:00:00. > :00:00.Now for the latest financial news, Aaron Heslehurst and
:00:00. > :00:22.Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Aaron Heslehurst.
:00:23. > :00:25.Facebook keeps on growing, and so do its profits.
:00:26. > :00:29.Plus, when $700 billion a year just isn't enough,
:00:30. > :00:32.but the Bank of Japan resists enormous pressure to boost its vast
:00:33. > :00:52.Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Aaron Heslehurst.
:00:53. > :01:03.Nine minutes, ten seconds, that is the deal! I will give you an
:01:04. > :01:04.exciting and fascinating look at the business world.
:01:05. > :01:07.Also coming up, VW faces investors and the media
:01:08. > :01:11.later as it tries to move on from the emissions cheating scandal.
:01:12. > :01:13.We start in Silicon Valley, where it's been
:01:14. > :01:16.a challenging week for tech giants including Apple and Twitter.
:01:17. > :01:22.The world's biggest social network continues to attract new friends by
:01:23. > :01:27.the million - and more importantly - to convert them into profit.
:01:28. > :01:31.Let's show you the numbers Facebook saw revenue surge more than 50%
:01:32. > :01:38.in the first three months of the year to over $5.3 billion - better
:01:39. > :01:45.than Wall Street was expecting that's largely down to booming sales
:01:46. > :01:57.With smaller screens smartphones have been a platform many other
:01:58. > :02:04.Not so Facebook - 82% of Facebook's ad revenue now comes
:02:05. > :02:12.The social network has continued to grow and grow as of the end of March
:02:13. > :02:18.1.65 billion people were logging on at least once a month.
:02:19. > :02:23.That's 200 million people more than this time last year.
:02:24. > :02:27.Shares have jumped again in afterhours trade.
:02:28. > :02:32.If you look at the past 3 years you can see the value has steadily
:02:33. > :02:40.climbed from just over $20 to now well over $100 a share.
:02:41. > :02:42.Our North America Business Correspondent Dave Lee has been
:02:43. > :02:44.following the story at their headquarters in
:02:45. > :03:00.Right now in silicon valley you can rely on two things. Blustery wind
:03:01. > :03:06.conditions and Facebook making lots and lots of money. It had exceeded
:03:07. > :03:09.Wall Street already skyhigh expectations and it is making more
:03:10. > :03:20.money from advertising particularly with users and mobile devices and
:03:21. > :03:27.watching video. Excitement about the future potential of the company,
:03:28. > :03:33.investing heavily on bringing innovation. Twitter has continued to
:03:34. > :03:38.decline and Apple has posted its worst result in over the decade.
:03:39. > :03:41.To Japan now where the central bank has decided not to expand its
:03:42. > :03:48.massive economic stimulus programme, despite enormous pressure.
:03:49. > :03:51.They are trying to banish deflation - or falling prices -
:03:52. > :03:58.In the last few hours official data has shown consumer prices fell
:03:59. > :04:08.Japan's policy makers are fast running out of ammunition.
:04:09. > :04:13.They are already pumping money into the economy at a rate
:04:14. > :04:21.of 80 trillion yen a year - that's more than $700 billion.
:04:22. > :04:24.And in January they stunned markets by
:04:25. > :04:30.introducing a negative interest rate - charging banks 0.1% to park money
:04:31. > :04:41.with the Bank of Japan - in the hope it will push them to lend it out.
:04:42. > :04:44.Seijiro Takeshita is Professor of Management and Information
:04:45. > :04:50.at the University of Shizuoka, He joins us via Skype.
:04:51. > :05:02.My friend, good to see you. What the heck happened! What are you doing
:05:03. > :05:10.over there? The entire world was expecting boost in the arm to the
:05:11. > :05:16.economy? 65% of participants were expecting some kind of action but
:05:17. > :05:23.for two reasons, they have seen of the saturating effect and secondly,
:05:24. > :05:31.a lot of criticism about the lack of stability. We need stability in the
:05:32. > :05:38.system and the ball is actually in the court of the action. I am just
:05:39. > :05:45.wondering... Some may suggest all that money is not working, we saw
:05:46. > :05:53.the latest numbers, but for the Japanese economy, look, we know it
:05:54. > :05:58.has been in the dog house for far too long, instead of printing and
:05:59. > :06:04.spending all that money, in lay terms, it needs an economic change
:06:05. > :06:14.to the structure? Definitely. Structural transitions is obviously
:06:15. > :06:20.needed in Japan. You can see the second set clearly depicts those
:06:21. > :06:27.areas. But the market is expecting answers, 65% of participants
:06:28. > :06:34.expecting something, but the results of these structure changes take
:06:35. > :06:39.years. There is big gap between the two and that is why we are seeing
:06:40. > :06:44.our lack of patience and it is exacerbating the situation. Short
:06:45. > :06:47.and sweet as always but we appreciate your time.
:06:48. > :06:50.To Germany now where the car giant Volkswagen faces
:06:51. > :06:54.investors and the media later as it presents its annual results.
:06:55. > :06:58.VW has already revealed it made the biggest loss
:06:59. > :07:01.in its history last year after setting aside more than 16 billion
:07:02. > :07:05.euros towards costs arising from its cheating of diesel emissions tests.
:07:06. > :07:13.Investors have seen their dividend cut for the first time in six years
:07:14. > :07:18.- they will be hoping for more clarity on the rising bill from the
:07:19. > :07:36.VW insists it is on the road to recovery. It now believes it knows
:07:37. > :07:42.how much of the scandal will cost and can start looking to the future.
:07:43. > :07:48.Set aside 60.2 billion euros to cover buying back up to 500,000 cars
:07:49. > :07:52.in the US, modifying millions of others around the world, paying
:07:53. > :07:59.fines and settling legal claims. It made an operating loss in 2015 of
:08:00. > :08:05.more than 4 billion euros. Senior executives have seen their pay cut
:08:06. > :08:10.back. Ordinary members of the board will use more than 2 million euros
:08:11. > :08:18.apiece compared to the year before. But we did not know he was
:08:19. > :08:20.ultimately responsible. VW has refused to publish findings of an
:08:21. > :08:25.internal investigation saying it would undermine negotiations with US
:08:26. > :08:30.authorities. Investors are keen to know how much progress has been made
:08:31. > :08:36.in finalising those talks. Meanwhile, they wanted to consumers
:08:37. > :08:38.attention away from its past wrongdoing and into its latest
:08:39. > :08:39.products. Let's return to Asia where Samsung
:08:40. > :08:45.Electronics says its first-quarter operating profit was up 12 %
:08:46. > :08:48.in the three months to March - thanks to strong early sales of its
:08:49. > :09:04.new flagship Galaxy S7 smartphones. Good to see it as always. Tell us
:09:05. > :09:07.the story? The Galaxy phone that you mention and also the profit is very
:09:08. > :09:13.much aligned with large Samsung had forecast. The huge improvement over
:09:14. > :09:18.the two years of shrinking profits and losses and adding to hopes this
:09:19. > :09:27.will be the first annual profit in three years. You saw the smart phone
:09:28. > :09:33.profit jumping to an almost two-year high. Samsung saying it is expecting
:09:34. > :09:38.further growth for the Galaxy at seven device as well for its move to
:09:39. > :09:44.lower tier product. The cheaper phones at our key because that is
:09:45. > :09:52.where Samsung are battering against much cheaper phones made in China.
:09:53. > :09:57.Some sang makes a lot of other things, chips or example and profits
:09:58. > :10:05.had fallen 6% because they were undercut by price decline. Slower
:10:06. > :10:10.demand for personal computers. Generally brighter outlook for the
:10:11. > :10:19.firm stop thank you. Talk to you soon. Quick flash of the markets.
:10:20. > :10:28.Because of that non- move in Japan, we see the yen is up but the BK is
:10:29. > :10:32.down. AM running out of time but I will be back to have looked at some
:10:33. > :10:35.of the papers. See you soon.