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This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Love Love.
I'm Caroline, head of Bloomberg's world headquarters in New York, and I'm Ed Lovelow in San Francisco.
This is Bloomberg Technology coming up.
We pushure ahead to the advertising event of the year and sit down with the head of the company streaming super Bowl fifty eight. You guessed at Paramount CEO Bob Backish joins us to break it all down Plust.
We stick with advertising and streaming and sit down with the head of partnerships at x as the social platform also announces a deal with the WWE, and we.
Take a look at this state of sport spelling amid this sprning event of the year.
Is it down the fang?
You'll see you, Amy Howe, just apart from the Super Bowl as the patient.
Well, it's the end of what's been a pretty busy earnings week. Two names behind me, Pinterests and Affirm both moving to the downside. Pinterest is interesting, so sales missed, but it had top line growth of twelve percent. It's monthly active users still continue to grow, but I think there's just a lot of read through concern with what
we're seeing with Snap. They've kind of pegged their strategy on direct response ads, where if you've go on Pinterest, maybe you're decorating your home, you're getting married, whatever it is, they want to amplify the opportunity to click through and
actually buy something. They were down significantly after hours, like twenty percent, but they announced the deal with Google, which again made the street feel a little bit better because you're saying, Okay, Google's global, and there's a chance that you take the images on Pinterest and Google's technology takes you through to a buying opportunity.
A firm is also lower.
Basically, they said that transaction volume this year isn't going to be what the street expects. That has got some nerves going in the street. We're going to speak to a firm CEO, Max Levskin later in the show. Another deal we're tracking, but this time interesting. TKO, the WWE parent, doing a deal with X the platform.
And company formerly known as Twitter. It's a weekly series of.
Short form WWE matches. WWE produces the content ex does the distribution, and we'll hear from my interview with X's headed partnership Brett White's later in the program about why they did that, as well as the super Bowl, which I think is the dominant theme of the show today.
I mean it is a theme.
But so two are these markets, So two are these deals on content and ed You so brilliantly summarize the micro. Let's go to the macro a little bit with Meghan Honoman. She's with our CEO of Vernet's Capital Advisors, and Meghan, we're talking about content at the moment, we're also more broadly talking about where the investor's mind is at when it comes to content.
Producers and technology.
More broadly, can we still anticipate a reason to be buying into heady valuation when it comes to tech and we're broadly in an S.
And P A five thousand, Well, we wouldn't at this point. You're looking at valuations that are really top heavy. Here you mentioned it. I think from the technology standpoint, what you're seeing is this drive forward in these names is
specifically just that fear of missing out. Investors are worried about missing out on that next new evolution that we see here from technology and while this is a long term theme, we just think there's a price that you that you should be willing to pay for, and at this point, I think it's just a little bit expensive. I think there can be some consolidation as we go forward.
Megan, economic data has been really important for this show Bloomberg Technology this week. You know, historically we may not have focused as much on CPI revision or not, but we are because of the point you make valuations and what will or won't happen with the FED and rates. Is that how you approach the technology sector. It's sensitivity to rates in twenty twenty four in particular.
Yeah, I think there's you know, it's sensitivity to rates, but also the valuations. We're seeing rates move higher and these names are still moving higher the technology side. So that's why I believe it's just part of this fear of missing out that investors have they're going to miss out on this tech rally. I just think from an interest rate perspective that there's risk there and what's going to take some steam out of this rally will be when there's I guess a bit more realistic view on
what the FED can do. Where we have rate cuts priced in now as early as May. I think that's still is a little aggressive. Inflation is coming down, but it's still is above the Fed's target. And what we're concerned about here from the macro level is the dubbish tilt that the FED took back in December has now reignited the economy and it is really putting a risk of reigniting inflation. And we're seeing that in some of the economic data that we've gotten in just the past couple of weeks.
I want to linger on something that Dara Kross Rashah.
He told us that uber CEO and the show in the last couple of days, which is basically all around the world, they see the consumer being really strong that maybe we didn't cover as deeply as well as they're also seeing increased corporate spending on their platform, and I thought that was just a really interesting proxy for the global economy.
How do you.
Feel right now about where we are globally? Consumer strength, corporate spending, all the things that we've had such anxiety about for the last couple of years.
So for the consumer standpoint, you have to remember they are spending, but they're spending because the labor market's been strong. Labor market is always a lagging indicator, and we've seen in this earning season.
A lot of layoffs.
We're waiting to see how that filters into the employment market and how that filters into the data. That's a bigger concern that we have. The other thing from the consumer standpoint is they're spending on credit. Credit card debt is rising. Along with that, you're seeing not only autodelinquencies but also credit card delinquencies starting to rise. I think the consumer is just still stuck in this mentality that the Fed will come in and save the day at
any sign of weakness. This is what we've been dealing with for the past couple decades. This is not the case anymore. We are in an inflationary environment where the Fed has to be very careful on what they articulate to the markets as well as what the economy can handle from the inflation standpoint.
Very briefly, Megan, we very easily default to talking about equities. The bomb markets are bigger and indean. We've had a lot of treasuries taking down this week. What about corporate debt in this particular instance, particularly among some of the tech names and tech space more broadly.
So, I have to be honest, corporate debt has surprised me as far as how well it's performed last year and even starting out this year, because you have been seeing defaults rising and defaults are expected to continue to rise. But yet spreads in the corporate market, in investment grade as well as the high yield market are extraordinarily tight.
This is just again I think people chasing for yield, and I don't think it going forward that that's something you want to do, especially when you're looking at spreads that are.
Just so tight.
Megan Horman, cio Verden's Capital Advisor is great to have time with you.
Thank you.
Super Bowl fifty eight almost upon us big day for sports fans and for ad lovers too. How are you going to watch well across Paramount properties, CBS, Paramount plus Nickelodeon for the kids, even now joining us to discuss the Sunday Super Bowl and much much more. Paramount Global CEO Bob Backish live from Las Vegas, an anticipation of Sunday, and I'm interested in NFL on CBS.
Of course, you've had a record regular season.
We're anticipating record eyeballs for Sunday.
What about those ads?
Bloomberg Intelligence think you might be raking in as much as seven hundred million dollars?
Is that the right sort of a Mountbob?
So, Caroline, it's been an incredible season for the NFL on CBS. We set the high watermark for ratings since the property returned in nineteen ninety eight. We set the all time record for a divisional playoff game. And to your point, we set the high watermark for ad sales for Super Bowl and it's looking like on SAD on Sunday will set an all time viewing number with any luck. So it's an incredible year to be the NFL on CBS.
We're a technology show.
From a technology perspective, Just how much of a feat is it to be able to put this across audio properties, to be able to have SpongeBob doing his thing, whether it's on Nickelodeon, but also to be consuming it via cable or streaming.
Yeah. So the infrastructure around the Super Bowl to ensure that the world's audiences can see it is truly extraordinary. I mean the number of cameras, remote cameras, etc. I think it's like one hundred and forty or something like that. And to your point, where we obviously have the main feed on CBS here in the United States, we have the first ever alternate telecasts of a Super Bowl on Nickelodeon, which is going to be super fun. And to your point on tech, we're actually going to do all the
graphics and enhance since real time. When we did the last Nickelodeon game last year, we did that very quickly, but it wasn't real time. The tech has now allows us to do it real time, so that's super cool. And then of course we have it on Paramount Plus streaming simultaneously. So yeah, a lot of infrastructure, a lot of people behind the scenes, but we're feeling great about it. And we've been doing Super Bowls longer than anyone else, so we'll get it done.
Let's talk about anyone else.
Let's talk about how well sports content is so hot right now and everyone wants to think about how we can offer it through a streaming product. I look at Disney, Fox and Warner Brothers, the announcement this week you've shown, and I think about how Super Bowl actually twenty twenty one was, how you announce Paramount Plus and the breadth of content, But how do you tackle the focus on sports coming from rivals.
So we love sports here at Paramount Obviously it's a key component of CBS. I think about it as a slice of the wheel. It's part of our programming offering. Same with Paramount Plus. You know, we talk about Paramount Plus as news, sports and amountain of entertainment. Obviously the NFL is a key part of that. But I want to emphasize that we like.
A broad product.
We've looked at sports only plays in digital, both a standalone basis and with partners, and we continue to believe that broad is better. We see that in people coming in for sports properties, subscribing for things like the NFL. But if you look at the sports viewer on Paramount Plus, believe it or not, ninety percent of their engagement i e.
Time spent is with non sports programming. So again, bring them in with sports, but key to the model is elongated and entertain them quite frankly with other stuff as well. We firmly believe that leads to accessing a bigger TAM, bigger market and it is better for the business model, and so we like broad.
Probably in the ten division audience around the world. Were speaking to Paramount Global CEO Bob Becket. It is Super Bowl weekend, and Bob, just what you were saying about the profile.
Of the consumer on the platform.
You know, I use the platform for Champions League football, and you have such a long season. With the Champions League, you have your in studio talent component, but you're also the ability to show multiple games in the same evening. You have choice, and at the end of the season you have a big finale and the NFL kind of
works the same way. Right, you had a great regular season, as Caroline points out, but proportionately for your business, what's more important the big standalone single event this Sunday or the traction you get over the duration of a season.
So a couple things. As we said, you know, the NFL this season set a record for CBS in terms of viewership since nineteen ninety eight, which is pretty extraordinary. And clearly the divisional playoff game, which also said an all time record, was important. But I think it's the arc of the whole thing. And frankly, there's nothing like the Super Bowl in the world, and obviously that's a big event for us, but you mentioned UEFA two. We
love YUEFA. As you know, the UEFA season is going to start right after the American football season, and that is also a great product for fans of Paramount Plus. And we just extended that deal and the new format for UEFA includes a more exciting so I call it playoff format. So again, great product, and we do see people consuming that product alongside entertainment product. So we love sports, we love the NFL, we love YUEFA, and we love it as a part of Paramount Plus.
Sound it interesting what you said about the consumption of non sports content. Halo season two prime example of that. You talk, it's about UEFA following the Super Bowl. How much will you be putting into advertizing this weekend? So why you've got to all those eyeballs you can say, hey, this is what else Paramount Plus is offering in the coming weeks and months.
Great point.
We are using the Super Bowl as a showcase for Paramount Global. I'm sitting here at our CBS set on the strip in front of the Bellagio. We had CBS Mornings going from here today and yesterday, and we have other properties operating here in Vegas. We are also using the Super Bowl as a promotional platform. So you see a new Pluto look and feel brand campaign rolling out, You see Paramount Plus spots. You see the Bob Marley
movie which is opening on for Valentine's Day weekend. So yeah, we're showcasing Paramount Global to the biggest audience in the world on the biggest weekend in the world. And frankly, it's great to be in Vegas.
It's a lecture, Bob.
People see value, a lot of value in your content, and people therefore see value.
In your company.
And we know there's been plenty reports of a fording billion dollar offer for the business.
Are you for sale?
So look, as a management team and our board of directors, we are focused on shareholder value creations. The most predictable route to that is execution. So we are a laser focused on execution, driving Paramount Plus elongating earnings in the traditional media sector, opening movies, et cetera. But simultaneously or in parallel, we continue to look at other options as we have been, including transactional ones. So again a lot
of activity. But I think what's important about it is it really shines a light on the incredible value of Paramount Global. We have an unmatched content engine in terms of our studios, new production, whether that's episodic series or films, as well as irreplaceable libraries across demographics, whether it's kids with Nickelodeon, adults, et cetera. So it's an extraordinary asset. We're focused on maximizing the value of that asset again day to day through execution, but also continue to.
Look at other roots.
And this is a sensitive one, Bob, but we've had analysts come on the show and say, you know, there are just too many players in the space, and you've got to be huge.
You can't even just be medium sized.
From your perspective with Paramount Plus and streaming, are you getting to profitability? I know you've got your earnings around the corner, but how soon can you sort of deliver that because I know you spoke to that in the third quarter for example.
Yeah, So i'd tell you a couple of things. One is, you're right that narrative is out there. There are people
with that point of view. But i'd point to our third quarter call where we continue to show paramount plus is a growing service, continues to have the most net ads of any streaming service since we launched point one point two is On our third quarter call, we talked about the fact that we expect and I have to be careful with my word choice here because, as you point out, our fourth quarter calls in two weeks, but we expect twenty twenty two was in fact our peak
streaming investment, not twenty twenty three, which we guided to. That says we're head of plan on the path to profitability for streaming, and we're very excited about twenty twenty four. But I'll have to leave it at that until our earnings call in a couple of weeks, where we'll have more to say.
Bob, a Global CEO, has to pass a lot of data quantify the impact of Taylor Swift for me on this Sunday Super Bowl.
Look, Taylor's obviously a phenomenon. She's a force in music. For all of us that have seen her tour, it's incredible and she has, without a doubt been incremental to audience on the NFL. There's different points of view on how incremental, but she's a great addition, widening the net of the NFL viewer even further. We're looking forward to having her here in Vegas this weekend at the game, and I think it'll be just an incremental thing. But the main point is the NFL on CBS and Paramount
Plus is just an extraordinary property. As I said, we set the high watermark already for a Super Bowl in terms of ad revenue. It's looking like we will set the high watermark on viewing. And is Taylor part of that. Yeah, she probably is an incremental part of that. But it's just great.
I'm tuning in for usher to gott to be said Paramount Global CEO Bob Backish, it is so good to speak with you.
Thank you very much, indeed, thank you.
All right.
Coming up, X is teaming up with the WWE for an exclusive weekly series. We hear from Bette White's ex Headed Partnerships and Talent on that deal. Next to disclam their technology, a WWE series is coming weekly to X. Brett White's X headed part Since Talent outlined it all for us earlier have listened.
We couldn't be more excited obviously about the new initiative that we're doing with WWE. We announced the partnership yesterday. We are in market here in the next you know, call it five days with assets to start selling the show. We've got a lot of interest we you know, XES what I would say, the home for wrestling fans.
We are We're going to go very big when it comes to this.
What this offering is the idea of catering to an audience. Last year alone, we had fifty nine billion impressions when it came to wrestling alone.
So the idea that we can.
Actually super serve this this incredible content to you know, an audience that is there is that is vibrant and waiting for it couldn't be more exciting for us.
So we are ready to go and in market.
When does this turn profitable?
How many of these types of partnerships do you need to really make money off of this?
That's a great question. I mean it really is, you know.
When you when we've worked with Nick con and his team trying to figure out exactly what the mechanics are financially, we are we're going to be playing this these episodes once or twice a week on X. They're going to be on platform, you know, for in perpetuity honestly, and we'll start making money.
You know, over the course of the year.
We'll see how the financials actually work out, but the investment that we're making the content really is you know, at some point will become profitable, probably in the next couple of.
Years, I think.
You know, there's been a lot of news this morning coming out of X you also have the Super Bowl and bet related stuff. But just lay out the partnership strategy. Your your job title is head of Partnerships and Talent Verticals. Do you expect to move into your backgrounds in wrestling over at turn and other things? But there is a difference here between pure sports, live entertainment and then you're doing a lot of news as well.
We are And so I got here, thank you.
When I got here four months ago, I really kind of went on a listening to and trying to figure out exactly kind of what the audience was looking for, what consumers wanted, and it is news, it's entertainment, it's fashion, it is sports, and it is wrestling. And so when we look at the when we look at the portfolio, we have an incredible relationship with all of our sports partnerships with at the NFL, MLB, NBA, A multi we have one thousand publishers. Through our amplified business, we have
eighty thousand content creators. We're going to continue to build out a great content partnership business, but also start to serve original contents to an audience that we believe is worthy of in wanting it. So when we went after Don Lemon and Tulsea Gabbard and Jim Rome, we really knew that as we build out this kind of bespoke content, this is exactly what the audience and the consumers on X are looking for.
That was Brett White, So the X Caroline, what you.
Got and don't quell you? Edward nearly enough and we thank you.
Let's check in on the market.
Friday session is also a little bit about social media. We had Pinterest reporting earnings and as we reflected on top line work growth of twelve percent missed estimates. Monthly active users did well, but as always is the case, you look at snap down half a percent. This theory is building out the very big social media companies are doing well, or advertising based companies and the very small ones. There's a lot of concern. Meta platforms highed by ten percent.
They had a blowout quarter where the AI story was going through to the advertising or their legacy business story. Also got Google parent Alphabet on their up one point eight percent of feel good around their AI story of late, those scenes are still in place, the big do Well, the small We're a little bit worried about Carol.
And let's talk about one of those key players. That Well is ultimately still finding its footing Ondred new leadership and is airing all different types of content. For example, X has just had the Russian President, Vladimir Putin saying his country hasn't achieved its objectives in UKRAINI yet. In a video from Tucker Carlson Network, Putin told the form of Fox News host that he could consider negotiations if
the US stopped supplying weapons to Kiev. This is the first time, actually that the Russian leader has given an interview to Western media figures since the invasion of Ukraine. The full interview was also published on as I Say social platform X. Let's talk about all of this with Jennifer Greigel, social media expert, Sociate Professor of Communications at Syracuse University. And Jennifer, what do you make of, ultimately the amount of people viewing this in an unedited form?
How is the media landscape changing?
Yeah, and again I think you put it well it's like airing different types of content. And I just saw your last clip to the you know, the head of partnerships that X has been going on and listening to her. Well, I guess I was going on and listening to her last night too.
Like, for one, I had kind of a hard time.
Finding the interview on X Twitter. You know, I'm not sure it was really a story about that platform, though, I do, you know, think that there is value in you know, kind of discussing that Musk made a commitment to at least platforming this video. But I also found it on YouTube as well, so I don't know. I think I think there's some other forces going on here too, because it definitely was like unusual content, right, Like this is not something you normatively see here in American discourse.
So I think there's a.
Lot of factors.
I think it's it speaks to the nature of the Internet. It's it's a complicated space though it has these norms, right, but something different kind of kind of peers through over here.
And it may also involve like, you know, older technology too, like the dot COM's, the websites, Tucker Carlson's websites seem to play an important role in that so and we don't we don't really have any insight into really how many people viewed this because there aren't analytics on things like older platforms like that, you know, a website.
That end and you know, I think you are referencing in the break that you can see how many people are viewed a pinned post. But ultimately, how do we know how many minutes of that has ultimately been consumed? And we therefore are left to perhaps well ingesting means and smaller parts of it. How does that make us yet more siloed rather than looking at broadly.
Yeah, well, you know, I would say the norms, at least in the West and the discourse coming from the East is we're getting it through memes, We're getting it through news stories in our press. The difference here was that it was, as you were saying, it was kind of interrupted. It was unfrittered information coming through in a two hour block. So for me, you know, again, that was what felt like something that was different and maybe discussing.
A bit the discourse had changed, So.
We'll see what the market thinks of this.
For me, it's worth discussing both the science and the art behind video content on social media platforms. Right, So that was a pretty long interview. And you know, we on this show, Caroline and I, we post clips of interesting conversations on X on reels and on YouTube. Sometimes we might do a longer form on YouTube, but as I understand it, the basic science is that the attention span of the viewer is limited to that much shorter
bite or they seek out something very long. What did you learn about duration video on the X platform from what happened last night?
Well, I think some people were bored and to doubt, you know, kind of with his history in the beginning. Two hours is a long clip, but just the fact that a two hour clip was available and that there may have been an attention audience behind it, given you know what Carlson brings to this. So for me, it was really understanding.
How this was.
Trying to make sense of it, honestly.
But like it's almost like a new media formula that's that's rooted in, like the Internet. So it was like must provided a platform which acts a little bit like the broadcast, gets it, you know, out to people, and then Carlson had the access but also his own audience. He delivered attention to this topic and also access to
a source. Putin was the source, right, so but really for me, what was interesting was that, at least in the United States, you don't really have access the freedom of information to stuff like that two hours of Putin. So again, call it what you want, propaganda. It's obviously meant to influence, but we don't usually have that type of access into information coming directly to Americans. But I think it also went out to other people in the
world too. I don't think it was just us as an audience, but I do think that again, you're seeing discourse on Twitter acts today, people who feel kind of safe in giving the inaction to that interview. But I think a lot of people aren't having a conversation maybe about what was said, even having discourse, you know, with others publicly especially. You won't see that kind of stuff on social media, maybe in a coffee shop or a didget table. But it feels like there's a silent audience.
And I don't really you know how big it is, but I do think people listened last night.
Silent audience want to dig into out of the election. Of course, Jennifer Greigel always great to communicate with you Associate Professor of Communications at Syracuse University.
Thank you, Ed, What have you got?
Yeah? Another story. We've been tracking.
Astronauts from Turkey, Italy, and Sweden return to Earth on Friday, ending a private three week mission to the International Space Station. Their SpaceX splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Off the Florida coast this morning.
The country has paid about fifty five million dollars apiece to Elon Musk's company in Axiom to finance that mission. All right, coming up, Fanjual CEO Amy Howe joins us next as football fans get ready to place their bets on the big game that's coming up next. This is Bloomberg Technology. It is Super Bowl weekend, and the big game between the San Francisco forty nine ers and the
Kansas City Chiefs is going viral on Google trends. Searches for both teams have skyrocketed, with questions like where to buy a new jersey? To which Super Bowl is this? One spoiler, it's Super Bowl fifty eight halftime shows start ushers getting a big boost as fans google.
His song hit single Yeah.
Is the most searched for across America since his slot was announced. The romance between Taylor Swift and Casey's Travis Kelsey is also in focus. Will she be at Super Bowl fifty eight. Finally, there's a battle for TV eyeballs by tech advertisers. Snapchat's debut Super Bowl ad hopes to convince users its platform is safer and more authentic than others.
And Uber is reuniting Ross and Rachel from Friends in a commercial for Uber Eats, And as we discussed earlier, for the first time, the game will be streaming on Paramount Plus caroc.
Meanwhile, we've got to talk bets and they are rolling in, big game approaching, and Johnny us to talk all about Wow, how people are doing a bit of a flutter?
Is super Bowl weekend ahead of it?
Fanjial CEO Amy Howe, Amy, it's great to have some time with you and just I think of last year and I think of the almost what was it ten million bets placed in the United States? How many are you anticipating for this particular game.
Well, what I can tell you is every year we set new records and this year definitely will not disappoint. I mean, this is going to be one of the biggest years. It's a phenomenal matchup between the Chiefs and the forty nine ers. But if you go to FANDLE you have an opportunity to bet on six hundred different pre line markets. Was a huge live offering, and as you can imagine, there's a ton of popularity around the player props, particularly Travis Kelcey, but also Mahomes and Christian McCaffrey.
And don't forget you still have an opportunity to go onto the app and decide if Rob Gronkowski is going to make his redemption kick, and if you pick correctly, you'll get a share of ten million dollars in bonus bets. So there's really something for everyone this year.
Amy, I am, in truth a fair Weather forty nine Ers fan.
Of course I'll watch the game.
But it raises an interesting point in the context of betting, right, how many people do you see come in and place a bet just for this game that might have otherwise just sat out the rest of the season. What kind of short term spike in New York users do you see visiting your platforms?
Yeah, I mean Super Bowl is the single biggest acquisition moment, right, and one of the things that's wonderful about it is. You get a ton of recreational users who are first time to sports betting, and what they're getting exposed to is just the excitement of it right the game within the game, and it really elevates the experience. So there
really is something for everyone. And one of the things that's been great about this year is with so much discussion around Taylor Swift, it's actually drawn a lot of women to the platform as well. About thirty three percent of our new activations are women, which is really exciting and just demonstrates the breadth and the power of what we're doing every day.
That's fascinating.
Talk to us a little bit more about demographics because many would say, and I don't know whether it's a cynical view or not, that the legalization process in the United States has in many way been understood to be because of viewership. Ultimately, younger people are placing bets on sports and now that coming to view it far more across cable and also now across streaming. How much you're seeing an older generation mosus a younger generation on your platform?
Well, I mean the honest answer is, over time we're seeing both. I mean, what happens is when you know, when state started to open up back in twenty eighteen, it tended to skeew a bit more towards a younger mal audience. But as we're now, you know, five to six years in since the Supreme Court decided they would let the states legalize, you're getting a much broader, much more recreational user. And I think a big part of
that is the role that the leagues. Right, we have a phenomenal partnership with the NFL and the NBA, and we're making it accessible, exciting, and you know, most of our betters are betting less than twenty dollars on the platform, but it makes the actual experience that much more exciting.
Amy, let me show you something real quick.
This is this is a chart summing up the swift effect or the Swifty effect total Instagram followers monthly for Ravis Kelce after that September twenty four to attendance.
Okay, so you get the data.
Are people literally betting on whether or not she'll turn up or are we going more specific on that, like what is she going to wear to the game? What's more, you know, likely Super Bowl ring, engagement ring. These are real things that people talk about by.
The way just for it.
There are real things that actually in Canada, in our Ontario province, you can go on and predict whether Travis is going to propose to tell her swift at the end of the game. In the States, unfortunately you can't. There are no prop that's on Teller Swift. But what I can tell you is, ever since Tellerswift was on the scene, the number of player prop that's for Travis
Kelcey has more than doubled. So she has certainly brought a lot of new engagement and betting activity on on Travis Kelcey, in particular.
Engagement of a different form.
We thank you fan, you'll see anyhow brilliant to spend some time with you.
Okay, A firm shares are down around thirteen percent, but in them on track for their biggest drop since October after the buy now, Pay Later Companies twenty twenty four forecast the annual transaction volume slightly missed estimates. Please to say a firm CEO Max Leftrin joins us now and that seems to be the pretty micro focus max the forecast for transaction volume. Should the street be concerned about that?
Now?
I'm great.
I can't I can't give the street that credit whatsoever. We've had it absolutely blowout or every number on top of bottom increase our estimates or figuring forward and are showing your signed up slowing down or weakness or ANYBM. Sorry, I'd rarely argue with the market, but I think the team work too hard to accomplish too much, too well. Word, Okay, we're.
Just showing the the highlights in the court had gone. And you know, top line you beat considerably, matching what the street expected from a loss per share. What was the biggest factor on that top line growth of all of the different products you're now offering.
I think across the board we did extremely well. We posted just really strong policy season. Our partners chopped by or a large contributor to our growth of pacing the average hard and Detailing Week bragged about one thousand active cart bolders our November of Usterer event, only to show that we have some one hundred thousand actives growing rapidly. Now there's a there's quite a lot of things that contributed to the growth of ORL company that across the board we do well.
Can I dig in a bit more on the gross merchandise volume and value, and I mean ultimately you call it out in your earnings and you said, we've post the fastest year over year GMV growth rate in over a year, and you're basically saying, look, we can show how we operate our business with excellence.
Then give you this moment.
To speak to an investor in an analyst community that is saying they're slightly worried about what they think is a GMV deceleration for the second half fiscal second half of twenty twenty four.
You say, it's the guidance is the flaw.
What more can you say to an investor base that for some reason is determining this is a slowdown and they're worried.
Now, I think the best I can speak to investors is about posting more results.
A form of trust me I'm not at.
Kirk is always met with great skepticism. So we'll just continue post results. The results will last for more than speaks to themselves to flow out of growth to show and it's the exact number that we were getting borer and looks gunning for a better and better operative that it is the law and we don't want to teach our guidance strategy at all like me far we're going to intexty for ourselves.
Well, a lot of anists can see that true securities Andrew Jeffrey saying that we'll be a surprise by the magnitude of the slow down. Blueberg Intelligence also saying they don't see They see momentum and they don't see this sort of slow down. So tell us about momentum and ultimately about a US consumer that feels rubbish about the economy, but the economy still continues to go incredibly Well, what are you seeing from a determination to spend and to spend with you?
So the pure wallet across our many they partners is generally in preaching and very happy about that.
US consumer, I think.
Full to speak on behalf of your consumer are feeling a little bit differently than they are acting and I have no idea like to that. But there are folks that are having our time paying their build and see that in the credit art industry, building up their delinquencies and parting to increase in filling out reserves. None of that is true for us. We posted another were of flat for any year, any year, deliquencies, prey based higher,
et cetera. Those are all measures of our excellent credit mad a firm consumer, the ones that we actually led to arguing find or page of build, taking amount of time without I might add eighty eternal late faser gimmicks tricks. The industry is starting to show signs of tracking where folks are aye able bit overextended. I think that's probably what's playing foras mind that said, the holiday season.
Was quite strong for us.
We saw really great engagement from occasional buyers that when to our online partners and bought the gifts all the way to our articholders that use the card for everything from dayspend to to get bud and so you are very good about our ability to help folks back and borrow.
And most important thing, I just want all.
We add because we don't charge leading, because we don't propound the interest. Our incentives are profoundly aligned with those that we want money to. They can pay us back on client on schedule. We will need much money. Our growth is actually driven not just by the fact that there's a lot of demand for buying for pferring, the demand for our firm specific product and our ability.
So I understand that you and I have talked a lot about buying now, pay later, but also the other products that you offer. Right this week, I think what Caroline and I heard from CEO's markets guests the consumers strong. But as you've just pointed out, credit card is becoming a notable data point to track.
How does that impact you in.
Obviously we watch all the industry data like everybody else.
Again, our borrower has done very well for us with us and when we lend money, we take into consideration their performance across other borrowing advices they have purchas, et cetera. So we know that from consumer is quite strong and repeat and they're equos cans back and that's shown in our numbers and the numbers that for you you can see them more frequently than our quoily numbers in our DA's reports. And so we look quite good about the
segment of economy that we serve. I think there are folks that are starting to lead to perhaps it's really the running out of the pandemic stating that are taking place elsewhere. We are equal to step borrowers successful.
Thanks lob ch it's great to have some time with you.
Thank you very much for joining the show with firm CEO on the back of their numbers.
Meanwhile, So that does it.
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