Day 2 of Twitter's Roadshow: Bloomberg West (10/29)

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Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Full episode of "Bloomberg West." Guests include Baidu's Robin Li, Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley, Juliet de Baubigny, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, SurveyMonkey's Dave Goldberg and Nextdoor co-founder Sarah Leary. (Source: Bloomberg)


I am emily chang.


Twitter visits the big apple on day two of the investor roadshow while making a big change to its core products.

We will head to new york to get the very latest.

How does the company plan to generate more revenue from its 259 billion members?

What does apple need to do to become a more dominant player in china?

That is one of the any topics we will touch on.

Twitter announces a major change as its investor roadshow hits new york city.

Timelines will feature previews of twitter photos and videos from vine.

The user has to click.

It makes it easier for a user to reply without leaving the timeline.

It could have a big impact on advertisers.

Christina has been following the road trip.

She joins us from new york.

We know the roadshow -- the roadshow yesterday in philadelphia was pretty low-key.

How was new york today?

In philadelphia, they did one group meeting.

It was a small group of investors.

I did one-on-one meetings -- they did one-on-one meetings with large investors.

We could see a group meeting that is a little bit bigger.

There is a real difference between twitter and facebook.

With facebook, we saw them sneaking out of hotels.

They wanted to be around mark zuckerberg.

It is a little bit by choice because the twitter executives and the team is being really quiet with the details of what they are doing and where they are going.

It is also by default.

We have a much smaller audience, a much smaller offering, i should say, and a much smaller interest from investors.

It is a little bit of both factors working to make this a lot more tame than the facebook ipo.

What is the biggest question that investors have?

They will want to know what is the growth potential?

Then they will want to know about how much are you spending in r&d and how much is relative to revenue?

Look, in terms of investors, one of the things they will keep in mind, any big investor will want an allocation, what investors will do is take a look and figure out what the high point of the range is going to be on this deal and how long before the stock runs up that they sell it.

There has to be a natural ceiling for investors because they do not want to hold it if it gets too expensive.

Thank you.

We will be following the roadshow every step of the way.

For more on those big changes, i want to bring in jon erlichman.

He is in l.a.. how big of a deal is this?

You do not have to take an extra click to see a video.

I think it is a significant development, emily.

The simplicity, the idea of tweets the more like headlines.

You have to add photos and videos to that.

Does that start to shift the story?

Is it more like facebook?

If users are cool with this, no suggestion they are not, it does open a large door to the advertisers and maybe makes it easier to explain the advertising story.

Twitter has been moving in this direction.

To have more real estate available and richer real estate in the form of pictures or videos available to them, that is a significant development.

Twitter reports its results tomorrow.

Maybe they are encouraging -- anticipating some encouraging comments.

You have also been following the other social network, linkedin, which just reported earnings.

Compare the advertising stories.

The thing about linkedin, advertising is part of its revenue.

It is not the dominant part of its revenue.

We have seen all of the business is growing.

Linkedin has been giving recruiters access to information and potential people.

The advertising business was growing as well, as were the number of subscribers.

There were some concerns about the guidance.

The company on the advertising side did talk about its transition to sponsored content.

The business has more than a quarter of a billion members, users and is growing internationally.

Jon erlichman, thank you.

You can read my linkedin influencer post about my first job.

Still ahead, the ceo of baidu calls mark zuckerberg a friend.

But what did he have to say about tim cook and steve jobs?

? this is "bloomberg west." baidu is the world's sixth most visited website.

All this week, we are bringing you my exclusive conversation with the company's ceo, robin li.

We talked about why he admires bill gates.

Today, we talked apple and why the iphone maker's market share is slipping in china.

Both are strong companies.

They have a lot of cash and they are strong-minded.

Apple has their ways of doing things.

China mobile has their ways of doing things.

If they match, they can have a partnership.

If they do not, they cannot.

What do you think of tim cook?

He is good, very reasonable, very smart.

He understands the chinese market.

How does he compare to steve jobs?

I do not know.

I never met steve jobs before.

From the media, i think he is very different.

He has very strong opinions.

He does not care too much about market.

Tim cook is more of a typical ceo.

Apple is losing market share in china.

Why do you think that is?

That has to do with the -- one-size-fits-all.

China's characters are very different than english.

Apple does not have a good one.

There are a lot of things that the chinese user is not so pleased about.

There is room for improvement.

Why don't they like?

They do not like the smaller screen compared to the samsung phone.

There are a lot of things -- the needs of -- the needs are chinese specific that may not be available on the ils system.

-- ios system.

Is apple not as cool as it once was?

Wax apple is very cool.

-- apple is very cool.

A lot of people, including my wife, use apple.

I am different.

I need to know the two markets.

I need to understand how the average mobile phone user feels.

I use an android phone.

The galaxy?

The galaxy nokia.

You like the larger size?

I am used to larger screens.

A smaller screen make things uncomfortable to me.

These days, when i carry a phone, i use it more or less as a pc.

People compare the ceo to steve jobs.

What do you think?

That is the alternative.

Xiaomi's ceo has a software background.

He truly understands how to design software and please the end user.

He did great.

They have a smart tv.

Should apple have a smart tv?

I do not know.

The whole world is moving into internet.

Eventually, all of the tvs will be internet enabled.

Exactly what kind of format or product, i do not know.

People are trying all kinds of different things.

It is too early to tell.

Should apple be innovating faster?

Apple is a great company.

Apple is just one company.

You cannot expect them to do everything for everyone.

When i talked to tim, he argued the same thing.

Do not try to be everything for everyone.

There are things we do and there are things we do not do.

Let's talk about the expansion of chinese companies.

Most of the chinese companies are not familiar with the international market.

China is a large market and it is growing quickly.

When you think about where to invest, china comes up first for a lot of people.

It took companies a long time to realize we need to go outside of china.

It is really a global competition and we need to go outside of china and serve users elsewhere.

That was baidu ceo robin li.

Tomorrow, we will discuss baidu's latest arches of an app store -- purchase of an app store and talk about why they were late to the game in mobile.

Can china's -- can apple's latest ipad attract first-time tablet buyers this holiday season?

? one of sony's most popular online games will be among the first games available for the upcoming sony playstation 4. it focuses solely on online content.

Jon erlichman has more.

Many are pointing to mobile as the future of gaming.

Sony online entertainment -- the president is in san francisco for the annual videogame conference.

Talk to us about how people are laying games today and how that has changed dramatically -- playing games today and how that has changed dramatically.

It is really starting to explode.

People can interact in ways they never have in real life.

They do it kind of like watching a live event or something like that?


People are literally filling up arenas.

Sold-out staples center, it was the most amazing thing i have ever seen.

How do you position yourself in terms of making money and building a business?

We are about making fun games.

As part of sony, we are helping the sony playstation 4 launch by having d.c. universe online.

We will be following up that early next year with our next game.

You allow people to take test drives with games?


That is exactly right.

It gives them a chance to try the game before they buy it.

The game has to be the best.

If you want people to pay for it, you better give them something amazing.

You have to do something amazing to earn their money.

Have you found that when you do offer it for free, the decision to buy the game, the rates are pretty good?

It depends totally on the game.

You can see pay rates anywhere from three percent all the way to 25% depending on the kind of game.

The great thing about consoles, the players are captive on the consoles.

They are excited to be able to buy things digitally.

We are a part of that ecosystem.

Before we go, how would you describe your relationship?

These two businesses are under the same roof, how they coexist.

The great thing about sony is it has the foresight to see gaming as something larger than the console world.

We worked very closely with them and it has been a great relationship.

They are super easy to work with.

The future of the living room , in a word or two, what would you say?

It will bring the next level of gaming to the whole world.

That is exciting for me to see.

John, i appreciate the insight.

Thank you.

We are looking at how technology is fueling a major change in how we live by making it possible to share items or services instead of owning them.

We introduced them to a ridesharing service found in cities across the united states.

If you see a giant pink mustache in san francisco, do not be alarmed.

It is a lyft car.

The passenger is smiling, the driver is smiling.

It helps break the ice.

It is among a new crop of ridesharing services.

Owning a vehicle is the second-highest household expense and the united states and there had to be a better way to connect people.

Open the lyft app.

The average cost, around $10. that is cheaper than a black sedan or a taxi.

On fulsome between spirit and main -- spear and main.

He can bring in up to $200 a day.

The community is able to help out.

It is good to be able to be there for them.

The drivers give more than 30,000 rides a week in the u.s. now operating in 16 cities across the country.

This is the future of transportation, where it is more affordable and efficient.

Stay tuned for more of our sharing economy series.

Tomorrow, we will speak with the ceo.

She is a partner at one of the hottest firms in silicon valley.

We will talk to her, coming up.

? you are watching "bloomberg west." dell is now officially a private company as the buyouts by michael dell and silver lake closes.

Shares are in the process of being delisted.

The buyout sparked a major feud between dell and carl icahn who argued the deal undervalued the pc maker.

Electronic arts said sales dropped four percent in the second quarter while profit surged 28%. online sales were up as the company will sell more online games.

The los angeles home where steve jobs grew up has been added to the cities list of historic properties.

The company still does not have any family board members.

Stanford fellow took on this issue, telling the new york times this is the elite arrogance of the silicon valley mafia.

They went to the ipo without a single woman on the board.

This comment caught the eye of the twitter ceo.

Bloomberg has learned that twitter is searching for a female board member.

I want to bring in a partner at kleiner perkins.

You cannot comment on this situation specifically, but you were very involved in bringing women to you -- to the boards of your portfolio companies.

It takes a commitment of directors to be able to bring on great women to the boards.

I have just come back from a conference in washington.

Or were 500 incredibly talented women on board -- there were 500 incredibly talented women on board.

We are working through to build a unique database and tracking some amazing women.

Boards have to take a bet on young women who are perhaps not the obvious ones.

I introduced sheryl sandberg.

Now it seems so obvious.

There is a fortune 100 company that turned down marissa mayer.

Boards have to bet on young women.

Facebook went public without any women on its board.

They have another woman on the board as well.

Why did it take so long?

We are focusing on the wrong issue.

We need to keep women in the workforce.

If we have more women in those leadership positions, we will have more opportunities.

Google is pretty exceptional in terms of an example of a very diverse board.

What made google different?

Google has three exceptional women on its board of directors and it also has an exceptional leadership team.

A large composition of leadership group is women.

I think it was a bold move in the early days to rethink about the fact that they wanted a reflective board that would provide versed he of thought.

-- provide diversity of thought.

, stu think silicon valley is still an all boys club?

-- how much do you think silicon valley is still an all boys club?

It is, but i have been pleased in the last three years.

Young women have founded their own companies or positions of leadership.

We have a long way to go.

We need to be able to think about things like mentoring or leadership at the top and we need to be able to have men take on the role where they will embrace bringing women into these new and bold positions.

We have to do that.

It is not just the technology industry.

How time-consuming is it to be on a board?

How do you convince someone like that to make time in their day, in their year to serve on a board?

Being on a board is prestige.

I am a big advocate of an executive taking on at least one board positions.

It depends on whether it is a public board or a private board.

The variety of experiences will vary.

Some companies discourage executives from serving on boards.

I am sure that makes things a lot more difficult.

In terms of making a match, how does that work?

Is there a delicate dance?

Are there interviews?

Board recruiting is a dance.

You do not want to recruit five board members and turn them all down because you do not like the chemistry.

A lot of research done in the background.

A short list is constructed and prioritized.

Board recruiting is time- consuming because people are so busy.

If you can get the right ward construct, it can be powerful.

-- board construct, it can be powerful.

I have made it such a focus in our firm.

My partners and i are so excited about this initiative.

Another area we are focused on is on the younger end of the spectrum.

We launched the product fellows program, which offers graduating students in computer science is an opportunity to take a years -- being a product manager is like being a mini-ceo.

We have to keep those young women in the workforce.

50% of college graduates who are women actually leave within five years.

Within five years of joining the workforce.

There is a lot more research that needs to be done.

It is not an understanding industry.

Mentoring, leadership development is really important.

Always great to have you here.

Has apple kept its cool factor?

Not according to some young people.

? welcome back.

With a market cap well over 400 $64 billion, apple is still the world's most valuable company, but is it still one of the coolest?

We asked more than 600 people about the cool factor.

David goldberg joins us now with more.

It is something we have been wondering about for months.

Is apple still cool?

You asked fans about the new ipad.

What do they say?

We got the feedback that if you were already in ipad owner, you are interested.

If you are not an ipad owner, the new ones did not seem to motivate people.

It is early.

They just announced these last week.

They will have, i am sure, a lot of people buying it, but at the moment, it did not get that kind of wow excitement.

Tim cook said it is dramatically different.

Do people think it is dramatically different?

The feedback was basically not that different.

People did not feel like -- there were a small group of people -- the features were not that different.

There was not that motivation.

I am personally quite excited.

We live here in silicon valley and we are a little biased.

I want the newest, greatest technology.

It may change people's perceptions once they get out there.

We are seeing the lack of pre- release excitement.

Let's talk about the cool factor.

I asked robin li about the cool factor in china.

He thinks they still have it.

Chinese users want bigger screens, better software for chinese characters.

What do people here in the united states think?

The majority of people said apple is still cool.

The concerning thing that we saw is that younger consumers thought apple was still cool, but less of them thought it.

That was concerning that you are aging out.

That is the most important demographic.

You know this, you run a company.

The majority of people still think apple is cool, but it is slipping and that younger demographic.

How much has the loss of steve jobs hurt apple?

Yes, that is part of it, but they are looking at the products and not seeing that wow factor.

It is all wrapped together.

When we asked people about it, people thought it was a negative.

They did not feel like so company was doing as well.

For the people who do not think apple is at school anymore, what do they think is cool?


Google as well, but samsung was viewed as apple's main competitor.

We kind of recognize that, but to the outside world, that is a shock that samsung is the main competitor to apple.

This is a company that most people 10 years ago did not really know what they did.

Today, they are one of the largest companies in the world and they make a great smartphone . it is number one in china and robin li carries one.

What are you gleaning from that in terms of trends in the tablet market?

Much greater use on mobile of ios devices.

It was still far and away the most used tablet.

Other people were using tablets, but more than 60% of the use was ipad.

It is like 80% ios from a mobile perspective.

We are still seeing the more engaged web users are on ios devices.

Interesting stuff.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the holidays.

Dave goldberg, always great to have you.

Thank you.

As we had to break, take a look at what is coming up tomorrow.

Facebook reports earnings.

Will they make even more progress with mobile advertising?

We are still looking for entrepreneurs who would like advice on building or launching a startup.

You can take a look at the presentations on our facebook page.

They will review the pitches and we may feature some of you on the show.

Coming up, trying to figure out where to take your kids trick or treating, but never met your neighbors?

Next door has -- gets you acquainted.

We will talk to the cofounder next.

? neighborhood social networking site next door has raised $60 million in new funding.

Today's investment announcement comes as the site has seen a fivefold increase in the past year with one in seven neighborhoods active.

I want to bring you the cofounder.

You guys were not even looking for money, they came knocking on your door?

We were not out looking.

Instead, we had people come to us.

We were evaluating, can they add value?

We were blown away.

Some of the best investors out there.

One of the best investors in all of silicon valley can help us grow and build the company and scale it to the next level.

Another person who has seen great companies like linkedin and facebook, we felt like this was a unique opportunity.

Are you saying -- we are focusing on building a great product.

International is something that is in our sites.

We are enhancing our product development.

Was taking additional money, do you put additional pressure on yourself to have a bigger exit?

We feel this is a huge and meaningful opportunity and we want to see it through to its full potential.

This is following through on that and making sure we put ourselves in a position where we capitalize on this opportunity.

Let's talk about growth.

What numbers can you give me?

A year ago, we had 5500 neighborhoods across the country.

Fast forward to our two-year anniversary, last saturday, and we are at over 22,000 neighborhoods across the country.

We are seeing massive penetration in some of the major cities.

You guys have some cool halloween masks -- halloween maps.

In my neighborhood in san francisco, there are not a lot of people on nextdoor.

I did not see very many houses.

How do you tackle neighborhoods like that?

But there are some neighborhoods that have struggled over the years -- there are some neighborhoods that have struggled over the years.

Those move over to nextdoor pretty gradually.

Most neighborhoods across the country do not have any form of communication.

20% of americans do not know a single neighbor by name.

29% only know a few.

The vast majority of americans have no way to communicate with their neighbors.

Nextdoor fills that need.

We think we have struck a chord.

You guys are not focused on making money.

But you have talked about a local advertising product.

When might we see you guys start to hunker down?

We will look at that probably in the next year or so.

We are focused on building out the user experience and making it something every neighborhood in the country is using.

We think there is a big opportunity to tap into the local businesses and connecting them with local residents.

It has triggered talk of whether there is a bubble.

How would you respond to that?

Are we back in a bubble where investors are flocking to hot companies?

I do not want to speculate on other peoples valuations.

We have the most savviest investors.

These are people who do their due diligence.

One of the best analysts in the internet industry, they did their homework.

We feel like they invested in us because they want to be a part of building something great.

Congratulations, great to have you here on the show.

It is time for the bwest byte, where we focus on one number that tells a whole lot.

$20. uber users had to spend to cuddle with a kitten and eat a cupcake.

I love this story.

How many people actually got to snuggle kittens?

Every time we tried to do it, it said all of the kittens were being snuggled.

Sorry, all kittens are currently being snuggled.

Please try again.

What is up with that?

Only in some cities.

I asked my driver and he almost threw me out of the car.

Thank you for watching.

We will see you back here tomorrow.




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