30/10/2017 Business Briefing

This is Business Briefing.

I'm Sally Bundock.

Silicon Valley stands

trial in Washington!

Facebook, Twitter and Google are set

to face some tough questions

about their role in last

year's US election.

Samsung announces record profits

when the chips are down!

Despite the jailing of its defacto

boss, the company's semiconductor

business continues to go

from strength to strength.

And on the markets:

You can see that Asia is following

the lead from Wall Street. We will

talk you through why you can expect

a day of declines.

In a few hours' time Facebook,

Twitter and Google's parent Alphabet

will answer questions

about how their platforms

were exploited during last year's US

Presidential election.

Their lawyers testimony

to Congressional committees

in Washington could eventually lead

to tighter regulation

of online advertising.

One example of what's

being questioned is the 3,000

adverts which Facebook said

were focused on "divisive social

and political messages"

around the election

and were bought in Russia.

Facebook has shared

them with Congress.

In terms of their influence,

Facebook estimates that they were

seen by about ten million people

before and after November's poll.

Tech firms are concerned about

the prospect of new regulation,

and in the last week or so both

Twitter and Facebook said

they will improve 'advertising

transparency' especially when it

comes to political ads.

Dave Lee explains.

I have just received a call from

Secretary Clinton.

Nobody disputes

the Donald Trump won the US

presidential election. What is under

scrutiny now is the extent to which

social media sites were manipulated

in order to sway the mind of

American voters. Russian President

Vladimir Putin denies his country

has done anything. A whole Facebook

said it found evidence that hundreds

of accounts, controlled by the

Kremlin, was filling the newsfeed of

everyday Americans with inflammatory

messages on key political talking

points. Similar tactics were being

seen used on Twitter as well. The

Russians are said to accuse the's

advertising services to target

misinformation at users in part of

the country where the presidential

race was especially tight. Google

conducted its own investigation and

discovered that thousands of dollars

had been spent by Russian linked

groups on search advertise and. The

company is also looking into

activity on YouTube, another

potential platform for

misinformation.

These tools are

being used in real time to fire up

discontent in our country.

The

social networks are now being

summoned to Capitol Hill to defend

themselves. Dougal, Twitter and

Facebook will fear it -- appear and

find -- in front of Senate

committees including the one

investigating Russian meddling in

the American Democratic process. One

person who does not feel the issue

is worth talking about at all is

President Trump himself. What the

tech companies are really afraid of

is more regulation. Several high

profile politicians have drawn on

what they call the honours at

active. A proposed law that will

demand more transparency and greater

restriction on online advertising.

The companies would rather regulate

themselves, and say they have been

trying their hardest to show they

have in taking the situation

seriously. Twitter has named --

Bantu major Russian media

organisations. Facebook has said it

will make it clear who was

purchasing ads and for what purpose.

But that is not all tech companies

are doing to try and gain influence

in the capital. Between July and

September this year, apple, Amazon,

Google, Facebook and Microsoft spent

$14 million between them, lobbying

politicians in Washington. So many

of you have been in touch about this

story on social media and news. Will

discuss that in about five minutes

tick squeezing in some other key

business stories today, moving on to

Samsung.

The electronics giant Samsung has

announced record profits

despite continuing to grapple

with its ongoing management crisis.

Let's cross over to Seoul and speak

to our correspondent Mark Lowen.

Market, when you think about what

Samsung has been through in the last

12 months, you would think that it

is astounding they are coming with

record profits.

Extraordinary

resilience. These profits in the

third quarter were record breaking,

up 148 cent year-on-year. $10

billion worth of profit between July

and September, the third quarter of

this year. Samsung called it an

overall robust performance by the

group. That of course, despite the

challenges as you suggested,

including the former errors Samsung,

Lee Jae-yong, who was jailed in

August on various charges including

soliciting favours and paying for

political favours which was a

scandal that engulfed the former

president here and forced her to be

impeached and also her closest

confidant to the former air of

Samsung is appealing against that

verdict but that was a massive blow

for the company. Benn last year the

Samsung Galaxy seven had to be

recalled over an exploding battery

and now you have the CEO and

vice-chairman of Samsung who is

stepping down saying that the

company is facing unprecedented

crisis and its current profitability

is merely the fruit of decision and

investment made in the past. At the

moment, it seems, from the results

today that there is no sign of a

leadership vacuum. It has performed

well and it will be extremely happy

with the results and said it will

double its dividend pay-out in 2018

based on those profits.

Thank you

very much indeed. South Korea, one

of the few markets trending higher

today in Asia.

Now let's brief you on some

other business stories.

The Bank of England believes

that the UK's departure

from the European Union could result

in the loss of up to 75,000 jobs.

The BBC understands that senior

officials are using the figure

as a baseline scenario,

assuming there is no specific UK-EU

financial services deal.

Shares in Apple have received

a boost following positive reviews

of the iPhone X.

The company has benefited

from strong pre-orders

of its flagship handset.

According to the analytics firm

Canalys, Apple is set

to end its losing streak in China

where iPhone sales have declined

in each of the six

previous quarters.

I could not be a very busy airport.

Well, brace yourself.

Estimates suggest the annual number

of air travellers will reach 7.2

billion in 2035 - more

than double the current number.

On Tuesday, Singapore's Changi

Airport opened its latest Terminal -

with new technology to make

the journey smoother.

Karishma Vaswani was there.

This is what air travel typically

looks like these days. A lot of

people, a lot of waiting, not a lot

of fun. Singapore's airport has

launched a new terminal where a key

feature is contactless travel. In

theory that means you go from

check-in all the way to boarding and

never have to interact with anybody.

So how does it work?

Maybe I'm old-fashioned but the use

of so much technology in an airport

does raise security concerns to me.

What if one of these machines were

to be hacked? Airport officials say

they have been put through numerous

tests and for all the hype about

this process being people free,

there will still be staff rolling

around so I'm going to go check it

out.

The industry, the oil industry has

been hit hard by the slump in oil

prices.

With the $100 per barrel was normal.

Will I think we will look back and

say it was a normal and change that

cost structure of the industry. What

we are seeing now is a painful

readjustment back to probably a

predictable price range. There will

still be a lot of volatility in the

pricing.

That was Bob Dudley. More

of that interview on our website.

Millennials are boosting luxury

fashion brand Gucci according

to the Wall Street Journal.

The article says people under 35

account for as much as 55%

of the company's sales.

Quartz analyses the "real cost

of the new iPhone X".

It compares the price

with average monthly earnings.

In the United States,

the handset only costs 20%

of your monthly pay.

This compares to 925% of the average

monthly pay in India.

And with today being Halloween,

Business Insider is looking

at the highest grossing

horror movies of all time.

The legendary Sixth Sense tops

the list ahead of this year's box

office smash-hit "It".

Don't forget, you can get in touch

with us using our hash tag with the

stories that you are following. Let

us know what you are discussing

right now. That is the business

briefing to sour. Quickly, let's

show you how markets are looking. As

I said earlier, declines right

across the board. The only market

that is bucking the trend is South

Korea and that is largely thanks to

the news from Samsung which we would

talk through, saying that Samsung is

on track for record full-year profit

and that has helped boost the South

Korean market. This is the story in

the United States. We are in the

thick of the earnings season at the

moment. So a lot of companies are

coming out with the earnings reports

towards the end of the week we have

the likes of Facebook and apple

coming out with earnings. It is a

busy week. Bearing in mind as well,

today and tomorrow the Federal

Reserve meets for its central bank

meeting and the Bank of Japan is in

focus and the Bank of England. Next,

news briefing and we will talk you

through the stories making the

headlines. I will see you soon.