:00:00. > :00:27.Now for the latest financial news with the World Business Report.
:00:28. > :00:31.With half a trillion dollars in sales, China's Alibaba is now
:00:32. > :00:35.Plus, from San Francisco start up to the hotel trade's worst nightmare,
:00:36. > :00:38.we hear from the co-founder of property sharing website Airbnb.
:00:39. > :00:48.Also coming up, Japan's Prime Minister Abe continues
:00:49. > :00:50.his European tour, we'll be finding out what's on the agenda
:00:51. > :01:09.But first we start in China, with a giant of the internet.
:01:10. > :01:12.Alibaba dominates online shopping in China, think of it as Amazon, eBay
:01:13. > :01:36.It floated on the New York Stock Exchange a year and a half ago
:01:37. > :01:40.And in a few hours, before the US markets open,
:01:41. > :01:43.it's expected to report record annual profits, despite that
:01:44. > :01:54.Everything about this company is enormous,
:01:55. > :02:06.In the last financial year, the value of goods sold through Alibaba,
:02:07. > :02:09.known as 'gross merchandise volume', was almost half a trillion dollars.
:02:10. > :02:11.That's more than Wal-Mart, so by this measure it's now
:02:12. > :02:30.It's hugely important for China, which is trying to refocus its
:02:31. > :02:34.The company says it accounts for 10% of all shopping in Chinaand supports
:02:35. > :02:41.All this has made its founder, former schoolteacher Jack Ma,
:02:42. > :02:57.He's currently worth $33 billion, making him Asia's richest man.
:02:58. > :03:03.Let's talk to our correspondent in Shanghai Robin Brant.
:03:04. > :03:19.Good to see you. Not quite as rich! Beijing would be very happy about
:03:20. > :03:24.those numbers, it confirms that they are making that shift towards
:03:25. > :03:31.getting consumers to spend more? The health of Alibaba is in no way a
:03:32. > :03:37.measurement of the health of China's shoppers. This is showing
:03:38. > :03:42.record growth, that is very good for the Chinese economy overall.
:03:43. > :03:47.Investors are more interested in comparing fourth-quarter figures to
:03:48. > :03:52.growth over recent years, particularly how well Alibaba was
:03:53. > :03:58.doing before it went public. Back then, it was growing quite a lot.
:03:59. > :04:02.Since it has gone public, things have not been as good. There is a
:04:03. > :04:09.feeling that they could be doing better, particularly with ambitions
:04:10. > :04:13.to expand overseas. It is a part of the business that the CEO wants to
:04:14. > :04:21.grow. The idea is that overseas is contributing less to Alibaba than
:04:22. > :04:27.they have been in the past. Alibaba is very important to the Chinese
:04:28. > :04:36.economy. It is a sign of China's shoppers, Alibaba has been at the
:04:37. > :04:41.front of digital pay platforms. It is a great moment to judge whether
:04:42. > :04:46.China's shoppers are feeling the pinch in the slowdown of the
:04:47. > :04:51.economy. The economy is still growing, but the slowest growth in
:04:52. > :04:56.almost 25 years. We always appreciate it. Talk to you soon.
:04:57. > :04:59.Let's stay with the internet business, and talk about Airbnb.
:05:00. > :05:01.In just a few years the accommodation sharing website
:05:02. > :05:04.has gone from a tiny San Francisco start-up to a $25 billion company
:05:05. > :05:11.that has challenged the traditional hotel business.
:05:12. > :05:15.It's not been without controversy though.
:05:16. > :05:17.This week Berlin banned homeowners from renting
:05:18. > :05:21.their properties to tourists to try and address a housing shortage.
:05:22. > :05:23.The BBC's Simon Atkinson spoke to Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk
:05:24. > :05:36.and asked him for reaction to the move.
:05:37. > :05:47.This is a very new model, the rules that govern it often go back
:05:48. > :05:50.decades. I think everybody realises that the policies need to be
:05:51. > :05:54.modernised for the 21st century. Governments are trying to figure out
:05:55. > :05:58.how to do this. There are a lot of different jurisdictions, it is a
:05:59. > :06:02.bumpy process. But when countries have passed new policies, they have
:06:03. > :06:07.been very favourable to codesharing. The Indian government recently
:06:08. > :06:12.signalled that they think it has a lot of potential for the country.
:06:13. > :06:17.Your business has revolutionised travel, certainly in the last
:06:18. > :06:23.decade. What will be the next big change? What we've demonstrated is
:06:24. > :06:27.that there is an immense appetite to travel more authentically and
:06:28. > :06:36.immerse yourself in the culture, as opposed to having a commoditised
:06:37. > :06:43.experienced. I think the personal connection is important. Your
:06:44. > :06:46.company has been extraordinarily successful, and according to Forbes,
:06:47. > :06:50.you and your cofounders are millionaires. But you still read out
:06:51. > :06:57.part of your house through the site. I think it's incredibly
:06:58. > :07:02.important to stay close to be using experience. I have posted almost 200
:07:03. > :07:06.guests at this point. I want to be doing what our customers are doing
:07:07. > :07:09.every single day. As a traveller, I have also stayed in hundreds of
:07:10. > :07:13.different homes. Sometimes they stay in supercheap leases, sometimes I go
:07:14. > :07:15.for something more expensive. To Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
:07:16. > :07:18.now, who's on a tour of Europe. On Wednesday he held talks with
:07:19. > :07:21.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, they both expressed concern about
:07:22. > :07:24.turbulence on the currency markets. The yen has soared to an 18-month
:07:25. > :07:27.high against the dollar after the Bank of Japan held off expanding
:07:28. > :07:38.monetary stimulus last week. Mr Abe is hosting a meeting of G7
:07:39. > :07:41.finance ministers at the end of the month amid rising concerns
:07:42. > :07:48.about the state of Japan's economy. Today he's in the UK to meet
:07:49. > :07:53.Prime Minister David Cameron. Michael Taylor is Japan
:07:54. > :08:07.specialist at Oxford Economics. Thank you for coming in. He's got
:08:08. > :08:14.enough on his plate, I heard he is trying to get some of the European
:08:15. > :08:21.economies to ease up on their fiscal measures, less austerity and more
:08:22. > :08:26.stimulus? Doing that so that Europe and the UK will buy more from Japan?
:08:27. > :08:34.Is, as you said the Japanese economy may even be in recession -- yes. One
:08:35. > :08:41.of the ways out of that is through exports. They do have a world-class
:08:42. > :08:47.manufacturing sector. If Europe and the US and China are growing
:08:48. > :08:53.strongly, that is beneficial. The strength of the yen is a problem,
:08:54. > :08:57.but it's not the end of the game. If the global economy is strong, that
:08:58. > :09:09.will benefit Japan is hugely. That is not -- about is the mission
:09:10. > :09:15.Shinzo Abe is on today. What about Germany and the UK? He has met with
:09:16. > :09:19.Angela Merkel and David Cameron, probably not the two people I would
:09:20. > :09:24.first go to if we were looking for fiscal stimulus. Ahead of this
:09:25. > :09:30.summit in Tokyo later this month, he wants to get some sort of deal, it
:09:31. > :09:35.may not amount to very much in terms of cash, but he needs to present to
:09:36. > :09:41.the Japanese people that there is some offering. That will then allow
:09:42. > :09:44.him to delay the political problem at home with the sales tax increase
:09:45. > :09:55.due to come in next year. He wants to do -- delay that, and a stimulus
:09:56. > :10:00.package would be a way to do that. You said consumer spending is weak,
:10:01. > :10:03.possibly in a recession. The government is spending $700 billion
:10:04. > :10:10.a year, but nothing seems to be working at the moment. They need
:10:11. > :10:13.structural change? They do. The fundamental problem is that the
:10:14. > :10:20.corporate sector has huge piles of cash that they sit on. They don't
:10:21. > :10:23.invest in wages, they tend to be buying companies overseas. The
:10:24. > :10:29.structural reform that Japan needs is to encourage Japanese companies
:10:30. > :10:32.to spend the cash, increase wages. That will increase consumer spending
:10:33. > :10:37.and get inflation above zero. That is the root problem that the
:10:38. > :10:50.Japanese economy has. The amount of printing money or fiscal plans will
:10:51. > :10:58.change that. I'll be back with Adnan, I will see you very shortly.
:10:59. > :11:02.Don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of