The Best One Yet - 🦈 “The infant anthem” — Baby Shark’s podcast strategy. Twitter’s X Company. Restaurant-flation.

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Baby Shark is the most-watched YouTube video of all time, but now it’s charging money for podcasts — because there’s big $$$ in digital babysitting. Twitter (the company) is no more… It’s now owned by X Company. And the best inflation report in years just exposed a new thing: “Restaurant-flation” is the latest see-saw effect.$GOOG $AAPL $BTCWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeLearn 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. It's Thursday, the new Friday, April 13th, and today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. For a few magical hours yesterday. It was beautiful. Bitcoin dipped its head above $30,000 for the first time in almost a year. And the Bitcoin not too shabby over there.

Nice to see you again. Yeah, welcome. We're going to round up on this thing. Jack, what's our first story for the pod? And it's gone. Yeah, now it's a 29,000. For our first story, Baby Shark has become the most watched video in YouTube history. But now Baby Shark has a monetized podcast strategy.

For our second story, we just got the best inflation report in years. Yides, we need to talk about a new thing. Here it is. Restaurantflation. And our third and final story. On Tuesday night, Elon Musk hosted an open conversation on the future of Twitter. And he gave Twitter a new name. And what is that name, Jack?

X. Twitter's new name is X. Or is it? The real question about X is why. But Yetis, are you watching Succession on Sunday? Of course, I'm watching Succession on Sunday. I don't know what's going to happen to Kendall. I'm curious about Kendall, man. I'm worried. I'm only one episode deep, full disclosure. I'm also only one episode deep, full disclosure. No spoilers on the pot. But Yetis, you won't be watching Succession on HBO Max anymore. No, you will not be watching Succession on HBO Max because HBO Max is no more. HBO Max just got a new name. You ready for it? And what is it, Jack? The new name is Max. Max. Just Max. It's like Facebook dropping to that. Justin Timberlake showed up and said, cut the HBO, just Max. It's cleaner. And Max is the third largest streamer in the United States now.

Because Max is now a combination of HBO Max and Discovery Plus. So they have HBO Max and Discovery Plus. We're surprised they cut the HBO from the name. We're kind of shocked they cut the HBO because HBO's brand has some pretty, pretty pretty good things, Jack. Pretty! Pretty! Preda! Preda! Fri. HBO has Game of Thrones, Sopranos, The Wire. HBO has Banda Brothers, Veep, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. And now they're dropping HBO from the name. But Jack and I noticed there's an interesting trend going on. Max is the new it word in TV. Max. So hot.

right now. When Jack and I were growing up, everything was on demand. HBO on demand. Showtime on demand. And then came the Oos. Devo, Toobie, Hulu, Voodoo, Roku, Fubo. Even Quibi. And then came the pluses. Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Discovery Plus. But now it is all about the Max. It's all about the Max. Cinemax, SkyMax, HBO Max. Now just Max. Max, it is the most minimalist name we could Max and Emily think of. Hey there, Greg, oh, what's our three stories? 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 a norm. 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. For our first story, the latest big podcast.

podcast deal out there. Get this. It's Baby Shark. Yep, baby Shark just launched a podcast network for children, but you're going to need adult money for this one. Yes, you are. Yeties. Maybe you're a dink. Maybe you're a dink wad out there like I happen to be. Maybe you're not familiar with baby shark. Jack, how would you describe baby shark? It's an infant anthem. Yeah, maybe you haven't seen a baby shark, but you have heard of baby shark. That chorus, we're not going to sing it, but that chorus could wake you from a coma. now Adam's playing it. Adam, Adam. Okay, all right. Yetis, this is like Beethoven for toddlers. It lives in your head full of rent. It charges you rent. This song is a music video and it's the most viewed YouTube video ever with 12 billion views. Okay, Yeties, let that sink in for a second. 12 billion views, most viewed YouTube ever. Jack, this is the most viewed thing ever, isn't it? It may be the most viewed thing besides the moon. More people have probably stared at Baby Shark than at the The Sun.

Now, number two on YouTube is the music video Despacito by Daddy Yankee. Ooh, not too shabby. But that is beat by Baby Shark by over 50%. 50%. Yet he's Baby Shark was actually created by a small family run company in South Korea called Pinkfong. This family business is in the business of creating memorable songs. They're also in the business of making money. They're bringing in $3 million a month, $36 million a year just on.

YouTube. That's not a shark. That's a unicorn. The company is valued over a billion dollars. Here's what Jack and I found fascinating with this story. The small South Korean company is now going through full Disneyfication. Baby Shark Dance has toys, has TVs, has tank tops. They've expanded the brand into anything that gets eyeballs. They licensed their song library to Sony and they licensed their TV rights to Nickelodeon. Which leads to the news, Jack, what's the news? Baby Shark Dance just launched an eight show podcast network. Not too shabby. Joe Rogan got a podcast deal.

And now Baby Shark is getting a podcast deal. These eight shows, eight shows will have stories on kid-friendly topics like dinosaurs and fairy tales. It's like a pod network. But yet he's here is the strange thing. This is actually what Jack and I found fascinating about the story. Point of Baby Shark is to be fun, easy, and accessible to all children around the world. It's supposed to be the kind of thing that if you're a three-year-old little kid, you can just go and enjoy yourself.

And yet, little Johnny, baby Brandy, they're going to need mom's credit card to watch this stuff. These podcasts are exclusive to Apple, and you have to pay a $3 a month subscription to access them. We repeat, Yetis, for your little kid to enjoy Baby Shark podcast, they're going to have to pay three bucks a month. They're going to be charged. Little Johnny is going to have to empty out his piggyback.

Baby Shark is now swimming behind a paywall. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at There are billions of dollars in the digital on-demand babysitter. Yet he's never forget this. The customer and the user are not the same thing. Like in this case, kids are the users of Baby Shark, but parents are the customers. Because parents use media like an on-demand babysitter. And they are willing to pay a premium for a break from parenting for a second. Baby Shark is like a digital Mary Poppins. And it's not just Baby Shark. Kids content is the top performing category on YouTube. Like, this was shocking to Jack and me, but everyone is worried about like YouTube conspiracy videos out there, right man?

Yeah, the rabbit holes, the radicalization. But get this, five out of the ten biggest channels on YouTube, their kids' channels. Little Lulu, that's a channel that's got 54 million kids subscribers. Jack, what's going on with Miss Rachel? Miss Rachel has dozens and dozens of hour-long videos that have hundreds of millions of views each. And that is why Baby Shark can get away with charging kids three bucks a month. for a podcast. Whether it's Baby Shark or Disney, there is a willingness to pay for the digital on-demand babysitter. For our second story, we just got, honestly, the best monthly inflation

report in years. But there's a strange inflation situation going on at the dinner table. One sec, Jack, let me get my napkin. What is it? Restaurant inflation. Yaddies, Jack and I have said it before. We will say it again. The inflation report. It remains the celebrity of economic reports. And the report we got yesterday got all the attention. Inflation report. It's basically like the fourth Kardashian. I mean the fifth Kardashian? The Jenners are kind of small. But it was the best inflation report that we've seen in years. Basically, this inflation report for March, it showed that inflation is kind of deflating a bit. Price pops? They're pooped out a bit. At its peak last year, prices were rising 9% from the previous year. But in March, prices only rose by five.

5% from the year before. So facto, at its worst, inflation was 9%, but now it's down to 5%. But the highlight of this report was a strange thing going on at the dinner table. Okay, Jack and I went through the inflation report and we're like, what is this happening? What's the interesting thing here? Ma, the meato! Well, for the first time since the inflation drama began a couple years ago, restaurant prices are outpacing grocery prices.

Yeah, the price of food away from home, aka and restaurants was up 8.8% in March. But the price of groceries was only up 8.4%. That's a little less up than it was at the restaurant. So, Yetis, what Jack and I are saying is, let's say you're cooking a carrot casserole in your home kitchen. That was 8.4% more expensive than last year. But the duck special at Lartuzzi in West Village? Oh, very nice. That was 8.8%. Let's round up to 9% more expensive. You are not getting the dessert when the waiter comes over. Hold on the The frittata fiasco was worse at friendlies than it was on your own frying pan. That's what we're saying. Yes, it was, Jack. Oh, my omelet in your own kitchen. But at Denny's, oh my omelet.

Jack, someone's going to have to call called Guy Fieri. True. Good call. Yeah, diners, drive-ins and dives. You're going to need a new budget. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in everyone in the economy? What we're experiencing right now is the seesaw. effect. Yeti's inflation, it started getting out of control in 2021 when the price of home goods surged. Because we were all decking out our deck with a new grill, the shortage of grills drove up prices for things. Then in 2022, inflation moved from home goods to oil and grains. Because the Ukraine War crushed oil and grain supplies. Well, now in 2023, inflation has moved over to services. Because you want to go out again. You want to live normally. Your revenge

splurging at the theater and the bistrope. And that is driving up the price of normal leisure services like restaurants. First it was stuff, then it was oil, now it's services. Fighting inflation, it's been a three-year seesaw. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. The beauty of American finance, it's that your money works for you. If you have cash sitting in an account, the financial institution should pay you for it. Yeah, but not all due.

Like some accounts won't pay you anything for your cash. Robin Hood will pay you for your cash. your uninvested cash. In fact, with Robin Hood gold, your money will work hard for you, generating 4.4% APY, one of the highest rates. For $5 a month, Robin Hood Gold sets no limit on how much cash you can put in, and you can invest or draw anytime. Terms apply. To get started, go to robin hood.com and get your first free stock. That's robinood.com slash TBOI. Certain limitations apply. Rate is subject to change. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, Robin Hood is not a bank.

Our third and final story, Twitter, the company no longer exists. Twitter is now called X. But here's what Jack and I are thinking. Twitter should really rename itself to why. Now, Yetis, we should clarify right away. Twitter, the social media app that's on your phone, it still exists. I'm glad you clarified that, Jack. Like, Twitter did just tweet about Twitter on Twitter.

But Twitter isn't a company anymore. That's right. Yeties, get this. Twitter is now just a product, not a company. The product Twitter belongs to the company X. Court documents show that when Elon acquired Twitter, he bought it through his company named X. Elon has a company named X, and that's the company that actually acquired Twitter. That's the company that owns Twitter.

Well, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we noticed something funny about Elon Musk. X is his favorite letter, his favorite everything. Like, get this yet. He's Tesla has a car called the Model X. Elon has a space company. it's called space X. Elon named one of his sons, X, the letter X. And he owns the domain for X.com. Yeah, he does. When Elon bought Twitter, he even said it was just as an accelerant to creating X, the everything app. X, the everything app. One app that does payments, social media, food delivery,

everything in one app, and it's called X. So yeties, look, here we are. Elon says he's creating a super app called X using Twitter. But we noticed that. There's one problem. Elon's word is as flimsy as a feather right now. Like when it comes to Twitter, it's really hard to tell if Elon is telling the truth or if he's telling a false. For example, Elon said he would step down as CEO if the Twitter users voted for it, which they did. But he hasn't. He also said he'd take down the blue check marks for people not paying for them on April 1st.

But he did it. He also said he was a free speech absolutist. Say whatever you want, anything all the time. But he banned tweets that state the location of his own private jets. And he banned tweets that link to Instagram accounts. And he shadow ban tweets that mention the word substack. And he suppressed tweets with the word Ukraine. And finally, Elon just said that Twitter is almost financially at break-even.

But is it? Can it be? It's hard to take Elon's word on anything when it comes to Twitter these days. Based on everything we just said. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Twitter? Twitter got renamed to X. But it should be renamed to why. Why?

As in, why can't you just tell us the truth on this stuff, Elon? For an information platform, Twitter's become pretty bad at information. For example, NPR just left Twitter because their account was mislabeled as state-affiliated media. And Elon's got a growing list of things he said would happen, but haven't happened. So honestly, it's hard to take seriously anything Elon says is going to happen to Twitter. Twitter, the company, is now called X-Corp. but it should really be called why. Why?

As in, why can't you just tell us the truth? Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Baby Shark isn't just dancing on YouTube. It's a premium Apple podcast network for $3 a month. Because there are billions in the digital on-demand babysitter industry. And our second story is our inflation problem. It's only half as bad as it was a year ago. Okay.

But it's still kind of bad in restaurants. Fighting inflation, it's been a three-year-old. year seesaw. And our third and final story, Twitter is not a company anymore. It's a product owned by X. Twitter renamed to X, but we think it should be renamed to Y. As in why. Why is all this happening? Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in to the T-Boy pod website by Stephen Horwitz from lovely Silver Spring Nair. Yesterday, we told you about the $15 million license plate. Someone paid $15 million. million bucks for a vanity plate in Dubai that just says one thing on it, the number seven. Well,

Stephen says the U.S., we do the same thing here. Yeah, get this. In 2018, the state of Delaware sold a license plate for $410,000. That is Delaware money right there, baby. Yes, that is, Jack. And Delaware is the only state in the U.S. where you can own a license plate for life. Like, you can get a plate for life and then auction. You can like sell it on the secondary market. You can eBay that thing. We know what you're thinking. What was on that $410,000 license plate? 20. Yeah, it's not that exciting.

It was just the number 20. So if you're driving around Delaware and see a plate with just numbers on it, somebody paid a lot of money for that. That's not a car. That's a profit puppy. They're buying dinner tonight. Even with restaurant inflation. Especially with restaurant inflation.

Yeties, you look fantastic for the new Friday. And if you are just receiving your new T-boy merch today, we want to see a pick. Show us what you look like in that thing. Hit us up at T-Boy Pot. We're sure you look fantastic. Slamming Sam Sesso. If you know, you know.

And before we go, congratulations to Yeti's Andrew Walk and Rachel Cook, who just got engaged in Paris under the Eiffel Tower. If you're getting engaged in this economy, yeah, Jack? Your love is extra strong. It is extra strong. And congratulations to newlyweds Diego and Kim Ramirez, who are moving into a new home. And Camel and Beth, congratulations on the 11-year business anniversary designing clothes in Sarasota.

Happy 39th birthday to Armando Cueva in Mexico City. And Neha Patel, happy 32nd birthday in Westfield, Indiana. Happy birthday to Lauren Smith. Walking down Bleaker Street in the West Village right now. And Danny Different is about to have a very fun birthday in Avony, New York. Happy 24 to Rachel Galvez in Miami, Florida. And Diraj, the CFO. Happy birthday down in Pleasanton.

Chris Goy, happy birthday in Nashville, New Hampshire. And Jordan, Ray Brunchwick is turning four over in Davy, Florida. Enjoy that fourth birthday. Happy birthday, Jordan. And Taylor Casey is celebrating not only a birthday, but a retirement in Raleigh, North Carolina. And Amelia Gould is celebrating a birthday, but she's been listening to this pod since before she was born in Westford, Massachusetts. Just outside of Boston. Thank you, Jack.

And a happy birthday to Bella, Duffield. the yellow Labrador Retriever, turning 14 in Florida. Who's a good girl? And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a T-Barr. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Disney and Nick and I both on stock of Apple and Robin Hood.

And we both own some Bitcoin. A Bitcoin named Ben. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. The pizza from that new spot down the street, it's twice as good as the old spot. But the pizza in Tokyo was three times as good as pizza in the U.S., right Nick? It really was. Now, Jack, it is hard for something to be four times as good as something else, though.

What about 18 times as good? Okay, Robin Hood now offers 4.4% APY on your uninvested cash with Robin Hood Gold. For $5 a month, Robin of Gold will offer you interest that is 18 times the national savings account average. That's according to bank rate as of January 25th, 2023. No pizza is 18 times better than other pizza, but this account is 18 times better. Terms apply. To get started, go to Robin Hood. dot com slash t-boy and get your first stock for free.

That's robinid.com slash tb-o-i. Certain limitations apply. Rate is subject to change. All investments involve risk. Robinood Financial LLC, member SIPC, Robinood is not a bank. Wonderful work. Really fun.

As soon as I saw you were hitting friendlies, I was like, how do I try to get it to Jack and hit? Oh, my. I saw you were like, I was a little filler there. It was kind of like, you know, it's like, it's like, it's like, remember when we were doing curling? And it's like, I was like running.

He's like, well, you got to brush it to slow it up. It's slow it up. Slow it down.