:00:00. > :00:17.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:18. > :00:23.A strong earnings results for way bow. Will we see similar numbers for
:00:24. > :00:42.Tencent? -- Tencent?. Good morning, Asia. Glad you could
:00:43. > :00:47.join us for this midweek edition of Asia Business Report. Chinese social
:00:48. > :00:53.media giant Weibo has reported revenues of just under $200 million,
:00:54. > :01:02.an increase of 67% compared the year ago levels. Profits are coming in at
:01:03. > :01:05.about $47 million US. The company claims 347 million monthly active
:01:06. > :01:10.users, an increase of 30% over the past year. Another tech giant in
:01:11. > :01:16.China, Tencent, is tipped to report encouraging numbers today. But with
:01:17. > :01:23.a saturated market, what are the other avenues for growth? Certainly
:01:24. > :01:27.they need to start looking outside of the Chinese market. There's still
:01:28. > :01:32.a lot of growth in Chinese market, for example Tencent are actively
:01:33. > :01:36.looking outside, looking at not just China but around Hong Kong and
:01:37. > :01:41.Singapore. The Chinese communities in Europe and America. And also
:01:42. > :01:50.exploring other opportunities. We are exploring advertising channels,
:01:51. > :01:54.getting companies to put their brands on Wii chat, for Tencent.
:01:55. > :01:59.They are already approaching the number of users that WhatsApp has?
:02:00. > :02:15.In January WhatsApp said they had 1.2 billion active monthly users. I
:02:16. > :02:20.think WeChat are gunning to overtake WhatsApp. They are also targeting
:02:21. > :02:26.international markets. WhatsApp and Twitter are already having a major
:02:27. > :02:30.footprint in the international market, but the likes of Weibo and
:02:31. > :02:35.Tencent are catching up just with that powerful billion strong
:02:36. > :02:43.mainland base and the Chinese Dyas Barack. You look at the Western
:02:44. > :02:48.counterparts. -- diaspora they have a limited ability to get their
:02:49. > :02:54.footprint into the market. If they have a footprint in the mainland
:02:55. > :02:58.market, this western technology giants could overtake the mainland
:02:59. > :03:02.companies? They have to integrate with the Chinese governments. Which
:03:03. > :03:08.will take time. That will certainly take time. Some of the world's Egypt
:03:09. > :03:15.military contractors are robbing elbows with buyers at the government
:03:16. > :03:22.defence position. Crossing over to my colleague. Wheeling and dealing
:03:23. > :03:27.for military hardware? That's right. Right now I am at the naval base and
:03:28. > :03:33.it's a veritable parking lot for warships on display. Kindly you can
:03:34. > :03:39.see the Chinese frigate from the People's liberation Army and you
:03:40. > :03:43.have the Pakistani frigate as well. Why am I here? We have all of these
:03:44. > :03:48.military contractors who are willing and dealing at the international
:03:49. > :03:53.maritime defence exhibition. And it is all against the backdrop of
:03:54. > :03:58.strategic uncertainty on the Korean peninsular in the South China Sea.
:03:59. > :04:04.Is there evidence that a lot of people are buying more? I caught up
:04:05. > :04:09.with one European manufacturer who is selling increasingly to the
:04:10. > :04:12.Asians. Countries in this region generally are starting to realise
:04:13. > :04:16.that there are things going on around them and they are not aware
:04:17. > :04:23.of what's happening. Events are occurring just over the horizon and
:04:24. > :04:26.nations and armed forces don't have the awareness or the flexible
:04:27. > :04:33.response. We see a lot of interest in our products, like global eye, a
:04:34. > :04:38.multiplatform surveillance. An ability to keep the man on events in
:04:39. > :04:44.air, land and sea. We have our swordfish maritime patrol platform.
:04:45. > :04:49.We stay out all on time, get there quickly, maximum endurance and
:04:50. > :04:53.capability. But again, compact and affordable platform. A naval
:04:54. > :04:57.solutions, warships, extremely advanced technology that you can see
:04:58. > :05:02.on display, that is of great interest. We also build radars,
:05:03. > :05:06.command and control systems, so that you can network and link your forces
:05:07. > :05:10.together. Who are you increasingly selling to in the region? India and
:05:11. > :05:14.Australia are our biggest market at the moment. We see huge potential to
:05:15. > :05:18.do great future business in India and Australia, for example. But
:05:19. > :05:23.that's to exclude everyone up -- anyone else. We have a big base in
:05:24. > :05:29.Thailand and Indonesia. We are active in Japan and Korea, Malaysia.
:05:30. > :05:32.We have great interest in our products from pretty much every
:05:33. > :05:35.country in this region and we see this show as a great venue to
:05:36. > :05:44.engage. Not just with Asia-Pacific but with the world. But you can't
:05:45. > :05:48.sell to China? We are European as a company, we are subject to the same
:05:49. > :05:55.restrictions. We have some commercial business in air traffic
:05:56. > :06:05.control. The rules are clear in China. No business there and we are
:06:06. > :06:16.not active there. Who are the buyers of these military
:06:17. > :06:20.hardware? There is evidence that Asian countries are spending more.
:06:21. > :06:24.For instance, Singapore is one of the largest spenders in Southeast
:06:25. > :06:29.Asia. They spend about 3% of their GDP on defence. That's how much the
:06:30. > :06:33.Americans spend percentagewise and just yesterday the Singapore
:06:34. > :06:40.government announced they bought two more German manufactured submarines
:06:41. > :06:44.from one manufacturer and we have a Chinese here, the Chinese pavilion
:06:45. > :06:53.are at the conference for the first time. They are being represented by
:06:54. > :07:00.a number of companies. Thank you so much for the update.
:07:01. > :07:06.More and more jobs looks set to be automated in the near future,
:07:07. > :07:10.something concerning workers and politicians. But how capable are the
:07:11. > :07:14.latest machines and other likely to replace humans altogether or help us
:07:15. > :07:20.all be more productive in our work? This report from an exhibition in
:07:21. > :07:25.Paris where the world's bleeding robotics companies and start ups are
:07:26. > :07:30.showing off their creations. From around the world the robots
:07:31. > :07:34.have come to Paris to show off their new skills. This one response to the
:07:35. > :07:39.colour green. It seems to be distracted by the cameraman. They
:07:40. > :07:43.are leading the factories and trying to find roles in our everyday lives.
:07:44. > :07:49.It has three functions. The first is to try to monitor the health of the
:07:50. > :07:53.people. Carer is one job they are after. It is designed to be a
:07:54. > :08:02.companion, alerting relatives if necessary. It will survey the mood
:08:03. > :08:07.of the person. If the elderly comes with a low activity it will alert
:08:08. > :08:12.you. So it is really like a nurse at home. More and more robots are now
:08:13. > :08:17.appearing in customer service roles. This is essentially the kind of
:08:18. > :08:21.automatic machine you see in lots of cinemas already, but with a robot
:08:22. > :08:26.interface. I can interact with it. I can pay for my tickets, as you would
:08:27. > :08:32.normally, but I can also leave a video review and it reacts to be in
:08:33. > :08:35.certain ways. They claim it is 30 times more interactive than a
:08:36. > :08:39.standard ticket machine. Do we really want to interact with a robot
:08:40. > :08:43.when we go to the cinema? I'm not so sure. This Chinese robot is supposed
:08:44. > :08:48.to help out in a supermarket, offering advice to customers. You
:08:49. > :08:55.have to bend down to talk to it. Why is it so small? If a robot is too
:08:56. > :09:00.big people will think it is dangerous. So when we decided we
:09:01. > :09:04.need to have a robot that is lovely, to look more friendly for the users.
:09:05. > :09:09.The big fear of course if they will take jobs. This autonomous tractor
:09:10. > :09:13.is the farm worker of the future. This delivery robot could replace a
:09:14. > :09:19.bad drivers. The industry claims the robots will improve our working
:09:20. > :09:22.lives. They only take out the part that is really repetitive, tedious
:09:23. > :09:29.or dangerous. Or not interesting, where we have no human value. And
:09:30. > :09:33.then humans have more time. This autonomous fish shouldn't take
:09:34. > :09:37.anybody's jobs and they don't need feeding. We will have to get used to
:09:38. > :09:44.robots in all sorts of unexpected places.
:09:45. > :09:53.Stay within -- staying with technology and Twitter shares rose
:09:54. > :09:57.on the night. -- overnight. The new CEO will be back to work full-time
:09:58. > :10:01.in a couple of weeks and will focus on guiding the company's culture. He
:10:02. > :10:03.left in 2011 during executive shakeup is at the social media
:10:04. > :10:10.platform. Before we go here is a look at the
:10:11. > :10:15.markets. Asia is in negative territory in early Wednesday trade.
:10:16. > :10:21.It is hurt by weaker than expected US housing data and political
:10:22. > :10:24.turmoil in Washington is raising concerns about the outlook for
:10:25. > :10:30.passing expected legislation. The Nikkei is down by three quarters of
:10:31. > :10:32.1% and the All Ords giving back .5%. Thanks for investing your time with
:10:33. > :10:41.us. Sport Today is coming up. The top stories this hour: Reports
:10:42. > :10:44.from the US say President Trump asked his former FBI Chief to drop
:10:45. > :10:49.an investigation into a key aide.