The Best One Yet - “We already have a bunch of Quibis” — Quibi’s (potential) sale. Amazon Zucks Peloton? Big Bank money laundering drama.

Episode Date: September 23, 2020

After raising nearly $2B to enter the Streaming Wars, Quibi may be the first victim of it. Echelon creates low-cost Peloton knockoffs. And it claims it’s partnered with Amazon to Zuck Peloton now. And a new bombshell report reveals how criminal money is working through the financial system via our Big Banks.$PLTN $AMZN $DB $BAC $JPMGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @TBOYJack @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Learn 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 Wednesday, September 23rd. Nick, today is a good day because I tripped and fell during my morning run, but I fell athletically. Snackers, if you see a couple guys jogging with knee pads on, you found Nick and Jack. So we jumped in an ice bath and whipped up our best podcast ever for our Snackers. This is a T-boy for our first story.

Netflix Hulu HBO, Peacock Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, and of course, Roku Voodoo. Lulu Fubo and Quibi. Snackers, we have ourselves the first casualty of the streaming wars. Spoiler, it's Quibi. For our second story, a company that makes knock-off Peloton bikes, they claim they're partnering with Amazon for a cheaper at-home prime spin bike. Jack and I have wanted to ask this question for years. Did Bezos just suck Peloton?

For our third and final story, we're jumping into the summer reading of 11 reporters at BuzzFeed. Just a classic trove of documents showing how criminal. and cronies exploit America's financial system. It's actually bad news for five big banks. But Snackers, before we hit that story, one awesome snacker named Srinivasa Sankar, pointed out to us the most innovative thing in the airline industry right now. Jack and I jumped in snack style. We couldn't make this up. It's called the flight to nowhere. True story. Singapore Airlines is literally going to fly flights that leave from one airport sounds normal and arrive at the same

airport. A lot less normal. You're going to go through security at Singapore airport. Here's how it goes down. You take off, you go in a circle, you fly for three hours, and then you land at the same airport. This is because a small survey by the airline showed that 75% of Singaporeans are willing to pay $288 for a flight to nowhere. But get this, apparently 40% of those Singaporeans are willing to pay double that price for business class must be nice. Snackers, you're all asking what's going on here. Like, what's going on here? And the reason Singaporeans are willing to do, this seem to be twofold. First, there is a patriotic desire in Singapore to help out the hometown Singapore Airlines. Second, travel-hungry Singaporeans are dying to travel. They are really travel starving right now.

Jack, I'm going to pull out my yardstick here. Turns out Singapore is such a tiny island nation. It is the size of Brooklyn and Queens combined. The whole country is the size of two-fifths of New York City. And because international travel is highly restricted right now, People are getting a little stir crazy, kind of just want to get out there and pay $12 for an airport water bottle. They are stuck on their island with nowhere to go. They are dying to get out of the house, so they're going to do a staycation, but they want the staycation to feel like a real vacation. So Singapore Airlines is doing package deals, including a limo ride and a hotel,

to really round out the whole flight to nowhere experience. I've heard Nick, if you fall asleep on the plane, it really feels like a vacation. Jack, we've been saying it for years. It's not a trip without a few airline miles and a guy. good nice TSA practice. Let's hit our three stars. 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 the hair 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. Robahood Financial, LLC. Member Fenra. IPC. For our first story, according to PFWTM, Quibi reportedly is up for sale or it's going to spack itself, which is also up for sale. That would make it the first casualty of the streaming wars. But Snackers, here's the first thing you got to know about Quibi.

It actually followed rule number one of streaming. Your name is two vowels and two syllables. That's it. Case in point, Hulu. Voodoo. Roku. And Quibby, which stands for quip bites. Quick bites.

Think like Netflix quality streaming content, but you're getting this thing in eight-minute episodes. Nick, your subway ride from Grand Central to Fulton just got Quibby. And if I just got Quibi, it means I'm either paying $5 for Quibi with ads or I'm paying $8 because I want to be fancy for without ads. Now, this isn't just your user-generated influencer Snapchat content. You got to pay for Quibi. And the team over at Quibi is patting themselves on the virtual backs because this past week they earned themselves 10 Emmy nominations. The host of the Emmys Jimmy Kimmel nominated the company, though, for biggest waste of a billion dollars in a leading role. We're assuming Jeffrey Katzenberg wasn't in the virtual audience or he would have been in real life mad.

Jimmy Kimmel, though, he was actually a little off. Quibi has raised $1.75 billion from investors including Disney, Warner Media, NBC, and a lot of other like movie and TV production companies. But since Quibi cashed those checks, it's fallen on some hard times that could be a Quibi drama. It has badly missed subscriber growth numbers since it launched way back in April. Now, what jazz talking about here is what's going on in the finance department. But over in the legal department at Quibi, they're dealing with a lawsuit. Their core technology turnstile, which lets you turn the phone from landscape to portrait seamlessly, was allegedly stolen from another company.

And over in the metrics department at Quibi, they're dealing with some other numbers that aren't looking too exciting either. Downloads peaked on April 6th, which was launched at. This is as if you looked back on your life and your greatest accomplishment was being born. You peaked once, you peaked early, and you never peaked again. And according to the recent reports, Jack and I jumped into, Quibi's only had four and a half million downloads in its first two months. And that is despite a 90-day free trial that Quibi offers,

which is matched only by Casper mattresses in terms of free samples. Snackers, remember, for the internship, you get the Casper mattress, return it at the end of the internship, life hack. 90 days, sleep for free. But that leads us to the, The news, according to PFWTM, that Quibi, given all of what Jack and I just described, is now exploring, quote-unquote, strategic options. Translation, they're either going to sell themselves to a media company like maybe Hulu or Netflix,

or go public via SPAC. And it's particularly tough timing because Quibi has no leverage to demand a good price, so this will probably end up being seen as a failure. We're thinking T-Mobile or maybe AT&T will buy Quibi for a tiny price and then offer it for free to its wireless customers. You can quote us on it. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Quibi? Quibi identified a real customer problem. Yes, it did.

The problem was it was solved already. Snackers, Quibi executives love pointing out that it was created for those in-between moments. Like when you're on the 4-train for 10 minutes, take a quick bite of your favorite show. Or when you're waiting for your buddy Timmy to show up at the park to meet you, but it's Timmy so he's always late. Maybe you jump into some Quibi episodes. Quibi executives also love pointing out the bad luck of COVID-19, which killed their chances for success. yeah, you don't really have many in-between moments anymore because you're either working from your living room or you're on the couch afterwards. But we identified the real problem. Something already

exists in the market for in-between moments. And that is social media and mobile games. The real competition for those 10 minutes on the 4 train, it's Instagram or candy crash, not Netflix or Hulu. And the proof we've seen over the last six months is TikTok and Instagram. Both are thriving mid-pandemic, and so are mobile games. There is a ton of media already in the market for those in-between moments, aka those quibbies. AKA, there's already a bunch of quibbies out there. For our second story, Amazon has reportedly helped a Peloton knockoff, knockoff Peloton, with a cheaper Peloton knockoff.

Echelon is banking on the unbundling strategy to beat Peloton. Snackers, we've got to talk about our buddies over at Peloton for a second. They didn't invent indoor spinning. They just tossed in some software, a tablet, and a generous dose of smoking. Sorry, I'm late to our first day. Just got off my Peloton. No big deal. Must be nice. Now, Eschelon is a company that is brazenly knocking off Peloton at a much lower cost. No joke. Jack and I tweeted out these images. The color, the design. Even the red knob to change the resistance level, they're identical. Nick, even the name has the name of the syllables and the rhyming. Snackers, you got to start paying attention because someone's going to say to you, yeah, we just got a professional Peloton. Elshol. You say it fast? No one has any idea. Pelot. Eschalon. It is the McDowels to Peloton's McDonald's. And last month, we covered Peloton announcing a lower cost spinning bike for your home. When Jack and I jumped into that story, it honestly, it read, it read like an onion article, Jack. Peloton releases lower cost bike. Now just

$1,895. Not too shabby for only the price of, you know, a trip to France for eight days. Now, Eschelon just launched an actually lower cost buy. Yes, they did. For $500 yesterday. This new Echelon bike is the dollar menu to Peloton's Rib Eye. Now, here's where the story gets really interesting. Echelon claims that they partnered with Amazon on this new bike. And that's because this new bike is actually their third bike. Their first two were $1,000 and $1,000. But this one, it's only $500.

Now, they issued a press release, and they said they developed it with Amazon, but they didn't get any quotes for Amazon. No, they didn't. And Nick, it seems like they just asked Amazon, what should we do to improve sales of our bike on your website, Amazon.com? To which Amazon had one response, Billy Ford them the standard email. Lower the price. So they lowered the price.

This one is $500. Which I think Jack is less than a normal bike price. This connected bike is less than like a normal schwin. I don't know if we're allowed to say this, but maybe you just buy the etchelon and you take it off the stand at this point. Take off the wheels actually. Pop the tires and you got an echelon. So Snackers, Etchelon's claiming this new bike, this prime bike, was developed and coordination with Amazon. But Amazon hasn't commented or confirmed, and there's no branding anywhere

on the bike. Honestly, the closest thing this has to Amazon is they say the name is the prime bike. Like, we could just call this Snacks Prime. Yeah, I think anyone can add the word prime to their product and like, that's legal. Snacks Prime, real thing. You get the downloads really quickly. Also, the Eschelon Prime Bike, they're also selling the same bike on Walmart, Amazon's Archrival. They just removed the sticker from the bike that had Prime written on. So it turns out, echelon could just be pulling a fast one on us, just like they're pulling a product fast one on Peloton. We're calling this unbundling what Eschelon's doing, and it works if customers are willing to plan ahead. Billy, what's going on here? So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Peloton and Amazon?

Eschelon's $500 bike does not include a screen, but it has a really simple shelf where you could easily put a screen that you can look at. Snackers, Echlon calls it a connected bike, but it's actually not connected. But do we need another screen? You already have. three like iPads that your aunts gave you for Christmas the past three years. So when you buy like a Peloton, first of all, congratulations. Second, the big chunk of that $1,900 is going toward the like proprietary Peloton screen. You can easily put your smartphone, your iPad, or just look at your TV when you're on the bike. That works too. The worst. So Echelon is banking on customers who want to save $1,400 and had nothing to do with your aunt's new iPad. Spirit Airlines is a famous unbundler. They

remove the check bag, the seat selection, even the water from the price of a ticket. Yeah, ironic twist here, too, you could just end up paying $12 a month for the Peloton training subscription app and then use Peloton's content while sitting on an echelon bike. And guess what? Millions prefer the cheaper unbundled option. Classic. If saving money simply requires you to plan ahead or put your phone on the bike. Oh yeah, and Spirit Airlines also doesn't even have a screen in the back of their seats for the same reason. Unbundling works if you're willing to plan ahead. For our third and final story, big banks knowingly moved and cleaned trillions of dollars in criminal dirty money. That's according to a bombshell investigative report by BuzzFeed.

You got drug cartels. You got some human trafficking. You also got a few terror networks. Feels like a Netflix promo. Read, sit down. Here's the idea. It's Narcos meets Taken meets Ozark. Nick and I are going to share a little old story when we were 22 in New York City working in finance. Yeah, you show up. First day on the job, they take your picture for the ID. They handed the password, they tell you to shave every day and then they say, congratulations, you're the first line of defense against terrorism. We're like blinking three or four times before we say no. What's the Excel password again? Snackers, criminals and corrupt politicians, they're actually driven by the same motivation as like everyone else. Money. Yeah, but drug lord has some duffel

bags of cash. That's not as useful as a bank account of cash to chase and a sapphire card. So it's up to banks to stop dirty money from entering the U.S. financial system. love wringing up those points. They're doing a lot of travel to drug dealers. Now, young bankers, they're actually taught to ask tons and tons of questions to get to the bottom of like, whose money is this and where did this money come from? Yeah, simple stuff. Like, what address is this account registered at? But then they'll also be like, oh, this LLC owns this money? Who owns the LLC? And who owns that LLC? And who owns that LLC? And all this was heightened after the September 11th terrorism attacks and the Patriot Act got

passed into law. Because to quote Uncle Ben, with great power, comes great responsibility. Well, then yesterday we noticed that BuzzFeed published a bombshell report called The FinCent Files. Money from drug cartels. Organized crime. Corrupt leaders. The banks let their money in, and the government doesn't stop them. Eleven BuzzFeed reporters opened up their report with those scary words. Yeah. And they called out five banks for allowing trillions of dollars of dirty money into our financial system. You got J.P. Morgan Chase, HSBC, Standard Charter, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of New York Mellon. Now, to quote Shrek, these crimes have... layers because the banks committed crimes, but their crimes allowed criminals to commit other terrible crimes. Case in point, HSBC led a Ponzi scheme go by, which had been barred in three states,

moving $15 million in between accounts. And the criminal operative used those stolen funds to buy two golf courses, a mansion, and a 39-carat diamond. But both Uncle Ben and investors were really disappointed by this report. The scale of the lack of anti-money laundering policies led to stock drops from Deutsche Bank of 2%, Bank of America by 2%, and J.P. Morgan by 1%. And the 11 BuzzFeed reporters also called out the U.S. Treasury for not stepping in to stop the banks. Thanks to their journalism, we know that the banks flagged sketchy clients and sketchy transactions with like mountains and mountains of files. Yes, they did, but did nothing to stop them. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the big banks?

The banks didn't take these huge risks for free. They got paid handsomely for it. Snackers, rule number one of finance over here, With greater risk comes greater potential reward. Banks commonly put their clients into three buckets of risk. High-risk clients, medium-risk clients, low-risk clients. The higher the risk, the client, the higher the interest rate on the loans or the fees on the transactions. Now, Deutsche Bank, which is infamous for naively doing business with corrupt clients, they aided Russian criminals, according to this report, in a scheme that stole money from American small business.

You think that Deutsche Bank got paid handsomely for dealing with a shady company, Jack? Yeah, we think they did. Yes, we do. They probably charge double or triple their normal fees. So this story shows the critical importance of a well-funded, well-resourced Treasury Department. They're responsible for oversight of sanctions and anti-money laundering laws. And they're responsible for holding the banks accountable, not just filing a bunch of paperwork. Jack Kenyon, whip up the takeaways for us over there.

We got an early obituary for Quibi, the first casualty of the streaming wars. And an early autopsy, there's already a ton of quick bites in your phone. Second story, Eschelon has done it again, a $500 bike that has, If you squint, looks like your wealthier buddies palatown. B.Y.O. Screen. B.Y.O. Screen. They're in a final story. The big banks blew it big time by letting criminals be customers. And they probably got paid handsomely for all that. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one tweeted in by a proud parent snacker,

Isaiah and Georgia Gomer, and their baby snacker, Goldie Lind Gomer. Straight out of Paso-Robles, California. That's right. And they wanted to point out to us that there is only one letter that doesn't appear in any U.S. state's name. Now, if you think you know what it is, remember Texas, Arizona, Wyoming? Jack, can I buy a continent over there? The letter Q appears in none of the 50 states names. Snackers, before we go, congrats to Mark and Lori got married 25 years ago at Mead Chapel on the Middlebury College campus, Go Panthers. The same place I graduated as a Fembe in 2011. Colan West passed the series seven down in Memphis, Tennessee. Congrats to Rachel and Jamie,

celebrating four years of dating over in Overland, Kansas. And April and Joe engaged down in Chicago. And Sean and Melissa celebrating five years together from Boston Mass. But happy birthday to Noritin Bas Bas in Amand, Jordan. And Morgan Beckwith in Austin, Texas. And Armando Gallegis in Cicero, Illinois. And another Middlebury Panther named Dorothy, aka Dot, in Telleride, Colorado. It Jesus Laura in Baltimore, Maryland.

Derek Staddlemire in Sarasota, Florida. Anteleana Tran in Wilmington, Delaware. Joey Berlin in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the other Berlin. And Nick Land in San Luis of Pisco, California. And Kate Choi in Valencia, California. And happy birthday to Vincent Jang in Nanjing, China. Snackers, Instagram is Nick's and my quibbies, and we love seeing Snackers sharing H-Y-H-YSD.

Have you had your snacks daily? We've got to go ice some body parts. If you know, you know. We'll see you tomorrow. This is Jack. I 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

Robinhood 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.