28/04/2017 Asia Business Report

carrying a knife near the houses of Parliament has been arrested on

terrorism suspicions. The 27-year-old was stopped on

Parliament Street close to Whitehall.

US President Donald Trump has come to the end of his first 100 days in

office. We take a look at what he has achieved on the economic front.

And profits jump at Google's parent company Alphabet as a search engine

continues to dominate digital advertising. Welcome to Asian

business report. Saturday marks the 100 days of Donald Trump's

presidency. On the campaign trail, he made bold promises of what he

would do in his first 100 days in office. But, being the President

turns out to be quite different than getting elected. And very little of

Mr Trump's plan has been carried out. On the economy, much of what it

wants to do relies on getting Congress to work with the White

House and that is proving difficult. We have more from New York.

As a candidate, Donald Trump had ambitious plans for the economy in

his first 100 days in office. I am asking the American people to dream

big once again. What follows is my 100 day action plan to make America

great again. But things that require action by Congress have stalled.

Obamacare, not repealed. The tax code, not reformed. Even so,

President Trump has seen the economy thrive. The domestic economy is

good. Regardless of what Trump's policies are, they are going to take

time to implement and that's why I think you see a period in the first

year, even forget the 100 days, you have seen periods where the market

moves are consolidates and then moves up again. That is a very good

and healthy way to the market to move. Consumer confidence has risen

and go to as business confidence. And, crucially, stock markets are up

as well. The S 500 has risen over 5% as investors being convinced that

President Trump will deliver for corporate America. They have a

checklist of items that they want to pursue to get to the GDP growth of

3.5%. That is the number they throw out there. Implicitly, they premise

that grows on the idea of tax cuts mainly as well as infrastructure

that. They have a lower legislating to do between now and the mid-term

elections next year. President Trump has not been able to change much in

the economy in 100 days. And if he does not bring change soon, the high

hopes that are really fuelling economic activity, well, that may

start to stall. Shares of Google's parent company,

Alphabet 's sword over 4%. That was it reported a 29% in quarterly

profits to over $5 billion. It is driven by advertising on mobile and

its popular YouTube video servers. The firm is now worth more than $600

billion and there are concerns that that may be too big. Google controls

about 88% of the online search advertising market and some argue

that Google, as well of other tech giants such as Facebook and Amazon

are operating as monopolies. Amazon also just reported a 41% boost in

its quarterly profit another thanks to strong sales at its cloud

computing businesses. So, should these companies be broken up is to

make here is a view from an industry analyst. In the conventional sense

you have to say that certainly in the search advertising area,

Alphabet, Google is clearly a monopoly but it does not have all

the characteristics of traditional monopolies. There is still some

contestability around search markets. For example, if you want to

find out about a medical condition you may go to wear them the grey

suit rather than go to Google. It also still remains very innovative,

so they are not battening down the hatches and price gouging. They are

still putting money into innovative activities, particularly in areas

that run at a loss. What is it then say about the tech industry that in

one mere decade the largest firms by market cap have all changed, save

for one, and that is Microsoft. But now you have, Alphabet, apple,

Amazon, are they too big? I think they need to remain under scrutiny.

I know that the European Commission is investigating Alphabet at the

moment for some of the practices it is doing. Conventionally, you would

have to say yes. They really are dominating the segment that they are

in. Amazon is now up to about 50% of the e-commerce market in the United

States, locking out a lot of traditional retailers as long as

online rivals but again it is not a haven in a traditional monopolistic

way of price gouging. Consumers still get a good deal from Amazon as

to Google 's customers. Prices there are actually going down and they are

investing in innovation and offering better services and profits to their

customers. Using the companies will sustain these earnings? I think

Alphabet will for some time yet. Both of them are in a strong

position, the do we mention. Amazon is as well. They have huge

opportunities for global expansion beyond the United States and a few

other key markets it is in. They do need to be scrutinised by regulators

very carefully. As he spoke about, Amazon is marching overseas that

March is taking a toll on Yahoo! Japan. The company shares dropped

10% on Thursday after warning it would raise its marketing budget by

nearly 50% and that says it struggles to compete with Amazon,

the US online retailer has been investing heavily in Japan including

splurging on warehouses and robots to launch an Amazon prime servers.

Staying with earnings and first-quarter profit at Chinese

Internet giant Bai Du wrote about 7% from the previous year but the

company is warning that earnings in its current order would be less than

expected because of restructuring cost. Bai Du shares fell on that

warning. Nintendo expects to sell 10 million units of its new Switch game

console over the next year, beating big on the follow-up to its poor

selling prior unit. They issued the forecasters they reported earnings

that jumped sixfold. That is due to the sale of a major stake in the

Seattle Mariner's baseball team, worth over $600 million. Samsung

Electronics is staying with the status quo. The biggest electronics

firm in South Korea has decided not to adopt a holding company structure

like many other South Korean conglomerates, Samsung has a complex

web of cross shareholdings. It has been under pressure by lawmakers and

investors to streamline its ownership structure. Samsung says

changing to a holding company now would affect its competitiveness and

be a drag on operations. Now one of the quieter onto the nerves in

Australia is the first to admit that is longer young and that it is

getting harder to stay hip in the business. That is exactly what he is

doing. As the founder of the 1980s surf wear brand Mambo and now Deus!

An hour, he sat down to write to whip with our reporter for a

serious, busy but reckless. You can print at Reckitt up as you

go along. If I want to do something, I will do it.

When I started Mambo there was a lot of art, a lot of attitude and

opinions. We always said the polarisation was our key marketing

strategy. Half the people hate you, half the people hate you. A bit like

that you might come true. -- a bit like a virgin might. -- a bit like

Vegemite1. You seemed like when people tell you you can't do

something. When people say you can't, that is a good reason to

start doing it. If you can make it work, it will be yours, it will be

your idea. Singh tour is being a dad, I have a

15-year-old son who does not care what I do. He rejects everything I

do. You are not cool to your own fun? He would never sell me that.

When I said I might sell Deus Ex Machina you wanted to know why I

would do that. People have an idea that Australian business is all

about going to the beach, hanging out, having a few copies. Is it

harder than that? Of course. Business is a business. The wind of

economic reality blows as hard in Australia as any where. You need to

watch it but we put in a lot of effort to give the impression that

we are just some fellows having a go. That was Dare Jennings they're

having a relaxed breakfast. Look at look at the market now. Tokyo stocks

have opened flat staying muted ahead of the Golden week holiday in Japan

although we do get some economic indicators in Japan that largely met

expectations. That is for this