The Best One Yet - 🥂 “0% alcohol… for $119” — Taittinger's non-alc champagne. Toyota’s e-Air Taxi. CNN’s paywall plan.

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Would you pay $119 for a bottle of alc-free champagne?… well Louis Vuitton just invested in it.Toyota has invested nearly $1B on an electric air taxi startup… because Toyota hates “muda.”CNN and Reuters are both adding paywalls to their news websites… they’re learning from the best (literally). Plus, the top-selling perfume du jour is scented… like your body. Introducing Pheromone fragrances.$TM $WB $LVMUY—-----------------------------------------------------GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, October 3rd. And today's pod is the best one. Yeah, this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. And on October 3rd, he asked me what day it was. It's October 3rd, I said. We're not a regular podcast. We're a cool podcast. Happy Mean Girls Day. Jack, three stories for today's pod. What have we got on the show, man? For our first story, this podcast is free. But CNN and Reuters soon won't. be. CNN and Reuters are both adding paywalls because of Harry Potter. And we'll tell you why. For our second story, would you pay $119 for a bottle of alcohol-free champagne? Louis Vuitton thinks you will. Wee, because they just invested in the world's most expensive non-alcoholic champagne. And our third and final story is Toyota. Toyota has invested nearly a billion dollars into an electric air taxi startup. Toyota loves flying taxis because Toyota hates Moota. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Muda, if you know, you know, wonderful mix of stories.

Love the mix today, Jack. What is that scent, Jack? It smells like a person. Yeah, I kind of love it. The fragrance industry noticed you loved it. That's why the fastest growing fragrance right now is pheromones. We repeat perfumes that smell like pheromones. are taking off right now. Jack, could you sprinkle on some scientific context, please?

Pheromones. They're the chemical smells secreted by all animals. In order to attract other animals. Birds do it and bees do it. Spoiler, humans, we're animals and we do it too. So beauty companies are recreating the pheromones that we all naturally secrete. Reincarnating is a better word here, Jack, but yeah, they're getting our smells from our body into our perfumes. And perfumes that smell like our sensual body odors, they're selling out at Sephora. After pheromone perfumes went viral on TikTok, sales have jumped 120% from last year. The top-selling women's fragrance on Amazon is Pure Instincts pheromone perfume, which smells like your girlfriend. The top-selling men's fragrance on Amazon is Cupid's original pheromone cologne, which smells like your boyfriend. And together,

these two pheromone perfumes are selling a million dollars a product every month, which smells like a profit puppy Jack. So yeah, it is if you're turned on right now, it's not us. No, it's the guy or gal next to you in pheromone perfume. Is it just us or does it smell like us in here? Yeah, it does smell like us and I kind of like it, Jack. If you say that, smound one more time. Yeah, the show's over. Let's hear our three stories, baby. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack, Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea boy city on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go.

We can't wait no more. So just start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, CNN.com is building a paywall. And Reuters, they're building a paywall too. And that is the biggest news in news right now. And both of them are stealing pages from the paywall.

pages of their competitors. CNN. One of the oldest acronyms out there, Jack, honestly. CNN stands for Cable News Network, but why is that a problem, man? Well, cable is dying. Yeah. But CNN has 159 million people visiting CNN.com every month. So CNN is thinking, hey, maybe we could make some money off of those 159 million CNN.com browsers. That's why affected this week, there's a paywall.

After a certain number of free articles, you're going to have to start paying four bucks a month to keep reading CNN.com. If you want to click on that CNN top 10 list of Zillow House at Homes with Places with the biggest Zillow homes article you're so curious about, you're going to have to pay. That is a typical CNN article. Four bucks a month. CNN.com. They have laid the first bricks to put it in construction terms of a paywall. And that paywall is probably never coming down. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this.

What was it, Jack? CNN says that the average visitor won't notice the paywall. They won't even bump into it. That was weird for us because like the whole point of a wall, a physical wall or a digital wall, is to bump into it. Like it's supposed to stop you from getting by, you bump into that. Unless you're at platform nine and three quarters. Good point, Jack. But the reason the average user won't notice this paywall is because the average visitor to CNN.com only views a few articles a month. They probably clicked into CNN through a link on a TikTok video or a Facebook post. or an email that was forwarded to them. So CNN won't bother to charge them a subscription.

It'll just show them advertisements like it currently does to make money off their eyeballs. Because those typical users wouldn't pay a subscription. Right. So they might as well make some money through ads. On the other hand, there are non-average users of CNN.com. Like, I don't know, you and me, Jack, were there every day. People who visit CNN.com every day, they need CNN.com. So they have a higher willingness to pay for you.

for the news. Jack and I jump in T-boy style and research stories for this podcast on CNN.com so we would pay four dollars a month to access material. That's why the paywall only comes in after a certain number of free articles. It segments the customers. And what CNN is really doing here is a business strategy called segmenting. And guess what? Reuters is segmenting too. Yeah. They announced the same paywall as CNN on the same day. It was pretty wild. Segmenting Jack? It's really kind of like the sorting hat in Harry Potter, if you think about it, right? It is, you know? It's basically saying, you guys, you like to pay more for news. You're one, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, griffindors. You guys don't really pay for news. You don't read many articles. You're a Hufflepuffs.

We'll put you over here. Actually, Hufflepuffs definitely renews. You got that way wrong. I think I just got as canceled in Hogwarts. I think that's what just happened. Or is it Ravenclaw that reads news? I feel like the Ravenclaw folks aren't going to CNN.com, if you know what I mean, man. We all know where Slytherans going for their news. So both of these big news, news companies are building a paywall, and they're doing it by poaching. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the news industry? The fastest way to catch up is to poach. Yeti's interesting thing Jack and I noticed in our research, the top man and the top woman at CNN are both alums of the New York Times. And the top man at Reuters is an alum of Bloomberg News.

Now, here's why that's interesting. Bloomberg and the New York Times are the envy of the news industry, because they've created prestige journalism that is also profitable journalism. And how are they doing so financially well? How are they doing it, Jack? Both of them have a paywall. Paywalls. Most of the content on the New York Times and Bloomberg you have to pay for. So both the New York Times and Bloomberg enjoy predictable recurring revenue through subscriptions

thanks to a paywall. CNN and Reuters won in. So they hired top people from the New York Times and from Bloomberg who know how to do that at a news agency. And now CNN and Reuters are going to segment customers like a, us like Harry Potter students with a limited paywall. Ravenclaws have to pay, Griffin doors don't. News junkies have to pay because they will.

Non-news junkies don't because they won't. Yetty, sometimes the fastest way to catch up in an industry is to poach. For our second story, LVMH just invested in the world's most expensive non-alcoholic champagne. Non-alcoholic champagne. It's the perfect example of the FOMO industry. All right, Jack, you just got back from France, but can I tell you about the most French thing I've ever heard in my life?

You ready for this? It is possible. Go ahead. The Tadinger family of French champagne-making fame baptizes their babies in champagne. Wait, they pour holy champagne on the baby's head. I don't know the logistics of this thing, but apparently they just like drop the babies in a bath of Burgundy.

That's what they're doing over at the Tattinger family. Do they drink it afterwards? We got to ask our buddy Emma for the details on this, but either way, those Tadinger babies are born into champagne, literally. Because the Tadinger family has been making champagne for a hundred years in race, a region in the northeast of France. You stuck the landing on the pronunciation. You know, you hesitated after it, but I think you should be proud, Jack. But here's the problem, yeties. The great, great granddaughter in law of the Tadinger family, Maggie, just made them spit out their drinks.

Because she has started a non-alcohol. Champagne Company. In a Champagne family. Its name is French Bloom. It's three years old, and they're selling 500,000 bottles and non-alcoholic champagne every year. Same bubbles as normal champagne, but no hangover. And this is probably the plot of season four of Emily's in Paris. And here's the news. The world's biggest champagne company, LVMH, just acquired 30% of this non-alcoholic champagne business. They're popping bottles to celebrate. The only question is, are the alcoholic or not. But Yetis, here's what Jack and I wanted to share with you. We've discovered that like any fine wine, this non-alcoholic story is actually more complex. There are layers that you need to, yes, waft to appreciate. That's our third smell noise on this pod. For example, LVMH's wine business is actually struggling right now. LVMH is the world's largest luxury company. and their wine division suffered 12% sales losses so far this year. That's right.

Moei Hennessy from LVMH, they had the worst performing division at the entire luxury company. Another complicating factor of this non-alcoholic champagne story. For any alcohol removal, it's hardest with champagne. Yeah, it's the hardest with champagne because with champagne, you have to maintain the bubbles. Turns out the de-alcoholizing process of champagne results in a loss of 60% of the champagne's flavor. So, Jack, what does the French Bloom Company do to make non-alcoholic champagne? They use the richest, most sugary grapes in all of France, so that when they de-alcoholize it, the flavor comes down to normal levels. They use heat, but they have to start with the sugaryest, sweetest of grapes.

And that is expensive. De-alcoholized wine starts with full alcohol wine and then removes the alcohol, making it a more expensive product, not less expensive. But what Jack and I find to be the most complex part about this story, isn't the alcohol, removal process, it's the price. Because French Bloom's vintage bottle is the most expensive non-alcoholic alcohol we've ever seen. A hundred and nineteen bucks a bottle, Jack, nuts possible. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our non-alcoholic buddies over at French Bloom? Where there's FOMO, there's money. Yeties, champagne is interesting because it's one of the rare occasion-based products. You buy champagne to celebrate with a group. A wedding, an engagement, a promotion. You pop champagne to celebrate with people.

So many people think a drink without alcohol should cost less because they've removed a key part of the value. Drinking. But alcohol isn't really the value of champagne, is it? The value is the feeling you get clinking a glass over a toast celebrating somebody. The buying of champagne is to toast, not to feel tipsy. So besties, French Bloom created the most expensive non-alcoholic Champagne because they're really targeting the celebratory fomo of sober people. And where there's fomo, there's money. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Toyota just wrote a $500 million check to Jobi, the electric air taxi.

The greatest lesson Toyota will teach its new investment and all of us, Jack, is the gospel of efficiency. The gospel of efficiency. But yet he's the best crystal ball, Jack and I have discovered, for predicting the future. Reading the news? No, it's not reading the news. It's watching the Jetsons. The Jetsons. The Jetsons.

The Jetsons. They predicted FaceTime iPhones, and they've now predicted flying taxis. There's a publicly traded company building flying taxis called Joby. Yeah, Joby. What do they do exactly? These aircraft take off vertically like a helicopter and then fly horizontally like an airplane, and then they land again vertically like a helicopter, and they run on batteries. They're electric.

And the stock of Joby jumped 25% on Wednesday on news that Toyota is leading their latest fundraise. Yep, Toyota just wired $500 million from their Tokyo HQ, which brings their total investment in Joby to nearly $1 billion. Yiddies, what Jack and I are saying here is that Japan's biggest carmaker will now own 20% of America's biggest air taxi company, Joby. Toyota's chief operating officer said this about the deal. Traffic is awful. So they want in on a solution that can fly right over the cars below on I-95. You're like, why is this car company buying into an air taxi company? They hate traffic. Sometimes it's as simple as that. Japanese executives want to get A to B ASAP.

You don't blame them. But yet he's investing in startups like this. It's not just about the money being wired. It's also about the brains. That's right, because Joby is getting more than cash in this deal. Jobi is getting IQ. Now that Toyota owns 20% of Jobi, Toyota is financially incentivized to help Jobi succeed, including sharing with Jobi, their efficient manufacturing techniques that have made Toyota so powerful. Nick, how about that wild statistic we found last month about how wildly efficient Toyota is? Yeties, get this, Toyota has half as many employees as Volkswagen does. $380,000 for Toyota, nearly 700,000 for Volkswagen. And here's why that's wild.

Toyota is able to produce more cars than Volkswagen, despite having nearly half the staff. And they generate nearly double the profit that Volkswagen does. Sit down, stand up and buckle up again. Jack, whip it all up for us, man. On a profit per car basis, Toyota is more than three times as efficient as Volkswagen. Yeah, no wonder they want to get out of traffic quickly. They got a lot of money to make Jack. And how does Toyota pull off that wild manufacturing efficiency? Well, Jack, they pull it off with our takeaway.

So, man, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Toyota? Eliminating Muda. That is Toyota's competitive advantage. Yeties, Jack and I have studied Toyota. And Toyota has this religious commitment to eliminating waste, which is known in Japanese as Muda. Toyota has published a list of things they consider waste or things they consider Muda, things that add no value. And they have seven categories of waste or muda,

and all 380,000 Toyota workers know the muda and are encouraged to destroy the muda. Most companies have company missions. Toyota employees act like company missionaries. Toyota line workers, they speak up if they noticed one of the seven deadly mudas is happening in the factory. And from the CEO all the way down to the seatbelt buckle installer, Every voice at Toyota is heard if it's about killing Muda.

So, Bezzi, if you want to know how Toyota produces twice the profits of Volkswagen with half the workers. And why the people of Joby are so eager to learn Toyota's tricks? It's all because of Muda. Everyone at Toyota is committed to crushing Muda. Destroy the Muda. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? CNN and Reuters are getting $4 a month paywalls, and they're using New York Times and Bloomberg people to set those paywalls up.

Yeah. Just like Ravenclaw. Sometimes the fastest way to catch up in your industry is to poach. For our second story, it's LVMH. They now own 30% of the most expensive non-alcoholic alcohol in the world. French Bloom's $190 alcohol champagne shows that where there's FOMO, there's money. And our third and final story, Toyota now owns 20% of Jobi's air taxis. Now it's time to teach Joby their manufacturing religion. Jack, what do you do when you see Muda?

You destroy Muda. You destroy the Muda. That is how Toyota gets its advantage. And if you're curious about all seven of the Muda, Jack and I love them, and we'll sprinkle them into another pod. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, port workers are still on strike, and we just learned more about their specific port demands.

It's not just a 77% pay increase over the next six years. They also want to promise not to automate. We'll see how long this stalemate lasts. And second, Tesla just announced a return to growth. Deliveries of Tesla cars climbed 6% in the third quarter from the year before, but it still missed expectations, so the stock fell. In the last two years, growth at Tesla has been about 13% a year. That's short of the crazy 50% per year that Elon targets.

And finally, Open AI. just closed its funding at a $157 billion valuation. The biggest fundraise ever was led by Thrive Capital, with Microsoft, Nvidia, and SoftBank joining the round two. Massa! Interestingly, Apple did not participate. Why did you do that, Tim? It looks like Sam Malpman, by the way,

did not get that $10 billion equity bonus with this fundraising, but it still could happen in the future. Sam, blink twice if you did. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Amy Del Prado down in lovely Florida. Push and play. Here we go. This is Amy from the U.S. kicking off World Space Week with another fun space fact. Did you know that Jingle Bells was the first music played in space by two astronauts in 1965?

One played a harmonica and the other played sleigh bells. Polaris Don made history the other week transmitting Ray's theme from Star Wars on Starlink. Astronaut Sarah Gillis played the violin back to Earth coordinating with orchestras around the world. To all the besties and yetis out there, go check out your local world. space events to join in the celebration of space. There are events held in 90 countries from October 4th through October 11th. Jingle bells and the Star Wars theme song. I bet you the aliens preferred the latter.

Yeah, yeah, the aliens like, uh, turn it up a little bit. Yeah, here we go. I assume it's the opening one with the crazy credits that come on the screen in a galaxy far, far away. Oh, it's so meta. The aliens are like, this is about us. I feel seen. Yeties, you look, and you smell.

fantastic today. Is that you, Jack? I don't know what's going on. It's us, Nick. It's us. It's all of us. Yeah, we all kind of smell a bit and it's good. If you are wearing a pheromone perfume, honestly hit us up because we're curious, what is that stuff like right now? And then turn to your buddy who smells fantastic next to you and tell them, H-Y-H-T-B-O-I. Have you smelled? I'm sorry. Have you heard the best one yet? That is how we grow the show with your shares. Jack and I will see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, a Shana Tova. Happy New Year to everyone celebrating Rush Ashana this week. And happy birthday to SpongeBob SquarePants, who's turning 25 down a bikini bottom. And a congratulations on the promotion to principal product manager to Jack Sy in New York City, Jack Cy, the king of the trick shot.

The financial trick shot. And happy birthday to David Hargis in Frankfurt, Kentucky, who's one of the best Yetty stepdad's yet. And a 30th happy birthday to Teresa Prerick. Alta down in lovely Los Angeles, but celebrating on the coasts of Mexico. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both on Stock of Apple.