28/07/2016 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news with Aaron and World Business

200 million new friends for Facebook.

The world's biggest social network keeps getting bigger.

And I tell you what, so do its profits.

The Hinkley C power station could get the go-ahead within hours,

the country's first new plant for a generation.

Welcome to World Business Report, I'm Aaron Heslehurst.

This is a bite-size snapshot, an exciting one, I hope, of all the

latest in the world of business and money.

Also coming up: The S7 smartphone boosts Samsung's profits,

despite stiff competition in the mobile phone business.

We will go to Singapore to talk about that.

We start in the US, with the world's biggest social network,

which just seems to get bigger and bigger.

We are talking, of course, about Facebook.

It has reported a huge jump in profits, and in the number

Advertising agencies are moving more of their money away from television

and towards the internet, especially on mobile phones,

and Facebook has been one of the big winners.

In the three months to the end of June, Facebook made profits

That was an increase of 186% compared to the same three-month

Since then, it has also signed up 220 million new users who use

That takes Facebook's total membership to this,

more than 1.7 billion people who log on at least once a month.

And all of that had driven the share price higher and higher,

giving Facebook a stock market value of $350 billion and counting.

Looking at Facebook on their phone or tablet everyday, but it is not

enough just to have eyeballs. Facebook is not just good at getting

more of us to use their services. It has also shown a knack for making

money of our social media habits. Whether that is using Messenger,

WhatsApp or Instagram, which it bought in 2012. It is also making of

push into mobile video where it faces competition from the likes of

snap chat and YouTube. We have seen brands having fun with Facebook live

broadcast. One fast food company, ihop, live streamed pancakes on a

beach. I am not sure why. But it speaks to Facebook's success at

attracting new advertisers and getting existing ones to spend more.

Along with Google, Facebook has benefited hugely from advertisers

shifting money from television to the internet. As one analyst put it,

the social network is running away with the mobile advertising market.

At this point it is hard to see how rivals can catch up.

Matti Littunen is from Enders Analysis.

I did really good on that one, didn't I? Welcome to the programme.

Thank you for coming in. Let's start with what Michelle ended on. It does

appear, looking at these numbers, that it would be very difficult at

the moment for anybody out there to catch up to Facebook. Yes,

especially when it comes to display advertising, especially on mobile.

They are in a very strong market position. There are a few would-be

challengers, but Facebook has risen above the rest. You talk about

advertising, I remember years ago experts would come into this

programme saying Facebook have done well but need to crack the mobile

advertising market. They have cracked it and then some. They have

a pretty decent knack of making money. How are they doing it? Is it

because the number of users just gives all this rich information to

advertisers out there? It is absolutely crucial, what you said

there. A few years ago they put their best product people on the

mobile app products, rolling out new ways of targeting users, making use

of the massive amounts of data they have on usage of the social network.

And we see, even now we see continuously them rolling out new

advertising formats, new ways for advertisers to reach those users. So

they are building on steady progress in those areas. Have we reached peak

Facebook? 1.7 billion, I don't know. Can you sit here and say that maybe

in one year's time we could have 2.5 billion people or 3 billion people?

It looks like there is definitely still more upside to come. The user

growth is as fast as it has been in three years and we have lots of

product, Facebook frankly hasn't even started monetising some of its

product, such as WhatsApp, and things like Messenger. We will see

more payments and other services on that platform. It will be more than

just advertising so lots of areas available for Facebook's business.

There are many areas as you say, but it is getting the young users, using

things like SnapChat. Yes, it seems that audience reach among the young

groups is definitely still something Facebook does well but there have

been some questions raised, especially in advanced markets like

the US, where upstart services like SnapChat might be eating into

Facebook's most engaged young users. The evidence of that is still quite

mixed but that is still something Facebook will be keeping a close eye

on. We appreciate your time, thank you for coming in.

We are also in the west of England, where Britain's first new nuclear

power plant in a generation is expected to get the green light

The board of the French energy giant EDF, which is due to fund most

of the controversial project, is meeting in Paris later,

and is expected to approve the investment.

Our industry correspondent John Moylan has more.

It is a project on a vast scale. The twin nuclear reactors planned for

Hinkley point will provide 7% of the UK's electricity. Due to start

generating in 2025, it will be one of the first new nuclear plants to

be given the green light in Europe in years. Preparation work at the

site is under way. EDF has already ploughed in more than 2.5 billion

euros. Now, after years of delays, it is set to be approved. Hinkley C

will cost more than 21 billion euros. It has been called one of the

most expensive man-made structures on the planet. The Chinese nuclear

group CGN has a 35% stake in The Project. It is part of a wider deal

which could see Chinese reactors built in Britain. But plans to

export their technology around the world have suffered a series of

setbacks. The Project in northern front has been hit by delays and is

billions over Budget. Its nuclear fleet will also need a 100 billion

euros upgrade in decades ahead. That led its finance chief to resign

earlier this year, amid concerns soaring cost could destabilise EDF's

finances. Its powerful unions also want Hinkley to be delayed. Earlier

this week EDF's shareholders agreed a major refinancing plan which has

paved the way for today's decision. The UK looks set to enter a new

nuclear era. To Asia now, and Samsung has

made its best quarterly profits in two years thanks to strong sales

of its flagship smartphone, It is also confident

about the rest of the year, despite stiff competition

from rivals like Apple, at the top end of the market,

and cheaper brands from China. Mariko Oi is following this

for us in Singapore. Good to see you. I talk about the

bottom end, those other competitions, we are talking about

the likes of Huawei. Indeed, Samsung has been struggling to compete at

the Top End and the bottom end for several years now but this set of

results has come in very strong. Earlier this week we were talking

about Apple reporting a fall in iPhone sales but as you mentioned,

Samsung managed to sell more of its smartphones, as you mentioned, known

as Galaxy S7. Its mobile division had profits jumping 27%, helping the

overall profit at the company. In other divisions like the TV sales,

which were down, Samsung still supplies chips for Apple's iPhones

and chip sales were actually down. The company is still counting on its

smartphone for strong performance in the future. It is releasing its new

model next week, ahead of Apple's launch of new models in September.

We will talk to you soon, thank you. In other news: The Federal Reserve

has kept interest rates unchanged at between 0.25% and 0.5%,

where they have been The US central bank said near-term

risks to the economic outlook have diminished, but inflation remained

below the bank's target. It is still expected to raise

rates twice this year. Investors expect the first

increase to come in autumn. Mining giant BHP Billiton will take

a hit of up to $1.3 billion to cover the costs of a dam disaster last

November at the Samarco iron ore mine in Brazil, which it co-owns

with Brazilian rival Vale. That puts the company

on course to report its worst The charge accounts for BHP's share

of a settlement reached with the Brazilian government

to cover clean-up costs and damages, for the dam burst that killed 19

people, left hundreds homeless, You are going to make me do the

markets? This robotic camera is all over the place, forcing me to do the

market. Despite some of the recent gains we have seen in the hope that

Japan and its new stimulus, which we will know about very soon. I will be

back to take a look at some of the papers from around the world.

An iconic fairground attraction, described as the original

white-knuckle ride, is in danger of being lost,

The owners of the Moon Rocket, which first appeared in 1939,

want to sell it, but the National Heritage Memorial Fund needs

to raise another ?17,000 to stop it going abroad or being broken up.