06/02/2017 Asia Business Report

Not for hire. After pulling out of Taiwan we find out what's next for

Uber. And it's the Holy Grail of

prime-time advertising, the Super Bowl, but is the $5 million pricetag

worth it? Hello and welcome to Asia Business

Report, I'm Sharanjit Leyl. Uber will exit Taiwan this week. The

car booking company is calling it quits after a lengthy battle with

the government there. Uber faced massive fines, which reportedly

totalled 35 in US dollars after Taiwanese authorities raised fines

for drivers caught working for unlicensed transportation services.

In Taiwan, Uber is registered as an information services company.

Earlier I spoke with the general manager for Uber in Taiwan and he

said the fine was among the highest imposed.

We haven't received any new fines today but I can confirm the fines

right now are the highest in the world, which leaves very little room

for innovation going forward. The focus for us is really now that the

bill has passed, what is the right regulation framework looking like?

We believe there should be a pattern and we need to sit down with

government to do that. Have you got a meeting scheduled with the

government? We are very eager to meet with the government and we're

doing everything we can in our power to make those arrangements happen.

The key question now is the government supportive of the concept

of ride sharing in Taiwan? Interesting you mention whether the

government is supporting the concept because according to the Taiwanese

transport authority they say Uber is registered as an information

services provider. But what you're doing is providing transportation.

Does the government do you think have a point?

Uber is a ride sharing company, we like to be registered as such. I

think the issue is there's no regulations for right sharing in

Taiwan because the concept itself has come around only in the past six

or seven years when right sharing companies like ourselves started.

The question now is if the government does believe in the

concept of ride sharing, we're more than happy to work with them in

terms of finding the right types of regulation for companies like

ourselves. Briefly, getting out of Taiwan, short-term or permanent?

I think we certainly hope we can resume operations as soon as the. I

think this pause is something we feel will alleviate pressure but we

do believe that the president has a mandate to improve technology and

economic development and we think ride sharing fits in well with that.

The biggest sporting event in the United States is under way. We are

of course talking about the Super Bowl, the Championship game in

American football which, last year, attracted 111 million viewers. I can

tell you that today we are still seeing the Falcons, the underdogs,

they are beating the New England Patriots at the moment. It's a big

eel, the Super Bowl, because advertisers are spending an average

of $5 million for a 32nd commercial -- big deal. Some of Asia's most

recognisable brands are getting into the game and here's a sneak peek of

the highly anticipated Super Bowl commercials.

I'm just curious... Puyol services still apply if I'm not technically

on a road or land -- do your services.

Machines don't have emotions. But the rare few can inspire them.

Some of the commercials that Super Bowl viewers will get to watch.

Earlier I spoke with James Walton, who manages the sports business

group at Deloitte and I asked him if companies splurging on the Super

Bowl ads will be getting their money back? The actual cost is even higher

than $5 million because $5 million just buys you space on TV. On top of

that you have to pay for the production of a world-class advert,

which is around $1 million, and in this day and age you also have to

put out on social media and build other advertising spend as round two

well. Recent studies suggest the cost of a Super Bowl campaign is

closer to $10 million. For that you're getting access to the largest

TV audience of the year in the US. In fact the last seven Super bowls

have been the seven highest TV programmes of all time, you're

getting 110 million viewers also. There's still a feeling that perhaps

it has peaked now because this year they were still selling some of

these advertising slots as recently as last week, which is the first

time that's ever happened. Fascinating you have these big Asian

names taking part, the likes of Nintendo with their new Switch games

console, Toyota, Lexus and Kia as well. Why is it so crucial for the

Asian and co is to be there? Most of these Asian companies have been

there before. Nintendo is the is the only one for the first time, Hyundai

went all the back, way back to the 1980s and is a sponsor of the NFL at

the moment. They see this TV audience represents a big

opportunity for them. Last year Toyota pushed hard on their previous

hybrid and they ended up selling over 3.5 million units as a result

of the campaign. They feel this is clearly an opportunity. The one time

of the year when people actually watch the adverts and everyone

gathers around the TV, this is your one chance to make a big impression.

You mentioned social media, everyone thought TV advertising is more or

less dead because this is the other big opportunity for lots of

advertisers. Tell us about the scourge of social media, will it

obliterate TV advertising in the future? It is definitely affecting

because companies only have a certain amount of marketing spend

and you have to decide where you're going to put that and social media

is another channel to take that but the best companies at the moment are

the ones working out how to use traditional and modern media in

tandem. There's a lot of drumbeat campaigns even around the Super Bowl

where companies are releasing their adverts early, doing teaser

trailers, buying up a lot of advertising space on social media

around the time of their TV advert and combining the two pieces

together for the whole experience. On a day like today, it is estimated

around 60 million people will talk about the Super Bowl on Facebook as

well as watch it, so that represents an opportunity as well. James Walton

from Deloitte. Were into the third week of President Trump the's

administration and so far we've heard tough talk on trade and

threats of import taxes against the auto sector. Research house, less

says if the president goes ahead with his campaign promise of

imposing higher tariffs on Chinese products they could make it tough

for Chinese mobile handset makers to do business in the US.

We understand that it is already very hardfought Petronius Marveaux

business to get into the US. It's a very complicated market and you need

strong relationships with the carriers like the horizon or AT --

hard for Chinese handset makers. -- the horizon. With Donald Trump you

have the possibility of higher tariffs. With that thread on Chinese

products, it could create a problem for them because their products are

more expensive and what is happening is will people want to buy more

expensive products? No. Obviously it will make it hard for them but is

the US market even worth it? We know it is an incredibly saturated

market, you've got huge leaders like Apple with the iPhone and Samsung.

So why bother? The key to the US market is that it is not a market of

volume like India or China itself, the US market is the crown jewels of

all smartphone markets as we know it. It's the market of high-value.

That is worth it for the smart phone vendors to go into the US, to

displace Apple, to displace Samsung and gain market share from them to

gain a very high-value market. The Chinese capital, Beijing, aims

to cut the use of coal by 30% this year to battle against air

pollution. According to the state news agency the government will get

more aggressive this year and help residents of 700 villages make use

of clean energy. Large parts of northern and central China have been

covered in fix for this winter disrupting flight and port

operations and schools -- thick smoke. There's been a glut of sell

orders this morning on reports the airbag manufacturer has selected

key... -- thick smog. A Japanese firm has been looking for support to

deal with billions of dollars of recall costs related to millions of

potentially defective airbags. Let's look that the markets before we go

because as you can see they are all higher, taking their cues from Wall

Street's record close on Friday. We saw the NASDAQ at a record high. I

should say we are having some impact from the fact that the Chinese

central bank actually raised short-term interest rates on Friday.

We saw a fairly good US jobs report as well, better than expected

numbers, fuelling the rise. That's it for this edition of