Gary Vaynerchuk, the outspoken CEO of creative agency VaynerMedia, checked in with Cheddar before the weekend to share his views on the biggest stories this week.
On creating jobs in the digital economy post-COVID:
"We've seen this before. When there's huge technology advancements, things evolve," he said.
Rather than focusing on the jobs being lost to technological changes, Vaynerchuk emphasized the "millions" of jobs being created around capturing and producing online content. He pointed to the emergence of “non-fungible tokens” or NFTs, which are digital certificates on the Ethereum blockchain that authenticate ownership of a digital asset and can be bought and sold.
Digital economy evangelists such as Vaynerchuk see NFTs as crucial to monetizing the web.
"It feels like a sea change: the blockchain, the ledgerization [or] digitalization of all goods, the way music is distributed, books, the way art and collectibles are sold, the way season tickets can be sold."
The goal, Vaynerchuk explained, is for the NFT market to set prices for the online economy.
On the possibility of new regulations for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies:
"Regulation is the elephant in the room," he said.
On the one hand, he said bitcoin has gotten "over the hump" of gaining legitimacy with the general public, but that it now presents a challenge to sovereign nations on what steps they will take to regulate the cryptocurrency, and how those actions could impact its long-term success.
"I think it's going to be extremely interesting over the next half-a-decade to a decade to see what happens, and how much momentum will that currency, that community have versus what happens if it gets overregulated," he said.
On the upcoming direct listing of Coinbase, a digital currency exchange:
"You don't see companies doing this level of revenue profitably before an IPO, with a trend that is so macro that they're dominating in," said Vaynerchuk, who disclosed that he invested in the company back in 2014. "So, I'm just very curious what the market is going to do with it, but they have a lot of good math on their side."
Dr. Jarrad Aguirre, Co-Founder and CEO of Miga Health, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says his company is looking to establish the future of heart health and points to how 80% of premature heart attacks and strokes are preventable.
DroneUp is partnering with Walmart in a program to expand its drone delivery service to reach 4 million households. CEO Tom Walker joined Cheddar News to discuss the state of drone delivery regulations and the acceptance of the service so far. "I think they're going into this, there was obviously, and appropriately, some concerns of noise and, and the drones flying over, and the safety, and would it become an annoyance. And then on the retail side, would the customers really adopt this and embrace it as a new method for delivery," he said. "So we've seen really significant and positive embrace of this new delivery model."
The average city in California has a 38% higher cost of living than the average American city, according to a cost of living index. For many, the general minimum wage of $15/hour just doesn't cut it. Anti-poverty activist Joe Sanberg wants to get the minimum wage changed to $18/hour. He joins Cheddar News to discuss the Living Wage Act of 2022.
Coming off of their face masks endeavor, Jill Zarin of "The Real Housewives of New York City," and her daughter Ally Shapiro, CMO of JIll & Ally, join Cheddar News to discuss their latest product: crystal manifestation candles. "We have tigers eye, we have amethyst, we have lapis, and alone those could be almost the price of the candle," said Zarin. "We were really able to do it in an affordable way, and if you don't know how to manifest or what that even means, we do it for you on the candle." Zarin also dished on the new season of "Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip."
One month after its launch, new streaming venture CNN+ announced it was shutting down. Seth Schachner, the managing director of StratAmericas and digital business executive, joined Cheddar News to talk about the high-profile media flop. "That's a really, really different beast than what HBO Max is, which is video streaming, entertainment features," he said. “It's a tough sell when you really look at these things in the cold light of day as to whether or not they actually fit together."
