring in bloombergs Lucas Shaw, who leads our screen time coverage and Late Sunday Night for you. Showgun for me, it's been one of the top of the year. But there's a success story for Disney in there as well.
Yeah, I mean to put it in perspective, Barbeiger was both at the Emmys and then also at the Disney after party. That is not something that he usually attends. I think he was there because he knew this was a big night for the company. You know, the winning poper Awards with the Oscars and Emmys hasn't historically been sort of a part of the Disney strategy. They're making these big popcorn pictures, big commercial television shows based on things like Marvel and Star Wars. But FX in particular
just had a huge night. Even though The Bear didn't win Best Comedy Showgun and the Bear combined, I think when twenty nine Awards, it was enough to make FX the top network on.
Television, top network.
You've been speaking with top leadership there as well. At the moment we've been done and Waldron, she was at your event last year as well, screen Time, and I'm just really interested in You've got this event coming up of course in la October ninth and tenth, we're all gonna be there, We're gonna be broadcasting live. Can you just quickly tell us what we're gonna expect to said more about Disney's prowess.
Sadly know Disney this year because they have an executive leadership retreat in Florida the same week as screen Time, but we'll have people from just about every other company, top leaders from Netflix and Amazon. We'll love the CEO of Comcast, We'll love the CEO of Live Nation. You know, some fun celebrities as well, Snoop Dogg, Harry Washington, and
the creator of South Park among them. You know, we're going to be talking about just the crazy time this is in the business of media and entertainment, you know, with companies merging, fighting and really unsure about the future of the key of their business. You know, you guys were talking about Apple. Apple at least knows what its businesses, makes a lot of money that way. A lot of these TV and movie companies are still trying to figure out this streaming thing still.
One such drama is Disney and Direct TV. Right, Carrie, just fifteen seconds, Lucas, More dramas come.
Definitely more carriage flights to come, but not for Disney in the near future.
That was quick, Lucas Shaw, So on it.
We Thank you up late on early for us and Blombog screen time is happening October ninth and tent You do not want to miss it live with Lucashaw and a few helpful others.
That does it. For this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
They had Yeah what a frantic starts the week recap on the podcast. You know where to find it terminal on Apple, Spotify, and iHeart online the team out in New York City. Good morning from the team out here in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg Technology.