Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC Business Live 20170105

Day, we are talking you through the winners and losers is that rory with make up on . Cutting out the middle man. Well talk to the boss of a tech company hoping to Revolution Ise well talk to the boss of a tech company hoping to revolutionise the way we transfer money abroad. And keeping with all things tech we want to hear from you. What are the gadgets that you cant live without and have changed your life . Let us know use the hashtag bbcbizlive. Welcome to the programme. Iam i am predicting that for many of you you will be saying it is your smartphone but for me, it is my kettle, i cannot live without it we start in las vegas where thousands of Technology Executives are gathering for the annual Consumer Electronics show which opens today. Its the most important event of the year for the Tech Industry a chance for companies to show off the gadgets they hope we will soon be buying. Its a huge business and an increasingly tough one. According to the Consumer Technology association which organises the las vegas show we will buy Gadgets Worth close to a trillion dollars this year. That is a big sum of money. The problem is the industry as a whole is not growing. If its accurate that figure would be down around 2 on 2016, and it would be the fourth year in a row of falling revenue. Smartphones are by far the worlds most popular Gadget Accounting for half of all tech revenue but sales are expected to peak this year. So what are the growth areas . Well it could be the year of Wearable Technology like smartwatches. They have been saying it for a while now. Revenues from wearable devices are expected to soar almost a third this year although stilljust a fraction of the overall market. And one of the biggest themes to watch Artificial Intelligence more and more gadgets are being given the ability to learn as rory cellanjones reports. In a Penthouse Suite at a Ritzy Las Vegas hotel, smart home exhibits are on show. There is a Smart Speaker for children, each toy has a playlist. Kung fu fighting. Alexa, trigger lock. A voice activated door lock. And upstairs. Theres even nora, described as a smart snoring solution. Its paired with a pad under the pillow which detects the snoring and moves just enough to stop me, without waking me up. The big theme this year is turning the advances in Artificial Intelligence into products. There are robots, of course. This one is meant to be a shop assistant, while this one is designed as a companion for children or elderly people. Push itsjust here. Ai seems to get everywhere, even into this toothbrush, which learns how you brush your teeth. Artificial intelligence is not just gathering the data, its being able to use it. Then you learn where your weaknesses are, where your strengths are and the purpose is to become better at taking care of your oral health. This Walking Stick is also smarter than it looks. An in built mobile phone sim card means it can help if there is an accident. It will detect the fall of the user and when it detects it it will alert the family or the neighbour, so they can come and help these people. And this clever mirror helps anyone to try out make up. Out on the las vegas strip, this young entrepreneur from manchester has just flown in. Welcome to las vegas. His instant translation headphones arent quite ready. They will eventually be tiny earbuds, that he is still looking forward to ces. This is important because we will be able to showcase what weve been working on to the world, to show this is something we started years ago as a small team, as a small start up, with dedication and passion. The odds are against danny, a one man band taking on giants like apple and google, but hes betting that he has the product that can change the world. So, i wasjust so, i was just trying to get aaron to ta ke so, i was just trying to get aaron to take on his most revolutionary gadget. I will be boring. You said the kettle . Yes its an easy one. It is boring, but the smartphone, i think it is a phenomenal thing. Boring, smartphone, i think it is a phenomenalthing. Boring, it is you can go anywhere in the worldcom is use gps, go on google maps, do that. Go anywhere in the world and use. In other news. Chinese e commerce Giant Alibaba has sued two vendors for selling counterfeit goods, weeks after being blacklisted by a us industry watchdog. Its the first time the firm has taken legal action against counterfeiters. Alibaba sued the vendors for allegedly selling fake swarovski watches. The move comes just two weeks after the company was put back onto the uss notorious markets list over failing to curb the sale of counterfeit goods. Rex tillerson the former exxon boss chosen by donald trump for us Secretary Of State will receive 180m to cut financial ties with the firm if he gets the job. The pay out is aimed at addressing concerns he could favour the oil giant, or his own interests while in office. The 64 year old texan worked for exxon mobil for a0 years, including in the us, yemen and russia. Do you remember when we were talking about building the gig a factory . This is elon musk, and they are beginning production of the battery. We just beginning production of the battery. Wejust had beginning production of the battery. We just had the numbers for tesla yesterday, how time flies the production of those cars right there increased to 68 last year, they are making more and more. It is interesting, not everyone is clear on what is going on inside of that monster sized giga factory. And some sun, making their new smartphone after a ll sun, making their new smartphone after all of those problems that it had with the last one that kept on going up samsung. It is the device but you cannot live without though, the smartphone but i do not wa nt though, the smartphone but i do not want one that blows up apple has removed the New York Times app from its Chinese App Store after a request from the chinese authorities. Mariko oi is in singapore. She has got all of the details, it is nice to see you. This is interesting, isnt it . Indeed, good morning. This website has been blocked in china, if you remember, since 2012, after the newspaper published a number of reports about the private wealth of members of the political elite and their families but, as you say, the app had been available until late last year but apple withdrew it after a request from chinese authorities and the chinese are looking at regulations designed to curb activities such as endangering national security, disrupting social order and violating legitimate rights in the interest of others at the newspaper, they responded with criticism of apps from other organisations, saying that apps like the bbc are still available, but the English Version occasionally has human rights or political stories blocked on the website and on the app. Legs we will talk about that later in the programme. Looking at the New York Times article on that particular story thank you. Asia had a mixed day, profit injapan, they have had a surge in asia in general, the yen gained in value. Exporters losing some ground as the yen strengthened. In other markets, hong kong up1. 5 , yen strengthened. In other markets, hong kong up 1. 5 , europe is quite mixed at the moment. And, a lot of what is going on in the markets today, europe and asia, is in reaction to the Federal Reserve, minutes were out late yesterday. We will speak in more detail about that ina will speak in more detail about that in a moment but today on wall street. And Samira Hussain has the details about whats ahead the weaker pound will likely hurt the earnings of the walgreens boots alliance. But the focus will really be on walgreens acquisition of its smaller rival rite aid. Now, multibillion dollar deals, particularly in health care, have been facing more scrutiny from us anti trust authorities recently, with many being scrapped or undergoing lengthy approval processes because of a fear of creating a monopoly. But an agreement to sell 865 walgreens store is is being seen as a positive sign for the merger which is expected to close in early 2017. Now, Craft Whiskey and beer has been bringing some cheer to constellation brands. The Alcoholic Beverage maker is raising their full year profit expectations because of a healthy demand for its corona and modelo beers, and expanding its Premium Liquor portfolios is also given the company a boost. We are all sitting here talking about gadgets, david, what is yours, about gadgets, david, what is yours, a gadget that has changed your life 01 a gadget that has changed your life or that you love . Iphone, im boring like you, sorry come on youtube, something more imaginative . The dishwasher, whoever invented that come 01 you dishwasher, whoever invented that come on you two. Dishwasher, whoever invented that come on you two. Happy new year, david. It is nice to see you. Lets talk about this. The front page of the pink pages. The fed. No, the Financial Times the minutes coming out of the fed yesterday, state state m e nts out of the fed yesterday, state statements towards Donald Trumps policy. We need to remember that janet yellen in the chairman and Federal Reserve in total isolation of herjob, forget what is happening with barack 0bama and donald trump in the future. She is looking at The Big Picture all the time, we got out The Big Picture all the time, we got our last quarter percent increase recently, and what she has set out of the trump plans, that is basically to cut Corporation Tax from 35 down to 15 in two years. And, to introduce 1 trillion worth of spending around various parts of the country. This, basically, is good but it is inflationary. If you look at the futures, they can be misleading, but the market is telling us that in 2017 there will bea telling us that in 2017 there will be a 0. 59 increase in us interest rates, you will get to quarter heights anyway and do not rule out the possibility of a third if all is well when donald trump is installed asa well when donald trump is installed as a president of the united states. We have had a lot of rhetoric. If we hear positive stuff which gets through congress, great news, the markets will crack on but if we hear other stuff that we do not want to hear, like problems with china and those real trading bases, then you have an issue. I hope we dont. But, watch this space. David is back in five minutes, not off the hook yet, he has more work to do on the programme thank you. Pleasure. Still to come. Cutting out the middle man. Well talk to the boss of a tech company hoping to revolutionise the way we transfer money abroad. Youre with Business Live from bbc news. First. Four months after facing a Investor Revolt Sports Direct looks set to have another battle today. Later today, shareholders will be voting on whether chairman Keith Hellawell should keep his seat on the board. Theo leggett is in our business newsroom. Its good to see you, my friend. How important is this vote . Seriously, lets be frank, are there real prospect here that he could lose the job . Only if he decides to, the vote that we are having today is a result of Keith Halliwell losing the vote on his reappointment to the annual general meeting in september but under new rules designed to give a bit more say to independent shareholders and companies dominated by one major shareholder, in this case, mike ashley, you can have a vote and if it is lost, then there has to be another a few months down the line but the difference this time, mike ashley is involved in it and since he has a 55 stake in the company, unless he decides Keith Halliwell has to go, then he is probably staying onwards. The only difference that might be made is if mr halliwell himself decides there is too much opposition and he cannot do hisjob, he may decide to is too much opposition and he cannot do his job, he may decide to step down. He has already offered to resign but was persuaded by mike ashley to stay on but in the general meeting this year, if he loses the vote then, he would step down anyway but at the moment, it seems he will stay in his post. Shareholders will show they are annoyed with the way that the company is being wrong but iuii that the company is being wrong but run but really they do not have much influence. For the shareholders, you assume that it is incredibly frustrating because Sports Direct has so much going on and no good news none at all. For the past 18 months Sports Direct has been under pressure following Media Revelations about Working Conditions at its main warehouse in sharnbrook in derbyshire. Mps took on board what was going on there and issued a scathing criticism of the company and said it had victorian style Working Conditions. Now, mike ashley did say he would work on this and try and sort things out. What has happened as we have seen the Chief Executive leave leaving even more control in the hands of the leading shareholder mike ashley which is what institutional shareholders dont want to see. The plot thickens. Thank you, theo, from our business unit. Are you nice to your pa rents . I try to be. You better be, they are watching. We will get some money from them one day and we will be wealthy. Youre watching Business Live our top story. The biggest names in tech are in las vegas for the Consumer Electronics show. It is the Consumer Electronics show, it comes around again. It has, another year. It is. Arguably. Arguably. Arguably . Its arguably the biggest event on the Tech Calendar and weve already seen one start up unveil what it claims to be the worlds fastest self driving electric car. We did that yesterday. Yes, well keep you up to date with the latest from ces, both here and on the bbc news website. Dave lee is there, loads of people are there. Arguably there is loads of people. Chuckles this morning were getting the inside track on one company which is taking on the titans in the world of foreign exchange. When it began operations in dublin seven years ago, Currency Fair was the worlds first peer to peer currency exchange. And since then almost 4. 5 billion worth of currency has been exchanged on its site thats around 5. 6 billion. So how does it work . Well, users log on to the website or smartphone app, and it then connects buyers and sellers of different currencies. Users can also set their own exchange rate, but the model relies on people being willing to trade with each other. The Company Claims that by cutting out the middleman, it makes it cheaper and faster to Exchange Money than other traditional forms such as via banks. Brett meyers, its co founder and chief Strategy Officer is here. Cani can i ask this question beforehand . Are you a tech company or a Finance Company . If i had are you a tech company or a Finance Company . If had to pick are you a tech company or a Finance Company . If had to pick i would say finance because we deal with peoples money, Security Compliance is hugely important but we are a Finance Company enabled by some unique technology. You have relatives in south africa and i am an australian. For the dummies here, i want to see how this works, i want South African Rand and im in australia and i log on and sally is in south africa and she has rammed that she can sell me. And die by the rand . You would never buy the currency yourselves, it is depersonalised there is no risk of the other person not paying or not having the funds. That is high risk with aaron and i. There is always issues this is a company which was started when . We started in 2009 working full time and launched in 2010. That is quite key, isnt it . In the last couple of years there has been a lot of Financial Companies starting. Thin tech has really ta ke n companies starting. Thin tech has really ta ken off. Companies starting. Thin tech has really taken off. Is the fact you we re really taken off. Is the fact you were around then what important because there is a lot of competition now . It is important from the sense it takes time to build trust. The fact we have been around for six or seven years means people can research. There were not that many others around at the time. Tra nsfer that many others around at the time. Transfer wise went around then and many of your main competitors didnt exist. Banks did and they are our main competitor. If you added together all of the transaction is being done by the new Currency Fair fintech firms it is a small piece of the pie, we are bringing up the sector rather than challenging each other. Can you briefly explain this . You were the ceo of the company and you are now chief Strategy Officer. You gave yourself aid e motion, didnt you . Thats not the way i look at it. But effectively we got the point, i think, where we got to the point, i think, where we got to the point, i think, where we got to the point where scale was the most important thing, this was my first ceo role and i can certainly learn how to do that but i thought what is the best way to get this company big as soon as possible. Put a proper ceo in . And you focused on what you wa nted ceo in . And you focused on what you wanted to do. Exactly, im able to look at the markets and where we wa nt to look at the markets and where we want to be in the next couple of yea rs want to be in the next couple of years so it is a win win for the company. For the viewers perspective on this, talking about money changing hands and currencies but you are talking about big sums, it is not i want to go on holiday to south africa and i want a couple of hundred around. It could be, couldnt it . It is not small amounts, youre talking about big amounts . The average is about 5000 euros, £4500. But we do do some smaller stuff. But where our unique value kicks in is when the transaction is a bit larger and people stop thinking about it as a payment and more of a personal finance decision. Ive saved up money in australia, im coming home to the uk, youre not thinking what is the quickest, fastest, easiest way to get that back. Your commission on the movement is much less Tha N Commission on the movement is much less than a high street bank. 0n average we pay about a third of a percent. There is some criticism about the model, that there is some bold durability, for example, with brexit. Where there are lots of peer to peer sites that had to stop trading because it was ravitch, the volatility of the pound, for example. We stayed open during brexit which was a Big Validation Of Oui brexit which was a big validation of our model because we operate a Real Exchange where we allow people to choose to wait for a rate that suits them, or exchange immediately. Because of that we allow a market to build upon both sides and that was able to handle the volatility really well. With so Many Companies like you was around, these online fintech companies, how does the user finds those that are reliable, because its about trust and there is a real worry about these Smaller Companies not being able to follow through with financial commitments . Exactly and you see this notjust in foreign tra nsfers and you see this notjust in foreign transfers but lots of areas of fintech and it is not certain whether they are subsidising to build upa whether they are subsidising to build up a user base or whether they are cheaper. Both are true so consumers need to do their research and the fact we have been around a long time of the weather model works isa long time of the weather model works is a good test. We appreciate your time, thank you for coming on. Ina in a moment we will look at the apple story again and the New York Times. Here is how to stay in touch. The Business Life page is where you can stay ahead with all of the days breaking business news. We will keep you up to date with the latest details with insight and analysis from the bbcs team of news and editors around the world. We also wa nt to editors around the world. We also want to hear from you. Editors around the world. We also want to hearfrom you. Get editors around the world. We also want to hear from you. Get involved on the bbc Business Live web page at bbc. Comports slash business. We are at bbc business on twitter and we are on facebook and bbc business news. Business live on tv and online whenever you need to know. Dave is back as promised. Lets start with this story about apple. There was one time not long ago when apple were selling more smartphones in china than the us and the Story Highlights how important the Chinese Consumer is to apple. The company used end point is dont mess with these people. The remains that apple have taken this app from the chinese and english language perspective from the app store, to make sure they still have control over the media. What the capitalist system that works so brilliantly in the communist regime, they dont want it messed up and apple know the rules. Its the same way when Rupert Murdoch had issues over there, it ta kes murdoch had issues over there, it takes time to learn rules with the chinese but if you want to play in their ballpark it is what you must do. This article is the New York Times reporting on itself and what is going on with apple. Apples view is going on with apple. Apples view isa is going on with apple. Apples view is a very generic view. I cant really say what they really think, whereas the New York Times is no holds barred, it isjust whereas the New York Times is no holds barred, it is just censorship of the media as far as they are concerned. Absolutely, want to play by the rules that is what you have to do with china. Lets talk about viewers gadgets. I want to talk about the Australian Company that made more than 2000 times return on its investment. The ice making machine. I love my ice making machine. I love my ice making machine. I have one of those American Fridges at home. Ice making machine. I have one of those American Fridges at homem ice making machine. I have one of those American Fridges at home. In a hot country. We might be moving soon andi hot country. We might be moving soon and i cant take it with me. I want the thingy. Colin says it is his laptop. I imagine lots of people would say that, more powerful than a mobile and more mobile than a pc. The other walked out and left your ipad at home and felt like you have left your right arm . I have gone back for it, it is not even a discussion. When you get to my age, trust me, it happens quite often. Discussion. When you get to my age, trust me, it happens quite oftenlj am getting there. David, so nice to see you, thank you for coming in, and have a wonderful new year. Have a really good day whatever you are up to, whatever device you cant live without. Enjoy. Seat you later, goodbye. Good morning, after that very frosty start it is never going to get terribly one today but with lots of sunshine and a few layers it should feel quite delightful out there through the rest of today, and plenty more sunshine to come but it will be chilly. The Satellite Picture shows that much of the uk is clear of cloud. There is some thicker Cloud Heading of the atla ntic thicker Cloud Heading of the atlantic and that will bring a change in the weather over the next 24 hours but before the happens plenty of opportunity to enjoy the sunshine this afternoon. It will Cloud Upper Crust northern ireland, Western Scotland with a freshening breeze. For the rest of us dry and sunny, the odd shower near the coasts of south west england, and perhaps the extreme east coast of england but otherwise it will stay bright and crisp and frosty in the shade. At best temperatures typically 3 5d briefly through the early pa rt typically 3 5d briefly through the early part of the afternoon. There is the cloud in the early part of the day for northern ireland. It will hold off until evening time with plenty of sunshine further east. As we head through this evening it will turn increasingly cloudy and eventually wet across northern ireland, Western Scotland, some heavy bursts of rain. Sundays rain will start to topple further southwards and east was getting to the fringes of england and wales later on in the night. As that falls onto cold services there is a risk of ice in scotland and northern england. Further east frosty and for the start of the day and they will lift into low cloud, not much sunshine on the menu, the rain in the north west and it will start spreading southwards and eastwards as we go through the day. It will ta ke as we go through the day. It will take all day to arrive in east anglia and the south east. Temperatures slow to rise here but in general a milderfielding day for many of us without Atlantic Air Coming in. This whole set of fronts, a splash of rain, the ridge of High Pressure building in over the weekend. Lots of dry weather in actualfact, albeit weekend. Lots of dry weather in actual fact, albeit disappointingly cloudy. Hopefully there will be some brighter spells but not too hopeful they will be a lot of sunshine this weekend. It will be milder, rather cloudy, the odd spot of drizzle, particularly in the west. As i mentioned we have an atlantic influence in our part of the world, in contrast to the south east of europe where a severe cold spell will rip down from the north bringing a hard frost and the threat of snow as far south as the mediterranean. Hello its thursday, its 9am, im victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. Our top story today warnings children are being left to fend for themselves online with parents vainly hoping their kids will avoid the pitfalls. Im the childrens commissioner and we will be looking at how we give children resilience, honest information and the power to flourish online. If you identify with that do get in touch. Well talk to a group of schoolchildren about their experiences. Also on the programme the men who massacre theirfamilies. Well hear from some of those who survived the attacks. It is really hard. Those are the things i have to live with now. Even though it has been 14