11/08/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.

The Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba dominates the mainland, but it is

expected to announce a rise in revenues today.

Live from London, that's our top story on Thursday 11th August.

Storing your data in the cloud - it's key area of growth

for the Chinese internet giant Alibaba.

The firm is also hoping to expand its retail presence

with Australia at the top of the list.

We'll be looking at its plans for global expansion.

Are the curtains falling on China's cinema boom?

July ticket sales tumbled - adding to the ongoing

We will explain. European markets have looked like this in the first

45 minutes of trade, we will have the details.

And from being an executive at one of the world's biggest advertising

agencies to setting up a youth summit dubbed the Davos

We'll find out why founder Kate Robertson moved

And, apparently we are not going to the movies as much as we were. Have

you moved online? Let us know - just use the hashtag

#BBCBizLive. Working the hours that we do, I can

never stay awake for any film at the cinema!

We start with the tech giant Alibaba.

In a few hours, the world's biggest e-commerce firm is expected

to post strong revenues in its latest results.

It's based in China but can it fulfil its ambitions of becoming

Analysts say the online marketplace - a cross between Ebay,

Amazon and PayPal - will see its revenue for the first

It's cloud computing business - AliCloud - is expected to be

Earlier this year it announced it had reached half-a-million

It now hopes to challenge industry giants like Microsoft

But its global ambitions go beyond the cloud.

Alibaba says Australia is also a big part of its expansion plans -

and it hopes to open an office in Melbourne by the end

Ben Preston, e-commerce analyst at the consultants

Then outlining that Alibaba is growing, getting bigger, but what

about its international plans? You are right, first of all what an

extraordinary success story it has been. Alibaba is only 17 years old

and in that relatively short period of time it has grown to become not

only the largest e-commerce retailer in China but the entire world. As

they move on, as you rightly say, towards international markets, the

challenge for them is to replicate challenge for them is to replicate

the success they have had in China and do that

in new markets all over again. How will they pull that off? Many of us

have heard of Alibaba, that is one hurdle, but the other is the fact

that those of us outside of China are used to Amazon, eBay and others,

we have got our details with them, we rely on them, trust them. How

will they move into our world? It is one thing to grow as the market

leader, quite a different matter to gain customers away from an existing

market leader. An example, Alibaba tried to enter the US a couple of

years ago but had no success after a year. Likewise, Amazon try to go

into China and saw no success. As a customer, once you have got your

delivery details, credit card details entered, you trust the

retailer to deliver on time, you need something special to persuade

you to change your mind. Just because you have success in one

market, it does not guarantee you can replicated elsewhere. How will

Alibaba you are as? They will make acquisitions of existing market

players so they can get existing users. There will also send us

marketing offers and so forth to try and encourage us. Will it just be

about price? It cannot just be about price, date have to offer something

special. Amazon is not just about price, we trust them as retailers.

As long-term investors we have to identify the retailers that will win

because they offer price and trust and service and quality all in one

place. OK, thank you so much for coming in and giving us your views

on Alibaba, result out later, we will update you when we get them.

Some of the shine has come off the silver screen in China

after a 15% fall in cinema attendance in July,

on top of an ongoing downturn box office takings.

The slowdown comes in the wake of more than 50% growth last year.

Ticket sales in the three months to June fell by 10%,

marking the first drop in as many as five years.

The UK housing market has weakened following the referendum vote

to leave the European Union, according to the Royal Institution

Its July survey points to the biggest drop in transactions

since the global financial crisis in 2008.

Prices continued to rise nationally, but at the slowest

pace in three years - and actually fell in London.

South Korea's Samsung has denied withholding crucial information

from workers about chemicals they may have been exposed

The families of workers say there are about 200 cases

of employees contracting serious diseases.

Samsung said the safety of its workers was its

It says the allegations are not true.

As always, there are many stories and we cannot cover them all, but if

you want to get across just about everything in business you can go to

the Business Live page. This is the company that organises the bottling

of Coca-Cola soft drinks. It is a FTSE 100 company and has done

extremely well in the sense that it bottled more than 1 billion cases in

the last six months in 28 countries. That gave it a sales of 3 billion

euros, first half profits were roughly flat, though, for the

Coca-Cola bottling Company. Full details on the website and

worth looking at this story here, TUI, the biggest travel operator in

Europe, worries about the failed coup in Turkey there, it worries

that sales growth this year will be between two and 3% rather than the

5% previously expected. That is all on our website.

Singapore has some lacklustre numbers out this morning-its shaved

off a full 1% from its growth forecast for 2016 -

and it's now estimated at between 1% to 2%.

The economy grew by 2.1% in the second quarter

compared to a year ago, which is also lower than forecast.

The interesting thing about Singapore, as you can see behind me,

it is seen as a bellwether for the region, how Singapore is doing.

Indeed, you are right, it is often among the first to signal a slowdown

as it is such a financial and trading centre, as you can see from

all of these buildings behind big, it reflects what is going on

elsewhere far quicker. The government has cut its economic

growth forecast to 1%, 2%, it was previously stated as closer to 3%,

and economists are projecting Singapore could see its slowest pace

of growth since the financial crisis of 2009, in line with what the

government has projected as well. Trade and industry blaming concerns

of a Brexit weakening global growth, also said they are worried about the

rise in debt default in China, the economy expanded 2.1% in the second

quarter, slower than initial estimate as well.

As always, thank you. You saw it on the screen there, but

confirmation of what the Asian markets did overnight. New

indications of oversupply in the oil market remaining problem. All of

that on top of lower global outlook is for growth.

The dollar also fell against other major currencies overnight

as expectations of a US rate interest rate hike in the near

European markets look like this in the first 35 minutes.

Yesterday was a real mixed session, with the FTSE 100 managing to finish

the day higher, largely as a result of a weak pound.

It's a pretty light day for economic data - so make the most of it

But the latest weekly jobs data is due in the US.

Samira has the details about what's ahead on Wall Street today.

The Republican presidential candidate did it on Monday.

It's time now for the Democratic presidential candidate

Hillary Clinton will outline her plans for America's economy

at a manufacturing plant in the state of Michigan.

The Clinton campaign said the speech will offer a stark contrast

to Donald Trump's economic policies, which he laid out in a speech before

Also happening on Thursday, three of the biggest US

department store operators will be reporting earnings.

The better weather in June and July is expected to have helped

the bottom lines of Macy's, Coles and Nordstrom.

Investors are hoping it will make up for the last quarter,

where retailers really took a big hit.

And finally import prices for the month of July.

Economists are expecting that the strong US dollar

and weak oil prices put pressure on inflation.

Touching on a theme for the markets this week, oil prices falling.

Joining us is Alpesh Patel, chief executive at Praefinium Partners.

There is a mixture of issues grabbing headlines, we have got the

effect of quantitative easing in the UK and the effect that is having on

pension funds here, or your inflation as Samir mentioned. It is

supposed to be good news, the Bank of England pumping more money into

the economy, the way it does this, it buys bonds and hopefully the

people who sold those bonds will put the money into small businesses or

lend it to consumers. But it is not turning out to be a good news story

at all because it has driven down bond yields, so if you are a pension

fund, if you are a pensioner, the return you are getting, there is a

pension deficit for the big corporate, so that is a negative. We

thought lower oil prices would be a positive, less cost at the petrol

pump, but the oil companies are complaining, said that is not a good

story. Who will invest in alternative energy? These supposedly

positive stories are telling negative. Do we need to be

concerned, especially with the negative interest rate story? For

those people thinking, what does this mean for my pension, if it's

bad news, is it a short-term thing? I don't think it is short-term. You

have got two types of companies to get your pension from, those who are

managing the problem and will say, look, we might end the final salary

pension scheme in years to come, so it does not affect you directly, it

affects future generations. Then other companies, you have seen

it with people like, I will not name corporate names because it can lead

to worry, but you have seen other companies not managing it so well,

those with big pension deficits, their employees, their pensioners

should be worried, I'm afraid. Thank you, more from you a little bit

later when we look at the papers. Could children succeed

where their parents have failed? We meet the woman behind Junior

Davos. With 1300 young leaders from nearly

200 countries, can they solve some Founder Kate Robertson

will be here. This is Business Live from BBC News.

You may have heard of smart cities, but what are they?

They could be on their way sooner than we think.

The national mapping agency Ordnance Survey has begun two-year

trial to try and turn Manchester into the UK's first Smart City.

But what does this mean exactly and how does a city become smart?

Simon Navin is leading the Project on Smart Cities

What is a smart city? They are really in response to global trends

like population increase, where we are likely to see over 50% of

citizens living in cities in the near future, increasing pressure on

public services. In the UK we have seen great work in cities like

Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Greenwich, to work with an internet

of things technology to deliver public services in response to those

trends. There is a project in Manchester which is about to

commence with Ordnance Survey are proud to be part of which will

deliver the UK's first demonstrator site for internet of things

technology and Smart City technology. Why Manchester? It was

part of the bid process, a consortium of public and private

companies that came together, it is focused on a digital environment, it

will involve the citizens of Manchester to help devise solutions

that are needed, and it is very vibrant, it will be interesting for

the people of Manchester to become involved. How long will it take and

when will it be really smart as opposed to a city in transition and

therefore perhaps a bit frustrating? Cities are living and breathing so

these things take time, this is a two-year project which started in

July and lots of solutions will be tried and tested, researched and

developed, and some of those will go live, some of

them will take longer to mature. At the end of the project the idea is

the solutions can be used elsewhere in the UK and showcase our talent

around the world as well. I bet that wasn't helping your anger

management. It was frustrating. We are looking at housing data on the

website. If you want to know more, dig deep.

You're watching Business Live - our top story...

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is dominating on the mainland in

China but what about the rest of the world? It is expected to report a

massive rise in revenue. A quick look at how

markets are faring.... Today in Europe it's a mixed

picture, they started a little higher and now they have dipped

slightly. The FTSE is leading the losers. Japan is closed today for a

public holiday. It's the annual meeting of global

business leaders and politicians - and a few celebs, who get together

to thrash out answers to some of the People like us have been seen there

as well! But it's often criticised

for failing to agree any real, So could it be the turn

of the younger generation to solve was the Global President and UK

Chairman of international marketing and advertising group Havas

Worldwide. And went on to create a youth summit

that has been called leaders the opportunity to meet

with counterparts from every country It's attended by 1300 young people

from 196 countries who discuss And this year's gathering

is just around the corner, in September,and takes place

in Ottawa in Canada. Kate is here. Welcome to business

live. Why did you come up with the idea? I was frustrated by a lack of

leadership in the world, since we started five or six years ago it was

quite obvious in the world that there is not a lot of leadership and

being originally South African myself and seeing that people like

Mandela and Tutu can genuinely lead as opposed to just occupying a post

at the head of government, it is there. This age group is the most

educated and connected in history and among them are leaders already

anyway with immense power to affect change. If you look at global

business, it's been coming out of that age group for the Las Vegas

years. They are not there to be ignored and treated as office

juniors the way I was, it's a different time, and this age group

is a different animal. What do you hope to achieve? What would be a

tangible result? When I have been at Davos in the past... You have been!

I have, but there is not much achieved. A lot of talking but not

much action. The networking is the highest quality in the world and the

average global CEO goes there over two days to see every government

leader that he needs to see. It's a different thing. The problem with my

age group and that age group at Davos is that it is done already.

The age group that we deal with, under 13, are effecting change

themselves, they are frustrated with a lack of change and they are able

to affect change on a great scale. What we are looking for is that this

is not a youth summit, this is young leaders and many of them are already

leading and if we can help them to scale back in any way, and also

inspire that, then a lot will happen. -- scale that. When we were

talking earlier you were explaining the issues that they are discussing

this year and it was not what I was expecting. Explain what they will be

grappling with in September. They have focused on LGBT which is only

the second time it has come up and it has never been the headline

article for human rights. In education, the second time they have

come up, they wanted to discuss education as we know today which is

not preparing them for the modern workplace, you know about the coding

story. There is a strong view on that. Those are global values. We

have delegates from Tuvalu, Kiribati, this is the only place in

the world you will see those countries. They deeply care about

the migration crisis and Syria and the fact that global leaders are not

resolving the problems. All of them are very aware that something ought

to have been done and could have been done to prevent the cataclysm

in Syria and it was a lack of leadership on the global stage.

Let's point the finger at Russia and the USA at the moment, just to

shorthand it. There was a lack of leadership and look at what

happened. If people want to get involved, I believe I am too old

because it is 18-30... It's OK. It's around ?3000 for people to go, who

are people who can afford to take part? We sponsor almost 200

scholarships to attend out of our own pocket, so we fund all of that.

That enables us to get the small countries and also people from, I

hate disadvantaged backgrounds, because when you see these young

leaders, you think that they may be disadvantaged by background but you

are sure a different thing now. This is taking place next month in

Canada. It is nice to see you. I am definitely over the hill as far as

that's concerned! Let's move on. Hillary Clinton, unveils her plans

for the US economy. Mrs Clinton will be

speaking in Detroit. This is just days after her rival

Donald Trump went to the same to city to lay

out HIS economic proposals. So how do the two candidates plans

for the US economy compare? These reforms will offer

the biggest tax revolution Which unleashed years of continued

economic growth and job creation. They tried to make his old,

tired ideas sound new, but here's what we all know

because we heard it again, his tax plans will give superb big

tax breaks to large corporations There has been a 15% fall in ticket

sales at the cinema in China. I went three times last week. In one week!

What did you see? I went to see an Indian film, Suicide Squad, and I

can't even Lambert the third one. They were mind numbingly, you can

switch your brain off, they are not arty farty like the ones you would

like! Going to the cinema three times in a week! He is managing my

fund. It is normally at midnight, you talk about declining numbers but

there are late showings at cinemas now and you have got insurance

companies giving you free tickets, I have two sets of companies giving me

free tickets. It is about switching off and forgetting about everything.

Justine says, eating stale popcorn and flat soda and listening to other

people's phone, why pay for that privilege? That sounds like home not

a cinema! A bill to clean up nuclear reactors, this is a story in the

Times will stop it has gone up by ?1.6 billion. What is the story? --

in the Times. This is about decommissioning power plans, talking

about Hinckley in the UK, and the Chinese and French relationship,

this is about getting rid of the old ones. Decommissioning sounds very

important, but we are talking about getting rid of things like asbestos

and the cost has gone up and up as is often the case with big

contracts. It is easy to blame the government but I blame the private

sector, how can they get away with saying it will cost X but then they

find that it costs more money? A private contract tells you they

deliver a cost and they had better do that. I think it has decreased in

recent years because what the government has done is got in

professional negotiators, the nuclear decommissioning unit in the

government, this is a problem, but I blame the private sector and not

government officials who have been blindsided. Never one to mince his

words. We will be in the same place at the same time tomorrow. Goodbye.