:00:00. > :00:18.Now it is time for World Business Report.
:00:19. > :00:20.Snap judgement - investors punish the firm behind Snapchat.
:00:21. > :00:23.As the messaging app's results disappoint, its shares plunge 23%.
:00:24. > :00:33.Businesses in Northern Ireland fear for the future
:00:34. > :00:43.Also coming up: A strong year for Japanese tech giant Softbank.
:00:44. > :00:58.We start with Snap, the company behind the messaging app Snapchat.
:00:59. > :01:02.In case you aren't familiar with it, it lets you send photo messages
:01:03. > :01:05.which disappear after a few seconds, and it seems the confidence
:01:06. > :01:07.of investors has gone missing almost as fast.
:01:08. > :01:09.Snap's shares have plunged in after-hours trading,
:01:10. > :01:12.on its first set of financial results since that huge flotation
:01:13. > :01:19.This is how much they lost in the first three months
:01:20. > :01:24.That is a massive jump on the losses this time last year.
:01:25. > :01:28.It is mostly because of huge stock option payouts to staff in the IPO.
:01:29. > :01:31.But here is the number investors are really looking at.
:01:32. > :01:33.By the end of March, 166 million people were using
:01:34. > :01:39.That is up over 36% on the same time last year, but it was a few million
:01:40. > :01:42.less than investors had been hoping, and a big slowdown from growth seen
:01:43. > :01:46.It also pales in comparison when you look at this.
:01:47. > :01:48.Facebook has around 1.3 billion daily users,
:01:49. > :01:51.and almost 2 billion who use it at least once a month.
:01:52. > :01:53.Even its version of Snapchat, Instagram Stories, has 200
:01:54. > :02:04.Investors were quick to pile into shares when Snap went public
:02:05. > :02:08.The share price rose by as much as 50% in the first couple
:02:09. > :02:12.But look how that enthusiasm has waned on concerns about competition
:02:13. > :02:15.from Facebook, and its shares are likely to plunge
:02:16. > :02:18.They were down 23% in after-market trading, towards $17.
:02:19. > :02:22.That would take the shares pretty much back to their flotation price.
:02:23. > :02:36.From San Francisco, here is Dave Lee.
:02:37. > :02:43.When Snap went public in March it had to answer two big questions. The
:02:44. > :02:47.first was, could attract enough new users to keep investors happy, and
:02:48. > :02:50.the second question, probably a bigger question, was caught it
:02:51. > :02:54.survive an onslaught from Facebook which has been copying Snapchat's
:02:55. > :02:58.best ideas and giving them to its users instead. Well, so far the
:02:59. > :03:02.answer to both of those questions seems to be no. User growth has been
:03:03. > :03:06.too small, revenue has been too small, and while Snapchat is still
:03:07. > :03:10.very popular with teenagers, there hasn't been an increasing engagement
:03:11. > :03:13.that perhaps investors would have wanted. Indeed, on an earnings call
:03:14. > :03:17.after results were published, one investor asked the chief executive
:03:18. > :03:21.whether there were new products coming which could give investors
:03:22. > :03:26.cause for hope. He didn't have too many bright ideas. He also said he
:03:27. > :03:28.wasn't worried by Facebook, but on the evidence of these results, he
:03:29. > :03:30.probably should be. Colin Jacobs is managing director
:03:31. > :03:32.of Immediate Future, an independent social
:03:33. > :03:44.media consultancy. Let's start with the immediate
:03:45. > :03:47.concern that people seem to have about Snapchat, and this is this
:03:48. > :03:52.competition from Facebook, whether it really is a sustainable model as
:03:53. > :03:56.it is, and can sustain interest. Facebook are not going to go
:03:57. > :04:00.anywhere, they are thriving at the moment, the numbers you have just
:04:01. > :04:05.read out underlined that. It is quite an interesting position he
:04:06. > :04:12.takes, when Facebook lies a company as it tried to do with Snapchat, --
:04:13. > :04:16.by the company. If he fails, he worked overtime, and that is what we
:04:17. > :04:20.are seeing with the new features coming online. Facebook's position
:04:21. > :04:25.is stronger because of their user growth, there is no doubt about
:04:26. > :04:29.that, and revenues they are currently generating a reportedly ?8
:04:30. > :04:33.billion, which is significant. And Snapchat are moving on. Yes, and
:04:34. > :04:36.they are moving in the right direction and have some nice product
:04:37. > :04:42.coming online. So just for the viewers, what we understand Snapchat
:04:43. > :04:45.to do is to take a photograph, apply a filter and it lends itself to
:04:46. > :04:49.advertising various products, however they need to do more. They
:04:50. > :04:54.need to do more but they have had some products in test, and the
:04:55. > :04:58.signals are encouraging. There was a reporter couple of weeks ago when
:04:59. > :05:01.they analyse their user growth and within the report showing that 80%
:05:02. > :05:05.of us are snapping in restaurants and 66% are snapping in balls, they
:05:06. > :05:09.released early signals on the product which looked for a long
:05:10. > :05:13.time... Social has played around with a term called click to break.
:05:14. > :05:18.Can we show that there is engagement in social that drives revenue at a
:05:19. > :05:23.location. Snapchat claim they have a product which does this. They had a
:05:24. > :05:27.trial with Wendy's restaurants, 42,000 people visited within seven
:05:28. > :05:30.days of acting on a filter. If they bring that product to market there
:05:31. > :05:34.is no doubt retailers and consumers will have great interest in it. In
:05:35. > :05:39.fact we are exploring it without consumer clients already. So the
:05:40. > :05:42.battle for these social media Company is his first business of
:05:43. > :05:46.user growth, because the more users you have the better it is in terms
:05:47. > :05:49.of potential conversion but the other thing is absolutely monetising
:05:50. > :05:52.it. Many social media companies have struggled in this department and
:05:53. > :05:56.Snapchat is no exception. And if you go back far enough, this is exactly
:05:57. > :06:00.the fight that Facebook had. Not long ago it was quite a revelation
:06:01. > :06:04.when parents suddenly joined Facebook. The younger demographic
:06:05. > :06:08.was quite shocked, my father now on Facebook. That is where Snapchat a
:06:09. > :06:12.rat today. The challenges, are they going to be able to grow their user
:06:13. > :06:17.base to truly monetise? Because the big revenues will only come if they
:06:18. > :06:19.have a far more inclusive user base, there is no doubt about that.
:06:20. > :06:22.Also, as the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier,
:06:23. > :06:23.prepares to address the Irish Parliament,
:06:24. > :06:26.we are on the border between the Republic of Ireland
:06:27. > :06:29.and Northern Ireland, where Brexit talks will be closely followed.
:06:30. > :06:32.That is because, of course, it will represent Britain's land
:06:33. > :06:35.frontier with the EU once it leaves, and businesses there are worried
:06:36. > :06:37.about what that border will be like, as the BBC's
:06:38. > :06:49.This is what we will be once Britain leaves the European Union. The main
:06:50. > :06:56.land border between the two. They might not look like it, but the
:06:57. > :06:59.tranquil waters here are actually an international frontier. Over here
:07:00. > :07:03.the Republic of Ireland and hear the United Kingdom. It wasn't always
:07:04. > :07:07.this peaceful, of course. It used to be a militarised border with
:07:08. > :07:10.checkpoints. Now businesses here are worried about Britain's bow to the
:07:11. > :07:15.European Union, and what happens next. Another busy lambing season
:07:16. > :07:18.just finished... Some of the most worried farmers and food processors
:07:19. > :07:22.in the north who have forged deep relationships in the Republic. The
:07:23. > :07:26.chief executive of the farmers cooperative says his organisation
:07:27. > :07:31.makes constant use of the open border. We process livestock in
:07:32. > :07:36.Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We employ 1200 people in
:07:37. > :07:39.the Republic, we employ 1400 in Northern Ireland. From our
:07:40. > :07:43.perspective, we are hugely concerned about the potential impact of a hard
:07:44. > :07:47.order. We hope that they will not the one. But we cannot rule that
:07:48. > :07:51.out. Therefore, for business planning purposes, we have to
:07:52. > :07:55.consider the worst-case scenario. And for our company that would be
:07:56. > :08:03.very significant disruption. Not all businesses in the North think Rex it
:08:04. > :08:07.is bad news. Some think it is the best thing that has ever happened.
:08:08. > :08:10.The ministers in Northern Ireland have less influence over fisheries
:08:11. > :08:14.policy in the Irish Sea than a government minister from Slovakia or
:08:15. > :08:20.any other part of the European Union. The thing about the Irish
:08:21. > :08:25.Sea, 75% of the Irish Sea is within UK territorial waters but UK
:08:26. > :08:32.fishermen really only have the opportunity to carry catch about
:08:33. > :08:36.40%. Future here is linked to the outcome of the Brexit negotiations,
:08:37. > :08:40.which are themselves uncertain. But businesses in the north and south
:08:41. > :08:43.will be hoping that the politics of peace which dismantled the hard
:08:44. > :08:51.border in the first place will triumph over the politics of Brexit.
:08:52. > :08:54.To Asia now, where Japanese telecoms and internet giant Softbank has
:08:55. > :08:56.revealed some of its best profits ever.
:08:57. > :08:58.Softbank is a complicated company to follow.
:08:59. > :09:01.It runs a mobile phone network in Japan, but also invests heavily
:09:02. > :09:06.It owns US mobile company Sprint, and has recently bought UK chip firm
:09:07. > :09:08.ARM, which designs chips for the iPhone.
:09:09. > :09:11.It also has a huge stake in Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.
:09:12. > :09:18.Rico Hizon is following this in Singapore for us.
:09:19. > :09:29.It is indeed a confusing company. And Softbank doesn't help that be
:09:30. > :09:34.understood any more, the name. That's right, it is very diversify.
:09:35. > :09:38.They are into e-commerce, taxi hailing applications, but looking at
:09:39. > :09:42.the overall numbers, the second best ever for Softbank, operating profit
:09:43. > :09:48.for the year, until the end of March, rising 30% to $9 billion. And
:09:49. > :09:52.again it was due basically to cost-cutting and a rise in the
:09:53. > :09:59.number of subscribers in its US mobile business, Sprint, which it
:10:00. > :10:07.hopes to merge with rival the third largest wireless carrier, seen as a
:10:08. > :10:10.potential kingmaker in the sector, as companies like Sprint have
:10:11. > :10:15.ambitions of being the largest in the field. The diversify
:10:16. > :10:21.conglomerate also has the investments in China. It recently
:10:22. > :10:29.confirmed $5 billion investment in the so-called Uber of China, which
:10:30. > :10:33.has some 400 million users across 400 cities in the mainland. It
:10:34. > :10:40.acquired Uber China in August last year. Lots of businesses which are
:10:41. > :10:43.profitable. That is what we like to hear. Let's look at what has been
:10:44. > :10:48.happening on the markets. A couple of driving in fact is. There is an
:10:49. > :10:52.impression in the markets for reasons I won't go into that we will
:10:53. > :10:55.see further rate hikes in the US. That has strengthened the dollar,
:10:56. > :10:59.but also oil inventory is moving down fast and that has been helpful
:11:00. > :11:04.for commodity prices generally. These are the Asian markets, as you
:11:05. > :11:10.can see, picking up on a strong performance we saw on Wall Street.
:11:11. > :11:17.Here we go. You can see the NASDAQ moving up and the Dow. We take a
:11:18. > :11:21.look at what has been happening on the European markets? I don't think
:11:22. > :11:23.it is going to play with me, but we are seeing a stronger dollar this
:11:24. > :11:24.morning. Don't forget you can get
:11:25. > :11:28.in touch with me and some