The Best One Yet
đ¸âThe Spy Who Primed Meâ â James Bondâs Amazon deal. Microsoftâs quantum leap. OpenTable vs Resy.
Fri, 21 Feb 2025
James Bondâs creative control was just acquired by Amazon⌠so we need to talk about âInfinite Scarcity.âMicrosoft just defied physics⌠itâs a quantum creation thatâs not a solid, liquid, or gas.OpenTable has overtaken Resy for Americaâs coolest restaurants⌠all thanks to 1 move.Plus, Google searches for âIs it safe to flyâ are up 20x⌠so we ran the numbers.$AXP $GOOG $MSFT $AMZNWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of⌠the Patagonia Fleece đSubscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.âThe Best Idea Yetâ: The untold origin stories of the products youâre obsessed with â From the McDonaldâs Happy Meal to Birkenstockâs sandal to Nintendoâs Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.â-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show⌠The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Itâs The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show⌠The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Itâs The Best Idea Yet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What did Amazon acquire regarding James Bond?
We call it infinite scarcity. Yetis, let's look at the numbers here. James Bond movies have grossed $8 billion. So that's like less than Harry Potter, less than Batman, less than Star Wars, and less than Marvel. But Bond wins in longevity. At 60 years, it's the longest running major film franchise ever.
So we've got to ask, how has James Bond lasted so long that its 25th movie still made a billion dollars? It's something that we call infinite scarcity. Infinite scarcity. Here's the scarcity part. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was 22 movies over 11 years, but James Bond only did four movies in that span. Way less frequent than the other movie franchises.
The average Bond comes out every three years. That's scarce. But on the other hand, James Bond is also pretty infinite because with 25 films, James Bond has the most of any major franchise. The series starts fresh with the new actor playing James Bond. Like Daniel Craig is done, but we're just going to move on to a new younger James Bond and do like five more movies.
Chalamet is going to get jacked and he's going to get six movies in the next 15 years, Jack. Yes, exactly. Amazon, as the new owner, is going to start feeling franchise FOMO. Pressure to do spinoffs, pressure to do a prequel about one of the villains. But the risk is franchise fatigue, overdoing it, stretching the brand too far, too fast, like Disney did with Marvel superheroes.
Instead of that, we think Amazon should respect what has made James Bond the longest-lasting franchise in Hollywood. And that strategy is infinite scarcity. Which also... Kind of sounds like the name of a James Bond movie. For our second story, Microsoft says it just created an entirely new form of matter.
The biggest thing though about Microsoft's quantum technology breakthrough is what it says about Apple. Shots fired. Well, yetis, after 17 years of blood, sweat, and chips, Microsoft has officially done it. They've achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing. Here's the news. On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled the Majorana One processor.
If you're a Marvel fan, think of this Majorana One processor as like the Infinity Stone. It holds power beyond your imagination. In fact, this Microsoft invention is so powerful that it created a fourth state of matter. This is not embellishment. No, it's not. Not exaggeration. It's true. Here's the deal. We have solids, liquids, and gas. Then we have this. A Majorana particle.
Microsoft has defied physics, essentially, with a fourth form of matter. This isn't even on the periodic table, man. Actually, Nick, Majorana is a physicist from the 1930s who originally theorized that this fourth type of matter was possible, and now Microsoft has done it.
Microsoft's new processor will make a functioning quantum computer possible by the end of the decade, way faster than anyone expected. Microsoft can potentially fit a million quibbets onto this single chip. We know what you're thinking. What's a quibbet? Doesn't even matter. Like, it's just a huge number. Just huge. Just sit with that.
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Chapter 2: How did Microsoft achieve a quantum breakthrough?
They just invented a new form of matter. What is Apple working on? Microsoft's like the nerd doing lab work at 8 p.m., and Apple is like in the lunchroom slapping butts before lacrosse practice. Wednesday's competing announcements were a microcosm of the diverging ambition between Microsoft and Apple. One's shooting for the moon, the other's shooting for the shelf.
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For our third and final story, the battle for restaurant reservations just flipped. Open Table is now beating Resi. Because Open Table is treating their tables like real estate. Yetis, it is Friday night, and odds are, statistically speaking, numerically thinking, if you are going out tonight... Your reservation is with one of two apps. OpenTable and Resi.
Those are quite the pros there, by the way, Nick. Yeti's OpenTable and Resi. They got a duopoly on restaurant reservations. Together, they control nearly 90% of the online reservation market. If a restaurant's not using OpenTable or Resi, they're probably writing down reservations with a pen and paper. Well, actually, OpenTable is kind of ancient in tech years, isn't it, Jack?
They were founded in 1998. The first generation of websites, pre-Y2K. This is early internet company. Now, when OpenTable first launched 27 years ago, their only competition was like the yellow pages in the phone book. You read Zagat and then you went to OpenTable.com on your gateway computer to book a reservation.
In fact, OpenTable is so old, they actually IPO'd in the early 2000s and became the first publicly traded reservation stock. Until they were acquired by Booking Holdings in 2015 for two and a half billion dollars. But the key here is how OpenTable made money. And Jack, what was the OpenTable business model? They charged $1 per diner.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of Microsoft's new processor?
Open tables stop treating tables like a commodity. They started treating them like real estate. Yetis, after Resi was acquired by Amex, their innovation slowed. Some say it got too corporate, but OpenTable also made some strategic moves. Instead of treating restaurant tables all the same, OpenTable started differentiating them.
Yeah, OpenTable just created the Icons program, where they put their trendy restaurants in a separate section, a featured section to find them. And for diners, your restaurant app is overflowing with choices. There's value in that curation of the Icons section. Yes, there is. And restaurants can actually pay to get into that section, which became a different revenue source for OpenTable.
OpenTable also created a program with Visa. They pre-bought tables that were reserved for Visa's premium credit card holders. And restaurants get paid a quote-unquote substantial amount to set aside those tables for OpenTable's VIPs. Yes, Resi does a similar thing for Amex card holders. But OpenTable apparently is paying a lot more for the best tables.
So how did OpenTable reclaim the restaurant or reservation throne? They realized that restaurant reservations are like real estate. They stopped treating them like a commodity. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? James Bond is now an Amazon employee. Bezos is in charge of who will be the next Bond.
The secret strategy to Bond's 60 years of movie success is infinite scarcity. For our second story, Microsoft achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing while Apple launched a budget iPhone. Microsoft is shooting for the moon while Apple is shooting for the shelf. And our third and final story is OpenTable. They're winning back turf that they had ceded to Rezzy.
The cool spots are listing on OpenTable. Because OpenTable stopped treating tables like commodities and started treating them like real estate. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, President Trump called Ukraine's president a dictator this week, something that he's never called Russia's president.
The Trump administration is negotiating an end of the war in Ukraine with Russia directly and without Ukraine. As Secretary of State Rubio says, there is huge potential for the United States businesses to reenter Russia. It would be a shocking policy change to embrace Russia while punishing allies with tariffs.
And second, that Delta flight that just turned upside down in Toronto, we got some wild new details on it. Well, it's a miracle that none of the 80 passengers on that flight were killed. But they're also emotionally scarred, so Delta is offering them $30,000 each having been on the flight. We assume that includes a deal to not sue them.
And finally, Coca-Cola just launched its own prebiotic soda, and they're calling it Simply Pop. Remember this week we told you about the prebiotic soda wars between Poppy and Olipop? Well, their mutual enemy is Big Soda, and Coke just jumped into the category to take both of them on. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by Shobik Don down the street in San Francisco.
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Chapter 4: How does flying compare to other risks?
And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both own stock in Apple. If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
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