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First Move with Julia Chatterley
The Fed Chair to tell Congress Rising Prices Won't Last; China Sparks a Selloff with Fresh Trading Curbs; Netflix Teams Up with Legendary Director, Steven Spielberg. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired June 22, 2021 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:23]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE and here is your need to know.
Powell placates. The Fed Chair to tell Congress that rising prices won't last.
Crypto kicked. China sparks a selloff with fresh trading curbs.
And jaws drop. Netflix teams up with legendary Director, Steven Spielberg.
It's Tuesday. Let's make a move.
A warm welcome once again to FIRST MOVE where we're hoping to enjoy some of the traditional warm weather pleasures this summer like pools, picnics,
parks, and perhaps even Powell.
Yes, the Fed Chair, Jay Powell testifying before Congress later on Tuesday. His first public comments since the teeny taper tantrum on Friday spurred
by fears that the Federal Reserve is pulling forward discussions on reducing support and future rate rises, too.
So, Powell has a rendezvous with Congress. Spielberg is hooking up with Netflix, and FIRST MOVE has a date with Tinder. Yes, the CEO of dating app
-- the dating app joins us later to discuss post lockdown relationships and a new feature Tinder video.
Meanwhile, investors can't decide whether to swipe right or left either premarket, a bit of consolidation, I think, after the snapback rally
yesterday, without rising for the first time in a week as bond yields calm, too.
Europe remains near records with U.K. factory orders at 33-year highs. The Nikkei meanwhile rallying in Asia, winning back all of Monday's losses.
Now, Fed Chair Powell's testimony certainly comes with a tipping point for tapered timing chatter.
New York Fed President, John Williams said Monday he believes a Fed taper decision is quote, "a long way away." Meanwhile, the Dallas Fed President,
Robert Kaplan says, it's about time to pull the trigger. I actually think this is a healthy debate. It signals that the core crisis has passed and
discussion before seeing any action is a luxury.
Let's get more on all of this in our drivers. Christine Romans joins me now. Christine, great to have you with us. A bit of a two-way debate here
from the Federal Reserve, I think is a good thing, and I mean that because everyone seemed to be in line when the crisis was near and we needed to see
immediate support and in huge size.
Now, a bit of two-way risk is a good thing for investors, but Congress I think is going to have some firm and pointed questions to ask about rising
prices and the struggle particularly for small businesses in terms of hiring.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly we're in a new phase, right, of the coronavirus crisis and we're
moving into a phase where we can see it behind us. But we don't really know what the blueprint is for going forward here.
Inflation and the labor market, two very important keys. We'll hear from him today on inflation. In his prepared testimony, Julia, he will use that
word "transitory" again. He will point out that inflation has grown recently, but that from very, very low levels.
And again, he makes this point. He uses the verb "abate," that eventually this will work itself out. Whether the market agrees with him or not, this
is still the line we're hearing from the Fed. He is also talking about the unemployment rate, how it's still elevated, and again, hoping that that
will work its way out, too.
He expects job gains should be coming in better in coming months and he pegs that to vaccinations. But he does go on to point out, and I'm sure
you've noticed this, too, that the pace of vaccination has slowed and the variants still propose a risk.
So, even as I say we're entering sort of this new phase right now, it is a new phase with some of the very scary elements of the old one.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, but there are encouraging signs, and we call them encouraging signs from the labor market. Others are saying, look, we can't
get help. But what it is creating is upward pressure on wages, to the extent that actually some of the lower paid workers are seeing their wages
rising faster for the first time in a really long time than those with higher qualifications, or at least that's some of the evidence that we're
now seeing -- Christine.
ROMANS: Yes, and you look at the Atlanta Fed, it published some really interesting numbers that show somebody with just a high school degree
having the fastest wage increases of all the categories, something like 3.7 percent year-over-year, and that's because you've seen it, these jobs in
transportation, in warehousing, in retail, and in hospitality. They've had to put in hiring bonuses and raise wages to attract and retain workers
because, Julia, I do think we are in this new phase.
The leverage right now in the American economy is advantaged worker, right? I mean, there's no question. I don't know how long that's going to last.
Again, there's no blueprint for this. But you have record new business creation. You have the fastest pace of quitting your job in 20 years,
people are finding new opportunities at higher pay in different categories after a year of stimulus and jobless benefits.
[09:05:18]
ROMANS: They've had it time to retool, and maybe even retrain, and refocus after what we've just lived through. So, I see a real churn happening in
the American labor market. It'll be fascinating to see how that plays out.
CHATTERLEY: Greater equity. Is that what we're seeing? Perhaps the start of it, in terms of some of the inequities that we've seen and inequalities
that we've seen in this labor market?
ROMANS: You certainly would hope so. You know, I was talking to Nela Richardson, the Chief Economist of ADP recently, and I said, you know, what
do you make of this worker shortage? And she told me, I see less of a worker shortage and more of a barrier in the -- you know, institutional
barrier to entry for a lot of people in the labor market, specifically low income and female -- the female workforce, and she's hoping that a lot of
the stuff that Congress has done is going to help try to smooth out some of those barriers.
But it's something to really keep an eye on here. If we're going to grow the economy, we have to grow the labor force participation. To do that, we
have to make sure that we have the right supports in place to get everybody back, you know, back in the game. We're still in the early innings of that.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, we are. And the question is when the unemployment benefits roll off their peak in September, whether this remains sticky, or
whether it rolls off again, and we see those wages come back down. It's going to be interesting to see.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: Christine Romans, particularly at the low end. Thank you for that.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
CHATTERLEY: The crypto crackdown now, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies keep falling as China ramps up the pressure on digital coins. The
government instructing banks to push back against crypto after ordering a halt to operations in a major hub for crypto mining.
David Culver is live in Shanghai and has been looking at all the details of this. David, great to have you with us. As far as some of the pressure on
financial institutions and the curbs are concerned, I don't really see anything new, I just see a cranking up of the pressure in terms of the
operations that they're allowing or not allowing anymore in terms of cryptocurrency maneuvers, what do you make of what we're seeing?
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You've called it exactly right. Yes, yes, Julia, it's a mounting of pressure and it's coming straight from Beijing.
And it's on several of the platforms and lenders, including Alipay, which is widely used here, of course, owned by Alibaba and some of the five big
banks, the big lenders here, all summoned by the People's Bank of China in Beijing. And news of that obviously had an immediate impact. It brought
down in the immediacy, Bitcoin nine percent.
And it really took a hit on other cryptocurrencies, many of them seeing about half of what they were at, in April, when many of them are at an all-
time high. So, it's definitely having an impact and it is sending a message.
It's something that China is not willing to back down on. They want cryptocurrencies trading in particular, to be halted. They will not
tolerate it, as they put it, and they want it, in their words, to be investigated and identified, looking specifically at the exchanges, and
those who are trading in particular.
So, going forward, it seems that they are trying to send this message. But as you point out, it is rooted in something that they've been consistent
with over the past several months, if not years, looking at how they're going to handle this. It remains to be seen if it is going to be tolerated
in any manner whatsoever, but it is having a huge impact on the value because you're talking about what is the second largest economy, quickly
becoming the first, sending a very loud and clear message -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's a hate to legitimacy. But in traditional markets, if you crack down on mining, you reduce supply, and therefore you force the
price higher. So, it's quite interesting to watch the price action and the interaction with something that is the nascent stages of technology and
acceptance, of course, too.
Why David, really quickly? Why are they doing this? We know that they are testing and rolling out their own Central Bank digital coin. Is this a case
of one coin to rule them all, or just something in terms of curbing speculation, which we've seen in other asset classes in the past?
CULVER: I think a lot of this is rooted in control and they want to make sure as you point out as they're rolling out this digital RMB, which is
going to compete, by the way with Alipay, it's going to compete with WeChat. They want to make sure that they are tracking and monitoring all
movements of money, and they portray this as trying to crack down on money laundering.
They say that they want to make sure that there's no illegal cross transfer over borders of assets. But ultimately, this is about Beijing controlling
to make sure that they know where the assets are, and that they get a piece of it ultimately, as they continue to even reform here within China some of
the tax laws -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. So coin and control, both things.
CULVER: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: David, great to have you with us. David Culver there.
CULVER: Good to be with you, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Well, let's move on. Thank you. One of cinema's all-time greats is betting big on streaming.
[09:10:00]
CHATTERLEY: Steven Spielberg's production company has signed a deal with Netflix. Frank Pallotta is following this story for us. Frank, great to
have you with us. Let's be clear, though, this is not Steven Spielberg's nor Amblin, the production studios first foray into streaming. But as a
symbol in Hollywood, this is huge and it's also huge for Netflix, given the competition.
FRANK PALLOTTA, CNN MEDIA WRITER: It's a big, big deal. I mean, this is more like you said, a symbol of the changing dynamics in Hollywood. This is
one of Hollywood's titans of the Old Guard, you know, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jaws," "Jurassic Park," the theatrical experience, basically in a
human being, going over to Netflix, the company that is redefining entertainment.
Now mind you, does this mean that we're going to see a bunch of Steven Spielberg movies play exclusively on Netflix? No, we don't know that yet.
We don't know if he is going to direct any of these. This is production house, Amblin, who has obviously produced a bunch of huge movies over the
years like "Back to the Future" and Spielberg's movies himself.
But for Netflix, this is huge, especially as competition is ramping up because you have Disney and our own company, WarnerMedia's HBO MAX,
bringing in all of these different types of events that want to bring in subscribers, and I can't think of a better way to bring in subscribers than
Steven Spielberg.
CHATTERLEY: You know, he made some comments -- some controversial comments in the past, didn't he, over what gets an Emmy and what gets an Oscar. It
is quite fascinating to your point of him, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall here and understanding that streaming is one way to go, and it
doesn't preclude some of your content being in cinemas either and therefore, qualifying in the future post-pandemic for Oscars.
PALLOTTA: Yes, I mean, it was in 2019, there was a lot of reporting that he was trying to bar Netflix from the Oscars. It was kind of overblown. It
was more of a misunderstanding. But he did come out and say, it doesn't matter if movies on big screens or small screens. He wants people to watch
movies. He wants stories to be seen and heard by audiences.
But let's not get it twisted here. Steven Spielberg loves the theatrical experience. He is a proponent of the theatrical experience. But he is also
at this point, is Netflix not the theatrical experience? They have movies in theaters. It's not like it was in the old days where it was Netflix
could only be seen at home.
I saw "The Irishman" in theaters. I saw "Marriage Story" in theaters. These are Netflix films. So, I think Spielberg knows there's certain places where
certain films can be made. And Netflix is a good opportunity for him to expand his storytelling.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, "Jaws" on your iPad. It does not look anywhere near as frightening as "Jaws" in the cinema. Where are you, by the way, Frank? I
was expecting "Indy" in the background at the very least.
PALLOTTA: He's right over there.
CHATTERLEY: Oh, is he?
PALLOTTA: He is right over there. I'm moved into a new apartment. So, I'm right there.
CHATTERLEY: Oh, did you. Okay, fine. Just checking. I suddenly missed that whip and the hat in the background, Frank. Thank you very much, Frank
Pallotta.
All right, let me bring you up to speed now with some of the other stories making headlines around the world.
Taliban militants are taking over dozens of districts in northern Afghanistan according to several local officials who spoke to CNN. Many
districts have come under Taliban control without a battle while in other places, officials say government troops are putting up resistance. The U.S.
and NATO remain on track to withdraw troops by September 11th.
In a few moments, Iran's President-elect will deliver a speech in the Holy City of Mashhad. In a press conference, Monday, the hardline politician
called on the U.S. to rejoin the nuclear deal and he laid out some of his foreign policy.
Mr. Raisi was declared Iran's new President on Saturday in an uncompetitive race in which only around 49 percent of voters participated.
A U.N. committee says the Great Barrier Reef near Australia has deteriorated so much it should be listed as a World Heritage Site, quote
"in danger." But Australia disagrees, saying it already invests billions to protect the vital ocean ecosystem. It is home to hundreds of marine species
and contributes almost $5 billion annually to Australia's economy.
CNN's Ivan Watson has more on the reef rift between Australia and the U.N.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Australian government is taking a very unusual step. It is publicly accusing UNESCO of
essentially betraying it after proposing to put the Great Barrier Reef on an endangered list of World Heritage sites.
Now, the Great Barrier Reef is this incredibly rich, diverse marine habitat that's just enormous. It is nearly 350,000 square kilometers in size,
that's thousands of reefs and atolls and islands bigger than Italy, and home to thousands of different marine species, but it has been dying off or
rather its coral reefs have been dying off as the world's oceans, their temperatures rise due to climate change. There have been these terrible
bleaching incidents in 2016, 2017, and 2020, which had been killing off the underwater forests of coral.
And now, UNESCO has been saying that the health of the reef has declined from poor to very poor.
[09:15:06]
WATSON: Australia's Environment Minister, she just seems to not like this new potential classification, and she called with Australia's Foreign
Minister, UNESCO's Director General to try to get that individual to reverse this designation going on to say, quote, "I made it clear that we
will contest this flawed approach, one that has been taken without adequate consultation. I agree that global climate change is the single biggest
threat to the world's reefs, but it is wrong in our view to single out the best managed reef in the world for an 'in danger listing.'"
But you know, who is welcoming this proposal? Environmental groups like Greenpeace would say that Australia and its government haven't gone far
enough to reduce carbon emissions. Pointing out, for example, that Australia is one of the world's biggest exporters of coal, and those coal
exports are projected to grow over the next five years.
Coal, of course, contributes to greenhouse gases and contributes to global warming. So yes, Australia on the one hand has invested money in trying to
protect and revitalize its Great Barrier Reef, but on the other hand, it is contributing to rising temperatures, which at the end of the day are
helping kill off the coral.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: Okay, still to come here on FIRST MOVE, renter rewards. Meet the venture fund creating a reward points program for tenants; and dating
app, Tinder on fire is perfecting single swipe right on face-to-face romance. The CEO joins me later to discuss.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. stocks are taking a bit of a power related pause ahead of key testimony from the Fed Chair later today
before Congress. Jerome Powell expected to point out the substantial economic progress being made as the U.S. reopens, but also the pressures
still holding growth back. A lot of those strains visible in the airline industry.
Today, Delta Air Lines announcing that it aims to hire more than 1,000 pilots by next summer as travel demand bounces back. And yet, American
Airlines says labor shortages, wicked weather, and the stress of ramping up schedules are forcing it to cancel hundreds of flights at the same time.
[09:20:12]
CHATTERLEY: Okay, now to a revolution in the rental market. The venture fund, Kairos, has partnered with top U.S. real estate brands and MasterCard
to create a rewards program for renters. Tenants earn points for their monthly rent payments. Those points can be spent on things like travel,
hotels, and fitness classes or -- and this key -- as a downpayment on their future home.
Joining us to discuss is Ankur Jain. He is founder and CEO of Kairos. Ankur, fantastic to have you on the show. Let's start by just explaining --
ANKUR JAIN, FOUNDER AND CEO, KAIROS: Good morning, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Good morning -- how this all works, and I know you saw a problem with perennial rental payments. People never actually managing to
get on the property ladder, and it crystallized when you moved from California to New York. Talk us through that.
JAIN: Yes. I mean, it's crazy how much money we spend on rent these days, I think the average American today spends $200,000.00 on rent in their
lifetime, and you get nothing back. I think it is no closer to home ownership. I mean, the system makes no sense.
I can take a flight on American Airlines today and earn points. I can stay at a high-end hotel and earn points. But if I pay my rent on time, I get
nothing. Right? And worse, 80 percent of Americans are still paying rent by check in 2021. Right? Just think about that.
The only reason most young people probably still have a checkbook in their drawer, right? And so, what we wanted to do was take the single largest
expense for most Americans, and finally turn that into the key to your travel, to building your credit history, and eventually your path to
homeownership and that's something we're just really, really excited about.
And so we've launched the first ever loyalty program, like Delta Sky Miles, or American Advantage for rent in the first ever credit card with
MasterCard that has no fees on rent. So, for the first time, everybody in this country can pay rent with their credit card for no fees and earn
points on their biggest expense.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, that was one of the things when I read this that blew me away was the fact that you've managed to bring all these airline groups
on board all working together to accept these points, but also some of the nation's biggest landlords that traditionally would be in competition, and
they're all on board with this, too.
What about for a private landlord? What happens if I want to get this credit card, I want to pay my rent, but my private landlord says, hey, I'm
not going to accept a credit card payment -- how is that going to work?
JAIN: So, what's exciting is you can pay rent with this card for no fees at any apartment in the country, right, and so if you rent outside the two
million apartments in the Bilt network, or your landlord just doesn't take credit cards for some reason, we built a technology with MasterCard so that
you can still pay rent through our app for no fees and we'll send a check to your landlord on your behalf.
So, you still earn points, you still get to pay electronically, and you now also get the credit score benefit and the path to homeownership no matter
where you rent. And that is something I think that will hopefully finally kill checks for rent.
CHATTERLEY: Oh, please. I couldn't believe it when I moved to the United States. And I was like, well, I have to use a checkbook again. Okay, so
talk to me about homeownership, because this is a crucial part. There will be people listening to this going, hang on a second, are we talking about
paying a mortgage with a credit card? Are we just talking about building some kind of credit history because you're showing that you're consistently
paying your rent -- how does it actually work to acquire points, and then put that towards perhaps a future house purchase?
JAIN: So, when you rent with Bilt, you earn points on every rent payment, and when you use the Bilt MasterCard, you can earn up to two times points
on rent payments, right? When you're ready to buy a home, we worked with the U.S. government for the first ever regulatory approval to use rewards
points towards the down payment of an FHA or Fannie Mae mortgage.
So, not only will you qualify for better rates if you've been able to boost your credit score through things like on-time rent payment reporting, which
by the way, could save the average American $30,000.00 to $40,000.00 in interest fees over the course of a mortgage, just by having that added
credit score, right?
You also now can use those points as a cash replacement for the downpayment. So, you might be able to cover $25,000.00 to $30,000.00 maybe
even 50 percent of your downpayment, just using points that you've earned for rent for free.
CHATTERLEY: How are you going to make money on this, Ankur?
JAIN: So look, there's a lot of exciting opportunity. I think one of the jokes in the loyalty space is that airline and hotels are actually loyalty
programs. They just happen to own airlines, right? I mean, the loyalty business is a mascot.
CHATTERLEY: But you could spend them.
JAIN: And look, if you think about it, when COVID hit, these big airlines took out loans against the loyalty programs because those points are so
valuable, and that same concept applies here, but housing is even bigger and touches a younger audience.
[09:25:09]
JAIN: And so, we make money through the issuance of points to residents. We make money through when you use your credit card to spend outside of
rent. So, every time you swipe your card at the grocery store to buy a new airline ticket, those fees that are spent by the merchant come through,
obviously as revenue. And then we also have a mortgage business, right?
And we have an opportunity to help young people go from their first rent payment, all the way to their first home purchase and that kind of
lifecycle engagement, I think, is really exciting. And for customers, to start getting that kind of value back on something you have to do every
month anyways, and be able to turn that big expense into something meaningful, I think can be transformative for our generation.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I mean, it would be incredible, I think, to open up the opportunity, at least for over homeownership at some point in the future
and to be rewarded for making correct payments and making the payments on time.
This is key, though, too. And I think we have to establish that you have to have money in your bank account. You actually have to have the rent
payment. You're not paying your rent with credit here. That's separate from the credit component of the credit card. Is that correct?
JAIN: So, that is correct. So, one of the things we developed with MasterCard is, how do you give people the benefit of earning points, paying
electronically, and getting credit reporting to the Bureaus without the risk of people going into debt on rent?
So, we built a feature called Bilt Protect. And when you go to make your rent payment, it actually checks the balance in your linked bank account to
make sure you have the funds available to pay it off, and then helps you pay it off right away. And that way, you still get to earn those points,
you still get to pay digitally, but you're not letting people go into the risk of debt on their biggest expense.
CHATTERLEY: Critically important. Okay, so there'll be a lot of people that don't live in the United States watching this. You're just launching
in the United States now. What about global ambitions, quickly?
JAIN: I'm hopeful we can get this to renters all over the world, but we've got to start here in our backyard and we have two million apartments that
are going to be rolling this out across the country.
But of course, anybody can sign up for the Bilt-MasterCard and pay rent at any apartment outside of our loyalty network as well.
CHATTERLEY: And we shall see how it goes. Ankur, great to have you. Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of Kairos. Great to chat with you.
Okay, we're back after this with the market open.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:37]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. stocks are up and running this Tuesday and far from a summer scorcher on Wall Street, the major
averages -- actually look at that -- as we -- oh, no, there we are. That was yesterday's performance you saw.
So, that is the performance and we are relatively unchanged, the major averages, ahead of a key testimony from Fed Chair, Jay Powell, which takes
place late in today's session. All this after a strong start to the trading week yesterday.
Strength in financial and energy stocks helping the Dow rally almost two percent, its best session in fact in three months. That was the performance
you were seeing there briefly at the start of the session.
The game still like GameStop, too, shares of the original meme stock rallying in early trade, after successfully completing a $5 million share
offering meaning an easing of some of the selling pressure or the perceptions of selling pressure, up by more than seven percent. GameStop
raising more than $1 billion in its stock sale.
And another check of Bitcoin, too, still trading below that key $30,000.00 level as we speak. Billions of dollars in value has been wiped off the
Bitcoin books amid ongoing concern about China's crypto crackdown. Shares of MicroStrategy and Marathon Digital Holdings, which are heavily invested
in Bitcoin, also, losing ground in the session once again.
Crypto exchange, Coinbase, also, under pressure, too.
Now, dating is rarely easy, but the pandemic has created a whole new set of challenges. Conversations about things like mask wearing, vaccines, or even
COVID anxiety have become the new normal. But as we collectively look down swiping left or right on Tinder to indicate that you find someone
attractive or not, never stopped.
The most popular dating app says there were a record three billion swipes in March 2020. And from then on, the activity only grew with another 130
record days last year.
Now, as we reemerge into the real world, Tinder is introducing new features aimed at its growing population of Gen Z or Gen Zed users. We're joined by
the CEO of Tinder, Jim Lanzone.
Jim, fantastic to have you on the show. Let's talk about some of these new features. Video is going to be part of the experience, too.
JIM LANZONE, CEO, TINDER: That's right. Good to be here, Julia. Yes, so the first big thing that we're announcing today is the launch of video.
You know, I think Tinder became so successful in part because it was so simple. You know, upload a photo in your bio, and then it was a very
dynamic experience, start swiping. But what we've seen is this new generation of Gen Z, it's a generation built on self-expression. And they
want more ways to express themselves not just to show more of themselves, but to discover more about others. And video, obviously, is a very natural
next step to be able to do that.
So starting today, people will be able to upload videos directly from their photo library. We will have an editing tool right there, and then they will
just show up in your normal photo gallery on Tinder. And as you swipe through, you'll start to see videos of other people.
CHATTERLEY: And we were just sharing stats of how many people are actually using the platform right now all around the world. But for those that
aren't savvy, you swipe left, if you're not interested, you swipe right if you are interested, ultimately.
You produced a report, which I found quite fascinating, and it's titled "The Future of Dating is Fluid." And it sort of takes key elements of what
you've learned in the last year and what you think it says about what dating is going to be like over the next decade.
And one of the insights that I found quite fascinating was that daters will be more honest, and authentic. And I think this is one of the key
challenges for people that use online dating is truth. And perhaps video facilitates that. Who am I actually meeting and seeing?
LANZONE: Yes, and really, the whole Tinder experience is now going to be evolving to reflect that desire for more authenticity, and really slowing
things down. That isn't just something from Gen Z, but we saw from all generations using Tinder during COVID was this desire to get to know people
virtually before deciding, you know, that there was a spark of something more, and then they would actually take that into the real world.
So, instead of meeting and trying to get to some, you know, outcome of whether there's that spark very quickly, they want to go hiking, they want
to go to the Farmers Market, they want to do things to really get to know people better. And we're leaning into that with some of our new experiences
on the app as well.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, we want to get back out to life, quite frankly. What about some of the discussions, the barriers that have dropped as a result
of tough discussions about what we feel comfortable with when we meet someone? Whether we're going to wear a mask? Whether we're going to be
socially distant?
[09:35:06]
CHATTERLEY: Do you think that helps with some of the sort of more delicate discussions about what you're ready for in a relationship? Or what this
relationship is going to evolve to? Do you think that's perhaps been made more easy by what we've been through in the last sort of 18 months?
LANZONE: Yes, I think we saw that last summer, as we all initially thought, you know, there was this false hope of coming out of it more
quickly. And people did start to get out there a little bit more, but of course, in a very socially distanced and protected way.
And, you know, people started to say things in their bio like that they would only, you know, meet people with a mask. And then eventually, as
vaccines happened, they'd only meet people who were vaccinated. You know, we actually then did a partnership with the White House to, you know, to
help promote just education about vaccinations.
And these are all topics that that were very important to people. They also just became more vulnerable and talking about anxiety more. And these
really led to having more conversations on Tinder.
So we saw a 20 percent increase during COVID, in the number of messages that were going back and forth, and then we saw a 30 percent increase in
the length of those messages. So really, they moved a portion of dating back online first, and online is already the number one way that people
have been meeting people to start a relationship. It has surpassed every other method.
But now, it's gone even more to where that relationship starts virtually in many ways, and that trend, I think, will absolutely continue.
CHATTERLEY: Does it matter about the age group? I mean, I mentioned Gen Z. I mean, that six to 24-year-olds? What about for some of the older
generations, too? What are some of the patterns that you're seeing whether that's, you know, vaccines or interactions? What they're looking for in
terms of marriage, or relationships, or fun?
Does it matter on the age group? Are you seeing a sort of evolution in how people are going to behave when they come out of this period, as we come
out of this period?
LANZONE: Yes. I think COVID did this in many ways to many industries. I came out most recently out of the streaming video industry and that
accelerated the move to streaming and it accelerated the move to remote work, and the same thing absolutely happened here with a push more into
online dating.
And another big thing that we're announcing today is a new Explore Tab or Hub on Tinder that gives people many different options for getting to know
each other. So, there are going to be a set of experiences built into Tinder. So, you can have things to do with somebody online to get to know
them first, to then decide.
And we saw that that was a trend among Gen Z, which is 18 to 24 within Tinder. But we saw that thing --
CHATTERLEY: Thank you for clarifying.
LANZONE: Yes. We saw that it actually extend to all generations then. So, for millennials and Gen X and older, all of them also use Tinder, we saw
everybody start to slow things down, want more authenticity. And really, it's more about not so quickly swiping left and swiping right. But maybe
swipe possibly, a swipe maybe and getting to know someone first. And that really created a really rich zone for us to innovate.
And then you're going to see a lot more from Tinder down this pathway.
CHATTERLEY: What about safety? Because I think this is one of the other crucial issues that we should talk about, whether it's seeing people that
you've previously dated or family members. I saw one aspect of what people were finding, their professors from university, steady on, what about
blocking people and on the more serious side, safety?
LANZONE: Safety is one of the three main product groups that we have at Tinder. It's something that we invest a huge amount in. You're not going to
want to meet somebody and date them or be vulnerable if you feel afraid.
And so we've launched a series of tools, block contacts is one of them, which is, it avoids maybe that awkward situation. You know, you mentioned
certain examples. What about if you live in a small town? There may be people you don't want to see, and so you can just upload to Tinder contacts
that you have and say that you don't want to see those people you know, in your Tinder feed.
We also launched something like, are you sure, which is actually going to use artificial intelligence to say, are you sure you want to post that
message? That might be offensive to somebody. And then on the flip side of that, you know, did this bother you? So, a button right there that if we
sense that something somebody said could be offensive to you, you can report them right away.
We did a partnership with Garbo, which is a leading nonprofit in the area of assault and trying to work with them to figure out the ways that we can
build Tinder more safely for the future. So, yes, it's huge area for us and equally important for innovation for Tinder.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, you're all very busy. You and the team clearly very busy and everyone wants to get back to life.
Jim Lanzone, fantastic to have you on. The CEO of Tinder there. Thank you.
LANZONE: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: All right, coming up on FIRST MOVE, a spectacular show by the French fashion brand, Dior. We've got the Dior Chairman and CEO, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:42:46]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE and let the Fashion Olympics begin. In a celebration of both high fashion and the Greek culture and history,
the French luxury fashion label, Dior, held a stunning catwalk show at an ancient Stadium in Athens.
It is, of course, the place where the first modern Olympics were held back in 1896. And I had the opportunity to discuss the response with Dior's
Chairman and CEO, Pietro Beccari. Listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PIETRO BECCARI, CEO, CHRISTIAN DIOR COUTURE: We thought it was perfectly appropriate to celebrate this marriage in Athens at the Panathinaikos
Stadium, which is an astonishing beauty. But there's also meaning for us. And we did celebrate, taking advantage of the whole great culture, you
know, our European city civilization at its origins.
So, it was a quite a natural way of thinking, and we were added also by the fact that Mr. Dior in 1851 shot eight mothers at the Parthenon and these
pictures are still about our archives and DNA, and we wanted to have the chance to reproduce them 60 to 70 years later, which we did exactly
yesterday morning
So all in all, there are many reasons to go back to Greece. But there was a commonality of intent to commonality of feelings between me and Maria
Grazia and we were, of course, talking to people in the Greek government, which were very keen in having Dior as possible partner because they know
that we will speak highly, will speak with respect, and we speak with a mega powerful voice.
CHATTERLEY: You have mentioned that image from 70 years ago, I have to say the 50s are one of my strongest fashion influences and that iconic image of
the dresses, the ladies in front of the Acropolis from 70 years ago. I mean there's nothing better than that. What a great parallel to the modern
present.
BECCARI: Yes. It was fantastic and it wasn't easy to get the permission --
CHATTERLEY: I'm sure.
BECCARI: Many people have tried before, and we are particularly proud to be -- to have been able to shoot to the pictures, because, you know, as we
speak, I saw the images as they were shot yesterday morning. They are absolutely incredible.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, completely magical. You mentioned being in Greece and obviously, just seeing anything, any runway show out in the open, seeing
people being able to travel is a huge moment as well. Did you feel comfortable enough, safe enough, to take a runway show, to bring all the
models, to bring the spectators to Greece? And what precautions did you have in place just to make sure that everybody was safe.
BECCARI: Well, listen, first of all, we are respecting all protocols as you can imagine. And in doing so, we took some risk in March, in February,
when we decided to go, and to go live and to go public.
Of course, we knew that that could have been changed last minute because of the situation is still unstable. But I'll say that in Greece, they -- you
know, from the voice of the Prime Minister himself, they are quite -- they have been quite fast in vaccinating people in this campaign of vaccination.
Because of the vacation, they want to have Greece full of tourists this summer.
And all these, they say, determination of the government, of the Minister of Tourism, it does a lot in feeling safe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: What about the business of fashion there? We also talked about Dior's e-commerce strategy and what the post-pandemic future means for
luxury brands like theirs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECCARI: You know, we are investing a lot in real estate. We are innovating our incredible mission of 30 Montaigne where Mr. Dior staffed
this company and he started his first collection, the famous new look in 1947.
So, we are investing because we believe that brick and mortar, the physical experience is fundamental for a brand like Dior. But we also believe that
the customer we want to have the same experience in a circular way.
So, they want to be able to buy and to receive it the same day via e- commerce, if they want. So they want to have the choice and choice is what we're offering. So therefore, we are digitalizing more and more our luxury
experience and we are offering many, many services to clients.
Many of them enter through the e-commerce and then they end up, they are experiencing the physical context. Many others go to the store. But as some
are lacking or they are missing personalization, they will receive their product at home having ordered in the store.
So, the circularity and the ability to flawlessly move from the world to other is for me, fundamental for Dior in the future, and it's a service
that they expect, it is a service -- above it is service, and I think that we are still way to go in order to make the online experience even more
luxurious.
I don't know where we are going to make it and how we are going to make it, but we are looking with intensity to how to make the online experience look
more and more and more like a physical experience.
CHATTERLEY: Fashion of the future, that post-pandemic future. What is it going to represent as societies come back to life, try and find a new
normal wherever they are in the world, how is that going to reflect in couture going forward, at least as far as you know.
BECCARI: Well, I don't know, I just -- you know, I really don't know. I think that people as I repeatedly said, keep saying it even now, now it is
easier than it was then when I started saying it that people will want to go and do things even with more intensity, with more pleasure than they
were doing it before because we appreciate the absence of everything we love to do, you know, traveling, dining in restaurants, visiting hotels,
discovering places, and buying luxury.
You know, I think, it is something that we see already happening in China. And I must say that I was in Mykonos this weekend after the show, and I
saw, you know, hotels are full of people and we are doing an incredible business with the two stores that we have over there, so my forecast is for
a very good summer if the situation stays better as it has become better.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: What a backdrop. Okay, up next, from the online dating boom to Bumble's potential burnout. Why the online dating app is taking a company-
wide break. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:51:51]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Dating app, Bumble on a break. The company has given its entire staff this week off. Bumble says the holiday
is to thank workers for their quote "hard work and resilience." But a subsequently deleted tweet referred to quote, "collective burnout" at the
firm.
Clare Sebastian joins me now. I think we all know what collective burnout feels like, quite frankly, the whole world does after the past 18 months.
But this is an interesting one. We only know what it takes to IPO. And of course, they've just done that, too. So, there has been a lot of hard work
done there, and now, they've got a week off.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, more than 750 employees, the company is saying worldwide are getting a week off together, of course,
bar a few select people to keep the operation going throughout this week.
This is what the company told me this morning, Julia, they said, "As vaccination rates rise and restrictions ease, we wanted to give the teams a
much deserved week off to recover and refresh a bit." The implication being that as things start to reopen, people sort of need a bit of a reset.
But of course that tweet that has been deleted, referred to collective burnout. It talked about scarce vacation days in the U.S. as well. And this
is obviously something that's specific to Bumble. As you said, they went public in February. That takes a lot of work.
They saw user growth up 30 percent in the first three months of the year. This is a fast growing company. But there are elements of this that are not
specific to Bumble. They are going on throughout the economy. This is a time when employers really need to think about retention of employees.
We can show you what they call the "quit rate" in the U.S. More than almost four million people quit their jobs in April this year. That was a record
and a significant jump on the previous few months.
There's also a survey this month, Julia, from Microsoft that they surveyed 30,000 employees in 31 countries and found 41 percent are considering
quitting their jobs.
This is about people not just burning out, this is about people reevaluating what they want to do and looking at sort of work from home
options in the wake of the pandemic. And it is really a time for employers to start to think about this.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, such a great point. Benefits in kind and we're going to see more and more and more of this.
And actually, LinkedIn, I think set a precedent, didn't they earlier this year in April when they let their entire workforce take a week off and they
have thousands of employees.
SEBASTIAN: Yes, 16,000 employees got a week off at LinkedIn. They talked about burnout as well, Julia. And look, I've been reporting on this issue
of burnout really since last summer, when we saw people start to feel this as the boundaries between work and sort of not, you know, play essentially
got blurred due to work from home.
But I think we're seeing a different type of burnout right now as the recovery roars back quicker than many had expected, productivity is up.
People are being very productive. But according to that Microsoft survey, that is masking an exhausted workforce. And that survey says leaders are
out of touch with this.
Now, of course, we are seeing tech companies, the likes of Google and Uber, you know, openly embrace what they call a hybrid workforce. People can have
the flexibility to work from home and stay in the office, but others are calling employees back, and I think employers really have to sort of look
at what's going to be best for their employees and especially those quit numbers.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, no longer buttoned up about burnout. Find a better balance, lots of B's. Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for that.
[09:55:06]
CHATTERLEY: All right, now speaking of taking a break, more than 70,000 people want a break from Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos. Stay with me -- the
richest man on Earth blasts into space next month and petitions are calling for him to stay there are taking off, too.
The most popular is called, quote, "Do not allow Jeff Bezos to return to Earth," end quote. It argues, quote, "Billionaires should not exist on
earth or in space, but should they decide the latter, they should stay there."
A lot of these guys give to charity, perhaps, I should there to.
And, finally, usually when we talk about an elephant in the room, it's in the metaphorical sense. Not this time.
Imagine waking up at night to a noise coming from your kitchen. First thought, is it a mouse? Is it an intruder? How about an elephant. Yes, this
happened to a woman in Thailand who was met with this vision.
She says the elephant first crashed into her home creating the initial hole and now it was back to get some food. Unsuccessfully, I might add. Oh, give
the elephant some food.
All right, that is it for the show. If you've missed any of our interviews today, they will be on my Twitter and Instagram pages. Search for
@jchatterleyCNN.
In the meantime, stay safe. "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is next, and I'll see you tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
END
