05/05/2016 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news with the World Business Report.

With half a trillion dollars in sales, China's Alibaba is now

Plus, from San Francisco start up to the hotel trade's worst nightmare,

we hear from the co-founder of property sharing website Airbnb.

Also coming up, Japan's Prime Minister Abe continues

his European tour, we'll be finding out what's on the agenda

But first we start in China, with a giant of the internet.

Alibaba dominates online shopping in China, think of it as Amazon, eBay

It floated on the New York Stock Exchange a year and a half ago

And in a few hours, before the US markets open,

it's expected to report record annual profits, despite that

Everything about this company is enormous,

In the last financial year, the value of goods sold through Alibaba,

known as 'gross merchandise volume', was almost half a trillion dollars.

That's more than Wal-Mart, so by this measure it's now

It's hugely important for China, which is trying to refocus its

The company says it accounts for 10% of all shopping in Chinaand supports

All this has made its founder, former schoolteacher Jack Ma,

He's currently worth $33 billion, making him Asia's richest man.

Let's talk to our correspondent in Shanghai Robin Brant.

Good to see you. Not quite as rich! Beijing would be very happy about

those numbers, it confirms that they are making that shift towards

getting consumers to spend more? The health of Alibaba is in no way a

measurement of the health of China's shoppers. This is showing

record growth, that is very good for the Chinese economy overall.

Investors are more interested in comparing fourth-quarter figures to

growth over recent years, particularly how well Alibaba was

doing before it went public. Back then, it was growing quite a lot.

Since it has gone public, things have not been as good. There is a

feeling that they could be doing better, particularly with ambitions

to expand overseas. It is a part of the business that the CEO wants to

grow. The idea is that overseas is contributing less to Alibaba than

they have been in the past. Alibaba is very important to the Chinese

economy. It is a sign of China's shoppers, Alibaba has been at the

front of digital pay platforms. It is a great moment to judge whether

China's shoppers are feeling the pinch in the slowdown of the

economy. The economy is still growing, but the slowest growth in

almost 25 years. We always appreciate it. Talk to you soon.

Let's stay with the internet business, and talk about Airbnb.

In just a few years the accommodation sharing website

has gone from a tiny San Francisco start-up to a $25 billion company

that has challenged the traditional hotel business.

It's not been without controversy though.

This week Berlin banned homeowners from renting

their properties to tourists to try and address a housing shortage.

The BBC's Simon Atkinson spoke to Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk

and asked him for reaction to the move.

This is a very new model, the rules that govern it often go back

decades. I think everybody realises that the policies need to be

modernised for the 21st century. Governments are trying to figure out

how to do this. There are a lot of different jurisdictions, it is a

bumpy process. But when countries have passed new policies, they have

been very favourable to codesharing. The Indian government recently

signalled that they think it has a lot of potential for the country.

Your business has revolutionised travel, certainly in the last

decade. What will be the next big change? What we've demonstrated is

that there is an immense appetite to travel more authentically and

immerse yourself in the culture, as opposed to having a commoditised

experienced. I think the personal connection is important. Your

company has been extraordinarily successful, and according to Forbes,

you and your cofounders are millionaires. But you still read out

part of your house through the site. I think it's incredibly

important to stay close to be using experience. I have posted almost 200

guests at this point. I want to be doing what our customers are doing

every single day. As a traveller, I have also stayed in hundreds of

different homes. Sometimes they stay in supercheap leases, sometimes I go

for something more expensive. To Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

now, who's on a tour of Europe. On Wednesday he held talks with

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, they both expressed concern about

turbulence on the currency markets. The yen has soared to an 18-month

high against the dollar after the Bank of Japan held off expanding

monetary stimulus last week. Mr Abe is hosting a meeting of G7

finance ministers at the end of the month amid rising concerns

about the state of Japan's economy. Today he's in the UK to meet

Prime Minister David Cameron. Michael Taylor is Japan

specialist at Oxford Economics. Thank you for coming in. He's got

enough on his plate, I heard he is trying to get some of the European

economies to ease up on their fiscal measures, less austerity and more

stimulus? Doing that so that Europe and the UK will buy more from Japan?

Is, as you said the Japanese economy may even be in recession -- yes. One

of the ways out of that is through exports. They do have a world-class

manufacturing sector. If Europe and the US and China are growing

strongly, that is beneficial. The strength of the yen is a problem,

but it's not the end of the game. If the global economy is strong, that

will benefit Japan is hugely. That is not -- about is the mission

Shinzo Abe is on today. What about Germany and the UK? He has met with

Angela Merkel and David Cameron, probably not the two people I would

first go to if we were looking for fiscal stimulus. Ahead of this

summit in Tokyo later this month, he wants to get some sort of deal, it

may not amount to very much in terms of cash, but he needs to present to

the Japanese people that there is some offering. That will then allow

him to delay the political problem at home with the sales tax increase

due to come in next year. He wants to do -- delay that, and a stimulus

package would be a way to do that. You said consumer spending is weak,

possibly in a recession. The government is spending $700 billion

a year, but nothing seems to be working at the moment. They need

structural change? They do. The fundamental problem is that the

corporate sector has huge piles of cash that they sit on. They don't

invest in wages, they tend to be buying companies overseas. The

structural reform that Japan needs is to encourage Japanese companies

to spend the cash, increase wages. That will increase consumer spending

and get inflation above zero. That is the root problem that the

Japanese economy has. The amount of printing money or fiscal plans will

change that. I'll be back with Adnan, I will see you very shortly.

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