The Best One Yet - “A 3rd degree, category 5 Zucking” — Instagram TV’s YouTube move. Zoox’s (maybe) acquisition. Apeel’s un-expiring avocados.

Episode Date: May 28, 2020

Zoox had the biggest ambitions in mobility: self-driving, electric, robo-taxis. But now it may sell out to become Amazon’s delivery boy. Instagram’s latest move to share ad revenue with influencers is the first big Zucking of YouTube. And our “Unicorn of the Day” is Apeel, which hit a billion-dollar valuation (thanks to Oprah money) to be the anti-aging serum for your fruit bowl.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks. Daily, it is Thursday, May 28th. Now, I'm still rocking it in Vermont, and Nick's on the West Coast right now. Back in San Francisco, so Snackers, you may notice. There may be a bit of a delay. When one of us talks and the other one talks.

But we still made this the best one yet. This is Jack. This is a T-Boy. First story, Jack, what do we got? Zooks had the biggest autonomous vehicle ambitions of any startup in the autonomous vehicle space. It's trying to become the Trinity Holy Grail. tricep hat trick of self-driving robo-electric. But now Zooks has reportedly put itself up for sale, basically on the discount rack like T.J. Mac style. Amazon's the interested buyer because

Zooks fits two key Amazon criteria. Fast and frugal. Jack, second story, what do we got? Have you noticed Instagram models tagging CBD ointment in all of their picks? That Grand Canyon Glow, feeling energized by my bang energy drink. Well, that kind of selling out with ads in your post could slowly come to an end now that Facebook will begin sharing, ad revenue with video creators. Instagram TV is Zuckin YouTube's most important feature. Our third and final story is appeal, like

the Supreme Court. Appeal is the unicorn of the day. Oh, by the way, Oprah invested too, so I got a lot going for it right now. Life goals. Get Oprah to invest in your company. This is a technology extending the life of your fruit and veggies. This lemon is best consumed by next August. But then

what's happening between farm to table? Appeal is happening between farm to table. Now, before we jump into that big congrats we were going to give to Elon and his team, but they delayed their SpaceX launch due to weather. Rain delays. They're the worst. I think the launch is going to happen on Saturday. Florida, do less. You all know Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, but do you know Lindsay Tucker? Do you know Lindsay Tucker? She's 25, lives in San Jose, works at Sephora, and she just got a new phone.

One problem of that new phone, the phone number. The phone number was Elon Musk's old phone number. First of all, Lindsay, why are you getting a new phone number? I plan to have my 802 number for the rest of my life. Second of all, Lindsay, given your work at Sephora, what did you think of our story on Elf Cosmetics the other day? I would love to hear that. Now, Lindsay gets about three calls or text messages per day meant for Elon Musk. Now, that's on a normal day. But how about a day when Elon Musk, you know, casually smokes pot on a live podcast? She's probably getting calls from cannabis companies about sponsorship deals. No joke. She says that her phone just occasionally blows up when Elon's Musk blows up. Now our thoughts, Lindsay's kind of missing an opportunity for an epic voicemail prank here. Huge, fake voicemail opportunity, Lindsay. What are you doing? Let's make it happen. Or just pretend

to be Elon like Kramer pretended to be movie phone in that classic Seinfeld episode. Hello and welcome to movie phone. Why don't you just tell me what movie you'd like to see? Lindsay, give us a call or we'll call you. Either way, just let us know. Let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get some. The snacks about to hear some. The snacks are Here ain't food, it's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family. It's all informational just so. You know, we're not recommending any securities.

It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robahood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, the tricep hat trick of autonomous vehicles was supposed to be Zooks. And now Zooks may get a question.

for less than it's worth. Which means it's now worth what it may get acquired for. Whatever Zooks is worth, don't call it a robo-taxy. Don't call it self-driving. Don't call it an electric car. No, they love the way sexier, technical term, Advanced Mobility Experience. The CEO is really into existentialism.

He says that Zooks in the future will be like Disneyland on the streets of San Francisco. That's an exact quote. It sounds charming at first, it then sounds a little bit creepy. Sounds dangerous in my book. like turkey legs walking around and you got to sign everyone's thing. Nicholas, I spent a summer in Detroit. I live in Silicon Valley now. Think I'm a bit of an authority when it comes to self-driving cars. Yeah, I spend three weeks of a recording team learning how to drive stick. This is the most of New York

City native can do. Now here's the thing that grinds my gears. People toss out self-driving car concept a lot, but there's really three distinct concepts behind it. Snaggers, nothing beats Jack's chassis more than that. The first aspect of autonomous driving, is the self-driving part. Yeah, no human, no problem. It's simple. You're not going to have a person driving. The second part is electric.

If you're driving around a whole lot and trying to feel futuristic-y, you may as not well kill the earth. And the third part you see with self-driving cars is the robo-taxy aspect. If you're doing the other two, self-driving and electric,

you may as well make money off them. Self-driving, electric, and robo-taxies. The three tend to get conflating. So Jack and I were working before this pot and we're like, you know what, we should deconflate them. Waymo is focused on the self-driving unconflated part of autonomous vehicles. Tesla's focused on the electric part of autonomous self-driving

vehicles. And Uber's focused on robotaxies, because taxis is what Uber does. So here's the wild thing about Zook Snackers. They were actually trying to do all three, the Holy Trinity trilogy trice Patrick of autonomous cars. Self-driving, electric cars, robo-taxies, that's what Zook was trying to do. Boom, rolled up like a tutsy roll. One problem, though, Zooks isn't the only one doing that anymore. No, Uber acquired itself a self-driving startup so it could pivot a little bit. Then GM acquired a self-driving startup called Cruz. And then Google started testing out Waymo as Robotaxies. And then Elon promised Tesla Robotaxies like by last week.

So meanwhile, Zooks is looking at the situation. They're like, oh, wow, a lot of bigger, better-funded companies are starting to do this whole hat trick of self-driving cars thing, too. So Zook started struggling, raising money from investors who didn't want to bet on Zooks as the winner of self-driving cars anymore. They weren't sure Zooks would end up being your consumer electric robo taxi. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our? over at Zooks. If you can replace expensive and slow humans with quick and cheap robots,

Amazon is interested. Snackers cut out that Disneyland Mirage we mentioned before, and that's exactly what Zooks does at its core. Amazon's singular focus is about faster and lower cost because that's what customers love. And he got Chief Automation Officer Bezos all about speed and lowering costs even more. Humans are expensive and slower, so Amazon cuts out humans in the process wherever they can. Case in point that Jack and I whipped up, Amazon bought Kiva robots for $775 million in 2012. Now 10,000 of its robots are in their warehouses. That's why the company interested in acquiring Zooks is Amazon. They're thinking about spending $3 billion to acquire the self-driving startup. All the things Zooks could have done with Robotaxy riders, Amazon wants for shipping.

For our second story, Instagram TV is getting destroyed by YouTube. So Facebook's going ahead and zucking, YouTube's most important feature. Ad sharing. Theme of 2020, everyone's just getting zucked these days, Jack. Zucking, of course, is when Facebook copies your core feature and does it better than you. The FCC is going to like cancel everything. There's so much of zucking going on. Now, I remember in 2018 when Instagram TV was launched, Nick and I were excited because it had all the ingredients for success. All right, first key ingredient. Instagram's got a billion plus users. You didn't need to download anything new. Life goal, eliminate friends.

You do not want friction in your life. The second reason, it was vertical-only video. Perfect for viewing on your mobile phone without having to turn that thing. That gets rid of the black bars of death, which Jack and I just, we can't stand it. Watching YouTube on your phone is like nightmare-inducing. One of those awkward amateur videos they throw up on CNN every now and then. The third reason Instagram TV was ready to succeed, it was meeting customers where they were. In 2018, the average Instagram user scrolled forget this, 53 minutes a day.

Snackers, look. at yourself in the mirror. Yeah. Are you over 53 minutes a day or under 53 minutes a day on Instagram? Have you even talked to your parents for that long in a single phone call? Come on, people. If we could out reallocate like half that time, this world would probably be a better place. Your mom gave you life. Give her a call. You're really pushing this mom thing after Mother's Day. I like it. Is it still Mother's Day? It's Mother's Month, something like that. Now, Instagram TV was supposed to compete with YouTube as the place where user-generated video thrived. But guess what? YouTube is winning because the best

creators prefer posting their videos on YouTube. The reason, follow the money snackers, video creators get a piece of ad sales at YouTube. That is key. That's right. If you have enough subscribers and enough people view your YouTube video, you actually get a check in the mail. Yeah. At the end of the month, from YouTube. It's amazing. Google like puts Sergei Britt in a room and has him sign a bunch of things once a month. Like, all right, this person, 50 bucks, this person, 40 bucks, this person, 80 bucks. Full disclosure, I have my own personal YouTube page. My little brother is the only subscriber. I've never received one of these checks. Teddy would probably send you a check just to be a nice guy. He's a good person. But 55% of the ad revenue that YouTube is able to generate because of your

video, you get that money. Snackers, keep that 55% in mind, it's going to return later on in the story. Now, a fascinating feature about Instagram TV so far, they haven't even had ads. Yeah, the most fascinating part on Instagram TV is what they don't have, not what they do have. To make money as a video creator on Instagram TV, you need to push product sales instead because there's no ad check coming. Like all 18 of my abs, buy this bark-based protein power I made out of an oak tree. We've all seen the little handles for the products that they're pushing. You know what we're talking about. So to entice top video creators to leave YouTube and come to Instagram TV, Facebook is launching ads for the first time ever on Instagram TV. All right, these are going to be

15 seconds long, probably at the beginning, middle, and end of videos on Instagram TV, but only for the top 200 Instagram TV accounts. And crucially, Facebook will pay, get this, 55% of those ad sales to creators. No more buy this protein powder tags in the caption of Instagram posts. 55%? Sounds a lot like 55%. This is a third degree category five zucking of YouTube's business mom. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Instagram TV? The creators are finally getting some of Facebook's revenues. Snackers, connecting people. That's what Facebook does, and it loves

reminding you about that every time there's a privacy issue. Another way to describe it, they're selling ads off other people's content. Snackers, if you work at Facebook right now, please tell us how many meetings for product begin with, remember, we're connecting people. That's the mission. Facebook is kind of a digital magazine

that doesn't write articles. You write their articles. But Facebook made $73 billion in the past 12 months with ads between your posts. And now creators want a piece of that. News publishers actually drive tons of Facebook use, but they don't get paid a dime of those ad sales that are surrounding it. That's why Australia just passed a law that Facebook must share ad revenues with news agencies responsible for all that traffic. And now video creators will start to get some ad revenue from Facebook too with this Instagram TV deal. Which then leads to another interesting question, what about

influencers who don't make video, but make incredible pictures of adorable sunsets? Should some pro-like National Geographic photographer? get some of the ad sales around her incredible picture she's posting? And then does the puppy in that picture deserve a piece too? A lot of questions. That'd be a true profit puppy. For our third and final story, we've got our unicorn of the day and the first unicorn of the day that doesn't expire. Appealed sciences just hit a billion dollar valuation. Snackers, these guys are based in Santa Barbara, California, and Oprah's an investor. They must be doing something right. When you're in Santa Barbery, the hardest question you have to answer every day is beach or vineyard.

Sorry, I had to postpone the meeting. It's too beautiful outside. Appealed is basically an anti-aging cream, but for your peaches. It's like a Cambridge biotech firm. It all comes down to a single trademarked intellectual property. Appeal has proprietary plant-based solution that becomes a second peel on your fruits peel. Say proprietary plant-based solution 20 times fast. I really struggled through that one. It basically stops water loss and oxidation, which as nobody knows, are the Hans and Frons of Rotting. The Hans and Franz of Rotting. I love that. Jack, the result when something has an appeal peel peel on top of the peel of the fruit? It triples the shelf life of that

produce without even needing to refrigerate. And so far this year, a peel has saved 20 million pieces of fruit and veggies from going to waste. 20 million saved fruits and vegetables from going to the landfill. However, before you get too excited, one catch, we noticed with appeal. It's still going on a fruit-by-fruit basis. Its expansion is slow. Yeah, you can't whip this out on like every piece of produce out there. It's limited right now to avocados, asparagus, lemons and limes. Lemons and limes being fruits, asparagus being vegetable, avocado being, I'm not sure. I'm sure like one of those is a nut. I feel like something random is always a nut. Now, this sounds like a product that should sell right next to Tupperware

and beside aluminum foil in the grocery store. Makes a lot of sense. There'd be like no more of that. Everyone knows this. The panicked avocado. toast binging before the avocados go bad. Honey, we had guacamole last night. I don't want avocado toast this morning. Honey, it's three in the morning. I don't care. These things are brown. We got to use them.

You binge yourself with avo if you got too much and it's going back. Get out of bed and let's get this toaster go. Now, shockingly though, this is not a customer business. No. It is a big business business. It's right. Their main customers like Kroger's, a company that is a grocery store, paranoid about shrinkage.

Shrinkage is an accounting. term, and it's the difference between inventory and actual inventory. Your inventory are all your bananas. Your shrinkage are those bananas minus the brown ones that no one wants. By making vegetables and fruits last longer, appeal shrinks, shrinkage for big grocery stores and big agriculture. So big food is seeing this is a big opportunity, which is why appeal is now worth over a billion dollars. So Jack, can you unwrap the takeaway for our buddies over at appeal? Are these avocados appealed? If people are asking that question at grocery stores, then appeal has won. That should be Appeals next phase to go from $1 billion to a $10 billion valuation. Right now, appeal is focused on business clients, but there is a lot

of value to unlock if they get a brand with consumers. And that brand can be translated into a label. Labels on foods are extremely important when the wars are in the stores. Appeal doesn't have a label right now. So the fruits that have appeal, you don't know it, but you should. And when you're thinking about the value of labels, they let you charge a lot more. for the core product. Think about some famous labels out there. Gortex. Are these ski pants Gortex? Intel inside. Is this machine going to work better because it's doing the Pum-Pum-Bum-Bongan. Organic. Are these grapes organic? Is this avocado appealed? Because if so, that means the food is going to last three times longer and consumers will know that.

If Appeal can build a brand and have a label for it, it can charge more money and become farmers' profit puppy. Jack, and you'll whip up the takeaways for us over there. Amazon wants to deliver packages faster and frugler, so it's reportedly acquiring Zooks. And Zooks could make Amazon shipping faster and frugler. Frugelier. Nice summary of my takeaway. Second story, Instagram TV will start sharing ad revenue with top video creators. It's Zuckin the 55% ad share that makes YouTube the leader.

Third and final story, appeal. Extends the life of avocados like the elixir of life. It needs to start slapping stickers on those avos, though, so grocery shoppers, can pay more. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one's sent in by Genoa Gerard in Offenbach on Maine. Offenbach am Main,

which means Offenbach on the main river. If you went to Bacanov, you went too far, go back, make a right. Now, the Yikyak app was a huge failure in the United States. We mentioned it on the pod a couple weeks ago. Basically, this was an app that let you join discussions

and like nearby locations physically. But a couple exchange students visiting the United States from Germany were like, this thing would go really well with the Germans. So they relaunched in Germany and called it Yodel. Yeah, and this guy, Janoi, was in the class with them at San Diego State in 2012. It's called Yodling. It's spelled with a J, a reference to the Alpine Mountains,

because they love yodling in those Swiss and German Alps. The takeaway here, if your startup doesn't work in the U.S., you've got over 180 countries to choose from to try it elsewhere. Before we get going, Rachel Hurst, happy birthday. You are a grade A snacker from Stone, Stone Mountain, Georgia. And we're sticking with the mountain theme here because Clement Duran Bayead over in Wai'a Kiel, Ecuador, is also kind of yoddleing out snacks every morning and enjoying a birthday. If you like today's snacks, please share us with a buddy and ask them H-Y-H-Y-Sd. Have you had your

snacks daily? Everyone should. Can't wait to snack with you tomorrow. If you know, you know. This is Jack. I obviously own stock of Amazon. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation

to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.