Matt Britton On Fox Businessx w/ Maria Bartiromo Talking About Millennials & Smartphones 9/3/14

2007. Light vehicle sales meanwhile, rolling out all morning. But behind the numbers, a new report by MRI says major automakers have a millennial problem. Fewer people under the age of 35 value owning a car, and most would give up having a car for their smartphone. Mri, mri, rather. Founder and CEO Matt Brinton is with me. He joins me with more on that. Matt, good to see you.

Great to be back.

Thank you so much for joining us. Once again, what is going on? Is this really about the phone being able to do more and more, or is this just that people don't want to cars?

Well, when we were growing up, back in the day, we didn't have phones. So if we wanted to go shopping, if we want to accomplish daily tasks, if we want to actually see other people, we had to actually jump in our car and do it. Now, you can do all those things from your phone. You can use Skype, you can go shopping, you can accomplish daily tasks with your phone. So it's just not as important anymore for young consumers actually own cars when the phone can do so much for them.

So it's really, you know, the young consumer has to prioritize in terms of allocating their money and allocate their money toward a phone. They're not necessarily going to go to a 4 GM Toyota to a BMW.

Correct, correct. And also at the same time, yes, you know, millennials need to get places, but there's tools out there like Zipcar, which allows you to rent cars by the hour. Uber, which allows you to push a button, have a car show up, and take you wherever you want to go. So millennials also valuing, very much so, access to cars over ownership of cars, it doesn't weigh them down, and it frees up discretionary funds for them to explore other things that are a little bit more exciting for them to do.

And of course, we call it the sharing economy, where you could rent or share and. And then give it back. You have to own it.

Exactly. And, you know, I think that millennials these days really don't want to be bogged down. They don't want to be bogged down by big ownership. And they also care about their personal brand. If you look at something like Instagram, which is absolutely exploding amongst millennials, they really care and focus about what their friends think, about what they're doing. And really what gets them social status these days is experiences over stuff. So they're sharing pictures of them being front row at a concert, in the DJ booth, and that's going to get them the likes Not a picture with them in a new Toyota Camry. Just accumulation of goods and materials just isn't as cool anymore amongst millennials.

Really Interesting. So what are the most valuable apps or valuable products that millennials will spend money on these days? I know, you know, Uber, for example, comes to mind. You know, black cars that they could just rent or, you know, sure, get a ride and then give it back.

Sure.

What other apps?

So in terms of apps, I mean, Spotify is huge. That's another axis of our ownership trend. They are renting music instead of buying music. Itunes really missed out on that. You know, Steve Jobs, one of the one things he did get wrong was saying he thinks that consumers want to own their music. But in the end, it turns out consumers are fine just running their music because musical tastes change over time. But really, they're spending money on travel, they're spending money on festivals, actually experiencing life. That's what millennials are about. They're not about just accumulating stuff. And the sharing economy also allows them to tap into tools like rent the Runway, which allows young woman to rent dresses, slightly used dresses for the big night out, versus plunking down a lot of money on an expensive dress.

It's just the whole trend in terms of their priorities is different than 10 years ago.

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, in some days, it's harkening back to the peace, love, unity, and respect ages of the 60s. It's very community driven. They're all about friendships, are all about community. And they're not as much about being so commercial and, you know, and so showy, if you will.

Matt, good to have you on the program.

It's great to be back.

Thank you so much, Matt. And joining us, founder and CEO. Mr. Why the new.