11/06/2014 Asia Business Report

they risk damaging trust among consumers. Now on BBC News all the

latest business news live from Singapore. Police in Asia are

cracking down on illegal betting on the eve of the World Cup kick`off in

Brazil. And, game changer? Nintendo counts on toys to turn its fortunes

around. Welcome to the programme, days ahead of the start of the World

Cup in Brazil, police in China, Thailand and Singapore have begun

targeting illegal football betting. It is an enormous market globally.

The International Centre for support security estimates $680 billion a

year is gambled. Over 80% of those wages are made through legal

channels. Asia accounts for more than half of that illegal market

worldwide. From Hong Kong, our correspondent reports on efforts to

stamp out the trade. Kicking off a new campaign. Ahead of

the World Cup in Brazil, these young dancers are fronting a

government`sponsored movement urging the public not to gamble on football

matches. The World Cup is about sportsmanship, it is about scales,

`` skills. It is about football stars, they are not running around

to make money for you. But, for Hong Kong's many punters, about 60% of

the population the upcoming competition is the most exciting

opportunity in the world. The only legal way to gamble here is that the

Jockey club. It collected 6.5 billion US dollars in revenue from

football betting last year. Unofficial channels, like this

website, are believed to make several times that amount. They

offer easy access and lots of credit. They have been targeted by

law enforcement. This week, police in Hong Kong seized millions of

dollars in cash, and detained 29 people were running an allegedly

illegal online betting syndicate. About $100 million had already been

wagered. Mostly on World Cup matches. TRANSLATION: According to

what we have confiscated, and our records, this is an unprecedented

and extremely large illegal but `` illegal betting ring. It is

difficult to estimate the size of the illegal football betting market.

Here in Hong Kong and the rest of China. Some believe it could be in

the hundreds of billions of dollars. For the people affected, the

real`life impact is unquantifiable. Deeply in debt, this man quit

gambling five years ago, and joined a church support group. That was

after his wife threatened divorce. He explains why he was panting, for

more than four decades. TRANSLATION: For me, I loved football ``punting.

It added to the excitement. My best was when my team won, and I want.

Winning on the field is more healthy, safe antigambling

activists, and they will campaign for two more weeks, to convince the

come `` to convince the public that it is a sporting, not a betting

event. The World Bank has revised down its forecast for economic

growth in the developing world this year. Down to 2.8%, below the

forecast of 3.2%. If correct, it is the third consecutive year of growth

below 5% in these countries. The bank says that developing nations,

like India, need to make economic reforms that provoked growth, but

the report predicts growth will speed up in 2014 `` promote growth.

Indonesia could more than double its rice imports this year, took a meat

`` to keep the prices down. The economy once a rise in prices ahead

of the elections next month, and the looming weather system. It would be

good news for growers in Thailand, and Vietnam. Google is buying

satellite companies for half $1 billion. The technology giant says

the deal is aimed at keeping the maps accurate and could help to

expand Internet access. Satellites use a resolution that can see single

cars along a road. It is their second acquisition year, after it

bought a solar powered drone maker. That was in April. Virtually every

media and entertainment business today has a digital strategy to try

to get to the consumer where ever they are. In a new report,

PricewaterhouseCoopers favour by 2018, one third of advertising

revenue across the world, that will be digital, but only 70% of consumer

revenues will come from digitally delivered content like music, videos

and games. How can they make money from the digital consumer? These

days, it is impossible to escape from advertising, as you can see,

from the big television screen behind me in the heart of Singapore

's financial district. Five years ago, television advertising was more

than double that of Internet advertising, and according to a new

report, that is set to change. I am joined by Greg Unsworth from

PricewaterhouseCoopers. How is the world going digital? It is amazing

what is going on at the moment, enabled by smart house `` smartphone

devices, the whole world is going digital. We can see a large bulk of

growth will be digitally driven. That creates challenges for

traditional players and opportunities for new entrants. In

my hand, I have two hardcopy newspapers, some say they are a

dying breed. Most people now consume information on smart phones and

tablets. Media companies are now trying to monetise their products

online. How successful have they been? There is progress being made,

there is some successful models of online distribution of newspaper

content. It is a balance of those companies to protect their

traditional core, while they develop their digital engagement with

consumers as well. How do you monetise the digital customer? There

are a few things, like trying to understand that with digital, you

can target different members of the community more effectively. We can

see examples of that in different markets. That is what digital

advertising is expected to reach the size of television advertising in

the next five years globally. Thank you very much. As we can see, most

companies are moving their resources to the online world. Whether they

are able to make money from that, that still remains to be seen.

Nintendo is focusing its efforts on familiar franchises. Kid friendly

content. Can toys and figurines be the best way forward for a Japanese

gaming giant, after it missed its own sales targets last year? Our

correspondent reports from East three, the world 's largest video

gaming fare in Los Angeles. `` E3. Nintendo came here, needing to

revive its flagging fortunes. The gaming giant is just that, gaming

giant. Unlike Sony and Microsoft, it has nothing to fall on. Sales of

their latest console have done very well. Over the last few years, it

has done well. It announced a figurine that could help to bring

the real world and physical world. David is from Nintendo here. Explain

what the figurine system is? They are little characters, your

favourite Nintendo characters. They didn't `` Nintendo is all about

reinvention, we keep doing that. But here, we keep reinventing something

for our system. It can interact with the games in brand`new ways. You can

take it, and place it on your game pad, and it exchanges information.

For example, for one of our games, we announced that this would be a

fighter, like your partner. Or a bridle, it can be used in different

ways. With your character, it build up the statistics and interact

with it. We are holiday season. You spoke of the

reinvention of different ideas, but this idea is pretty similar to one

in place by companies like Disney. It is not a real reinvention, is it?

We see some toys going on. We do it differently, like everything. We are

doing it our way. What separates us from different things that we have

seen before, you will be using this as the game across multiple

platforms. We announced during our games, that at the beginning of next

year, we will create a portal, so you can use it with your latest

console. It can be used throughout different Nintendo properties, and

these are some of your fan favourite games that people love. Nintendo are

definitely needing a shot in the arm for its console, we will see if it

delivers. For more on the games fair at Los Angeles, check out our E3

page on the BBC website. Before we go, here a quick look at the Asian

markets. Regional are consolidating their games in earlier Wednesday

trading `` gains. After US equities finished nearly flat overnight.

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