11/02/2016 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news with Sally

Twitter shares slump further as it fails to attract new users.

Plus, back to school, from flower arranging to learning

Serbian, we look at the booming business of adult education

Also in the programme: Janet Yellen fails to bring calm to financial

Rico Hizon is tracking the losses in Asia. But first:

We start with Twitter, because the social media site is continuing

Twitter's shares have slumped in after hours trading

after its latest results disappointed investors again.

They are worried Twitter is simply failing to grow its business.

Twitter made revenue of $710 million in the three months to December.

That was up 48% on the same period in the previous year.

So far, so good, but here's the problem.

Twitter had 320 million monthly active users in the period, that's

That number was unchanged on the previous three months.

In fact, if you strip out people receiving tweets via text message,

Twitters shares have lost more than two-thirds

And they are worth a little more than half what they

Investors had been getting used to earning reports from Twitter with

bad news about how many uses they were attracting. What they weren't

ready for was the number falling. -- users. That more than anything

explained their initial dive after the report came out. Bear in mind,

it has fallen by two thirds in the last year as investors apparently

lose faith that all the active tweeters can be translated into

business. Can their latest efforts to improve their service allow it to

turn the corner? They want to attract users once more and a way to

make more money from then. Twitter putts boss tried to sound up beat.

-- them. -- Twitter's. We believe we can create a connected audience that

watches together and can talk with one another in real-time. Twitter

has been alive for ten years now and we will continue to drive in the

future. The other question prompted by their problems and especially its

collapsing share price is does the company now become an irresistible

takeover target for other players in the technology sector? Check your

Twitter feed for updates. (LAUGHING). Thank you.

Tim Danton is Editor-in-chief of PC Pro magazine.

Raising a lot of questions there. Jack Dorsey, who has recently come

back as Chief Executive, of course, the founder of Twitter. Came back

only a few months ago and has made many changes. Talk us through what

he is trying to do now. The interesting phrase he used in that

live feed was that there was this idea of a connected daily audience.

That is his vision. He wants all other stations to happen on Twitter.

He wants us to be connected. -- communications. Let's say you happen

to be caught up in some sort of event. You can then simply streamed

the video there and then and everything will start concentrating

around you. He also mentioned Twitter is something like ten years

old and the real problem, really, is that the user numbers are not going

up, are they? It has hit a wall. There seems to be some sort of

barrier around the 300 million mark. It has been a problem for a while.

You can imagine why Wall Street has been concerned. To slump, in such a

new vital service, and then for it to go down, Facebook, for example,

is that 1.4 billion users, and the newcomers like WhatsApp and

Snapchat, where all the young people are going, it starts to make Twitter

look a little bit old. So, as we said earlier, perhaps it is an

irresistible takeover target. Who is hovering? There are many. Microsoft

I can definitely see going for it. Google could do it. If you look at

Google Plus, it shows you how difficult it is to make a platform

like this. Plus never worked for then. Facebook? I don't really see

that happening. -- them. Thank you for coming in. And of course, there

is a lot more on our website. And many of us are on Twitter as well.

Is to follow a there. -- So follow us there.

Let's turn to US interest rates now, because they could be staying where

US Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen, has poured cold water

on the prospect of a second rise in interest rates any time soon.

In her testimony to Congress, she warned financial conditions

in the US have become "less supportive" of growth.

The US central bank raised interest rates by 0.25% for the first time

How is all that playing out on Asian markets?

Rico Hizon, Japan closed today, but Hong Kong opened. A funny week.

Indeed. What you can see right now in the market, mostly Red Arrows.

Hong Kong, South Korea, they have joined the downward trend across the

region. As you mentioned, Japan is really taking this well deserved

break after the steep falls on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is closed

today because of a public holiday. But the biggest losers are Hang

Seng. China Mobile as well shedding 4%. And then Korea, young they,

losing 2%. -- Hyundai. This ongoing concern over the global economy is

continuing to impact regional market. This was confirmed by the US

bank chairman in her speech to Congress. Thank you. Good to see

you. We are also continuing

our series this week Millions of adults across

the UK are heading back to school. For some, it's simply

an opportunity to learn a new skill For others it's a more serious

avenue back into the world of work. Alice Baxter went back

into the classroom, to try her hand You don't want to have one

flower... Do you know your flowers? No? Would you like to? I don't know

the names of any of these. I just think, that looks nice. If you are

applying for a job in a flower shop you would be in trouble.

(LAUGHING). These are two of the millions of UK adult learners

willing to pay for an authentic and novel experience. We decided to come

because we are getting married later this year and we thought we could

learn to do some table decoration. On the website they think it is a

trend set to flow. -- grow. We focus on cooking and things like that.

People come to learn directly from crafts people like Gus, textiles,

Hitchens, the idea is to go and learn from people directly,

professionals and their fields. -- kitchens. Sadly I don't think I

could make this my job. But it is left it to something with my hands,

something artistic, to learn a new skill, but I won't give up the day

job just yet. But for those with employment needs, the government

will help fund this to get people back to work. We are offering an

opportunity to get back to studying if they did not completed the first

time around. Also, graphic design, and make-up, health and social care

and childcare... Some of them are retraining or up skilling so they

can go out and find work. The government budget for adult learning

is $2.1 billion because they think students 19 and over will generate

an additional 9.9 billion. You are very linguistically capable... When

it comes to learning a foreign language, this woman's students are

paying for themselves. Despite the economic rewards, Britain is falling

behind many of European neighbours when it comes to supporting its

adult learners. Alice Baxter, BBC News. It is definitely her

strength, language. Luxury electric car maker Tesla says

it lost $320 million Its shares have lost almost

a third of their value since the beginning of the year on investor

concerns about continuing losses. However they jumped in

after hours trading after boss Elon Musk promised investors it

would stop losing money this year. Tesla is also forecasting a 60%

to 80% growth in vehicle sales. You are up-to-date. We will talk

about Janet Yellen and other stories in the papers, that is coming up

soon. Ministers are expected to confirm,

today or tomorrow,