03/03/2017 Asia Business Report

And the top story here in the UK: Policing in England and Wales

is in a potentially perilous state, with some forces putting the public

at risk, according to the police watchdog,

Off to a snappy start - social media company snap Inc surges on the

sharemarket debut. And as the Chinese Super League prepares to

kickoff, we explain why it has become football's latest financial

superpower. Welcome to Asia Business Report. Many of you would have heard

of it, SnapChat, an app popular among teenagers and well known for

the quirky video features as well. Now it is the Tech listing of the

year. Shares of the company behind the app went 44% up when they

listed, in the largest share sale from a tech company since China's

Alibaba three years ago. Earlier, I spoke with Dave Lee. It has gone

very well. They could have sold the shares several times over if they

wanted to. They began the day at $17. It was above what many thought

the price would be. In the course of the day it rose to $26.05. At the

close of market, it is $24.48. So, very impressive for snap. We have

seen this before. We have seen technology companies have this

blistering debut. Sometimes it lives up to the hype. Sometimes not.

Facebook whipped up to the hype. You will remember Twitter have a huge

debut with shares rising 100% on the first day but it didn't turn out

well in the long run. People are asking if it will be more like

Facebook or Twitter. Crucial question. I am sure that people are

looking to the future of the company. Even though SnapChat is

incredibly popular with young people, it hasn't made any money.

Yes, and the losses are widening. The hope is, as you mentioned, with

the young audience, that it is very lucrative to advertisers. The more

that they can grow the user base, 150 million at the moment, the more

they can grow that the more advertisers will be on board. That

will be the main way to make money. Now, the threat they face, however,

is from companies like Facebook, who owns Instagram, which is a popular

messaging app, and they have been pinching some of SnapChat's best

ideas, which you could only do on SnapChat, and you can do it on

Instagram as well now. There is concern from investors and the

company of Snap themselves that users will migrate from one service

to another, so the challenge is to stay relevant, stay cool, the place

where young people want to be, and turn that popularity into

advertising money. Gaming on the go is the latest strategy from the

Japanese firm Nintendo, which is betting that its console, the

Switch, will be an industry favourite, so what is so special? If

you are in the middle of a game at home and you have to leave the

house, you can take it with you and continue to play the same game, so

is it all a gimmick or will gamers decide it is a function that they

never knew that they needed? Earlier, I asked an analyst if it

will be a hit. It is a success. We have seen demand from gamers. The

success of Pokemon Go, gamers want Nintendo in their homes or on the

go. And is it a step up from some of the other games we have seen from

Nintendo? They have the hugely successful Pokemon Go, and they also

had game consoles like the Wii. How is it different, will it be better?

Good question, so the Wii has sold only about one third of the PS4, and

with the Wii, it has been a great success. It was also risky. Gamers

love risk and innovation. Nintendo is at its best when they innovate.

The feature with the Switch, where you can have it on the go or at

home, is fantastic, and I think gamers will love it. Use the word

innovate, which is key amongst these gaming they have to keep gamers

excited but there is competition from Xbox, PlayStation, so how can

the Switch stack up? Quite well. We think that given the demand for

Pokemon Go, gamers will Nintendo. Now, the risk is there are not many

third-party games so far for the platform. However, I have confidence

that gamers want first party Mario and other games like Zelda. There

has been criticism that some games are not available on the Switch.

That is correct. There are always bugs to start with. Sony back with

PS3 had problems, the same with Microsoft, with the Xbox 360, they

had problems with the Red Ring of Death. Half of consoles sold had a

problem, so the fact Nintendo has only a few games at the launch isn't

a big deal. Sam Reynolds speaking earlier. Japan's core consumer price

rose for the first time in a year in January because of a pickup in

energy costs and private consumption. The core consumer price

index, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food

prices, rose 0.1%. For the first time, bitcoin exceeded the value of

an alp of gold, which is seen as a safe haven investment, in a major

reversal for bitcoin, which plummeted in 2014 after the largest

exchange collapsed. And a US law enforcement official is

conducting a probe into heavy machine manufacturer Caterpillar,

pumping a sell-off in stock. Caterpillar believe the search is

part of a revenue service investigation related to profits

earned by a Swiss path subsidiary Caterpillar SARL.

The Chinese Super League football season kicks off today. In 14 years

it has gone from minnow to major power in the world's most popular

sport, and you might ask how? Quite simply cash, and a lot of it, with

players being offered as much as $730,000 per week, which is leading

many stars to swap the likes of Sevilla and Shanghai. Messi wasn't

available, so here is Robin Brant to explain what is behind the big

spending. First, a history lesson. The Chinese

Super League was formed in 2004 when the game went pro and there are 16

teams, the team in the south Guangzhou are the league leaders.

Let's talk about the money. It is the only thing the CSL is really

known for. They are big spenders. $200 million in the last transfer

window. $41 million a year to get Carlos Tevez in Shanghai,

apparently. That makes him the best paid player on the planet. There is

no transparency. No one knows whether money is coming from. Plenty

of big firms are behind the clubs, most of with government links. So,

what about the government links? Well, being good in football in

China is now government policy, and this is the man with a whistle, the

president Xi Jinping, he wants his country to host and win a World Cup

in 2030, which is quite a big ask, having only qualified once before in

2002, currently ranked 86 in the world, tucked in between Qatar and

Kenya. So, what about the plan to get better at football? It all

starts here at the grassroots. The government wants 20,000 football

schools by next year producing it hopes 100,000 home-grown Chinese

football talent in the years ahead. The problem for the Super League is

it is dominated by foreigners, they win all of the awards, the golden

boot foremost also scored, most valuable player, so there will be a

limit of having three of them on the field at any one time during the

game. -- for most goals scored. That is your guide to the Chinese Super

League, which kicks off this weekend, now, what some football. --

watch some football. I will watch Messi but we also have

our very and Robin Brant. Let's have a look at the markets because there

is time to tell you that they are all down and in fact Australia had

quite a big sell-off down 1%, the biggest in a month, following on

from Wall Street's losses, and that is it for this edition of Asia

Business Report. Thanks for watching.

The top stories this hour: The US attorney general,

Jeff Sessions, has denied lying over his contact with Russians

in last year's election campaign but said he'll sit