The Best One Yet - 🧨 “Banned in China” — Firework’s $100M broccoli. Bitcoin’s grounded. Zuck’s burn book.

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

You’re grounded: China just all-out banned crypto-anything in China… but that could be good for crypto in the US. Firework is TikTokifying Albertsons’ grocery app because of “The 3 Vs.” And the WSJ’s Burn Book on Facebook deluge of negative press has them reversing the PR strategy — Actually they found a new one.$ACI $BTC $ETH $FBGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn 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. Welcome back. It is Monday, September 27th. Today's pod is the best one yet. It's a TVOI. We're not wearing our Monday outfits, by the way.

For our first story, bad news for crypto, China just banned crypto. Bitcoin got grounded, but bad news for crypto may be good news for crypto. For our second story, Firework is helping Albertson's grocery store TikTokify their roasted chicken online. He got ourselves the three Vs here. video, vertical, and very short. I like the third one. The third one's a lot of fun. For our third and final story, Facebook is facing its most existential crisis since 2016.

They've gone from no comment and I'm sorry to no more Mr. Nice suck. No more Mr. Nicezuck. Said in the third person. This is a fantastic mix, by the way. Before we hit those three stories, Nick, hoarder's almanac week 80. Things were running out of because the pandemic. Jack and I been keeping track. It's been 80 weeks.

Yeah. since Tom Hanks and the NBA postponed. And it's been a very nice round number for us to keep track of things that we cannot get a hold of. And the thing we can't get a hold of right now is Christmas stuff. That's right, Snackers, Christmas stuff. Like not last year's Christmas stuff. We're talking about this year's Christmas stuff for four months from now. It's September.

Yeah. But we're already running out of St. Nick Swad. Jack, the wreaths. The trees? The garlands. What even is a garland? A garland is a wreath that you snip. Okay.

So that it's no longer a circle. It's like a long. thing that you can lace out. Midlife crisis reef. What else we got? Well, local news is chatting with their local stores, which buy Christmas stuff early and they can't find Christmas stuff early. Yeah, apparently over in Indiana, the Yuletide inventory, it's running low. You want to deck the halls with boughs of holly? Too late. The Holly Jack? It's already been hoarded. Jingle all the way? No way. The bells, they're stuck on a cargo ship in the Pacific. If you're looking for three French hens, two tartar dubs and a partridge and a pear tree. Are you kidding? You can't even get one golden ring.

Don't even think about five. Snackers, follow our lead here. We're not even asking Santa for gifts this year. No, we're asking Santa to just simply optimize the global supply chain. Is that too much to ask for? Good silver lining, though. Elf employment has reached an all-time high. It's true. COVID-19, it didn't get to the North Pole.

It's like literally too far north. We're not telling you to stock up on egg, nag, and ugly sweaters. But we're not, not telling you to stock up on eggnog and ugly sweaters. We basically just shouted fire at a Christmas tree shop. We just created the... the short of Jack. Let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in to snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way.

The snacks about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family. It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you.

Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA, slash SIPC For our first story, China just went full on angry parent. They have banned cryptocurrencies. Go to your room. The price of cryptocurrencies fell because China banned it. But Crypto Bulls think this is good news for crypto. China has like, it's never really been a fan of the decentralized financial network

that operates beyond its government's reach. That's right. At least six times since 2013, we counted Wall Street. journal headlines saying that China is trying to stop crypto from happening in China. This is like the repeated demands that you please pay attention at the dinner table and get your elbows off the table. We're trying to have a nice dinner with the family. But this year, China pounded their fist on the dinner table and got serious. They did. They went hard line. In May, China banned 100% crypto mining.

In July, China shut down companies that were involved in cryptocurrency transactions. But China got a little more frustrated and they kind of amped up the grounding situation, Jack. China's like a parrot getting increasingly frustrated by their sneaky kid. There we go. First of all, no TV. Fine, I'll use my computer. No big deal. Okay, no computer. I'll use my phone. I got Netflix on. Okay, no phone.

I got an iPad, Mom. Okay, stop being fresh with me. You're grounded. No dessert for two weeks. Go to your room and I want to see every single text message you've done in the last 14 days. You know, I got a PS5 up there, right? We have spoiled our children. Well, China just went full on nuclear to end cryptocurrencies within the People's Republic of China. Snackers, the latest headline, this is double secret grounding. You can't get more grounded than Bitcoin just got grounded.

All cryptocurrency transactions are now illegal in China. Yeah, any cryptocurrency related transactions, we're talking trading, we're talking mining, we're talking holding it, strictly prohibited. Directly or indirectly. In fact, the People's Bank of China posted a Q&A online, for the avoidance of doubt. They have answers. Any overseas company, like a company in the U.S.,

that's offering crypto services to someone in China, that is illegal. So, Jack, let's say I've been grounded, I'm sitting in my room. I've got the itch to play the PlayStation. I've got the itch to do something with crypto. What am I going to do? What is China going to let me do? Nikki Boy, you can use digital yuan. That is our Chinese-approved digital currency.

It's safe. It's sound. and you're allowed to use it two days a week. But I don't want to use the digital want. Bitcoin fell 6%. Ethereum fell 8%. But Snackers, is there a positive spin here, Jack? There's a positive spin here.

So what's the takeaway for our buddies who all own crypto? Cryptos loss in China could be crypto's win in the U.S. Yeah, we've got a reverse situation here, Snackers. One of the few areas of agreement down in Washington, D.C., it's that the U.S. must confront China. Democrats and Republicans may see crypto as an area that the United States can lead, which would be in stark contrast to China. Yeah, the old Polyside 201, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Another reason this could be good. A major criticism of crypto has been the environmental toll.

It's very carbon intensive. That's why Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin as payment for its cars. And Chinese crypto mining with dirty coal-powered electricity, that was the biggest culprit. Now, Bitcoin's no cap and planet, but it's cleaner as a result of this China ban. Beijing banned cryptocurrencies in China, but that could strengthen cryptocurrencies in the U.S. Not weaken it. For our second story, Albert Sins, they just teamed up with firework to TikTokify your food shopping on a daily basis.

Because online shopping, remember this, it comes down to the 3Vs. The old 3V. I guess it's the new 3Vs. We kind of just came up with this. We made them up. Speaking of old and new, though, Albertsons, it's like old school groceries. That's what they do. They got 2,000 grocery stores, probably 200,000 nice young men who will bag your groceries.

I didn't realize how much you looked forward to the bagging jack. You know, the best baggers treat it like a game of Tetris. You don't want to waste any cubic volume of bags. It's both an art and a science. But Albertsons, their name even sounds ancient, but they're kind of like a new school stock. They IPOed last year. We covered it on this pod. And since then, the price has doubled.

The company is worth $15 billion now. Okay, so old school groceries, new school stock, but kind of an old school app. Yes. If you go on the Albertson's website or the Albertson's app and try to buy groceries, it looks like you're scrolling through your parents' yearbook. Yeah, it's a high school yearbook. It's pretty static. The broccoli, like it's not a flattering look on the site.

Tuna fish. Yeah. Broccoli. Brutal. Muster. Do better. Aluminum foil. Now, if you think about it, all grocery apps, they kind of all.

have boring old school pictures too. That's it. Instacart, GoPuff, Whole Foods, good eggs. They're all one-dimensional apps, static images. But then we noticed this wild stat from a startup called Firework. A shopper will spend an extra nine minutes on your website or your app if your website or app includes vertical, very short videos. The three Vs. Those are the three Vs. If a grocery site has a brutally pictured one-dimensional broccoli, only 8% of people. added to their carts. Yeah, this is Fireworks stat. But if that broccoli is a video that feels like a TikTok video, I like this. And you can watch it on your phone easily because it's vertical. I'm intrigued. Then 30% of customers put that broccoli in their shopping cart. Boom, Snackers,

Firework has raised $100 million and they will now partner with Albertsons to TikTokify their app. That means video, vertical, very short. Okay, so this is how it's going to look, Snackers. Let's say you'd go into the Albertson app. You're trying to get some groceries. You see a nice peach. Jack, what are you going to see with this peach? You're going to see a five second video of how to select the best peach from the pack. One bruises is okay. Two bruises is a red flag. You scroll down a little you'll see inspiration. Have you tried baked peaches? It's a lovely dessert, actually. It could also work in a pasta, a seven second video of rigatoni a peach. Scroll down a bit further. You'll see a three second video of a blender. It's a recipe. Blueberry plus dates, plus almost.

milk plus mango, liquefy it. It's great. What's your secret smoothie recipe, by the way? What's your secret ingredient? What's your? What's yours? Oats. You throw in the oats. Thickness without thought. This is amazing. And that's not all. All these vertical, very short videos, they're also a new revenue stream for the grocery store. Right. Because that blender recipe video that was three seconds, there was almond milk, but not just any almond milk, Calafia almond milk. There you go. Who paid Albertsons to be featured in their very. video. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Firework and Albertsons? Don't follow the money. Follow the eyeballs. Snackers, TikTok's vertical very short videos, they have made it the most

downloaded app for two years straight. And some of the most engaged videos on TikTok are food videos. Yeah. So Firework is simply taking TikTok's concept that is attracting all the eyeballs and applying it into grocery content, which is proven to boost sales. Firework says it's in talks with five of the 10 biggest retailers in the U.S. to TikTokify their websites and apps. And that's because eyeballs, they're watching vertical, very short videos, the three Bs. And eyeballs leads

to money. For our third and final story, the Wall Street Journal just dropped a five-part burn book about Facebook's negative impact on the whole world. Then the New York Times did the same thing. And it's all going to lead to no more Mr. Nysak. Okay, first of

all, the Wall Street Journal went through a whole bunch of internal documents, a whole bunch of presentations to executives and a whole bunch of interviewing employees. Jack, PFWTMs. The most PFWTMs we've ever seen in reporting before. Now, Snackers, you may be hearing this and being like, yeah, I've heard before Facebook is riddled with flaws. But this was the key finding of that burn book. Facebook knows in great detail that their platforms are riddled with flaws that cause great harm. And they haven't done that much about it. Flaw number one, Facebook says that their rules apply to everyone, except the 6 million VIPs who could

bypass them. Yes, we told you about the club VIPs. Well, the harm here, famous people were allowed to post horrible things that regular people like us were not allowed to post. Yeah, we're not into horrible posting. So that VIP club thing, that was kind of a big flaw. The second flaw was a second deep article of reporting by the Wall Street Journal that Instagram promotes hypersexualized body images of women.

Yeah, the harm here, you got a most. and psychological harm on teenage girls in particular. Flaw number three, Facebook's algorithm update in 2018 was supposed to make Facebook users happier. It made them angrier instead. Yeah, the harm here, Facebook fueled rage has actually contributed to a more toxic public culture and probably ruined your last Thanksgiving. The last flaw is that Facebook is used in developing countries for drug and human trafficking. Facebookers are flagged that terrible activity, but Facebook did little to stop it. Yeah, the harm here is pretty literal.

Drugs were literally trafficked and humans were literally sold to slaves on Facebook. According to the Wall Street Journal's reporting, Mark Zuckerberg chose, in each of these cases, what's good for business, not what's good for society. Now, Jack, we should also sprinkle on some context here about what Facebook's company response was to all of these allegations. How would you sum this off? A Facebook spokesperson issued a bunch of analogies to rationalize what Facebook has done. First, they said Facebook, it's like cars, great for society. even though some people get hurt.

The second was magazines. They pointed out that for decades, magazines caused body image problems for girls too. It's just a problem that's hard to fix. And then finally, they said, look, we're Facebook. We're trying to understand her own problems. Hey, give us a chance.

We can fix them. At least we commissioned the research. We don't want ignorance as bliss situation. So, Jack, what's the takeaway, though, for our buddies over Facebook? There are three basic PR strategies, but Facebook has created a fourth. Okay, Snackers, here's how Jack and I see

the three basic PR strategies. First, you got apologize like Uber did. I'm sorry about what we did. Then you got ignore like the pharmaceutical companies have done. No comment. And then finally, you got attack like Elon frequently does. Change the conversation by tweeting something really loudly. Well, since the 2016 election, Zuck's basically been on an apology tour. But there was one more bombshell report about Facebook that dropped last week, not from the Wall Street Journal, but from the New York Times. The era of apology is over. for Facebook. Project Amplify is what they call at Facebook their new company PR strategy to deal with negative press. Stop defending and go on the offense instead. Specifically, Facebook is going to

start promoting positive articles about Facebook on Facebook to you. This is the wild and scary part. They are going to flood the news feed with boosted posts that are positive articles about Facebook. They are even going to write their own Facebook posts about Facebook in a podcast. positive way. Mark Zuckerberg just whipped up a fourth PR strategy since Facebook owns the news feed for over 3 billion people. Not apologize, not ignore, and not attack, amplify. Because they control the algorithm. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to start the week? Cryptocurrency transactions are fully illegal in China. You're fully grounded. No PlayStation 5 either. What's bad for crypto in China, could actually be good for crypto in the U.S. Firework is TikTokifying Albertson's fried chickens.

The three Vs. Vertical videos that are very short. I love the third one. Facebook has a lot of flaws that have caused a lot of harm. Yeah, Facebook's PR. They won't apologize. They won't ignore or attack. Now, they're going to amplify.

Now, time for our snap fact of the day. This one tweeted in by Trent Miller from lovely Edgefield, South Carolina. The saying money doesn't grow on trees is, I always thought it was false because I thought it was paper, which, you know, is wood. And it turns out we were right the whole time because paper money actually does kind of grow on trees. Yeah. It's 75% cotton. Yeah.

And cotton is a perennial plant within the tree family. It's a facto mattress, mattress, mattress. What's in your pocket is actually a plant-based money. Money does grow on trees. Do you know what the other 25% ingredient of paper money is? Greed. Is it like something emotional? No, it's linen.

But I love greed. Snackers, you look fantastic to start the week. If you haven't yet, try some collagen and some oats in your smoothies and let Jack and I know like how this works. If it works for you, if it doesn't, we're open to the feedback. And then ask everyone H-Y-H-Y-S-D. Have you had your snacks, Dan? Nick and I'll see you tomorrow.

If you know, you know. And before we go, happy birthday to Doug from Delivery.com. He's been snacking for two years too. Happy belated birthday to Brandon from Fort Myers, Florida. And Austin Bridges down in Southposs. And Danny S. Happy 29th in Rochester, New York. Patrice, congrats on the new job in Chicago.

Hope it's a logistic. Gustavo Grande just started a new gig at a VC in FLA. Jessica Langer, congrats on graduating in Vienna, Austria. Happy second anniversary to Alec and Caitlin Schultz in Denver, Colorado. Luke and Amelia just got engaged in College Station, Texas. We want to see the ring. Send us to pick of the ring, guys. McClare's finest, Elon and Julia.

Congrats on getting hitched. We are pumped for you. everybody else celebrating something today, make it a team. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix. Nick and I both own Ethereum, named Ethel, and I own Beatrice, the fraction of the Bitcoin. Robin Hood Snacks, Newsletters, and Podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are

associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report, and is not intended to serve on the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc., Robin Hood Financial LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal and past performance, does not guarantee future

results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member Finner