:00:00. > :00:19.Well on the way to 2 billion friends - Facebook gets more popular,
:00:20. > :00:22.more profitable and more powerful than ever before.
:00:23. > :00:25.Plus, driving a Brexit bargain - why Britain's the place to snap up
:00:26. > :00:52.Also in the programme: A rare bit of good news for Mexico's car
:00:53. > :00:55.We start with Facebook - because despite predictions
:00:56. > :00:58.of a slowdown, the world's biggest social network keeps getting more
:00:59. > :01:00.popular, more profitable and more powerful.
:01:01. > :01:03.Late on Wednesday it reported quarterly numbers that were much
:01:04. > :01:07.They round off another year of rapid growth that has seen it become one
:01:08. > :01:09.of the biggest advertising businesses on earth.
:01:10. > :01:12.Its massive reach has also of course raised concerns about the amount
:01:13. > :01:15.of influence it can have and the reliability of information
:01:16. > :01:28.So let's give you an idea of how big Facebook now is.
:01:29. > :01:32.By the end of last year, over 1.86 billion people
:01:33. > :01:35.around the world were logging on at least once a month,
:01:36. > :01:41.1.25 billion of those log on every single day -
:01:42. > :01:46.and the vast majority via smartphones.
:01:47. > :01:49.Advertisers love it - last year, they spent almost $29
:01:50. > :01:58.billion placing ads on Facebook - a jump of 57% on 2015.
:01:59. > :02:02.That made Facebook profits of well over $10 billion
:02:03. > :02:09.reaching saturation point for the amount of advertising it can
:02:10. > :02:18.And it could give companies more opportunity
:02:19. > :02:22.to promote themselves on Instagram, the image sharing platform
:02:23. > :02:29.Instagram though is facing tough competition from rival Snapchat
:02:30. > :02:33.which is about to sell shares in New York in the biggest tech
:02:34. > :02:39.And it wasn't all celebration for Facebook after a jury
:02:40. > :02:42.ruled its virtual reality division Oculus had infringed another
:02:43. > :02:44.company's intellectual property and should pay them
:02:45. > :02:52.Our North America Technology reporter Dave Lee is at Facebook
:02:53. > :02:59.headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
:03:00. > :03:06.Nice to see you. It's the middle of the night there now. It is
:03:07. > :03:12.incredible, really, the news from Facebook in terms of the earnings
:03:13. > :03:18.but this Oculus rift ruling is a thorn in its side? It really is.
:03:19. > :03:26.Mark Zucker Berg had testified in that trial to convince the jury it
:03:27. > :03:31.was Facebook's oh and innovation. -- Zuckerberg. Originally the company
:03:32. > :03:36.which brought the lawsuit, they wanted $2 billion in damages. They
:03:37. > :03:41.got $500 million relating to the breach of a nondisclosure agreement
:03:42. > :03:46.so the got some damages. Both sides are calling that a victory for
:03:47. > :03:50.themselves. It is a bit of a destruction. Just a drop in the
:03:51. > :03:55.Ocean given the enormous amount of money Facebook is making. You
:03:56. > :04:00.mentioned in the queue, over $10 million profit -- $10 billion profit
:04:01. > :04:04.in the last year. That is because in this transition to mobile which
:04:05. > :04:10.originally Facebook were concerned about, they thought people would not
:04:11. > :04:13.click on ads on mobiles, it makes up 80% of their and revenue. They've
:04:14. > :04:20.made the transition and made it very well. That trick is to keep that
:04:21. > :04:25.growth. Facebook is cautious. It does not like to get investors hopes
:04:26. > :04:35.up. For the time being, Facebook is matching those expectations. Dave
:04:36. > :04:42.outside Facebook headquarters. Let's get more analysis with Matthew. The
:04:43. > :04:48.Oculus story is not fantastic. The year has been a good one but how
:04:49. > :04:51.long can they keep this up? Particularly impressive, the user
:04:52. > :04:55.growth but over the next year, some things to look out for in terms of
:04:56. > :05:00.short-term areas to improve Facebook, for example, time spent on
:05:01. > :05:08.the platform in the core markets as well as the average price paid by
:05:09. > :05:15.advertisers so Facebook needs to convince advertisers of the value.
:05:16. > :05:19.And it has to be about the value. There is only so much advertising
:05:20. > :05:24.that Facebook users will tolerate. It has to be less but advertisers
:05:25. > :05:31.pay more for that. Facebook is limiting the overall and load on its
:05:32. > :05:36.main Facebook and and that limit is being reached late this year. We
:05:37. > :05:39.have seen growth in American users given how far its reach is there
:05:40. > :05:46.already but also an increase in Asia. China has been a real problem
:05:47. > :05:51.for Facebook. It's not been able to penetrate China and has issues with
:05:52. > :05:57.the authorities. It wants a piece of that massive cake in terms of the
:05:58. > :06:01.number of users in mainland China. NACRO two was asked about China and
:06:02. > :06:06.he put it in an interesting way, saying they will consider going to
:06:07. > :06:17.China if they can come up with an agreement. That illustrates how it
:06:18. > :06:20.might be a trade-off between compromising the date of the users
:06:21. > :06:25.when it comes to Chinese authorities and their copperheads and
:06:26. > :06:30.surveillance. All right, thank you for joining us this morning. Very
:06:31. > :06:32.interesting. There is so much on the interest -- on the Internet so do
:06:33. > :06:34.take a look. Now - think supercar and bargain
:06:35. > :06:37.isn't the word that immediately But since the UK's vote
:06:38. > :06:42.to leave the European Union, wealthy petrol-heads from around
:06:43. > :06:45.the world have been heading here to do their shopping thanks
:06:46. > :06:48.to the slump in Sterling. Luxury car dealer Tom Jaconelli
:06:49. > :07:14.explains what it has meant I am Tom Jaconelli at Roman is
:07:15. > :07:19.international. We are a family run business. We sell McLaren, Ferrari
:07:20. > :07:24.are the very best of the supercars. What it is meant to European buyers
:07:25. > :07:31.is with the falling pound, they have managed to bag themselves a bargain.
:07:32. > :07:35.The price of one of these McLaren P1s used to cost $2.2 million in
:07:36. > :07:43.America but now they are buying it here for 20% less which is $1.9
:07:44. > :07:47.million to its $300,000 saving. A real increase in sales to
:07:48. > :07:52.foreigners. Cars that have gone to Hong Kong, Americo, you're up. We
:07:53. > :07:58.normally sell probably three or four cars overseas every year. We mainly
:07:59. > :08:03.sell to the UK but since Brexit, we have seen that threefold. We are
:08:04. > :08:08.selling ten or 11 cars since Brexit overseas which is unheard of for us.
:08:09. > :08:11.We didn't expect it. It is a bonus for us.
:08:12. > :08:14.Mexico has found itself under huge pressure since the election
:08:15. > :08:19.as US companies freeze their investment plans there.
:08:20. > :08:27.But there's been some good news - this press conference on Wednesday
:08:28. > :08:30.heralded a major car manufacturing deal with China
:08:31. > :08:39.Rico Hizon is following this story for us in Singapore.
:08:40. > :08:47.What's going on? It is indeed good news and it's green and gopher China
:08:48. > :08:56.Mexico Mexico Alliance in the automotive sector. You have JAC and
:08:57. > :09:00.giant motors teaming up to invest more than $200 million US in the
:09:01. > :09:05.plant to produce sports utility -- utility vehicles in central Mexico
:09:06. > :09:09.and they are expected to start at the end of March with the goal of
:09:10. > :09:14.making 10,000 units per year by 2021. The SUV will be sold in Mexico
:09:15. > :09:18.and Central America and South America. The announcement comes as
:09:19. > :09:22.US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose stiff export
:09:23. > :09:28.tariffs on companies that ship jobs to Mexico. We have seen Ford decide
:09:29. > :09:32.last month to cancel plans for a $1.6 billion factory in northern
:09:33. > :09:37.Mexico. Trump is also lashed out against General Motors and Toyota.
:09:38. > :09:43.Mexico is the world's fourth biggest car exporter and of course, China is
:09:44. > :09:46.one of the biggest markets for cars. We will see more alliances in
:09:47. > :09:48.manufacturing industries as well. Very end of -- interesting. Good to
:09:49. > :09:50.see you. Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell
:09:51. > :09:52.reports results later. Annual profits are expected to be
:09:53. > :09:56.more than double the previous year - Extreme weather and a pledge by OPEC
:09:57. > :10:01.to cut oil production has seen crude prices surge over
:10:02. > :10:14.the past few months. The dollar has weakened quite a bit
:10:15. > :10:20.-- quite a bit since the US Federal Reserve had delivered a press
:10:21. > :10:24.conference keeping rates on hold. No surprises from the Fed but a
:10:25. > :10:28.stronger yen is not helping Japan trade today. Everybody is wondering
:10:29. > :10:32.when the next move might be from the Fed and it will probably be March or
:10:33. > :10:34.June in terms of an interest rate rise in the States. I will see you
:10:35. > :10:43.soon. The number of students
:10:44. > :10:47.from the European Union applying to study at universities
:10:48. > :10:50.in the UK has fallen by 7% according to the admissions
:10:51. > :10:53.service UCAS.