♪ emily: i am emily chang and this is the best of "bloomberg technology," where we bring the top interviews from the week in tech. world's moste valuable startup and a wide investors decided it was time for travis kalanick to go and a way forward for uber. plus, facebook ceo sheryl , sandberg gives her take on big branding, the future of digital ads, and cybersecurity. and the inside track on the trump administration's plans for

tech. we talked to the founder of code for america who was in the room for the first meeting of the american technology council. but first, to our lead. travis kalanick is officially out as uber's ceo, resigning from the company he cofounded. kalanick's resignation comes a week after the board announced he would take a leave of absence following months of scandal and employee exits. however, the pressure did not come from the board. instead, in a rare move, investors pushed kalanick to step aside. it these investors poured more .han $15 billion into uber caroline hyde broke down the news with our bloomberg tech reporter eric newcomer and a partner at the lead edge and investor into uber. >> kalanick hoped it would satisfy critics and give him time to recharge after the death

of his mother, and sort of, somewhat take responsibility for the findings of the holder inquiry. but then it clearly was not enough. bill and some other major investors in uber sort of let -- led this campaign to tell travis that he needed to step aside and that looks to be what finally convinced him to leave his position as ceo. caroline: as an investor, this is something you agree with and why did it come down to the investor base and not the board? >> i think the investor base represents a large voting interest in the company. and that is an important source of control and influence of the business. i think it is important to recognize that travis kalanick also resigned sort of prompted by this, but he made the determination that this is the best for the company. he did not have to resign. so, let's not discount the role

of travis making that decision for himself. yes, profit by the investors but , he had a hand in it as well. caroline: eric can you explain , potentially why the board had not taken such action prior to this? were their hands tied? was it to do with travis' own voting share? eric: well, travis has a lot of control over the company, especially when coupled with his employee and his early and early coo of the company. together, they had a pretty strong, coalition there. and then there was a lot of faith and travis. he has been a key man in defining the company for good and bad. you know, uber did in gross $20 billion bookings last year. amid the scandal, it is easy to forget how enormous and global this business is. it will be a question how somebody else can step in and around goal the business that travis -- it will be a question

how someone else can step in and wrangle the business that travis knows more than anyone else. caroline: let's turn to nimay. are you as confident as ever as an investor that the company will continue to grow and the valuation continue to be supported when they lose such a divisive visionary such as travis? travis'sthink that involvement a lot of involvement going forward, is a challenge, and something the company will overcome. there is plenty of precedent about non-founders stepping into the role as ceo and taking businesses forward. we look at eric at google, took the reins and look at where google is today? not in the same view, but when steve jobs passed away and tim cook took the reins at apple. the founder and ceo passed away and apple is up 200% since steve jobs' passing. so, there is absolutely a precedent for non-founders taking a backseat, and businesses continue to

appreciate value and continue to do great things. i am more said about who is going to step into those shoes, sure, butig ones for there are lots of talk to people who are excited about taking on this opportunity, taking on this challenge. it's an incredible business. they did $20 billion in bookings last year and continue to grow. we continue to believe their growth will be sustained. they just need to have the right leadership at the helm to continue that. caroline: we were just looking at the amount of executives that need to be filled. the positions of ceo, coo, cfo, cmo, svp of engineering, general counsel. first of all, who do you envision being coo? got any names springing to mind? >> my vote is definitely for sheryl sandberg. there isn't anybody -- i don't know if she will take the job, but there isn't anybody who is more capable, and embodies the culture and values that the company needs on a go forward basis.

but, more generally speaking, they need somebody with global experience experience running a , rapidly growing business as complex as uber is, and someone that embodies those values they are looking to define on a go forward business. inclusion, empathy, these are things that the board and the investors are going to be looking for is a look to define a new ceo, and fell out the rest of the operating bench. caroline: can i quickly ask him a therefore, can i ask how much you worry about the control travis continues to have from a voting share perspective? >> going back to his resignation and him deciding to do that, i think that is the first step in a recognition that this is the -- that this is the right thing for the business and , from a governing control standpoint, i think there will be steps taken on a go forward basis that help create a little more balance and independents around the board. we believe those steps are

coming and that travis will do the right thing from a governance standpoint. let's not forget that that is split between garrett and ryan as well, so there is some diversity there in the voting control and ownership in the business, but that we should continue to see that diversification on a go forward basis as well. emily: that was bloomberg tech's eric newcomer speaking with caroline hyde. facebook chief operating officer sheryl sandberg led facebook's presence at the annual advertising festival. as the social network increasingly dominates the ad market. but before she traveled to france, sandberg spoke exclusively with caroline hyde, and discussed the evolution of facebook's ad strategy as the market shifts. sheryl: our biggest message is that the small screen is big. people have moved to mobile and businesses are catching up. it is now the case that the average u.s. consumer -- and

these numbers are duplicated all over the world, is spending about four hours a day on tv and five and three quarters on digital, the majority of which is mobile. and so, it is a really exciting time to be a marketer because people are carrying around, and their pockets this device that in their pockets this , device that lets you reach them all the time and brands, products, services have always been part of our daily lives from the toothpaste we brush our teeth with to the shampoo reuse or the car services on the cars , we drive. these are all a part of our daily lives. now marketers can reach us , hopefully with messages we want to hear as part of our daily experience. that's pretty amazing. and inclusion of creativity. this advertising festival is about the creative community. it is about how do we create messages that really resonate with people, and want them to be a part of their daily lives? caroline: this is almost playing

into a discussion mark zuckerberg started of community building, off-line and online. how will brands play into that? sheryl: communities are so important. we are very focused on facebook from mark and all of us on how we build communities that provide support for people off-line and online. brands are a huge part of that. airbnb is doing a great job. they have this great off-line experience where people can rent house from hosts. but then they have created lots greatebook groups that online experiences, so even when you are not on that trip or vacation, you can be connected to the people who are a part of it. caroline: what about all the various products? you talk about how airbnb is making a good run of it using facebook groups. what about messenger? what about whatsapp? what about instagram? how are these products being adapted in the growth you are seeing? sheryl: we have the two largest mobile ad platforms in the world and we are seeing people use that to build their businesses.

there is a young woman in brazil named joanna who started a company and their idea was to sell fashion accessories. so, using facebook and instagram, she did all of her advertising herself on her phone, she was able to target those ads to people interested in fashion accessories come and 79% of the business she had came from instagram. that is the small and local example. we also see the largest at agencies, the largest clients in the world, figuring out how to reach people, and create -- and they created that works for facebook and instagram. and we are starting to learn a little bit more about how businesses can interact on messenger as well. caroline: what about video? this is where the real explosion has been and what facebook has really driven forward. you are experiencing with new ways adverts can come in videos that run on facebook. how much is that being adopted?

how are you seeing that being added to your bottom line? sheryl: marketers have always loved video because it is a great way to tell a compelling story. i think what this community is increasingly understanding, and we need to do better is you have , to create the video for the platform. so the first tv ads were people , reading their radio ads behind mics. now, people could see, but when tv evolved, video ads were made for tv and it certainly was not someone sitting behind a mic. a lot of the first video ads in a social space or 32nd tv spots, just moved over to the social platform, and those can work one. -- those can work well. caroline: is it either or when you think about brands putting their money to work? i am looking at data that says $70 billion is currently spent on tv. how much of that will go purely to the digital space now? sheryl: i don't think it is either or. marketers should reach people on tv, on mobile, in the digital space, they should reach people

everywhere they go. but how they reach people on those different platforms needs to evolve. and facebook and instagram, we think we offer a really unique value proposition for marketers and people because you can have the creativity of a video, the creativity of sound and light and pictures, but you can also do very specific targeting. you can target your current customers differently than new customers. people who are in the market for a car, people who look like people in the market for a car , so you can make sure the right message gets to the right person. emily: coming up, tech's biggest titans gathered at the white house to discuss the road ahead for u.s. technology. we will hear from jennifer who attended the meeting alongside apple's tim cook and microsoft's ceo. and later in the hour, more from our exclusive conversation with facebook coo sheryl sandberg. , this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: a story we are following, the federal trade commission is challenging the proposed merger between draft kings and fan dual. the fcc says the combined company would control 90% of the paid daily fantasy business. depriving customers of the benefit of direct competition between the companies. the ceos of draft kings and fanduel say they are disappointed by the decision and considering their options. tech leaders say the u.s. government needs to modernize after president trump's senior advisor, and son-in-law, jared kushner held a tech summit at , the white house on monday. apple's ceo tim cook was just one of the tech titans in attendance and he commended kushner's steps in getting the government equipped with the latest technology. tim: the u.s. should have the

most modern government in the world and today, it does not. and it is great to see the effort that jerrod is putting in -- that jared is putting in on things that will pay back in five or 10 or 20 years. emily: we sat down with jennifer pahlka. she attended the meeting in washington and served as a deputy chief technology officer under president obama. jennifer: to the credit of the people who organized the meeting and the tech ceos, there were breakout sessions on pretty substantive topics, things people do not normally put on the news, like procurement reform and how to get the government into the cloud and digital services for citizens and i saw most of the tech , executives went to the sessions that i was in and had a pretty substantive dialogue about these issues. emily: so you are walking into , this having worked for the obama administration. give us some color from the room. what did it feel like?

jennifer: again, to the credit of the folk there it felt like , the people who had come into the white house since obama left have looked at what i and many , many other colleagues did to say, this is how we are going to modernize government, and let's continue and accelerate that. and i think that they are doing a good job of strengthening the united states's digital service and the two units that do great tech for the american people. that is good. i am happy to see them doing that. they have a long way to go. on the other hand, they are doing this in the context of an administration whose other actions do not necessarily represent what is best for the american public if you are , talking about services. emily: let's take a listen to what microsoft's ceo had to say to president trump. take a listen. >> all the technology we have today because it started in the

government, and the recent institutions you funded, as well as the enlightened immigration policy. of course, i am a beneficiary of that, and i hope that we continue to be able to really make sure the american competitiveness is what helps us . emily: immigration has been a hot topic for president trump. how did he respond to that remark? jennifer: i don't recall what the president said to that remark. i also know there was probably a lot more said behind closed doors. they had five breakout sessions per slot, and i was not in the one on immigration, although i was glad to see it on the agenda. emily: did president trump seem receptive? to what was discussed? jennifer president trump certainly responded to those tech ceos. i would really look i think more toward what the tech ceos are saying to each other and how they are going to hold the president accountable, not just to the things about modernizing technology, but modernizing in the service of what?

it should be in the services working for the american public, and they will have to stand up and ask those questions as this keeps going. emily: right. you posted ahead of the meeting a talked about why you are going. politics aside, why did you think it was important to be there, even if you did not agree with the politics? jennifer: right there is , politics and there is governing. governing is our problem. we have to get involved if it is going to work well. we as citizens and as the tech industry, we are going to have to get more involved if we are want to make the business of governing work. it doesn't work well today. try applying for food stamps, for instance. if you try to do it online, until recently, it is that almost an hour online, 50 screens, hundreds of questions, doesn't work on a mobile phone. we have shown you can do that in seven minutes on a mobile phone , including uploading your documents. it's not just that that is a

burden on the user, we need to -- on the user, it means we get bad outcomes. food stamps, snap, is correlated with better education outcome for kids. so, when we have half of our population in this statement on the program, half that could be on the program, we are missing out on all those benefits that it will cost us a lot more later when we have to intervene. emily: as the former deputy cto, what are the biggest challenges they will run into when it comes to modernizing government? jennifer the biggest challenge : right now is getting the talented they need. there are amazing public servants working in the government now. most of whom came under the previous administration. a shout out to those who have come since and as one person replied to me on twitter, i am going in because it feels like , if our government has sort of a house on fire, i am going to run towards that, not away from it. those are great public servants and some will continue to go. there's also wonderful people

collect and working in government to do this for so long. we need to keep the talent going and it's harder to do it when people don't agree with the policies of the administration. emily: you started an organization called code for america. this issue came up. tim cook even spoke about it. what is the top of your priority list as the president? jennifer: we are trying to prove that government services can work for all people with dignity, that government can work the way it should in the 21st century. so, we are there to reframe this conversation from modernizing to making it work for people. that,think that we can do not just by speaking up at meetings, a by following up and showing a can work, and then asking everybody who works in tech to pay attention, get involved, support government when it is doing the right thing and hold it accountable when it is not. emily: that was jennifer pahlka, code for america founder and executive director. coming up, tesla goes global.

the company wrapping up its presence in china with an agreement to produce cars in the country. and later blue apron announces , details of its ipo plans just as the food startup scene was thrown through a loop on the amazon-whole foods deal. we will break down on how the competition in foods delivery is heating up. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: tesla has signed a preliminary agreement to explore production in china. according to people familiar with the matter, the electric carmaker reached a deal with the city of shanghai. it would move tesla a step closer to lowering its shipping cost in the world's largest auto market. bloomberg reported this on monday with dana hull. dana: it sounds like there is an imminent announcement for tesla to produce vehicles in shanghai , and we are hearing this from china. not a lot of details yet on who the partner would be, but this is a huge move for tesla as it seeks to become a global automaker.

>> how significant is this? >> renault to just have one auto plant here in california. right now american auto companies cannot really make cars unless they have a local production partner and without that the import taxes are high. having a local partner in china would allow tesla to access china where luxury cars are all the rage. emily: how big a market to we think china could be for tesla? dana: we are already seeing signs sales of the model x are doing really well there. we came out with a model with a filter for climate control. in the width of the paris agreement, china is the leader on climate change, especially when it comes to auto. emily: there are two upcoming spacex launches. what can you tell us about those? dana: the next is a communications satellite scheduled for friday from cape canaveral in florida. on saturday, they are going to launch satellites for iridium from brandenburg air force base. they could have two back-to-back

launches from either coast. emily: what is the significance of these launches given the challenges spacex has had? dana: spacex has come back from the mishap of last and they are september, launching rockets on a more regular basis. their goal is to launch 20-24 rockets this year, and if they get that that would be a pretty , incredible launch cadence. emily: talk to us about what we are expecting? dana: launches can shift a lot because of last-minute technical issues or the weather and permission from the air force. if they launch one rocket from florida on friday, and another rocket from california on saturday, i mean, that is pretty unprecedented. emily: put it in the big picture when it comes to the private space race and spacex's role within it. dana: spacex is driven -- spacex is focused on driving down the cost of space and reusing rockets is a big part of that. they had a milestone in march when they reuse the rocket for the first time. they will reuse the rocket again this weekend.

they will be launching rockets on a more regular basis. the more they launch, the cheaper it gets as they reuse their boosters. emily: our bloomberg tech reporter dana hull there. airbnb is launching a premium service for customers who liked fancy hotels. according to people familiar with the program it will send , inspectors into hosts homes to make sure they meet a set of quality standards. beebe -- the new airbnb program could launch by the end of the year. coming up, more of our exclusive conversation with facebook coo sheryl sandberg. her thoughts on combating terror online, and solving tech diversity problems. and a reminder, all episodes of "bloomberg technology" are streaming live on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: welcome back to the "best of bloomberg technology." i'm emily chang. we return now to our exclusive conversation with sheryl sandberg. the social networking giant announced it would increase you should of artificial intelligence to remove extremist content is european leaders put more pressure on tech companies to block material. we spoke with sheryl sandberg about this issue. sheryl: there is no place for any of this on facebook, no place for terrorism and we take that responsibility very seriously. we just announced last week we have been working on this for a long time, we will continue to work on it, but we have next steps.

we are using at as a technology to help us find any content that may be inappropriate and get it off even faster. we are making a big human resources investment. we already have researchers and law enforcement and terrorism experts who work at facebook but , we are growing that including our human capacity. we have 4500 people around the world to review and remove inappropriate content. we are growing that by thousands. we are working with nonprofits, governments other companies , around the world to make sure we all work together to make sure this content is not on our platform. for brands, we offer a lot of tools to know where their ads can show, to make sure they know that facebook is a safe community for them. caroline: you say you are working for nonprofits and governments.

how are you in europe talking to governments? are you worried about the talk about encryption and some of the fines that have been raised? sheryl: we are in constant conversation with the government on issues of security and issues that affect all of us working together. we have worked with government s to talk about initiatives, occi. online content initiatives, were governments can not just make sure terrorism is prevented, but can actually do counterterrorism work. getting positive messages out there that stop people from doing things that obviously hurts so many people. we also work with law enforcement officials all over the world to make sure that if there is anything we can do to support their work, we are able to do in this area. caroline: something fascinating you launched in berlin, the , online civil courage initiative. the innovative use of the

counter narrative. it is so complex, therefore, how do you think you can understand if you are improving -- what is the end goal or target? is it to make sure the measurements come down and the numbers come down? what would you count as a success? sheryl: success from a company point of view is to make sure there is no inappropriate content of any kind. hate, violence, terrorism. any of this on our platform. we take our responsibility even more broadly. we want to contribute. for example over the past , several years, tech companies have started working together, sharing information. when anyone identify someone they think is going to put inappropriate content on a platform, we know we have a broad responsibility to do everything we can in the face of some of these threats to help protect people, and we take that very seriously. caroline: even though we are in the early days of brands responding positively, the

terrorism element and fake news, do they feel this is changing? sheryl: brands know facebook is a safe place for them to be. we have worked very hard to inappropriate content is not on facebook and that brands have a safe way and a contextually safe way to communicate on facebook. caroline: i think what is also fascinating -- you talk very passionately about this element. you also talked passionately about diversity. and this is something we are seeing now, brands also becoming potentially involved in. what are your messages to brand to keep on drawing diversity, not only within companies, but also in advertising? sheryl: brands have such an important role to play because people see so many marketing messages. the estimates are that people can see hundreds of marketing messages a day. that means that if the market products and services, in a supportive of gender equality way, supporting female leadership, we can really make strides towards gender equality

in the world. the foundation will announce the glass lion. it is an award given every year to cannes to the ads of the year for gender equality. last year, p&g won which showed a man watching a woman doing all the housework. realizing you never helped his wife or mother, and leaving his house, and going home to his wife of many decades and offering to do laundry. caroline: diversity closer to home then. talk to us about diversity. i'm a female looking to get a job and technology at the moment. i look at uber for example and maybe i am being put off. what advice as a coo might you give to uber answer the people wanting to get into technology right now as a female? sheryl: obviously, the reports of what is happening at uber are super troubling. i'm glad they are taking action to address them, and all of us

need to do more. we definitely need more women in the tech field. we also need them in leadership in every industry in the world. we have these same issues. in technology, we have a special concern and opportunity which is that women are not studying computer science. in 1985, women were 35% of computer science degrees, and now we are down to 17%. we know girls are outperforming boys in schools in most countries in the world, including yours and including mine. all the way from elementary to university. we need to pursue our daughters underrepresented minorities that tech is for them. emily: blue apron says it's targeting a $3.2 billion valuation, after shares of grocers and retailers fell on the news that amazon is planning whoppingole foods in a

$13 billion deal. we discussed the landscape with our bloomberg at large editor cory johnson. >> this is a company that operates in a space, we know that food delivery is so fueled by competition, it's expensive space to operate in because so much of the costs go to marketing. you are always fighting. it is a land grab for wallet share for customers. it's especially tricky for blue apron and that now whole foods will have the logistical empire that is amazon and amazon customers will have more accessible foods. why is that important? those are the kind of higher-order customers how the top 10% of u.s. households who are willing to spend a little more to get the quality the whole foods promises. that kind of happens to be the same group that blue apron is targeting. i spoke to an analyst earlier today who said they are all fighting for the same wallet share of these high spending

customers. it is going to be hard for blue apron to fight down the value chain because folks are not willing to spend $11 or $12 a plate for a box of fresh food, but that might spoil. when you think about where blue apron's growth is going to be, they are going to have to figure out how to make sure that they are the ones napping those dollars from those high-end consumers and not whole foods via amazon. emily: and yet blue apron is a very different business from whole foods, amazon. how does it change the competitive landscape? cory: they are very different businesses. yes, they serve food to consumers. what you see blue apron doing is trying to market this aggressively. it's a new kind of idea sending people just the amount of food they need to make for a certain meal with that recipe. they are spending vast fortunes to do it. they spend $60 million just last quarter, 61 million just last

quarter. look how much they are spending in advertising. there's a percentage of revenue is going way up. 25% of revenues last quarter, an extraordinary amount of money to be spending on marketing. that will help further their ipo because the name is better. they are spending like crazy, like drunken sailors try and get people into their service. the goal is to keep them and they have yet to show that ability. emily: almost every analyst says to expect more consolidation. could blue apron consider m&a, or reconsider the timing? >> right now, we have got nine days left for m&a to be on the table in the deal is scheduled to price next week. frankly, given where it is in the cycle of this deal, if something like that was going to happen, it probably would have already. what can i tell you -- what i can take that a person familiar with the deal, spoke to me and told me that management is folkies -- management is focusing on refining its ipo pitch, really pushing this

lifestyle idea that corey was talking about. the fact that his recipes and prepackaged ingredients and that is so different than what a grocery delivery company does. and they will be really pushing towards a drop in the market, not just the fact that they can expand, but only about 1% of all grocery shopping actually happens online. these are areas that amazon -whole foods could help if people get more used to buying their food off the internet. this seems to be an ipo at this point, and i will definitely be keeping eye on it. emily: we have new reporting out about how this amazon whole foods will work. job cuts in price cut the whole foods. what can you tell us? cory: amazon denies the job cuts, but we have sources that confirm it. as bad as grocery margins are, whole foods has about a 5% operating margin and amazon is worse. the focus for amazon is very

different, but amazon's overall profit margins are below 2%. they want lots of cash flow in -- they want lots of cash flow and want to use that cash flow to reinvest in the business. the very thing that whole foods shareholder activists are looking for. increases margins. emily: coming up, airbnb rolling out a new feature to combat the global refugee crisis. we hear from the cofounder, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: airbnb is outlining an ambitious plan to use its platform to help refugees and evacuees around the globe on its new open home platform. the goal? to find housing for 100,000 displaced people in the next five years. we heard from an airbnb host from denver who hosted several refugees. she explained why she signed up

for the program. >> when i was first contacted by airbnb asking if we could host a refugee in need, it was an unequivocal yes. it is consistent with our values as a family, and quite honestly, it aligns with the broader vision and mission of airbnb, which is to serve those in need. emily: and we spoke with there being the joe gebbia who make , new announcements about the platform from paris, and how the company is trying to get more people like susan signed up for the program. joe: well, you can imagine over the last five years, we have seen incredible growth of our host community. he really begs the question -- it is a big the question what if , we became proactive about situations in the world rather than just reactive to natural disasters? pretty quickly, the topic of displaced people can front and center. currently, there are 65 million displaced people. that's the most since world war ii. it also happens to be close to the population of the united kingdom. as we looked at what is airbnb good at?

short-term hospitality, trust between strangers, and global presence. we thought we might extend this natural generosity into a platform that we are calling "open homes." emily: you called this 21st century philanthropy. why are you doing this? joe: i feel we have a responsibility. we have this incredible asset, this amazing committee of over 300 million homes in more than 93 countries. looking around in the world of how we might apply what we are good at with where it is needed the most, it makes a lot of sense. emily: you are a $31 billion company. you got investors who placed huge bets on your future. how do you sell them on the idea that this is what devoting time and resources to, from a business perspective? joe: well, you know, i think this is really just a natural extension of what we are already doing. it is a question of, why not provide the same solutions to travelers to those who are displaced? emily: how does this benefit the business of airbnb?

does it benefit the business financially? joe: well airbnb does not take , transactions on this -- transactions on these kinds of connections. this is about generosity in times of need. you know what it is a part of , the business. we have a great core business that is able to fund this kind of thing, but it's an investment -- it is just an extension of our values in the company coming to life in the real world. emily: what happens when there's a problem, like when a host and a guest don't get along? or maybe there is a cultural clash? joe: well, we partner very closely with third-party agencies that are well respected, and have been doing this for many, many years, and we work very closely with them, and provide the same customer service with the regular product as well. emily: airbnb was hosting a hostse convention for its and november 2015 when the paris terror attacks happened. you were there. there is a very divisive debate going on around the world around immigration and terrorism.

there is talk of closing borders and building walls. how do you respond to that? anything, iw, if think the world could use a little more understanding of each other. if that is something we can do with our platform by allowing people to open their homes, and we are happy to play the part. emily: tech leaders are making critical decisions right now about how to work with the u.s. presidential administration. we have seen some tech leaders drop off presidential councils , for example, when they disagreed with president trump on climate change. what is airbnb's strategy when it comes to working or not working with the white house, even on issues you disagree on? joe: well, you know we see home , sharing as a nonpartisan issue. we work with democrats and republicans alike. and so we work with any , administration to bring home sharing to life. emily: airbnb is expanding with this "open home" platform. you are also adding more experiences to the platform,

instead of just places to stay. give us an update on the business and plans for an ipo. joe: well from a business , standpoint, we are really excited. in 2016, we launched trips, which allows anyone to offer an experience. it answers the question, what can i do? now that you helped me discover a local part of the city, how can i find out cool and interesting things to do? through experiences, it allows our host on airbnb to share their skills and passions and allow outsiders to feel like insiders when traveling. emily: joe airbnb has three very , involved cofounders. as the company has grown and moved forward, how do you distinguish your role, and what are your top priorities? joe: well, i think he just says is nicely settled into what our passions are, and what is most valuable in the company. i certainly enjoyed digging about the future. i run a design studio inside the company, which is a research and development team.

that is where the origins of the "open home" platform began. thinking about how we might utilize the core competencies to put a dent in this global problem. emily: coming up, jack ma plays his trump card. alibaba founder delivers on a promise to create one million jobs in the united states, starting with small businesses in detroit. if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. you can check us out on the bloomberg radio app. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ emily: alibaba is pulling out all the stops for u.s. business entrepreneurs. the chinese e-commerce giant is kicking off a two day event in detroit, michigan right now, drawing in thousands of u.s. business owners and aiming to learn how to succeed in china, with the company's help. for the company's founder and executive chairman, jack ma, is following through on a promise he made to president trump to create one million jobs earlier this year. plans.ussed alibaba's

>> i think it's great what they are doing. i think they are trying to get out to american businesses, small business owners, farmers, and agriculturalists, and trying to educate them on the opportunities in china, which are massive, and also get them to sign up on alibaba. they say, look, you have been selling in america for a long time, but there is so much opportunity in china and the economy is growing so much. you should bring business here and start exporting here. there are a lot of chinese consumers over the last 10 years with the rise of the middle class looking for interesting products produced in america. it's a great potential marriage. emily: brian is the demand , actually there? brian: that is a good question. i would separate the demand from the supply. i think there is a demand in china for american goods. we have seen that repeatedly. the question is, where will that supply come from?

i think the conference is great marketing, it is strong politically when you think about beijing and washington, d.c. and playing to both constituencies. as a matter of practicality, i don't know how many of these small businesses will be successively selling on alibaba. however, there is demand from chinese consumers for foreign goods. emily: what do you make of that as an alibaba investor? >> i think they have to position themselves for the long term. maybe within the next six to 12 months, they don't have as many , selling onellers their platform, but this is a long-term play. anything about modeling out the business where we get excited , is, what can they do over the next 3, 5, 10 years? when you look at some of the projections they made, and many of them are pretty ambitious, they were talking about doing in $1 trillion gross merchandise value through their platform by the year 2020. that is three years from now.

and i think certainly, some help they could get from american suppliers would help them reach that goal. become very excited, and i would agree with my counterpart here that most certainly, it might take a little time, but over the long-term, i think this is certainly an opportunity for the company to capitalize upon. emily: your counterpart, the other brian, jack ma promised he would create a million jobs in the u.s. can he deliver on that promise? >> if we are looking at a 100 year timeframe, i think he could. [laughter] i don't think in the next three to five years. the math doesn't really work in his favor. that being said there is a lot , of trade that could obviously happen. what jack is doing is trying to open the u.s. market to alibaba more prodigiously than it has been. he's trying to get this brand in front of small businesses and try to make it more acceptable in the eyes of the u.s. chamber of commerce and other groups who have been battling with alibaba

and the issues they've had regarding, for instance, counterfeits. emily: now, amazon made big news by agreeing to buy whole foods. alibaba has been investing in grocery for several years now. do you see alibaba and amazon now clashing on a new battle line? >> to some extent maybe, but they are doing this in very different geographies. when you look at what alibaba is doing, it is primarily in china, obviously. i don't think amazon has any plans to get in there, but who knows? and amazon's takeover of whole foods will certainly make for a lot of interesting dynamics, but i don't necessarily think that they are competitive head-to-head. i think they are learning from one another's strategies. you see that across the board. they have gotten into payments, media, cloud, so certainly they

are learning from each other, but they don't directly compete in the same geography. it is hard to say. emily: brian buchwald, there has been concerns about alibaba and amazon clashing more broadly. will that ever come to fruition, or no because of the geographic limitations? >> certainly, amazon has had ambitions in entering china more aggressively. they looked at different paths as alibaba has looked out of china. alibaba has found greater success looking at the rest of the asia and other non-us -- non-u.s. centric markets. if you look at what alibaba is doing, it is taking the walmart approach. they are looking at more mass brands and investments in companies. they have been much more about discount marketers and large scale supermarkets, not whole foods of the worlds. -- of the world. alibaba is a marketplace where amazon is the retailer taking principal risk. you could almost see amazon

succeeding on alibaba with whole foods selling into china more so than the two of them really competing in china, at least in the near-term term. i just don't think amazon is the competitor that a tencent is for alibaba in china right now. emily: brian neider, as an investor in alibaba, do you feel a threat from amazon? >> certainly not. in the core china market, there are a lot of other companies doing well in china. as brian said, certainly tencent , and jd.com are the ones that come to my inner core we tell business. but today amazon has not really , played that to the extent alibaba wants to move into the u.s. and is bringing u.s. based sellers into china. i could see them becoming a -- i could see there being a little overlap. but to this point, not really. again, because of the geographical diversification. they learned more from one another than they compete with each other. emily: and that does it for this edition of the best of

"bloomberg technology." tune in tuesday and all episodes of "bloomberg technology," are live streaming on twitter. check us out. that's all for now. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ shery: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped a week in business around the world. the u.k. and the e.u. begin talks on brexit, china takes a landmark step in global financial markets. saudi arabia announces a succession shakeup. and oil stumbles into bear markets. >> the sentiment is relatively negative right now. >> there is too much oil in the market. shery: pulling the person strings of economies across the globe, talking about their target and challenges. >> it is not time to tie up monetary policy. >> at the end of year, we will be ready to go into market. >> we think there