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Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore. | :00:00. | :00:14. | |
It is hard to turn a profit in under 140 characters. The latest earnings | :00:15. | :00:21. | |
results from social media site Twitter. | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
Markets in Hong Kong reopened after the Chinese New Year holidays. | :00:26. | :00:37. | |
Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report. I'm Rico Hizon. | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
Starting with Twitter. It has just reported its results for the last | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
three months of 2015 and it has been disappointing. It lost money again. | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
The loss has no road to $90 million, but the bigger news is it's user | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
number has not grown for the first time since the company listed in | :01:00. | :01:06. | |
2013. -- has narrowed. Its shares are down 70% since the highs of last | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
April. Investors have been unhappy because of concern about the | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
company's inability to retain senior executives, with four vice | :01:17. | :01:23. | |
presidents leaving in January. Early I asked what our technology | :01:24. | :01:26. | |
correspondent made of the results. This showed something we didn't | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
think was possible. Twitter has eventually lost active users. They | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
share a different way of counting how many users they have. One of | :01:35. | :01:37. | |
their council put the active user base down, which is unthinkable for | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
a social network, especially on that trades because they need user growth | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
to make sure investors are still interested. The fact that Twitter | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
has never made a profit isn't a problem. But it is you that growth | :01:52. | :01:58. | |
-- user growth that is a huge problem and the fact that they are | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
going in reverse is a big problem. They are very disappointing. The | :02:02. | :02:08. | |
co-founder has his work cut out for him. He says becoming CEO of the | :02:09. | :02:15. | |
company late last year has been about trying to improve the website | :02:16. | :02:20. | |
user experience, but many users are disappointed. Here is the problem. | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
The active users of Twitter, about 300 million, they like it how it is. | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
Any time there's any kind of minor change to the service or even a | :02:32. | :02:34. | |
suggestion of a minor change they are up in arms and not very happy | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
about that. The problem is that for Twitter to attract new people it | :02:40. | :02:42. | |
needs to make big changes to the site. Whenever it does it runs the | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
risk of annoying those people who use it, so loyally already. We saw | :02:46. | :02:52. | |
worries over the weekend how people were tweeting hashtag RIP Twitter, | :02:53. | :03:00. | |
after rumours that they might be changing how the timeline appears on | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
people's apps and so on. Any change makes people nervous and therefore | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
Twitter tends to shy away from big decisions. And it isn't only this | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
changing timeline that is basically disappointing investors, it is also | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
an exodus of some top executives last month? | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
Yes. There was a kind of half clear out, half exodus. Some managers were | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
pushed, some seemed to seek changes elsewhere, such as YouTube. At the | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
bottom end of the company, many of the development staff, around 300 | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
people, were let go at the end of last year. There is a sense that | :03:41. | :03:43. | |
Twitter has become quite a bloated company. It grew fast and has | :03:44. | :03:50. | |
offices all over the world. One of the things they are trying to get | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
under control is to simplify the company, downsize it slightly and | :03:55. | :03:57. | |
perhaps be the nimble start-up it was in the beginning when things | :03:58. | :04:03. | |
were going so well. Dave Lee in San Francisco. | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
Starting out with markets in Hong Kong which opened this Thursday | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
after closing for the Chinese New Year holiday. The last few days have | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
been brutal for Japanese and Australian shares. Right now the | :04:16. | :04:18. | |
Hang Seng index has fallen by more than 4%, this is led by HSBC. HSBC | :04:19. | :04:28. | |
is down by a hefty five -- by over 5%. Investors have today ingested a | :04:29. | :04:38. | |
whole lot of issues, especially the falling Asian markets and oil | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
prices. That's right. This is the year of the monkey. Astrologically | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
it is meant to be a good year for global growth. As well as for the | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
stock market, especially here in Hong Kong. It looks like certainly | :04:55. | :05:01. | |
at the beginning of the year those expectations will be very difficult | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
to meet. As you know, Hong Kong essentially imports US interest rate | :05:07. | :05:14. | |
policy and we heard from the chair of the Fed reserve yesterday. She | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
says she doesn't intend to back off from a rate hike in cycle, although | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
it isn't a pre- chartered course, so they may hold back. Certainly next | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
month when they decide whether or not to hike rates. Investors are | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
digestive that, but clearly they don't seem to like what they've | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
heard and of course overnight oil prices have fallen again, suggesting | :05:38. | :05:46. | |
weak demand globally. Hong Kong is an export oriented economy to some | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
extent, facing a lot of other headwinds such as uncertainty in the | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
Chinese economy. Chinese markets aren't open today. Didn't open until | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
next week. But this could be a sign of what we might be able to expect | :06:01. | :06:06. | |
when they do open. Hong Kong isn't just an export created economy but | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
also a tourism back. Will the clashes last week between police | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
authorities and stall vendor owners impact retail and tourism? That's | :06:19. | :06:26. | |
the big question. Last year 46 million visitors came to Hong Kong. | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
That's still more than six times the local population. But it is down | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
from what we can see in previous years and big tourist attractions | :06:39. | :06:44. | |
have certainly reported falls in visitor numbers. These tourists at a | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
crucial not just for the tourism industry directly but they also | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
account for a lot of retail. Certainly visitors, especially | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
Chinese visitors, not coming to Hong Kong, we will see the impact of the | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
2014 umbrella movement on that and it will certainly not bode well for | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
the year of the monkey. And queues are much for updating us. -- thank | :07:08. | :07:14. | |
you. The Hang Seng is down by more than 4% at the open. | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
Tesla motors has lost money for the 11th quarter in a row. The firm, | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
owned by a billionaire, says its loss has tripled over 300 million | :07:25. | :07:30. | |
dollars in the last three months of 2015 and this is due to rising | :07:31. | :07:36. | |
costs. Japan's biggest brewer Asahi is in exclusive negotiations to buy | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
Peroni and other brands. The firm wants to offset slower growth in the | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
market and is willing to pay $3 million for the brands. The US | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
Senate has voted to tighten economic sanctions on North Korea following | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
its recent nuclear and missile tests. South Korea and Japan have | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
also announced further measures to punish their neighbour. It is no | :08:03. | :08:04. | |
secret that Asia's population is ageing, what for Thailand declined | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
in the number of working age citizens is expected to be the | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
fastest of any developing country in Southeast Asia. To ease the | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
pressure, the World Bank says Thailand will need to employ more | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
women and migrant workers and the later retirement age. The government | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
is encouraging businesses to hire all the people and keep them on for | :08:26. | :08:34. | |
much longer. At 72, this woman is still cleaning the floors of this | :08:35. | :08:40. | |
rice noodle factory outside Bangkok. TRANSLATION: I am not ready to | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
retire yet. I still have the support two of my grandchildren to study. | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
But working is a pleasure here. It is like working with brothers and | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
sisters. And she isn't the only older worker. TRANSLATION: The | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
factory owner is so kind. He told me not to retire if I would be staying | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
home and doing nothing. It would be too quiet and lonely. Encouraging | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
more older workers to stay on the job, past retirement age, is part of | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
a government project aimed at easing the burden of its rapidly ageing | :09:12. | :09:14. | |
population. For the factory owner it makes sense. TRANSLATION: It takes | :09:15. | :09:21. | |
so much time to train new workers. Some of them don't work hard and | :09:22. | :09:26. | |
lack responsibility. It can't be compared to the older workers. So I | :09:27. | :09:28. | |
would rather have confidence in older workers and some of them work | :09:29. | :09:35. | |
so hard. The saying at this factory is expected to become a common one | :09:36. | :09:41. | |
across Thailand. -- the scene. The World Bank says the country's | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
working population would shrink by 11% by 2040, faster than Thailand's | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
developing neighbours. TRANSLATION: When older people have an income | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
they will spend money, which will generate cash flow. If there are | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
many old people who don't have an income or money to spend, the | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
economy will not go smoothly. Already nearly 40% of Thai people | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
who are above the retirement age of 60 are still working. TRANSLATION: I | :10:09. | :10:15. | |
have children but they are all married and I don't know whether | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
they will take care of me. So I am still working here. Even without the | :10:21. | :10:23. | |
government's encouragement, limited pensions leave many with little | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
choice but to remain in the workforce. | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
Thank you so much for investing your time with us. I'm Rico Hizon. See | :10:32. | :10:33. | |
you again soon. The top stories this hour: There's | :10:34. | :10:42. | |
been more fallout from North Korea's | :10:43. | :10:48. |