06/02/2014 Asia Business Report

on Friday. But the industrial action over plans to cut nearly a thousand

jobs will continue until Thursday night.

Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.

Twitter shares plunge after the social website gain worth than

expected profits and slowing growth. And China's the mental commodities

is bearing the development of new industries in Africa. -- China

public demand for new commodities. The queue for that matter thank you

for joining us. We start with Twitter and shares on the

microblogging website falling 30% after posting a disappointing

earnings report. Its first since going public in November. It bombed

a net loss of more than $500 million which is more than double forecast.

User growth was also slowing. To the faces tough competition in this part

of the world, it is then in China where other networks dominate. In

Japan, line is the most popular service. Talk is the big platform in

South Korea. We went to find out why Twitter is not so popular among

South Korean residents. TRANSLATION: and then use Twitter because there

is not much I feel I need to share with other people. Twitter may be

well known but most of my friends do not use it. So, neither do I.

I am not a user of Twitter and neither the way use other social

network services. To me, privacy is important, people tend to postings

on what they have done or where they have been. I don't like the idea of

doing that. Earlier I spoke to a research company representative in

San Francisco and ask for thoughts on Twitter earnings performance. The

question is not the user group, that is not the part that worries me or

should worry Twitter's investors the real issue is if they can continue

to grow the number of timeline views per monthly active user. The number

has been down the last 2/4 in a row. What should Twitter do at this point

to refresh its service for users to stay on the microblogging site?

Today has been talking about the right decisions, putting in early --

earnings calls today whether CEO commented they are looking to make

Twitter more engaging, looking to add richer media experiences and

they commented on the introduction of conversation view. The age of

those changes, you really want to be paying attention. To the actually

make people more likely to consume more content and spend more time on

the property. They are having issues with current users, Zach, they have

a problem in this part of world, East Asia, are they missing out on

the world 's most connected countries in the region? I would not

say they are missing out but like many US -based companies, they are

slower to grow internationally than they have been domestically. Both in

terms of number of users and advertising. What should be their

strategy for Asia? In Asia, it is going to be a question of if they

can really update their offerings past the static 140 characters of

content so that people think this is a great place to spend time. In

other business news making heads are -- headlines, the trillion dollar is

trading at a two week high after the country release positive retail

sales. Retail sales gaining 0.9% in December. Consumer spending is on

the upswing. Its trade balance unexpectedly moved into it your

surplus in two years, due to higher than expected export numbers.

Disney's box office hit Frozen has helped power the company to better

then expected quarterly profit. The movie and Disney's ESPN sports

division lifted net income by 43%. It is $1.8 billion. Shares of Walt

Disney are rising by nearly 2% in extended US trading on the positive

news. Aston Martin has recalled more than 17,000 cars because of a

potentially defective part. The British luxury car maker said a

Chinese sub supplier allegedly used counterfeit plastic in making its

accelerator pedals. The recall accounts for most of its sports cars

built since late 2007. The firm said there have been no reports of any

accidents. China's appetite for commodities and its interest in

Africa are well-known. With its economic rise in the last decade,

the main man has come -- become Africa's biggest trading partner.

China's influence is not confined to the mining industry is our reporter

found out when she spoke to a man of an enterprise group and asked why a

telecoms company is at Africa's Abydos mining conference in Cape

Town. We're here today to major-league lunch in a big way the

first-ever not only in Africa in South Africa but also globally, the

first-ever end to end mining Communications solution. We are able

now to deliver that are better, voice and video on one single

platform. The whole multimedia platform system. That is why we're

here. We are telecommunications company. We have been operating for

12 years but three years ago we decided to restructure the business

strategy and we began the enterprise business groups. Today we are here

as an enterprise business group. The enterprise space as well as supply

communication solutions to various industries like transport, energy

and mining so that is why we are here today. Let's talk about the

fact that China is perceived to be largely an investor in mining and

extracting of resources not in telecoms. How do you deal with that

perception? Want to let you know the perspective and you hear this in

mining, the 20th mining endeavour, or the mining companies are

concentrating on mechanisation. People talking about efficiency,

improved efficiency, people talking about increased production. People

talking about integrating various operations of the company and we are

saying to be able to do all of that, what you need is

communication. You need technology. We believe that we are here today

not only to do all of these things and improve and improve but he had

to transform the mining industry. Thank you for your time. A lot of

gadgets behind me as investors are urged to test new technology. The

issue is that the players are now riding the crest of the mining boom

that exist in Africa and the Chinese are seeing the synergies between

their mining investments, their telecoms investments and other

areas. It is day two of the Delhi auto show but the industry has been

feeling the effects of a slowdown with the prospect of a turnaround by

national elections by May. We went to the auto Expo two week gauge the

mood of the companies there. Nearly 50 new launches, it will be hard to

believe that the image -- Indian car industry is going through its worst

phase in over a decade. Here at the India auto show you would think that

carmakers would be worried about the slump in demand but right now most

manufacturers seem to be focused on the long-term potential of the

Indian market. Despite the fanfare, I's largest automaker, the city, has

had a tough year. -- Suzuki. Increased demand from global

manufacturers has hit sales. We tried to target this year by 100,000

we try to sell the vehicle and next year we try to do more. The kind of

development is very important also that is our vision for the company

because they deliver the car for old Indian people. Not everyone is doing

badly. The luxury car market is expanding rapidly. It is still a

very small segment of customers. But as demand in Europe has been going

down steadily, most companies expect India to do well. We see the market

in the first half of the year being relatively flat by post elections

midyear we see a spurt. Expect the market will grow at a pace to last

year. The luxury segment. We plan to exceed that growth. We are looking

forward to a great year. Kasi can be made at a third of the cost of the

US and many other markets. Relatively low labour costs and high

engineered kids means that companies are still investing here. Not just

to manufacture more models locally but also to source components from

local vendors. Despite the slump in sales, no one is moving I just yet.

Thank you for watching. Sport today is coming up next on BBC knew what

-- world news. I am Mike Emily with the news this hour. The Catholic

Church has been heavily criticised by a UN committee - which says its

policies allowed priests to rape and molest thousands of children.

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