The Best One Yet - 🤑 “I Venmo’d Venmo” — Venmo’s hook-em-book-em. Facebook’s platinum pegasus. Honda’s awkward alliance.

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

Venmo’s been so free for so long. But that may change with its new hook-em-then-book-em strategy. Facebook hit a platinum pegasus $1 trillion valuation after winning its most important lawsuit ever. And Honda is making its 1st ever electric vehicle… but it’s not making its 1st ever electric vehicle.$HMC $GM $PYPL $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. It is Tuesday. Tea Boy Tuesday, June 29. Stocks were at a record high yesterday to start the week. They were. Now, they're at more record highs.

Even more recordier highs. Recordier highs. Perfect day for the best one. It's a T-boy. Jack, what do we got for our first story over here? A federal judge just dismissed the government's attempt to break up Facebook. Cue this something because we got a new member in America's $1 trillion club. It's Facebook.

It's Facebook. For our second story, Venmo. used to be free is for me. Now, their fees for me. Interesting. So Jack and I jumped in Snacks style. We're calling their new strategy, hook them, then book them. For our third and final story, Honda just announced their first ever fully electric car. But funny thing, Honda's not making their first ever fully electric car. But before we hit that, honestly a wonderful mix of stories today, Jack. New Year's resolutions, they never last. I gave veganism a try last year until I found out veganism means no honey either.

Yeah, and then remember I caught you outside chasing that squirrel because you were so hungry. I'm going to put it on the record. I think honey should be excluded from veganism. Honestly, vegans. You got to do less on this stuff. But in the meantime, New Year's resolution is still really hard. So a new thing we're trying out this year, mid-year's resolutions. That's right, Snackers.

Jack and I just came up with this, a mid-year's resolution. We are one day away from the half point of 2021. And here's what Jack and I are thinking. Mid-year's resolutions have big advantages. over New Year's resolution. We've shortened the race to better you for you. I mean, first advantage we got, you only have to hold your breath for six months, not a full year.

Think of a mid-year's resolution as a long spring, not a marathon. Exactly. You don't need all that water. Second advantage here, you get to start the resolution in the summer, not in the winter. It's easier to better yourself in some way when it's 80 and sunny, not 12 degrees and feels like negative 10. True story. And then third and final advantage here for the mid-year's resolution, we completely

made it up. Snackers, if you fail to keep your mid-year's resolution, nobody's ever going to know. No, they won't. Jack, what's your mid-year's resolution, by the way? Feathers and fins only. That means I only eat poultry and I only eat fish and seat. Unless they're extenuating circumstances, like, I don't know, living in a landlock state. Sure. Or if, like, someone put a lot of effort into the pork chop, you know, I'm not going to, not going to upset. It's a wonderful, delicious pork chop. All right, my mid-year's resolution. I'm going to call a friend every week to chat on the phone for five minutes. I'm over it down. That's great. Unless you have like a long Instagram DM back and forth with a buddy.

That counts as a phone call. It's like a call but on paper, essentially. That would count as a phone call. Snackers, tweet us your mid-year's resolutions at Robin Hood Snacks, at Jack Kramer, at Nick of New York. And if you're nervous, remember the beauty of a mid-year's resolution. No one will hold you accountable for something we literally just made up. Let's in our three stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily.

We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks are about to hear rain food. It's air candy. They don't reflect. user to robberhood family. It's all informational just so you know. We're not recommending any securities. Nope.

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. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, the Federal Trade Commission's huge antitrust lawsuit against Facebook just got tossed out by a judge.

Wall Street is applauding it by buying Facebook stock past the $1 trillion valuation for the first time. I mean, Jack, take me back to December. We covered news on this pod that the U.S. government and 48 of the U.S. states were suing Facebook. A little awkward for the other two. We're not going to out them. We're not going to talk about the other two. You know who you are. The complaint by those 48 states and Uncle Sam was that Facebook had become a monopoly in, quote, unquote,

quote, the personal social networking services area. Or, as we all know it, social networking. More importantly, though, that Facebook had illegally maintained that monopoly status by crushing the competition unfairly and buying up any potential rival. Which led to this single one easy. How hard can it be requests from the United States government to Facebook? Facebook must undo and unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Basically, Zuck, you got to do it.

a Superman kind of thing? Reverse the spin of the earth. Go back in time and make those acquisitions not happen. Well, no, they could have just hired an accountant and a lawyer and like carved out the employees and the assets and the liabilities. It would probably cost as much at the end of the day. Naturally, Facebook's lawyers weren't thrilled. So they filed a motion to dismiss. They basically said this lawsuit is baloney. And then yesterday, Jack and I were literally preparing this pod. We actually had a different story chosen instead. True story. We might do that story tomorrow. It's a good one. We may, we may. But then we got this huge update about this giant Facebook case.

Yes, the judge wrote in a 53 page ruling that he agreed with Facebook's lawyers. He threw the case out and told the government it's not going to work. And then he like wagged his finger at the government lawyers and said, hey, your complaint, it's too vague. The judge said that there must be a specific violation of a specific law. This is like your fifth grade teacher saying, you know what? That catcher in the right essay, just too broad, not a good thesis. The judge said, you can't just say Facebook's too big. Facebook's too powerful.

That's not going to cut it in the court of law. To really appreciate what's happening here with Facebook, you kind of have to flash yourself back to back when you were browsing pictures of dorm parties on version 1 of Facebook like, I don't know, 12 years ago. You might have thought sophomore year that someday some Facebook artificial intelligence is going to scan this picture of the light beer in my hand.

It will. And then they're going to target me with ads trying to convince me to switch for my light beer to spike seltzer instead. My favorite part about this analogy, Jack, is that you have closed your eyes for the entire thing and you clearly are doing the literal flashback. Well, if you imagine that, you'd be right. And you may have also thought that someday Facebook's going to be a trillion-dollar company.

Yes, that would mean it is a platinum Pegasus to hit that trillion-dollar company club. And as of today, you're right about that too. Yes, because now, just as this news came in, Wall Street was so happy that this lawsuit is now over and the distractions behind Facebook, they boosted their stock 4%. Now, listen to this lineup of the U.S. Big Tech 5, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, each of them is worth a trillion dollars. Five members of the trillion-dollar platinum Pegasus Club. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over Facebook?

Facebook won a battle yesterday, but we think the war just got even harder. Snackers, funny thing, last week, we told you there was a House committee that passed a whopping six new antitrust bills to limit Facebook's power. Now, the ruling by the judge confirms their suspicion. That all those existing, like, a hundred-year-old laws are powerless to stay. stop Facebook today. That could motivate senators and congresspeople even more that we need to beef up antitrust with new laws. Facebook won a battle yesterday, but we think the war just got even harder. For our second story, Venmo, just found two new places to take some fees and some

money off of you. This is your classic hook-um and book-em situation. Classic. And it's not going to be the last one. Venmo, you taught us how to send money by phone. By the way, Jack, I just check. I just our transaction history. You know how many times I have Venmoed you since 2018? Guessing 30? You know, I thought it was 17 times. Well, we're not always keeping tabs. Like, it's all going to break even in the long term. None of it's under the table. Snackers, Venmo's a ridiculously useful innovation. And guess what? PayPal acquired it in 2013 for $800 million. Yeah, that's it. But eight years later, Venmo is kind of like Matt Damon and Goodwill Hunting. It's brilliant, Venmo is, but it's not making much money with those talents.

What are you doing? How do you like them out? Apple emojis. He's mopping the floors these days. Come on. 70 million people are sending money on the Venmo app monthly, but it only generates less than a billion dollars in revenue annually. And Wall Street has whipped up this report card for PayPal, which owns Venmo. You need improvement, especially in the monetization event. Get yourself a Robin Williams character. Hug it, cry with it. Don't work at the NSA. So Jack and I were fascinated when we noticed PayPal stock is up 5% from last week, basically

since we got this email in our inboxes. The subject line is new and upcoming changes to Venmo. You can search your Gmail for it. It's probably there. Rarely does an email cause a stock to jump this much. The reason there were two key things that Venmo just announced they're going to start making money off. First of all, before anyone gets upset, the core Venmo peer-to-peer feature, that's still free. Yes.

If you have brunch with Becky, you can still pair back with no fees. It's great. If you do that monthly roommate thing, like we used to do with Timmy, where you're he would Venmo us for an arbitrary amount we assumed was correct and never double-checked. That's still free too, although you should double-check. Well, you always double-check with Tim. You always double-check. But Venmo does want to start charging money for business Venmo payments.

I'm sorry, $200 for heating and internet? That seems high. That seems high in the East Village. Timmy's like, but you keep taking my shampoo, Nick. I don't even need to shampoo that much, so there's no proof of any of this. Snackers, Venmo wants to take a fee. If you pay somebody on Venmo for a haircut or for your housekeeper or for something you bought at the flea market. Exactly. If a buyer selects goods and services when you're paying with Venmo, then the buyer gets fraud protection from that transaction.

But if the buyer selects goods and services, that means the seller, the person who is getting paid on Venmo, they're going to lose out on a fee, 1.9% plus 10 cents. That part is new. So people doing business getting paid on Venmo, they aren't going to be that happy with this new fee situation. Slam and Sam sold his Slam and Sam and Sam and Sweeters for a hundred bucks. He doesn't want to only get 98 because Venmo's keeping two. No, and that's the new situation for Sam Slam and Sam and Swearters. Venmo also separately announced in that email, they're increasing the fee on instant transfer from 1% to 1.5%. I mean, come on, man.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Venmo and PayPal? Prepare for the decade of hook them and book. Snackers, for the last 10 years, we've become all of us dependent on free apps and tech services. you know who you are, it's all of us. PayPal's Venmo, Google's Gmail, Facebook's Messenger. But eventually, the parent company insists that the kid company's got to grow up, start making some money. Son, it's your monetization moment.

You got to graduate. You can't just keep growing your user base. You've got to do something with your life. Get a job and start generating profits for us. But here's the problem. Charging money for a flagship free product suddenly would be way too abrupt. It would cause backlash if Venmo started charging a $1. fee for those core brunch payments that you've come to know it for.

You'd probably leave Venmo and start using cash-hap. Instead, we're seeing parent companies keep that core product free, but charge for ancillary services. Case and point, Gmail is free, but you pay for storage once you hit 15 gigs of limit. Venmoing Steve for lunch is still free, but Venmo's going to take a fee if you start buying things at the farmer's market. Last decade, we got hooked. This decade, we may get booked.

for our third and final story, Honda is finally announced plans for its first ever mass market electric car. But here's the wild thing. Yeah. Honda's not making the car. No. Someone else's. Yeah. Now, Honda has always been a fuel efficient, environmentally friendly car, including my 1991 mint condition Honda Accord Stick Shift.

Yeah, got to love it. Five speed manual transmission, 125 horsepower. 200,000 miles. Zero to 60? Yeah, eventually. Honda Snackers was actually the number one first hybrid, the insight back in 1999. Oh, totally. What were the numbers on this thing, Jack?

73 horsepower, which is like nothing. This thing was like a two-door hatchback go-car. And I think it only came an ugly green. I don't have a tape measure on me, but I think the chassis was the size of a hot wheel. Here's the thing, though. Today, 21 years later, still no mass market fully electric car from Honda. Yeah. Honda was early two hybrid cars, but totally late and missed the boat to fully electric.

And that lack of innovation in electric cars and autonomous for that matter has Honda stock price lagging. Yeah, the stock of Honda, the Japanese car classic, is the same place as it was 15 years ago. Toyota, its biggest rival in Japan, is worth five times more than Honda. Which is why we were shocked to see this news of the first. fully electric Honda for North America coming out in 2024. Finally. What do they call it, Nick? I call it the prologue.

The prologue, the beginning. This is just the beginning. There's like 400 pages you still have to read. I mean, nothing gets Americans more psych jack than a subtle literary reference. We're assuming their last gas guzzler is going to be called the afterward. The epilogue. The bibliography. Now, Snackers, crazy thing here, Honda's not building the prolog.

No. That's what's so wild about. this story. GM, General Motors, the Detroit-based car company, they're building Honda's pro-law. That's right. This new Honda car is reportedly getting built by General Motors's Mexico plant. Honda also owns Accura, the higher-end brand. They've got an electric SUV coming as well. And that is also getting manufactured by General Motors at their plant down in Tennessee. We looked into it. GM and Honda did announce in September a strategic alliance. I guess this is what it looks like. Yeah, Honda, though, is quick to point out that the exteriors and the interiors,

Those are going to be exclusively designed by Honda. But batteries, power train, and the assembly, that's the core of the car, and those are G. So, Honda's kind of like Robin in this situation saying they're, you know, co-fighting crime with Batman over there. Yeah, co-fighting. That's one way to say it. So, Jack, what's the takeaway from buddies over Honda? Snaggers, when it comes to partnerships, is this an alliance or is this a dependence? Yeah, is General Motors teaching Honda how to electric vehicle, or is it slowly taking over Honda?

Now, Honda says they're not going to rely on GM for production of electric vehicles forever. Honda's planning to do it themselves by 2030. General Motors is just teaching Honda how to drive electrically. And there is precedent for this. Mercedes, they used to use Tesla-produced drive trains for their early EVs. And now Mercedes is doing it themselves. Now, here's the funny thing with Honda. Honda is in the middle of a 15-year stagnation stretch where the stock and the company have barely done anything. They're falling behind in electric vehicles.

They're falling behind in self-driving cars. So Honda's future looks like it's at the mercy of General Motors. Now, maybe GM is going to politely help Honda through this tough time and transition them to their own standalone electric vehicle production. Or maybe this alliance becomes a dependence. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? Facebook scored a big legal win as the judge dismissed the antitrust lawsuit. The bigger war is against Congress's new urgency.

Venmo is adding a fee for payments for goods and services. Van Mo, you hooked them. Now you're booking them. Honda finally announced their mass market electric SUV. The prolog. So GM's their alliance, or is GM their dependence? Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one tweeted in by product Tama Kuala in Columbia, Maryland.

Dum-d-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum. The James Bond theme song that Jack is illustrating in a perfect harmony right now. Yeah, you think of martini's, you think of Arden's. That's what you think. Maybe you shouldn't. No, it's not what you think. That song wasn't actually written for 007. The music comes from a 1950s musical called A House for Mr. Biswas.

Now, the musical never ended up happening, but that tune was originally called Good Sign, bad sign, and it ended up getting recycled. And the original song was about an Indian man singing about his magic sneeze, not about Daniel Craig squeezing into men's swimsuits. When you have 14 abs, you can squeeze into whatever you want to squeeze into. Get that man some fatastrasol. Snackers, you look fantastic today. Jack, I'm in total agreement.

Honey should be considered plant-based. It came like out of a bee that was near and adjacent to a plant. Also, we need bees for plants to exist. It's inherently plant-based. It should not be vegan. Supporting honey is supporting bees, which is supporting plants. We want to know your mid-year's resolutions. Tweet us at Robin Hood Snacks, at Jack Kramer, at Nick of New York.

We can't wait to see him. We'll see you all tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, happy birthday to Adam Musgra. from Pasadena, our incredible editor of this here podcast product. Happy belated 34th Adam. Yep. Don't cut this out of the pod.

Don't you dare. Keep this in the pod. And congrats to Ross from Winooski, who's just a great guy in the state of Vermont, Jack. Fantastic guy. Keep the change, you feel the animal. Jay Ching Lee, congrats on the birthday and graduating with the NBA over in Shanghai. Happy birthday to Jordan Steelquist in Blaine, Washington. And Julianne over in Seattle.

And Mitchell Dean in Austin, Texas. Texas. And Speeps over in Boston. And Valerie S. in San Diego. And Joyce Loda in Woodbridge, New Jersey. And Nelson in Melrose, Florida. And Noah Davies Mason. Happy Birthday birthday in Brooklyn. And Spencer Tomzak in Traverse City, Michigan. Oh, by the way, Jack, Jasmine Seville. Just got a new job in Lincolnwood, Illinois. Congrats on getting promoted to Kat Slump in Omaha, Nebraska. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon. Nick on Stock of Apple. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the host who are associated persons of Robinha Robinhood 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. We're going to get like some correction. and so I'd be like technically the St. Lawrence River connects to Lake Champlain. If so fact, though, Vermont's technically not landlocked due to the canal situation in Oswego.