:00:00. > :00:13.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:14. > :00:19.Facebook's profits soar, smashing market expectations with a sharp
:00:20. > :00:23.rise in earnings end users. And with new numbers out in Japan, we look at
:00:24. > :00:31.whether the central bank will bring in more measures to boost the
:00:32. > :00:37.economy. Welcome to Asia Business Report. The
:00:38. > :00:43.world's social network, Facebook, is getting bigger and so are its
:00:44. > :00:48.profits. The social media giant has posted earnings of more than $1.5
:00:49. > :00:52.billion between January and March, which is up 195% compared to the
:00:53. > :00:59.same period last year. Earlier I spoke to our correspondent, Dave
:01:00. > :01:04.Lee, who is in silicon valley. Facebook has once again exceeded
:01:05. > :01:09.expectations. Wall Street is very harsh on Facebook, because they have
:01:10. > :01:14.been doing so well since they were founded. Every time they put figures
:01:15. > :01:21.out, Wall Street wants more. For now, Facebook continues to impress
:01:22. > :01:24.investors. Advertising is behind it mainly, with $5.4 billion in revenue
:01:25. > :01:31.last quarter, 5.2 billion of which was from advertising. It has managed
:01:32. > :01:34.to grow the business quite considerably, now that people are
:01:35. > :01:37.watching more videos on the platform, millions every day, that
:01:38. > :01:45.is a really big earner for Facebook. Advertisement money is flowing into
:01:46. > :01:49.river channel. And they are continuing to innovate and impress
:01:50. > :01:54.both the technology community and the people who invest. It was also
:01:55. > :01:58.interesting in this announcement that they announced a proposal to
:01:59. > :02:04.create a new class of non-voting shares. Tell us about the rationale
:02:05. > :02:09.behind that. You may remember at the tail end of last year, when Mark
:02:10. > :02:14.Zuckerberg and his wife had their baby, they announced they were going
:02:15. > :02:19.to set up a foundation to do charitable giving and to back
:02:20. > :02:22.various products. And they were going to fund that by giving away
:02:23. > :02:27.their Facebook stock. The reason they have restructured their stock
:02:28. > :02:33.today is to allow Mark Zuckerberg to give his wave without losing control
:02:34. > :02:40.and voting rights within the company. I suppose soon we will
:02:41. > :02:47.start seeing precisely what they plan to do with that money and what
:02:48. > :02:55.charitable projects they will back. Shares in PayPal surged 4%, after
:02:56. > :03:01.that company also posted better than expected revenue of $2.5 billion
:03:02. > :03:04.between January and March. Its profits jumped 28% compares with the
:03:05. > :03:12.same period last year to more than $450 million. Samsung has reported a
:03:13. > :03:15.12% rise in quarterly profits boosted by strong sales of its
:03:16. > :03:21.latest smartphone. The world's largest smartphone maker made a
:03:22. > :03:25.profit of $4.6 billion in the three months to March.
:03:26. > :03:29.New data from Japan shows industrial production recovered in March and
:03:30. > :03:33.unemployment has eased, but the state of the economy is a muddy
:03:34. > :03:45.picture, with retail sales still looking weak and Japan slipping back
:03:46. > :03:48.into inflation. We can see that these consumer prices are falling at
:03:49. > :03:54.their fastest pace in three years, household spending declining at its
:03:55. > :03:58.fastest pace in a year. It looks at a dire picture for Japan. Good
:03:59. > :04:04.morning, thank you for having me on the show. The trend is not our
:04:05. > :04:15.friend right now, to use an industry term. The numbers were, as you say,
:04:16. > :04:20.weak, and it is getting harder to see how it can be projected that we
:04:21. > :04:25.are on the path to 2% inflation. That means we should start to expect
:04:26. > :04:30.some changes. What changes are these likely to be? Already the Bank of
:04:31. > :04:33.Japan, who will be coming out with their decision later today, they
:04:34. > :04:39.have had a two-day meeting on monetary policy, will there be more
:04:40. > :04:47.expansion perhaps negative interest rates? I think the BOJ will probably
:04:48. > :04:56.wait for the Fed to raise rates first, and then closely or in tandem
:04:57. > :04:59.with will see some move. Whether it is in industry or bond buying
:05:00. > :05:03.structure, it is hard to say what, but there will be some action on the
:05:04. > :05:06.part of the BOJ and I think it will probably be clustered around, if you
:05:07. > :05:13.will, the time when the Fed moves to raise rates to maximise impact. I
:05:14. > :05:21.also think you will see the LDP moving to some kind of activity like
:05:22. > :05:23.supplemental budgets. Last but not least, some hard discussions on
:05:24. > :05:30.whether it will be appropriate to add another 2% to VAT. The LDP being
:05:31. > :05:38.the ruling party in Japan. Will these measures work, because we have
:05:39. > :05:44.already seen rising interest rates, which was considered quite radical.
:05:45. > :05:50.So, it hasn't really started to work it, as it? It hasn't, but one of the
:05:51. > :05:55.main reasons it has is because the Western world is not cooperating.
:05:56. > :06:01.Energy prices have fallen so precipitously... This was completely
:06:02. > :06:05.unplanned. The things that go into what makes up the CPI and what
:06:06. > :06:09.should be causing inflation, the US and Europe and China, those are the
:06:10. > :06:13.three major drivers of the world economy, none of them is really
:06:14. > :06:18.doing what you would hope they would do that would help Japan along its
:06:19. > :06:21.way. There is so much that can be done domestically making it an
:06:22. > :06:29.international cooperation. Thank you for joining us. He was talking about
:06:30. > :06:35.the US Federal Reserve, and I can tell you that they have again held
:06:36. > :06:41.interest rates at December levels, between 0.25% and 4.5%. The Fed said
:06:42. > :06:45.that while conditions have improved they are still waiting for inflation
:06:46. > :06:50.to reach 2%. Mitsubishi motors has not issued a full-year forecast,
:06:51. > :06:56.with the carmaker saying domestic orders have halved since its
:06:57. > :07:01.admission last week that it had rigged fuel efficiency tests. The
:07:02. > :07:08.race to produce the first commercially viable driverless car
:07:09. > :07:19.is hotting up in China. An automaker has joined the ranks of Google, BMW,
:07:20. > :07:30.Volvo and Toyota. While it is a relative newcomer it appears to be
:07:31. > :07:34.making a bit of ground. Self driving cars, once considered in the realm
:07:35. > :07:46.of science fiction, heading to a road near you. Many of the world's
:07:47. > :07:54.vehicle makers are racing to become the first to have a marketable
:07:55. > :07:59.driverless car. People sat up when a car in China was driven to some
:08:00. > :08:05.distance. And it arrived at the Beijing auto show. It is going to be
:08:06. > :08:12.quite a while before we see large numbers of driverless vehicles
:08:13. > :08:15.filling our streets. The makers of this Chinese model believe that they
:08:16. > :08:25.will come and it is sooner than you think. It will take a while to have
:08:26. > :08:30.our cars on city roads or inside towns, but in two or three years we
:08:31. > :08:37.can deliver highway ready vehicles. City driving might be possible in
:08:38. > :08:43.say 2025. We can already achieve it in a controlled environment. Water
:08:44. > :08:47.parking, for example, is easy. As for auto driving on a highway with
:08:48. > :08:52.no pedestrians and that everyone sticking to the rules, we can
:08:53. > :08:57.achieve this in two or three years. To tell the truth, it still seems
:08:58. > :09:00.strange. The idea of driving along and taking your hands off the wheel
:09:01. > :09:03.as you are burning down the freeway, that while the car is
:09:04. > :09:08.moving I could be checking my e-mails or perhaps making a phone
:09:09. > :09:12.call. But automakers are confident that there is going to be strong
:09:13. > :09:15.demand for cars like this, and that is why they are pouring so many
:09:16. > :09:25.resources into these driverless vehicles. Urban world conditions in
:09:26. > :09:30.China are bit chaotic, with electric bikes, pedestrians and cars all
:09:31. > :09:34.mixed together. It seriously challenges the self driving system.
:09:35. > :09:40.We need to prove to the authorities that it is safe to drive this car on
:09:41. > :09:44.the road. Officials will evaluate the safety of these vehicles and
:09:45. > :09:53.make relevant laws, working together with carmakers. Changan hopes to
:09:54. > :09:57.start selling driverless cars within two years. Initially they might be
:09:58. > :10:01.used for long haul journeys in which passengers are light at the
:10:02. > :10:06.outskirts of a city or town. These cars could also be used in a robot
:10:07. > :10:14.taxi fleet. Either way, this is the future, and it is almost within
:10:15. > :10:19.reach. Let's have a look at the markets
:10:20. > :10:27.before we go, because you can see that most shares that are open, and
:10:28. > :10:32.the Fed reserve has issued few clues on monetary policy, so everything is
:10:33. > :10:34.within 1% of redstart.