#AskGaryVee Episode 139: Paying for Snapchat Replays and Facebook Dislikes

– Great question, I’m sure
it’s on everybody’s mind. I’m sure, you know, Staphon real quick, I think we should settle
this out into its own video. This is a very intriguing thing. This charging for the replays on Snapchat. To me, this feels tactical. What I mean by that is I do not believe that the powers at Snapchat, I have no knowledge of this, think this is a big time
revenue source for them. I think what Snapchat, I’m so impressed with Snapchat that they know they need to stay fresh. Right, we’ve also got that. Are you going to ask the question later about the new selfie thing? – [Steve] No, I was
just going to leave it– – Cool. So I’ll use that in my answer. I think technology companies
need to have updates. Need to stay fresh. And I think Facebook
did that extremely well. And honestly, over the last half decade, you know especially the
last three or four years I think Twitter did that poorly. I think Instagram’s
showing that capability. Different filters, different size. Even if it’s not a big deal. And Snapchat is showing that ability. With Snapcash if you remember. And that’s not the biggest
thing in the world. I think it’s a quick little play. Clearly look, they’re trying
to position towards an IPO, and so here’s what I
think the strategy is. One, we make the users of Snapchat feel like there’s still
things going on, right? The new selfie filter thing which is wild. I mean, we might as well just do it here. I know you’ve got rainbows
coming out of your mouth. I get it. But you know, I think that’s part of it. And look, and I think what’s
really smart about the replay, what is it, three for
99 cents kind of thing? What I think is super smart about that is I don’t think they expect, I
don’t buy anybody at Snapchat thinking this is going to crush. Right, here’s a good example. Watch this. Staphon, you going to do any of it? – [Staphon] No. – DRock? – [DRock] Maybe not. – No, no, don’t say what I’m leaning to. I want to know. – [DRock] No, no, no, no, no, no. – [Steve] I’m going to do it once. – That makes sense. – [Steve] I want to have them standing by for emergencies. – Would emergencies be
that a lot of female Vayner Nation people
find you more attractive with your new facial hair and may send you the kind of snap that gets you to want to maybe replay it. – [Steve] That’s exactly what I mean. – That’s what I figured. So you know, I think
that’s the cliche joke that people are going to
make about the replay. What I just did, that was on purpose. I think there will be a small subset that will do it one time. Which wouldn’t be hard, I mean listen. If everybody on Snapchat does it one time, you got a 150 million
people spending a buck. That’s 150 million dollars. It could add up really quick. I don’t expect that to be
the case, but to the point. God forbid that’s the kind of play. I always say God forbid it does work. God forbid everybody does want to do it. 99 cents feels right to everybody, and all of a sudden it becomes
a massive revenue stream. There was no loss. I’m a big fan of doing
things that have no downside. Now if you do a ton of features, and notice how both came out. An amazing selfie feature that I think everybody’s going to love along with this kind
of paid kind of thing. I think it was brilliant. A really well executed update. One of my favorite updates
of the year by any platform and so what do I think about it? I don’t think it’s a revenue stream that is meaningful for Snapchat. I think when you take it to a higher level and think about the strategy of a update for one of the leading
consumer apps in the world, I think it’s downright phenomenal. I also think that was a
downright phenomenal answer

However, I do have a question for you. I am developing an app with a partner. Basically the first time we built it we had an initial name and branding. However we discovered that there was a potential competitor with a similar name so we decided to go with
another branding oppertunity that we had, however
now there’s another app with the same name and a similar premise. My overall belief is that we have the superior product and
a way better strategy. My question though is do we continue to have the same name as
our potential competitor or do we completely
rebrand ourselves again to find a new name. What is your insights on this? Thank you so much Gary, you’re awesome. – That was amazing I love it. Man, that was amazing. I don’t think it matters. Next question. Fine, I’ll go into a little bit. You know, look. I don’t think it’s convenient to have a similar name with a similar
premise to a competitor. I think, you know, if Twitter came out when Twotter came out, it would have been awkward. Especially if there was
a company named Twotter. But I think, I think that, I
think at the end of the day my point of view on this would be I’d be sitting there
and say “You know what? “I’m just going to
out-execute the other person “and force them to change the name “because they realize they
want to compete with us “because we were the
thing that was winning.” Thought I don’t love the situation. I don’t want to also
say look how cool I am. I’m going to beat them to it. Like, I don’t mind you
walking away from it and changing a name either. I just ultimately don’t
think it’s going to matter. You’re going to have to out-execute. Angry Birds had a similar situation. There was a lot of birdy
kind of stuff going on. Like if you’re the best
and your product’s the best and you can navigate it,
you’ve got the right product, and you guys are the right leaders, I don’t think it ends up playing out and so I wouldn’t stress
about it too much. I think a lot of times
to make it more valuable as a question to everybody overall, I think a lot of times people
very much worry about names. I have consistently stayed on a plane of the name doesn’t matter. You can make a name matter after the fact. I don’t think Snapchat
or Facebook or Google meant anything to anybody until they actually meant something. You know, I guess maybe I’m affected by having a last name like Vaynerchuk. You know, it doesn’t feel
like the most brandable name. I also made an incredibly huge flaw in my Twitter handle with Gary Vee. I mean, I have two silent
Es at the end of my username which is not easily to explain in public. It takes time every
time, time is the asset. You know, people like “where’s the ee?” And it just wasn’t a smart move. Another bad name play by me that I think I overcame
in a Twitter environment. So execution will always trump your name.

“Aesthetics or copy?” – Both. You know, the variable
of success is creative, but I think the copy, the words that you support, you know,
I see it a lot on Instagram. I’ve tested the same
picture with different words posting at the same time of day just for my own education. And the truth is that’s not
a controlled environment so it’s not science, but it’s anecdotal. It’s fun to see. I mean clearly the words, some people are going to react, and the reason I brought
up Instagram to everybody is we all know that Instagram
is massively visual. But people still read the copy. I mean this is crazy, I saw
somebody at a conference giving advice that you shouldn’t write long form copy on Instagram. And I was laughing because
it’s just a simplistic answer. I actually think long form copy is one of the big arbitrage
opportunities on Instagram. And so I think they equally matter. I think you’ll get results predicated on where your strengths lie. I’m not very good at the picture stuff. I’m not really even
good at the copy stuff. I’m really good at the video stuff. So that’s it, you know. That to me is, the answer’s both. And it will always be both. And it’s happened so much. Just do it. What was, you know, was
that the three words? Or was it the awesome
imagery that came along with the initial kind of campaign? Was it Beau Jackson like this? Or was it the slogan? I mean there’s always that. I mean, would priceless
from MasterCard pop if the first video wasn’t
emotionally rippling and got you? So the answer is both. You need both to be, you know, to really have that massive upside. And one can drag down the other. I just realized I did this.

alongside a United States
senator Mark Warner. You’ve been a prolific investor in some of the coolest
companies in mobile and Uber. Twitter, Resy, and my in
my humble opinion Button. Tell everybody a little bit
about why you’re speaking at TAP and what you hope to get out of it. – So this is an interesting question. Really nice right hook
by one of my investments. Jaconi nice job. I’m speaking at TAP because
I feel obligated to you. Because I invested in your company. And what I’m hoping to get out of it is the realization from other people that are involved with me in business is that I’m a supporter
of the things that I back. It’s actually very black and white. There’s no PR answer to this question. It’s when you invest in
somebody else’s company, it’s not just the money
that you’re deploying. It’s the energy, it’s
the thought leadership. There’s an arbitrage in having me there. I’m going to give the best
talk at the conference. People are going to think
your conference was good. They’re going to think
your product is better. They’re going to see that I’m
invested into your company in a world where I have
hundreds of investments. And in two years I’m going
to be competing for a deal and that person’s going to say “I don’t know Gary, maybe you, “maybe this other person, why you?” I’m going to say “Well you know what? “Hit up the Button CEO, and ask him “what kind of investor I am. “It’s not just the
money, it’s smart money. “It’s not just the money,
it’s money that sweats.” So that’s what I’m
trying to get out of it. Delivering on my promise,
deploying effort, and most of all continuing
to paint a narrative of what kind of individual
I am as an investor, as a business man, and as a dude.

– The dislike button. This might have to be an article as well. I don’t know a lot about it and I think you know, Ben Leventhal, the CEO of Resy, aforementioned in the prior video and I had dinner last night
strategizing around Resy. Download it if you’re in LA,
New York, Miami, Washington DC. R-E-S-Y. You know what Staphon? Put a glove on me there
when I did the right hook. Oh, my man! This wonderful man is going
to be shadowing me today. Hey brother! – You never said I was joining it. – Good to see you. I’m live by the way. – Oh. – You can just sit. I’m finishing up the show. So the dislike button introduces
some interesting stuff. Ben’s point was when negativity
comes into the ecosystem, it can really crash and burn a platform. He was talking about how
Twitter got more negative after the Kumbya moments
of 2007, eight, nine. And there’s a lot of truth to that. To me the dislike button allows Facebook to make its algorithm even stronger. But that was kind of how
I first thought about it as if it was a hide, you wouldn’t know. But it seems to me, and
this is where I think Facebook may have a problem. It seems to me that they want to, in the quotes that I read late last night. It was two o’ clock in the morning when I wanted to read it real fast. So I haven’t invested in
a very smart answer yet on this Steve or Derek, thank
you for asking the question. It seems that they want to allow people to express other emotions. To me where I think
they’re going with this is we see a lot of
people post, for example, we see my friend Drew
is an incredible friend. And his father passed away. And he wrote an incredible piece and it was a beautiful picture of his dad and a wonderful peace about how hardcore of a Philly sports fan he
was, which kind of struck me. I kind of already even
thought about my own demise and how my kids were going
to talk about my Jets fandom of how he was a fan and
then he bought the team. What an amazing man he was. But that’s not what makes him amazing. He was the best dad. I’m giving you guys some material Xander. So I think that what Facebook is trying to figure out a cadence around is you look and a lot of
people are hitting like. And there’s all these life events that maybe you wouldn’t in real life, in real communication say I like that. There’s other things. Now I don’t know if you’re
going to say dislike to that. But I think what Facebook is
starting to show with this move and clearly has a enormous upside in its continuation of evolution. Very similar to my first
answer on the Snapchat question is I can see an environment
where multiple buttons exist. We have a much stronger way
to express our actual thoughts on the content we’re seeing in front of us and that intelligence becomes the backbone of making a much better
product for Facebook itself. Anybody who’s into data science or understands how these things work and even if you just deploy common sense, you recognize that the like is too broad for Facebook to do enough with that data to make the product better. So if they had more options
to create more context, they’d be able to create a
far better curated experience. So I think that’s what they’re up to. It’s intriguing to me that
it’s a dislike button. You know, if my thesis was right, my intuition is that they would go with a different kind of button and that’s why I’m not so sold that I’m right with my
point of view there. But those are the curiosities that are running through my head. So what do I, to answer
it black and white, what I think about, actually turn me into black and white here even though it’s part of the official show because I think that’s funny to
answer it black and white. Thank you Staphon. Actually, no, go back to color because the show’s always
full time in color. But in that one little weird
period make it black and white. I think it’s a very clever
and very important step. One that I do believe has major impact. And one that this market will look back at five years from now and recognize it was a massive moment in Facebook’s, you know, lineage, including
it became a chip aaway at becoming more negative and not going in the right direction or started creating the framework for even smarter better experiences for all of us on their platform. And don’t forget that platform deploys to Instagram so
a lot of you are saying “Yeah, but I’m not there any more.” Oh yes you are. It’s called Instagram. You live there. And so I think it’s important. I’m excited to see what happens with it. That’s it? Good show.