28/04/2017 BBC Business Live

Raking in the billions. Here's the question, can the likes of Google

and Amazon keep on growing. Google finds it way with mobile ads

and Amazon delivers its majestic numbers but are these billion-dollar

companies to big? South Korean shares sink as President Trump says

he will renegotiate the trade deal with career. The markets are holding

steady, watching and waiting for key economic figures and GDP due from

the UK, France and the states. And would you trust

an app to be your doctor? We'll be getting the inside track

on all the big technology stories of the week with our very

own Rory Cellan-Jones who will also steer us

through the world of flying cars. Ebook sales in the UK have

fallen 17% as readers bring back the book -

do you tap or turn? We start in Silicon Valley

where three of the biggest names in technology have been

reporting their numbers We are talking about the Tech Titans

- Google, Amazon and Microsoft. And it seems they are just

getting bigger and bigger. The numbers are jaw

dropping, take a look. But it's still managing

to grow very fast. Google's parent company Alphabet saw

revenues jump by almost Remember this is just

3mths worth of sales. It's one of the world's

biggest retailers - it dominates online shopping -

and still saw sales grow over 22% to almost $36 billion

for the three months to March. Three quarters of a billion

of that was profit. Amazon has been growing sales

in double-digits for 20 years! Microsoft too is

raking in huge sales. Many people wrote it off as a victim

of the decline in PC's and the rise But it's become a leader

in cloud computing. It made revenues of over $23

billion, although they were only up 6% and that was less

than Wall Street was expecting. Cyrus Mewawalla is Managing Director

of the global technology research Always good to see you, thanks for

coming in. You know that question, let's use Google and Amazon as an

example, are they to big, too dominant? They have produced a very

big good product and not a lot of competitors out there, it's not

their fault, is it? Absolutely. There is article in the Financial

Times about anti-trust concerns as well. Microsoft already have that,

they had to take away Microsoft from" Windows. Amazon has two

businesses. The real issue is government tax regulation needs to

be performed because high street retailers pay too much tax and

Amazon, which sells digital goods can avoid tax. On the cloud business

of Amazon, there's no issue because Amazon invented the cloud. It was an

internal product. Sorry to interrupt, Amazon makes most of its

money... From the cloud. We talk about Microsoft and Rachel explained

that we used to think Microsoft has gone now because nobody is buying

PCs but it got into the cloud, why are they making so much money from

cloud and why is cloud important? Why is cloud imported? Everything we

do is software, that is leading the world and software is moving from

the desktop to the cloud. Not only your desktop but the BBC's

computers, they used to be in-house, now they are moving to the cloud.

Every company is doing the same thing, why? It's better for users

because it's cheaper, it is better for app developers, because it is

easier to roll out apps. Once you have a cyber security patch, put it

on the cloud and it is immediately rolled out of the world, you don't

have to download and install. That is why cloud is happening, cost

savings. But why is it important? If you look at Amazon, it is the

leading cloud infrastructure, Microsoft is number two, Google is

number three and IBM is four. The cloud has three levels,

infrastructure as a service, which are the servers in data centres,

platform as a service, which are things like an operating system or

Mac sales force and software as a service. Things like office 365,

Microsoft Word and someone. Infrastructure as a service is the

most important bit of the cloud. That is like the operating system

for the next internet TV, the debt of things, artificial intelligence.

They all sit on cloud infrastructure and Amazon has a 40% market share --

intelligence. It is quite notable intelligence. It is quite notable

that where Amazon made revenues of ?36 billion, only three quarters of

a billion was profit, where is the rest of the money going? If you look

at the top five tech chance, then at the top five tech chance, then

margins, operating margins are about 30% but Amazon's is about 3% at

operating level. That is because Amazon has a completely different

philosophy. It invests in a 10-year cycle. Most listed companies invest

on a three-year quarterly cycle. In a nutshell. Have a great weekend, we

always appreciate your time. Let's take a look at some

of the other stories Barclays Bank says it

doubled it's pre-tax profit in the first three months of this

year as it put some big costs It's also coming towards the end

a of major restructure which means it faces a big one off charge

on it's African business which it intends to sell

in the next two to three years. Chief Executive Jes staley

says he's optimistic Staying with UK banks,

the troubled Royal Bank of Scotland made a profit of $334 million

in the first three months of 2017. It's the first quarterly profit

the bank has made since 2015. RBS is majority-owned by the UK

government after being bailed out It is really the UK taxpayer who

owns them. It said its cost-cutting plan

was ahead of schedule, and that it had already made more

than a third of the $968m worth of savings it's

targeting for this year. Starbucks shares were down some 5%

in late trading after the US based coffee chain cut its full year

profit target after it's sales It's a tough start in the job

for Kevin Johnson, who succeeded The company has pledged

to return to the rapid growth it once enjoyed -

but has been struggling The Kentucky doctor dragged off

a United Airlines flight from Chicago earlier this month has

received a financial Lawyers for Dr David Dao, 69,

say a condition of the payout is that the "amount remain

confidential". Dr Dao was violently removed

by airline law enforcement officers after refusing to give up his seat

to United staff. I want to know... If United is

watching, we really want to know! Everybody around the world is dying

to know, how much that man God, millions, Sean Lee! How much PR

disaster can cost a company -- how much that man got, millions, surely.

President Trump has been telling Reuters news agency he will either

renegotiate or terminate what he called the United States'

"horrible" free trade deal with South Korea.

He also says Seoul should pay for a US anti-missile system

What has the reaction been about potentially renegotiating this trade

deal? In hard numbers, the Korean one is stand-by 0.7% and the markets

are down slightly, stock markets -- the Korean currency is down by.

Politically it isn't playing well, particularly that suggestion that

South Korea should pay for the anti-missile system. But there is a

bit of scepticism here. A Foreign Ministry official told Reuters that

the difference between words and policy is often great. Let's wait to

see how this thing plays out. Look at the change of policy from the

Trump administration on Nafta for example and on China being a

currency manipulator. There's not a feeling in this country that Mr

Trump's are absolutely set in stone. And the deal goes like that. Steve

Evans, thank you for your time. Asian stocks slipping overnight -

investors selling to Loads of economic figures out

today that the markets Keep an eye on the Dow

with first-quarter GDP figures And in Europe we also have first

quarter GDP for the UK and France and Euro-zone inflation

figures for April, Let's go to Samira

Hussain on Wall Street. How much has America's economy grown

in the last three months? We will find out later on Friday when the

commerce Department releases the latest GDP figures. The expectation

is that the in gross domestic product will have dropped almost by

a full percentage, compared to the previous quarter. President Trump

campaigned on a promise to bring growth up to 3% and that the newly

released tax proposal will help spur robust growth. Earnings continue on

Friday. Exxon Mobile will be reporting. Cost-cutting measures

will likely have boosted profits for the world's largest publicly traded

while producer. Finally, the used car company Carvana will start

trading on the New York Stock Exchange. This company allows

customers to pick up cars they buy on the internet from vending machine

like towers. Let's stay with the markets.

Joining us is Tom Stevenson, Investment Director

A familiar face, good too happy with as always. Tomorrow marks the 100th

day of President Trump. Since he has been president of the United States.

There are some stories around the French paper, Le Figaro about his

first 100"chaotic" days. They are talking about the US economy, the

job numbers. But I say credit where credit is due. Business and consumer

confidence in the US is up from Trump and so has the stock market,

it has rallied, isn't that the Trump effect? I think you're right, when

Trump was elected, there was a lot of positive optimism from the

markets about what he might deliver. The evidence for the first hundred

days is a bit mixed. Napoleon said bring me lucky generals and I think

Trump was lucky because a lot of the good news was already baked in. The

improvement in the American economy was already there and he has written

on the coat-tails of that. The two issues for me, really, delivery, can

he get through the measures he wants through Congress? We saw the tax

reforms this week. It's going to be hard. Frankly, they were very

sketchy and how is he going to pay for them? How will he persuade

Congress that is the right thing to do? Secondly, his flip-flopping,

changing his mind. And after this we, the North American Free Trade

Agreement, he was going to renegotiate that, cancel it, now he

is not -- this week. China, currency manipulator, no, they're not. The

verdict is pretty mixed. Monday is the 1st of May. Looking ahead to the

summer, there's an old stock market adage, which you had to tell me,

will sell in May, go away, don't come back until... Saint Leger day,

the horse race in September. The summer is a bad time to be in the

stock market. There is some evidence that that is the case. On average,

the stock market does perform better in the winter months, no one really

knows why. The trouble is, for an adage to be useful to investors it

has got to be predictable. This one is not predictable. We did some

research at this, we looked at the last 20 years and we found ten times

the market rose in the summer, ten times it fell in the summer! It's a

bit of fun but as an investor, does it help you, probably not. We need

to wrap it up. Are we expecting good numbers, the UK and US economy? GDP?

The underlying story is pretty good. You will take us through some of the

paper stories? Yes. And about the books. Do you read or do you tap?

Turn your tap! No laughing at you either!

Our Technology Correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, will chart a path

through all the big tech stories of the week.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Later this morning, we'll get official figures on how the UK

economy grew in the first three months of the year.

GDP increased by 0.7% in the last three months of 2016.

But Britain's economy is expected to have cooled considerably

in the first three months of this year.

Ben Thompson is at a cash and carry in the Midlands to find out how

the economy is affecting the business and its customers.

We're here at East end foods. It is a cash and carry selling too big and

small firms. It also manufactures and sells some of its products

around the world and imports raw materials as well. It is the perfect

sample of business facing up to uncertainty as far as the economy is

concerned. Google get the latest economic growth figures later this

morning. Let's discuss them. -- we will get. Good morning. Let me start

with you, Jason. We talk about uncertainty. As far as the economy

is concerned, it is very uncertain at the moment. What does that mean

for you? Last years since the referendum vote we have seen the

currency situation affecting the business with devaluation of

sterling. We net imports. We process and manufacture here in the UK.

Those costs are difficult to pass on to our customers and the consumer.

There is a feeling that if you are an importer, you're also an

exporter. One does better and wonders worse. It is not so simple,

is it? Absolutely. It depends on the business in question. If you are an

exporter it is better but as an importer things have got more

expensive. Overall, there is still a lot of positivity around the economy

and many companies predicting gross. And key very much. We will get the

growth figures at 9:30am. Expected to show a .4% growth. A rise in

inflation and a slowdown in wages. The latest retail figures were also

down pretty sharply. Uncertain times ahead for many businesses.

Our top story: big profits surging for the four big tech giants. Big

increases. They just keep getting bigger and bigger those companies.

Some breaking news. Six people have been arrested in connection with the

anti-terrorist operation that happened in Willesden where one

woman was shot and injured by armed police. The Deputy Assistant

Commissioner announced that this morning. This follows an arrest

yesterday of a 27-year-old man who was arrested near the Houses of

Parliament as part of an intelligence led operation. As we

were saying that six people have been arrested. More throughout the

day on the website and the news channels.

Would you like to fly around in your car?

This week, Uber said it plans to test flying cars by 2020.

The rise of artificial intelligence - the latest example is an app that

will be better at medical diagnosis than a human doctor.

At least that's what its developers claim.

Rory is here. I have a feeling about why this is all happening for the

Peter Teal said something a few years back. He said we were promised

flying cars and ended up with 140 characters, ie Twitter. Keywords

making the point we have had these exciting visions and it has all been

mundane. We have not had these gadgets. Lots of people across

silicon Valley suddenly trying to build flying cars. I think it is a

fantasy. It is about investing in self driving cars. There have been a

few hiccups along the way. It is trying to show it is as expansive

and ambitious as Google. It has a plan and is collaborating with

aviation companies. Says they will be there in 2020 in Dubai. It is an

incredibly ambitious place. I am a complete sceptic about this. The

idea that you will have the infrastructure there to have these

take-off and landing electric vehicles which have not been built

yet, by 2020... Can we run the footage of the Kitty Hawk? This is

Larry Page, the founder of Google. He has a separate little business is

doing this. They put out an advert for it this week. Someone rings up

and says, I will pop over in two minutes. That is pretty cool. Of

course it is. The idea that we will all be popping in to work on one of

these flying votes, flying cars, in the next few years. In the next few

years, maybe not. We were promised them in the 50s, maybe not. Let's

talk about artificial intelligence. In a way, it kind of makes sense.

All that information stored in one hub. There is a big report out on

machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence. Google's

results, they placed huge emphasis on how expert they were at machine

leading. A small health care companies says, all of this depends

on data. All these companies having access to vast amounts of data.

Great programmes. You do not tell the computer what to do, you tell

the computer to learn what to do. In this case, the computer is learning

from previous medical consultations effectively to be a doctor. Very

powerful technology we see popping up in allsorts of places with

instant translation. Every time you talk to your phone and recognise --

it recognises your voice, that is machine learning. A new Wiki? The

founder is trying to launch a new platform which is anti-fake news. It

is basically a crowdfunding operation. It is laudable, it is

great. So far they have funded four journalists. This is not going to

change the world in a hurry. Have you got any plans for the weekend? I

will pop into my flying car. Then go to see the doctor. You do that.

Always a pleasure. And you can hear a lot more

about flying cars with Rory on his Tech Tent programme on BBC

World Service radio at 14:00 GMT And if you miss it you can download

the podcast via the BBC website. A great plug! He has a pod cast. And

this is how you get in touch with us. We will keep you up to date on

the business live page. We want to hear from you. Get involved on the

BBC business live web page. You can find us on Twitter and Facebook.

That is on TV and online whenever you need to know.

Read out some tweets for us. We have had tweets about ebooks. Nancy has

said, ebooks all the way. You cannot pack enough real books for a

holiday. Also tweets saying it is all about the audio book. I have got

an e-reader that I can never remember the name of the book I am

reading. I know it is a really good book. I don't know what it is

called. What do you do? Does not say a lot about you at commissioner only

joking. We spend so much of our lives looking at screens. The thing

about ebooks, you can load so many different books how many books can

you read at one time? One. I do not really see the point in this. I

personally prefer the books as well, especially if it gets wet! The

Aussie supermarket food rescue group. Explain. They have recognised

the fact that the third of all the food in the world goes to waste.

That is a disgraceful figure, when you think about it. Who is to blame

for this? In a large part, restaurants and supermarkets. Why do

restaurants waste -- supermarkets waste so much food question that

they have sell by dates. You take this food and, for a certain number

of hours a day, they are saying, come and get it. I think it is a

fantastic initiative. Have a great weekend. Thank you for coming on.

That is it for today. We'll be back next week.

Good morning. The bank holiday weather forecast is on the way. Just

the chance of some rain. It may well come from this cloud waiting