:00:00. > :00:14.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:15. > :00:22.China's company posts big earnings, and to look at what is driving
:00:23. > :00:35.growth for the social media giant Weibo. Using farmers' grain pain.
:00:36. > :00:40.Rice is subsidised. -- easing. Good morning, a shot. Hello, world. It's
:00:41. > :00:47.Tuesday. Glad you could join us for this edition of Asia Business Report
:00:48. > :00:50.-- Asia. China's answer to Twitter, Weibo, is doing substantially better
:00:51. > :00:57.than its troubled western counterpart. The Chinese blogging
:00:58. > :01:01.firm posted a net income of $32 million in the third quarter. That
:01:02. > :01:05.is more than double the $40 million it earned in the same period last
:01:06. > :01:12.year. It is forecasting revenue to grow by at least 50% in the fourth
:01:13. > :01:18.quarter. As of September, Weibo had 132 million users. Earlier, I spoke
:01:19. > :01:24.with a China market research and asked him what has been driving
:01:25. > :01:27.Weibo's success. I think they have made some key changes to their
:01:28. > :01:31.business over the year. The first thing they did is scrap the
:01:32. > :01:35.character limit. Consumers can have longer conversations on the platform
:01:36. > :01:40.now. They have also added a lot more content. You can live stream video
:01:41. > :01:45.and it is easier to share and create videos and pictures on the site.
:01:46. > :01:49.What can Weibo sustain this interest, especially with more
:01:50. > :01:54.competition on the landscape? I think it is a very competitive
:01:55. > :01:58.market. There are a lot of players. At the same time, they are a known
:01:59. > :02:01.quantity and consumers know them and they have been around long time.
:02:02. > :02:06.They are comfortable with the platform and like the new features.
:02:07. > :02:10.I think they can sustain this. You have the monthly active users for
:02:11. > :02:15.Weibo continuing to rise in the high double digits of more than 30%,
:02:16. > :02:19.compared to its US counterpart, Twitter, which is in the single
:02:20. > :02:26.digits. Do you think it is also in culture of the Chinese that they
:02:27. > :02:30.have the edge in terms of microblogging sites? Yes, I think
:02:31. > :02:35.there is an edgy. People are looking for ways to interact socially active
:02:36. > :02:39.Internet. They do not have a lot of face-to-face social opportunities so
:02:40. > :02:42.Weibo create a platform for that. Especially now that people can have
:02:43. > :02:47.a longer conversation. Twitter is very limited in that regard.
:02:48. > :02:55.Two weeks after being elected as the next president of the United States,
:02:56. > :03:01.Donald Trump has released a video on things his administration would like
:03:02. > :03:03.to achieve, and withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership rates
:03:04. > :03:05.highly. I have asked my transition team
:03:06. > :03:09.to develop a list of executive actions we can take on day one,
:03:10. > :03:12.to restore our laws and bring On trade, I am going to issue
:03:13. > :03:18.a notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
:03:19. > :03:20.a potential disaster Instead, we will negotiate fair,
:03:21. > :03:24.bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back
:03:25. > :03:38.onto American shores. That was US president-elect Donald
:03:39. > :03:43.Trump. He will be in office at the White House next year. Inauguration
:03:44. > :03:48.ceremony is scheduled to take place on the 20th of January. Malaysia.
:03:49. > :03:53.Posting the Formula 1 Grand Prix after the current agreement expires
:03:54. > :03:57.in 2018. A government official said the event is expensive and no longer
:03:58. > :04:02.attractive. The decision was made following declining ticket sellers
:04:03. > :04:07.as well as television viewership. Malaysia first started hosting the
:04:08. > :04:13.race in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, back in 1999 -- ticket sales.
:04:14. > :04:17.Furniture technology has become a buzzword. The sector attracted $2.9
:04:18. > :04:22.billion in global investments. In the third quarter alone this year,
:04:23. > :04:28.much more in the pipeline. Singapore is hoping to be a leader in this
:04:29. > :04:33.field, pitching itself as a finance technology hub. It is planning to
:04:34. > :04:37.create its own digital currency. To find about the strategy, our Asia
:04:38. > :04:42.business correspondent spoke to be well's first chief fintech officer
:04:43. > :04:50.here in Singapore. Singapore has really been pushing
:04:51. > :04:56.them. There is so much hype about it. What is fintech? We love hype,
:04:57. > :05:03.because it gives attention to the topic. Any serious note, when apply
:05:04. > :05:08.technology to insurance, retail, corporate, and make it more
:05:09. > :05:13.efficient, that is the true definition of fintech -- on a
:05:14. > :05:15.serious note. To me, that is much more meaningful and much more
:05:16. > :05:22.substantial for understanding fintech. Why is Singapore so keen to
:05:23. > :05:29.push fintech? What is Singapore getting out of this? We have a very
:05:30. > :05:32.vibrant market centre and we are a true leader when it comes to
:05:33. > :05:38.financial services. If we apply technology to that equation, it
:05:39. > :05:41.becomes long-term much more sustainable and bigger than what it
:05:42. > :05:47.is today. Fintech becomes part of that vibrancy of Singapore as a
:05:48. > :05:51.truly world-class financial centre. But we are standing in the centre of
:05:52. > :05:56.Singapore's financial centre. All around, I can see the big brand
:05:57. > :06:02.names, the big banks. Isn't fintech going to spell the end of
:06:03. > :06:11.traditional banking? When it started in silicon valley, when it shifted
:06:12. > :06:16.out of the US, it became a nebulous story. Fintech is helping banks to
:06:17. > :06:22.succeed. That is a huge difference. When you see a lot of fintech here,
:06:23. > :06:26.they are helping the banks. A large percentage of the portfolio are in
:06:27. > :06:30.the business of supporting banks. You are the well's first chief
:06:31. > :06:40.fintech officer. That is quite a weighty position to be in -- world's
:06:41. > :06:45.first. I see more and more fintech offices coming in. At the end of the
:06:46. > :06:51.day, it has to be sustainable, and I have always said that. We will not
:06:52. > :06:54.be calling it financial services, we will be calling it fintech
:06:55. > :06:59.everything. That is how the future will look like. That was the world's
:07:00. > :07:03.first chief fintech officer. Rice farmers in Thailand have been hit
:07:04. > :07:07.hard by a sharp fall in global prices. To help them out, the
:07:08. > :07:12.military government has stepped in by spending more than $1 billion on
:07:13. > :07:17.a rice subsidy scheme. Thailand was once the world's leader exporter for
:07:18. > :07:21.rice, but lost the status after the collapse of another subsidy scheme
:07:22. > :07:24.which was managed by the government of the former prime and estate
:07:25. > :07:33.Yingluck Shinawatra, who is facing big fines and criminal charges. --
:07:34. > :07:38.Prime Minister. Jasmine rice. It is both a proud symbol of Thai food
:07:39. > :07:42.quality and an essential source of income for these farmers in
:07:43. > :07:46.north-eastern Thailand. And right now, they are not earning nearly
:07:47. > :07:51.enough from growing it. TRANSLATION: Before, life was good.
:07:52. > :07:57.I could buy things without having to think too much. But now, if I want
:07:58. > :08:04.to buy something, I have to think very hard. The price of everything
:08:05. > :08:09.seems to go up except for rice. One problem this year is heavy rain. It
:08:10. > :08:15.has made the rice to moist. And running out of places to dry it.
:08:16. > :08:19.Thailand also produces too much rice, two inefficiently, and must
:08:20. > :08:24.export a large proportion into a volatile world market. But farmers
:08:25. > :08:29.are a big constituency, and with an election due within a year or two,
:08:30. > :08:34.the government has been forced to help. Five years ago, this much
:08:35. > :08:38.rice, about a killer, would have then these farmers close to US 50
:08:39. > :08:42.cents. But after the recent dramatic falls in the price even of
:08:43. > :08:47.high-quality jasmine rice like this, they need to grow it three times as
:08:48. > :08:50.much just to earn the same amount of money. That is proving very awkward
:08:51. > :08:54.for the military government because the plight of these farmers has
:08:55. > :08:58.forced it to offer a generous subsidy. The very thing it can dent
:08:59. > :09:04.in the government it ousted two years ago. And for which it was
:09:05. > :09:16.fined and charged for Mark Prior Minister Yingluck Shinawatra -- for
:09:17. > :09:21.Mark Prior Minister. She argued the charges were political. The hardship
:09:22. > :09:25.of rice farmers now has given her a golden opportunity to showcase her
:09:26. > :09:30.concern for them. She has been selling their rice directly to
:09:31. > :09:36.consumers in Bangkok in a not very subtle dig at the pennypinching
:09:37. > :09:41.generals. Unsurprisingly, the scheme made her hugely popular with
:09:42. > :09:45.farmers. It was also staggeringly expensive. It has given the military
:09:46. > :09:51.a convenient stick with which to beat her party and the in the courts
:09:52. > :09:56.and weaken its election prospects. The return of rice stockpiles in
:09:57. > :10:01.Thailand warehouses is a reminder of the farmers' continued dependence on
:10:02. > :10:02.subsidies and the long-term need to reduce their numbers, whichever
:10:03. > :10:12.government is in charge in Bangkok. A quick look at the markets, and
:10:13. > :10:17.Tokyo stocks are in negative territory at this hour. Investors
:10:18. > :10:22.will assess the impact of the earthquake earlier today. The all
:10:23. > :10:29.ordinaries is up a 4% due to rising oil and commodities prices. The Hang
:10:30. > :10:32.Seng also up by 0.6%. Thank you for invested your time with us. I'm Rico
:10:33. > :10:34.Hizon.