Uber at Shoptalk and Apple's Run to $3 Trillion

My exclusive with CEO Dara Kaswa Shay plus Rihanna Savage x Fency Lingerie company could be valued at three billion dollars amidst reports of an I p o are sit down with the retailer's president about the future of a R technology in store, online and more. And apples were under three trillion the iPhone maker on an eleven day hot streak. We will dial into the company's best performance

since two thousand three. We will get to all of that in a moment, but first I want to take a quick look at the market at Ludlow here with the latest ad walkers through the day. Yeah. Well, the prospects for a resolution or at least scaling back the conflicts in Ukraine was the big driver's sentiment. Technology the

best performing sector and equity markets. And it was interesting to see commodity futures fall in New York, the Bloomberg Commodity Index softer by two percentage points, the idea being that if we move towards a peaceful resolution in Ukraine, then the supply of oil soft commodities like wheat, industrial

metals could improve. Of course, yields retreating the tenure US treasury yield down by six basis points two point four percent, and we've got some inversion right where the yield on the two year US Treasury higher than the US tenure yield, or in other words, the yield on short duration bonds higher than long term duration bonds. Of course, for many that's a signal of Rachelle show and in broad risk con sentiment, Bitcoin drop below forty eight thousand dollars per token.

Of course, we're also in earning season. Micron, the semiconducted company, of course reporting and look at it stock after ours, and we're higher. Really bullish outlook. Essentially, this is a maker of memory chips, right d ram, but they're saying that a main driver of demand in their outlook is

continued investment in data centers. That stock hired by four point four percent and after ours and in terms of some of the movies I've been watching throughout the day, We're going to talk about this one a lot in the show. Apple up for an eleventh straight day, its longest streak of gains since two thousand three. We're really going to dig into this one. Is a lot to talk about, but also tied to the confidence in Ukraine, this idea that will see more supply of industrial metals,

more supply of battery metals. It was interesting to see gains in e v makers riving up seventm it's biggest jump since it's I p O and November eleven from Lucid getting up in the act as well and up eight percent. All right, thanks, We'll be back with you on Apple later. In this we are live here at Shoptalk in Las Vegas, where the retail industries power players are talking about the future of commerce and e commerce.

I caught up with Uber CEO Dara Kazra Shah earlier to talk about everything from their vision to create a super app to Ukraine and inflation. Had to start though, by asking about how drivers feel about the pressure at the pump and those rising gas prices. Here's what he had to say. I'm hoping that with the early signal of there being some kind of a light at the end of tunnel as it relates to the situation, the terrible situation in Ukraine, uh, we'll have some relief or

at least things won't get worse. I think the good news for us is that earnings for our earners are at significant highs. For example, in the US and Canada, our earners are earning an average this is an average of thirty one bucks an hour. Those are pretty robust earnings. But the pain of the pump is hitting everybody, and especially our drivers. And I know you've added the fuel searcharge, but drivers say, some of them, it's not enough. You

have drivers protesting at your New York offices today. Will this searcharge go up with gas prices? And will it continue beyond May eleventh? If if gas prices are still high, well, we were the first and the industry to move on the searcharge, and we moved on the searcharge because we thought it was the right thing to do, and it helped cover the majority of the increase in fuel prices. Admittaly, not all of the increase in fuel prices in May,

no one compartict where the world is. We're going to look at the situation and if the situation doesn't change, will certainly consider continuing the fuel charge or whether it's an increase or dree crease, who knows. We are going to We want to be there side by side whether

earners and help them make a great, flexible living. Would you consider lowering your take rate or increasing there's generally our take rate is lower now than it has been historically, and over the long term, we essentially want to earn a fair profit, and we're doing everything that we can to drive automation and efficiency of our own system so that we can put as much of the dollar that let's say a rider spends on an uber to put it in our earner's pockets. The more money we make,

the more money they make. So you've got gas prices at highs, inflation at forty year highs, a new variant that's potentially more can changeous. How is this impacting supply and demands? We're not seeing any kinds of impacts on supply demand demand. We continue to hit records as it relates to mobility and delivery and our commerce business that we're talking about here, So he really isn't showing up in the business earners growth continues to be very significant.

More earners are feeling safe, they're coming back to the platform. Everybody wants to get out of the house. Uh. And so we're not seeing any kind of a signal at this point that would indicate something is going the wrong way. But we have to be hyper vigilant. And I think for us, we're benefiting from the secular trend on demand transportation, on demand delivery of anything, and as a result, I think we will be relatively resistant to whatever happens. You

know in the broader economy. You mentioned we're close to we're at post pandemic his for rides. When do we get to pre pandemic hies. It's going to happen sooner than you think. This year is still definitely okay. Now I want to talk about the war in Ukraine. I know you work to pull a number of employees out of Ukraine. You're you've been offering free rides, especially at the border. What is the status of your service and your employees in Ukraine right now? So we are our

employees who want to relocation have gone relocation. We're tracking them and their families. That comes first. Uh. Second, we are running our systems in the towns that the government wants us to run them, and we're actually not plugging in our our Uber direct which is our logistics uh technolo oology to be able to power the u n to carry food around. And at the same time what we're doing is we're raising money for Ukraine. We've raised

over two million dollars through kind of donate buttons. It's incredibly easy to use and the donations have poured in in a way that we never expected. Now, you do still have a stake in your joint venture with yandex and I know you've had Uber Exact resign from the board. You said you're working to accelerate the divestment of that asset. But when you open the Uber app in Russia you can still call a car. Why is that? That is essentially a skin So it's only branding of our technology.

There's no Uber technology being used at all. It was part of the original transaction. Uber is a very big brand globally, including in Russia as well, but we don't directly touch that in any way, shape or form. So what's the progress on selling off this asset? You know, how far are you willing to go? Because who's going to buy a Russian rides sharing service right now? I think right now everything's on hold. So we have stated the intent to sell. We will sell as soon as reasonable.

I think right now, the fact is people are much more focused on humanitarian aid, resolving this terrible situation in Ukraine and hopefully then moving forward with some semblance of normalcy. Then we'll look up and see what we can do. We already divested about a billion dollars out of that business, so this is something that we have thought about earlier. It's not something all of a sudden that we thought about in this context, and we'll look to conclude the

divestiture as soon as reasonable. Goober shares are down, Door Too shares are down. Instant Cart just lowered its valuation. By how long do you expect this market downturn to last? And what are you bracing for? I don't think you can predict the market. That's certainly not my job. Right My job is to run a business. And I think that we as a company have made the Pivots profitability. Remember we promised even profitability last year, we hit it earlier,

uh than than our promises. We said we're going to be free cashual profitable this year. The mainline Uber mobility business, the delivery business ubernats and the freight business, all of them are going to be profitable. As it relates the Ibadah. So I think relative to a competition, we made the pivots of profitability sooner and at a scale, and I think the reopening for us is going to be a much bigger tailwind then let's say some of the other

delivery players that were competing against Big Milestone. In London. You signed a new agreement with TfL two and half year extension, which is a big deal because they rejected your last two requests. I believe, also committing to full electrification. How are you going to do that? Well, we have.

We committed to full electrifications quite early, uh and every single ride in London essentially uh we take some amount of that rod put it into a pool to help drivers in London moved from gasoline power cars to electric cars. So this has been it's part of Mayor City cons vision. We love that vision, so we have been working on electrying our fleet and we're going to get it done. You just got New York City cabs on board. I don't think anybody thought that would ever happen. Who's next?

Is it San Francisco? It's we're certainly talking to many cap companies out there. This is actually a product that we built outside of the US. We've been at it for years. We have over a hundred thousand taxi cabs on our platform, benefiting from the demand that the Uber platform and the services and the earnings that Uber brings, and we're just this is just an extension of that same technology that we're building. Super excited about New York UH and it will be followed up, hopefully with many

new announcements in many new cities. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said last year that you think some gig workers could be or should be classified as employees. It's been reported that you've had conversations with him that have been productive. When's the last time you spoke with the Secretary of Labor or the Labor Department, and what progress have you made? What is his view workers? It was you'd have to ask him his particular vote view. My conversation with him

was midst last year, and the Secretary really listened. I think he really wants to learn about the benefits of gig work. Uh and you know some of the issues with gig work. We don't think this world of having to make a choice between flexibility of earnings, which is the number one reason why driver's current years engage on our platform. They do not want to be employees. We don't think there's this kind of false choice between flexibility

and benefits and earnings. We can have both. And so the dialogue that we're having, you saw it in Prop twenty two in California. It is and it was an outsize winner with voters all of our earners wanted. I think that the Department Labor is listening, and we're hoping we can get to this win win, which is flexibility and benefits. Couber CEO dar Causra Shahi. There. You can

catch that full interview at Bloomberg dot com. Coming up much more from shop Talk, we're gonna be going to be joined by Christian Pendarvis, president of Savage x fenty yes that is Rihanna's lingerie brand, to talk about the future of shopping on an offline in the role of a r technology that's next. This is Bloomberg. We're back live at Shop Dock in Las Vegas, where the power players of the retail industry are talking about the future

of retail and e commerce. One of those up and coming retail stars is Savage x fenty, a lingerie company of singer turned fashion entrepreneur Rihanna who's been expanding its brick and mortar stores and mulling a public offering. Let's talk about all this and more with the company's co president, Christian and Pendarvis with me here live in person. And you worked at The Gap, you worked at Victoria's Secret. What's different about Savage x Fenti and what Rihanna brings

to the team. Savage x fenty is an amazing brand, and I've had the good fortune, as you mentioned, for working for some of the great mainstay brands in this industry. But what I think honestly makes us special is we've been built from a place of authenticity, really driven by our founder Rihanna Um and we're embracing fashion in a different way. We're celebrating acknowledging customers that haven't been seen

and acknowledged in the context of this industry. In the been a very very powerful brand to be a part of Victoria's secret for so long was run I met. Do you think being run by a woman has made a difference. Yeah, oh absolutely, There's no question. Everything that we do comes from a place of authenticity. We couldn't be anything but inclusive. We couldn't be anything but about

female empowerment. That's what Rihanna stands for, and she's brought that to bear in our business, and I think you see it across everything that we do, from our product assortment to how we show up in external marketing. If you look at our website and our social media channels, we show up very differently than how other people have in the industry. It started out as a pure e commerce play, but you've been opening brick and mortar stores,

including here in Las Vegas. What's the strategy there. It's a really important strategy for us. We want to meet our customers where they are, and physical retail is not dying, much to the sagren of many direct to consumer brands. It's an important part of how customers want to shop. I think the thing that we're doing very different. It's

not just transactional. It can't just be transactional. It's got to be about an experience, an inviting place that customers really want to take time out of their day to go into the stores. What's the vission for augmented reality in addressing room or as part of the online shopping experience. We've heard about this for years, but I still haven't really seen it come to fruition. Yeah, and we're one of the things we're super excited about is how we

are leveraging technology. So for us, for example, fit bra fit is critical as an intimate apparel retailer, and it hasn't changed in decades for how a woman determines what's the right size. So we're leveraging technology in a different way, leveraging three D body scans that can take a scan of your body, get your exact measurements, and map that back to our product assortment to say, here's the exact

best fitting braw for you in the right size. So it's it's important to bring technology to bear in physical retail in a way that actually adds value for the customer. Out Lingerie could be seen as a luxury good. We are facing record inflation, the highest inflation in forty years. How is that impacting customer choices and how much they're willing to spend. Absolutely, and it's nice to have right well,

and we're very sensitive to that. I think because our customer is very value conscious, they are feeling the pinch of inflation in their pocketbooks. So we're very very sensitive to that. We're looking really at our product. Our product as replenishable. People always have to wear underwear and at

some point in time that product wears out. So we're making sure that we're creating product that's going to be functional for our customer, add value for them, and really deliver it in a way that really entice entices them to come into our brand. Have you seen any pullback in online sales or sales in general as a result

of the pressure that consumers are feeling. Yeah, absolutely, we are definitely seeing that within our business, and that's why we're really looking for where can we do product that is a nice luxury to have that is not breaking baking her Procket book, that's something that she actually wants to spend her money on. What are the trends, what was hot in the pandemic? You know that that's sticking around. How our tastes in lingerie changing. Yeah. Absolutely. One of

the big things that we saw during the pandemic. Everyone was at home. People were wearing leggings and braw less. They were really looking for very comfortable, cozy clothing. We have this amazing onesie out of fleece that literally people were living in at home, and so we really embrace that as a trend. Now that people are starting to go back into the real world, they need more structured undergarments, so we're seeing a shift back to some of the

more traditional categories within intimate apparel. How involved is Rihanna? Incredibly incredibly involved in everything that we do, whether it's on the product side and the assortment that we have in stores, or whether it's on our marketing side, our creative campaigns, the models and influences that we're working with. She really has her fingerprint on everything that we're doing

as a branch. What what is it like working with her as someone who's who's worked at these established fashion brands which were run by mostly male ceo s. Yeah, it's a It's a wonderful breath of fresh air. I tease to people in my network. I know Rihanna is a global pop star. I see her as a business partner, because that's the context on which I personally know her.

She understands the customer, She understands people's bodies, she understands people's pain points when it comes to their bodies, and she always makes sure that we're developing product that's addressing and acknowledging that. So she thinks very much about the customer. There are reports that you she are considering a public offering.

What's the status of that. Well, we can't publicly comment on anything related to an I p O. We're just so singularly focused on growing this business and capitalizing on the opportunity to exist. So I think if an I p O at some point in the future makes sense for us, we'll definitely evaluate that. How are you thinking about the macro environment? You know, obviously we're seeing inflation,

there's a lot of economic uncertainty. Don't know necessarily what's next. Yeah, absolutely, And I think that's one of the things that's super important about being a leader is being able to be agile and whether change. So for us, it constantly comes back to the customer. Where can we add value for the customer? What is it that they want and need, and how can we position ourselves as a nice little treat, a surprise and delight for her that gives her a little bit of joy and him a little bit joy

within their lives right now? So we're doing some future casting here. Take me five years out. How is the company different? How is the retail industry different, specifically the Laing Dree segment. Yeah. I think one of the big things is you're going to continue to see this merge of physical and digital in ways that complement each other and then take advantage of the strengths that each channel

has to offer. So we've had a lot of conversation I'm sure you've heard it this week about the metaverse and how that's going to come to bear. You're going to see that come to bear, I think in a real way that we're gonna dramatically expand how people shop, UM, and what that proposition looks like for the see shopping and the matter verse. Absolutely, I see shopping in the metamor and what does that look like? I don't know yet. We all want to know. When you come tell us,

but you do have a great choice of colors. UM. Thank you for coming to join us today, and we'll keep our out. Thank you, thanks for having see Christiane Pendarvis, co President, thank you for stopping by a few stories. We continue to watch. Will Smith has apologized for slapping Chris Rock on stage at the Academy Awards. In an

Instagram post, Smith said he was out of line. Meantime, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists has opened a review of Smith's behavior, saying they'll explore possible consequences for his actions. Nielsen, the TV rating stalwart, has agreed to be bought by a group of private equity firms for about sixteen billion dollars, including debt. The consortium is being led by Brookfield Asset Management and an affiliate of

Ellie Management. Nielsen provides audience data services to many of the media's premier networks, and the FTC has had enough of those Turbo tax commercials about being quote free government agency, suing to stop into it from telling perspective customers that its tax prep services on turbo tax come at no cost. In fact, that offer applies only to those with simple returns.

Everyone else has to pay. The FTC says customers spend a lot of time and effort on Turbo tax, only to find out they've got to upgrade to a paid service to complete the returns into it, says the FTC claims aren't credible. Coming up, Apple's hottest run since two thousand three. How soon before we hit three t yes trillion. We'll talk about that next. This is Bloomberg. Welcome back to Bloomer Technology. I'm Emily checking in San Francisco. Let's get to the story of the day. That is Apple,

the tech giants. Stock has been on its hottest streak since two thousand and three. Bringing in Dan, i'ves of web Bush. Dan, you heard adds analysis there. I assume you think this is a question of not if, but when when do we get to three tea and what's it gonna take to get there? Okay, I think what's really happened. The street is just better appreciating what's really happening in terms of the demand story. iPhone thirteen demands our trip and supplied by and we're seeing more higher

a sps in China services as rocks out. Of course, a historic win for the oscars. That was an Amazon on Netflix winning. It was Apple and the first streamer to ever win. I think we put it together in my opinion, this is the stock that's going to go well north to three trillion. I think we got strong earnings coming around the corner. I think this is just a start of the short the next leg of the story playing out in Cupertino. Do some of the macro

economic headwinds concern you. I mean, we're looking at a down market across the board and investors pulling back on some of these huge tech multiples. How long does this down market continue? Well, I think, well, this is and we've talked about the most oversold tech market that we've seen the last five six years. But if you go back over the last few months, the haters will hate on on Apple. But just like many thought Caroline and Duke could louse in the first round, now they're playing

the final four. So the point is, when I look at what's happened with Apple, I think they're just hitting their next leg of growth, going into iPhone fourteen and a services business. I still thinks undervalued by the street. It's a rock of Gibraltar tech name, and now with that green light to own tech, this is a name in our opinion that we'll have a too in front of it in the coming months and Dan, what sets

Apple apart to you? You say, rock a Gibraltar compared to some of these other big tech names that have commanded such high multiples but seem to be struggling more now, whether it is Meta or Amazon for example. I think which unique with Apple is the services business continues to go into next gear of growth, will be looking at mid team growth. This would be eight billion or anual revenue.

There's a reading that's happening on the services business. Underlying demand on iPhone thirteen premium continues to be unreally unlike anything that I've ever seen from Apple in the last five or six years. You're compared to Meta. I mean that's one because of Apple, because of Cooked that business model right now is is a different business model because of the iOS changes. So I think when you really start to see with Apple, it's a defensive name, it's

also an offensive tech name. And that's why I like many that we saw sell this name over the last few months, I think you're starting to reevaluate it going into what I believe the street numbers still conservative. Do the production cutbacks concern you? Yeah, Look, I think this this overall continues to be just in terms of the overall regular toy environment, whether it's US or Europe. I mean, that's going to be an overhang on broader tech, and

it's gonna be an overhang on the Apple. But it goes back that there's a better chance to me playing in the Masters next month than this impacting their business model the next few years. All right, I'd like to see it, Dan, you and the Masters. I'll be rooting for that. Dan Ives of Wedbush Security is always good to have you here on the show. Thank you well. Door Dash is entering wholesale delivery, announcing a new partnership

with b JS. I caught up with door Dash president Christopher Payne earlier here in Vegas to talk about that and much more. Take a listen. There's two twenty six stores, mainly on the East coast. BJ's wholesales seventeen states, and now consumers that are on door Dash can access the b J Wholesales Club. Additionally, we have a product called door Dash Drive which powers delivery for third parties, so we'll also fulfill deliveries for b JS. This is our

first wholesale club on the platform and we're thrilled. It's a lot of retailers have joined the platform. Grocers have joined the platform over the last eighteen months, and it's wonderful to see that trend continue. How different are the unit economics of grocery versus restaurant delivery because you're picking and packing the items, You're not just picking them up and dropping them off. There are differences there. Certainly there's more costs in the case that you're picking them, but

you could They're also larger. They tend to be larger than a typical meal order, and so there are different characteristics to make the economics work. But we've got a lot of experience. We're partnered with safe Way, Albertson's hi V Myers UH and grocery is one of our fastest growing businesses and we're very confident in the long term profitability of the category. Now Uber is here talking about themselves as the future of retail, so not just to

food delivery, but grocery and potentially everything else. How does that differ from what door dash is trying to do well? I think a lot of people. I think consumer expectations are rising. Consumers are looking to get more and more things delivered to their door in minutes, not hours or days. And there are a lot of companies that are going to try to go after that. It's been true over the last six years that I've been at at door Dash, and I'm sure you know many companies will continue to

go after it. We think Doortash is uniquely situated to do this right because well, today we have twenty five million monthly actors. We have over share in the restaurant space, but now we're going beyond restaurants, convenience, grocery. We got J. C. Penney, Office Depot and many other companies on the platform, and

consumer expectations only go in one direction. Additionally, we have dash Pass, which is a subscription product of ten million subscribers, and we're layering in Now you can get your restaurant delivery, your grocery delivery, and we think that will be a wonderful compliment because we don't think there's just restaurant consumers. We think there's bring it to me now consumers, and we think door Dash is the leader in local commerce.

So that's that's what we're focused on to differentiate. Gas crisis, are high inflation at forty year highs, How is this impacting the business? How is it impacting dasher supply. How is it impacting orders because the cost of an average order is going on. Yeah, the inflation touches every aspect of the system, and it's something we've spent a lot of attention to. One thing to note about door dash in general is that most dashers do it as a side gig. It's four hours a week is the typical dasher.

It was a million monthly active dashers on the platform and so we haven't seen much impact today to the number of dashers that are showing up and their dashing activity, but it's something we will keep an eye on. We have recently announced a program for dashers to help them as the price of gasoline has shot up in recent weeks. We have a card that can give them a ten percent discount. It's not just on their door dash deliveries,

but on driving in general. And then for those dashers that do the most deliveries, top dashers, we give them a driving bonus for the number of miles they've driven on the platform. We think that will help, uh, you know, allay some of the hopefully temporary changes. Now some dashers are saying that's not enough for example, Uber is adding a fuel searcharge to every ride, and you know, with a Dasher UH benefit that you're adding, I believe you have to drive a certain amount of miles to access it.

You know, why are you doing it this way? And is there anything more you can do? Yeah? I think I think our approach it. One of the things that we did I think that was really beneficial to us is we have a Dasher Advisory Council that is made up of key dashers that advise us on which approach is to take, and they actually helped create the system

that we launched. Very important to note we did not add a consumer searcharge, and so one of the dangers of adding a consumer charge charges you decrease demand and therefore you decrease the economic opportunity for dashers. We chose not to do that. UM. We believe we've got the largest, most efficient system, and so we're trying to not put

inflationary further inflationary pressure on the consumer side of the equation. Also, by focusing the economic advantage on the gas prices, we believe we're actually focusing on the problem UH and in helping dashers with longer distance deliveries, and so we we we think that that our model is actually best to tune for where the inflation is impacting the system. Today, Geordas President Christopher Payne there at shop Talk in Las Vegas.

Coming up my conversation with Bolt CEO Madu cru Villa about their vision for shaking up the checkout experience and the controversy about the former CEOs storemy tweets. This is Bloomberg. Bolt, the e commerce company known for its one click checkout as big plans to take on Amazon, PayPal, and even Google in payments. The company is still a much smaller player in a larger market, but is making a lot of noise and trying to raise money at a fourteen

billion dollar valuation. I spoke with Bolt CEO Majuku Villa earlier about how the company hopes to stand out from the competition. It's exciting that Bolt is able to get a lot of traction both with our investors, our partners, and customers. One of the big problems we are going after is conversion at checkout. For retailers. Seventy of shoppers drop out right at check out. That's eight if you're on mobile, that's almost a threllion dollar problem for US

just in one year. So Bold is really going after solving that problem, helping retailers to convert those shoppers. They spend a lot of money on bringing on board. Now as I understand, it's mostly a tool though for small businesses. Right now, do you need Amazon and Walmart and Target and giant retailers to really compete right? So, right now,

most of the businesses have to make a choice. Right if they want to give them a really convenient one click checkout experience, they either have to go to an ecosystem like Amazon, but if they want to give that experience by themselves, that doesn't exist today. So what Bolts is building is a shared shopper accounts network that can share all the shopper information across all different merchants. That's using Bolts. And do you see some of these bigger

retailers coming on board and signing onto your vision. Absolutely recently, Fanatics pick Bolt as the solution for their one click needs for them to engage with the shoppers. And we are seeing several other customers like Forward twenty one already use Ball for um a long time now Badly Michka, there are several verticals we have like Solo stuff. Um so a lot of customers are using Bolts right now.

We're successful. Now, Bolts, as I understand, has been trying to raise some money at a fourteen billion dollar valuation. We're going into a down market. What are the dynamics of that? Are you going to have to lower your expectations?

The Bolt has been in a great place. We just raise money at eleven billion dollars on we call our series around and we are continuing to see more and more traction with the big customers signing up right now, we are also seeing all the partners signing up with Bolts. We signed the commerce we send, Magento Send, Prester Shop and Lord more partners are e commerce partners are signing up with Bolts because they want to provide a one click checkout experience and they are looking to board. So

what are your fundraising conversations like now? I mean, are you having trouble raising money at a fourteen billion dollars Not at all. So what we are seeing right now is because of all the big customers, we are able to close and we have a very solid pipeline and the interest we are seeing from partners and UH you know everyone around us. What we are seeing is a higher interest for us and most of the in the

fund market, people are looking for differentiated products. Like you know, there are so many players kind of doing the same product in slightly different form. Bolt is very unique. We are the only one that do what we do and what it is is the shared shopper accounts network and the difference what we provide is unlike having a separate button or creating an extra workflow on a merchant side. We integrate our product natively into the existing workflow of

the shoppers. Now, you recently took over as CEO after being CTO and running operations for a period of time, not without some controversy. The CEO, former CEO and founder of Whole and Breslow gained some degree of infamy. Infamy with a series of tweets where he called out companies like Stripe, why Combinator, the quote unquote mob bosses of Silicon Valley? Do you agree with his point of view?

Ryan is a great leader and a phenomenal visionary, like he can see things ahead of anybody else, and that he's one of the main reasons I came to Bold, and he and I have such a partnership, and that's the reason why he even asked me to take on to see or roll. He has a strong vision for not just Bold, but for the e commerce and all

the founders. So he will continue to advance the path for Bolds, the founders, e commerce and everything, and I'm very aligned with him on all the pretty passionate defense they're boalto madu Villa here at chop Talk in Las Vegas. The full interview at Bloomberg dot com. We talked about the future of retail and fashion earlier with Savage x Fanci,

but here's a different angle on that is resale. Thread Up is one of the largest online thrift stores and it is on a mission to make fashion more sustainable. Let's talk about all that and more with thread Up CEO and co founder James Ryan Hird. James, good to see you here, ex great to be here to talk to us about how the pandemic impacted the resale market. Did you see a shift away from fast fashion to

second hand items and how quickly did that move. I think we were already seeing these trends before the pandemic. You really saw resale accelerating and then I think once we were all stuck at home and had nothing to do, you saw resale really catalyze in that moment. And so but I think it's actually something that happened in the pandemic, and I think it's something that's now sticking. So how

fast then does it grow? I mean, we project the business is the industry will got a year uh for the next four or five years and um ultimately be about fifty billion dollars. How well is the fashion industry itself doing to help this transformation. I think they're getting started. You know, we're doing a lot of work with brands on how they can build take back programs and sustainability

and circularity into their businesses. But I think it's early, um, and so I think ultimately we have to figure out how how brands can scale this because at the end of the day, they need to build big, sizeable opportunities. So you're partnering with retail brands like made Well, like Macy's. How are these how do these partnership work? Yeah, so

we do two things for them. One, we power take back program, So if you're a made Well customer, we can take back all of your denim and all those products um and then we're also powering resell shops for them. So in a fully white labeled way, we now power a resell shop form made well, where you can shop all second hand product right from made well dot com.

So what's the goal on board? Yeah? Yeah, I mean, look, we think we can ultimately power a thousand different brands resell experiences big and small, and we have some big brands launching in the next few months, so exciting to them. I think for brands and reseal, how key our consumers here? You know, I believe consumers are savier than they have ever been about sort of understanding their responsibility. But but what do you need for consumers to be more on

board more a part of this? Yeah, I think what we're seeing in the data is consumers are really showing that if a brand is offering resale as part of their broader strategy so really thinking about circularity, they actually think that the brand is healthier, uh, and they're more excited to work with that brand. And so I think consumers really can help push brands to be more sustainable

with you know, shopping. How much is gen z powering this transformation versus older consumers like maybe myself, who maybe gen z It seems like it's powering everything these days. Um, but look, I mean you know gen xers, I mean all of us, we are definitely part of this solution. We also have bigger, bigger wallets. And so the one thing to keep in mind is gen x and boomers have more more dollars to spend. But really the momentum and awareness is happening among the young people. There's also

a competition in the fashion resale market. There's Posh Mark, there's the Real Real where what do you see us threat ups real differentiation here? Yeah, well it's a big market, so there's room from multiple, multiple winners. Um. The big thing for us is we take every brand. We take thirty five thousand brands versus a a real Real which takes maybe a hundred um and we do all the work for you. So unlike posh Mark, where you have to list all your items and do your fulfillment and everything,

we take all the friction out of the experience. And so I think the differentiator is it's the easiest place to do resell. What are the global trends you see in this space? Were we just uh, we're just doing some data now on our resell report. We're seeing the European market be massive. Um, you're seeing trends in Japan. Japan has always had a very robust secondhand market. Germany in the same way. So it's a global opportunity. I think. I always tell people it's not a it's not a

U S thing, it's a first world thing, um. And I think it's an aerial watch. So paint the picture for me five years out future casting how and how different does the industry loan. I think people will be shocked that every store, every brand that they work with has secondhand, has resale as part of what they do. And I think this is going to accelerate over the next few years and it'll just be part of what

we do. And what are going to be the biggest challenges to getting there, Uh, the supply chain and logistics and just the infrastructure to bring resale to the masses. It's hard, um, and I think that's worth threatened. Will be the pioneer. So what needs to change? Oh, all the processes and technowlogy to process the volume of goods. Right, we estimate there's about seventeen billion pieces of clothing out there every year, So that's a lot of supply chain

UH infrastructure to build. All right, well, we'll be watching how you navigate this transformation and help usher us all along. Threat up CEO James Ryan Heart, good to have you back here, Thanks for having Michelle. And that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology Live from Shop Talk. Don't forget to check out our new podcast. You can find it on the terminal and of course Apple, Spotify, I Heeart, wherever you get your podcast. That's all for

today from me in Las Vegas. Check out more interviews at Bloomberg dot com. I'm Emily Chang. This is Bloomberg as unbent aarti Nasality