World business report. Snapjudgement investors punish the firm behind snapchat. As the messaging apps results disappoint, its shares plunge 23 . Plus borderline anxiety. Businesses in Northern Ireland fear for the future on britains post brexit frontier. Welcome to World Business report. Im tanya beckett. Also coming up a strong year forjapanese tech giant softbank. But first we start with snap, the Company Behind the messaging app snapchat. In case you arent familiar with it, it lets you send photo messages which disappear after a few seconds, and it seems the confidence of investors has gone missing almost as fast. Snaps shares have plunged in after hours trading, on its first set of Financial Results since that huge Flotation Back in march. Lets show you the details. This is how much they lost in the first three months of the year 2. 21 billion. That is a massive jump on the losses this time last year. It is mostly because of huge stock option payouts to staff in the ipo. But here is the number investors are really looking at. By the end of march, 166 Million People were using snapchat every day. That is up over 36 on the same time last year, but it was a few million less than investors had been hoping, and a big slowdown from growth seen in previous quarters. It also pales in comparison when you look at this. Facebook has around 1. 3 billion daily users, and almost 2 billion who use it at least once a month. Even its version of snapchat, instagram stories, has 200 million daily users. Investors were quick to pile into shares when snap went public back in march. The Share Price Rose by as much as 50 in the first couple of days of trading. But look how that enthusiasm has waned on concerns about competition from facebook, and its shares are likely to plunge when they open on thursday. They were down 23 in after market trading, towards 17. That would take the shares pretty much back to their flotation price. From san francisco, here is dave lee. When snap went public in march it had to answer two big questions. The first was, could attract enough new users to keep investors happy, and the second question, probably a bigger question, was caught it survive an onslaught from facebook which has been copying snapchats best ideas and giving them to its users instead. Well, so far the a nswer to users instead. Well, so far the answer to both of those questions seems to be no. User growth has been too small, revenue has been too small, and while snapchat is still very popular with teenagers, there hasnt been an increasing engagement that perhaps investors would have wanted. Indeed, on an Earnings Call after results were published, one investor asked the Chief Executive whether there were new products coming which could give investors cause for hope. He didnt have too many bright ideas. He also said he wasnt worried by facebook, but on the evidence of these results, he probably should be. Colinjacobs is Managing Director of immediate future, an independent social media consultancy. Lets start with the immediate concern that people seem to have about snapchat, and this is this competition from facebook, whether it really is a sustainable model as it really is a sustainable model as it is, and can sustain interest. Facebook are not going to go anywhere, they are thriving at the moment, the numbers you havejust read out underlined that. It is quite an interesting position he ta kes, quite an interesting position he takes, when facebook lies a company as it tried to do with snapchat, by the company. If he fails, he worked overtime, and that is what we are seeing with the new features coming online. Facebooks position is stronger because of their user growth, there is no doubt about that, and revenues they are currently generating a reportedly £8 billion, which is significant. And snapchat are moving on. Yes, and they are moving in the right direction and have some nice product coming online. Sojust direction and have some nice product coming online. So just for the viewers, what we understand snapchat to do is to take a photograph, apply a filter and it lends itself to advertising various products, however they need to do more. They need to do more but they have had some products in test, and the signals are encouraging. There was a reporter couple of weeks ago when they analyse their user growth and within the report showing that 80 of us are snapping in restaurants and 66 are snapping in balls, they released early signals on the product which looked for a long time. Social has played around with a term called click to break. Can we show that there is engagement in social that drives revenue at a location. Snapchat claim they have a product which does this. They had a trial with wendys restaurants, 42,000 people visited within seven days of acting on a filter. If they bring that product to market there is no doubt retailers and consumers will have great interest in it. In fa ct we will have great interest in it. In fact we are exploring it without Consumer Clients already. So the battle for these social Media Company is his First Business of user growth, because the more users you have the better it is in terms of Potential Conversion but the other thing is absolutely monetising it. Many social Media Companies have struggled in this department and snapchat is no exception. And if you go back far enough, this is exactly the fight that facebook had. Not long ago it was quite a revelation when parents suddenlyjoined facebook. The younger demographic was quite shocked, my father now on facebook. That is where snapchat a rat today. The challenges, are they going to be able to grow their user base to truly monetise . Because the big revenues will only come if they have a far more inclusive user base, there is no doubt about that. Also, as the eus chief brexit negotiator, michel barnier, prepares to address the irish parliament, we are on the border between the Republic Of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where brexit talks will be closely followed. That is because, of course, it will represent britains Land Frontier with the eu once it leaves, and businesses there are worried about what that border will be like, as the bbcs Dominic Oconnell reports. This is what we will be once britain leaves the european union. The main land border between the two. They might not look like it, but the tranquil waters here are actually an international frontier. Tranquil waters here are actually an internationalfrontier. 0ver tranquil waters here are actually an internationalfrontier. Over here the Republic Of Ireland and hear the united kingdom. It wasnt always this peaceful, of course. It used to bea this peaceful, of course. It used to be a militarised border with checkpoints. Now businesses here are worried about britains bow to the european union, and what happens next. Another busy lambing season just finished. Some of the most worried farmers and Food Processors in the north who have forged deep relationships in the republic. The Chief Executive of the Farmers Cooperative says his Organisation Makes cooperative says his Organisation Ma kes co Nsta Nt Cooperative says his Organisation Makes constant use of the open border. We process livestock in Northern Ireland and the Republic Of Ireland. We employ 1200 people in the republic, we employ 1400 in Northern Ireland. From our perspective, we are hugely concerned about the potential impact of a hard order. We hope that they will not the one. But we cannot rule that out. Therefore, for Business Planning purposes, we have to consider the worst case scenario. And for our company that would be very significant disruption. Not all businesses in the north think rex it is bad news. Some think it is the best thing that has ever happened. The ministers in Northern Ireland have less influence over Fisheries Policy in the irish sea than a Government Minister from Slovakia Policy in the irish sea than a Government Ministerfrom slovakia or any other part of the european union. The thing about the irish sea, 75 of the irish sea is within uk territorial waters but uk fishermen really only have the opportunity to carry catch about 40 . Future here is linked to the outcome of the brexit negotiations, which are themselves uncertain. But businesses in the North And South will be hoping that the politics of peace which dismantled the hard border in the first place will triumph over the politics of brexit. To asia now, where japanese telecoms and internet giant softbank has revealed some of its best profits ever. Softbank is a Complicated Com Pa ny to follow. It runs a mobile phone network injapan, but also invests heavily around the world. It owns us mobile company sprint, and has recently bought uk chip firm arm, which designs chips for the iphone. It also has a huge stake in chinese ecommerce giant alibaba. Rico hizon is following this in singapore for us. It is indeed a confusing company. And softbank doesnt help that be understood any more, the name. Thats right, it is very diversify. They are into e commerce, taxi hailing applications, but looking at the overall numbers, the second best everfor the overall numbers, the second best ever for softbank, Operating Profit for the year, until the end of march, rising 30 to 9 billion. And again it was due basically to cost cutting and a rise in the number of subscribers in its us mobile business, sprint, which it hopes to merge with rival the Third Largest wi reless hopes to merge with rival the Third Largest wireless carrier, seen as a Potential Kingmaker in the sector, as Companies Like sprint have ambitions of being the largest in the field. The diversify conglomerate also has the investments in china. It recently confirmed 5 billion investment in the so called uber of china, which has some 400 million users across 400 cities in the mainland. It Acquired Uber China In August last year. Acquired uber china in august last yea r. Lots of Acquired Uber China In August last year. Lots of businesses which are profitable. That is what we like to hear. Lets look at what has been happening on the markets. A couple of driving in fact is. There is an impression in the markets for reasons i wont go into that we will see further rate hikes in the us. That has strengthened the dollar, but also Oil Inventory is moving down fast and that has been helpful for Commodity Prices generally. These are the asian markets, as you can see, picking up on a Strong Performance we saw on wall street. Here we go. You can see the nasdaq moving up and the dow. We take a look at what has been happening on the european markets . I dont think it is going to play with me, but we are seeing a stronger dollar this morning. Dont forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter. Im bbcta nyabeckett. A Company Responsible for making almost 100 million nuisance Telephone Calls has been fined a record £400,000 by the information commissioners office. The company, keurboom communications, made automated unsolicited calls relating to Road Accident and ppi compensation. Keith doyle reports. Most of us have received them, cold calls offering anything from help with ppi claims or Road Accidents to investing in some sort of scheme. The cold callers play a numbers game, bombarding people in the hope that some will bite and take up their offers, and the numbers are staggering. This one company, keurboom communications, based in bedfordshire, made almost 100 million automated phone calls in just 18 months. The calls were about a variety of subject, including ppi and road traffic accidents. People got numerous calls, often on the same day, often late at night. Companies are allowed to make marketing calls, but only if you have given permission, such as ticking a box on a form. This company didnt have permission, and so got a record £400,000 fine from the information commissioner. You can avoid many Nuisance Calls by signing up to the telephone preference service. New laws which will allow the directors of cold Call Companies which breaks the rules to be fined should also mean fewer Nuisance Calls in the future. Three women, including a mother and daughter, are due to appear in court in london today, charged with preparing a Terrorist Act and conspiracy to murder. They include 21 year old rizlaine boular, who was shot by police during a raid at a property in willesden, in the north west of the city, two weeks ago. Coming up at 6 00am on breakfast sally nugent and Charlie Stayt will have all the days news, business and sport, including the leak of the labour partys election manifesto. This is bbc news. The latest headlines james comey, the fbi chief fired by President Trump on tuesday, has responded to his sacking in a letter. He says he has long believed that the president can dismiss an fbi director for any reason, or no reason at all. Us senators have issued a subpoena to demand Michael Flynn hand over documents of his Business Dealings with russia. Researchers say hiv patients in europe and North America can now expect to live close to the same age as the general population. Real madrid are on the verge of more european history after reaching another Champions League final, where theyll take onjuventus next month. The now it is time for our newspaper review. Starting in the uk,