war the ai boom as shares of both check giants rise. shares of alphabet and microsoft rise. china kicks off its biggest showcase of cars as electric vehicles take centre stage at the beijing auto show. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm mariko oi. we begin in the us, where two tech giants, microsoft and google parent alphabet, have reported strong first quarter results, with the artificial intelligence boom at the center of it all. erin delmore has the details. among the dozens of companies reporting first—quarter earnings on thursday, alphabet and microsoft took centre stage.

both beat expectations on earnings and revenue, thanks in no small part to investments in artificial intelligence. one stand—out spot for alphabet was google cloud revenue, whichjumped 28% in 01. a lot of generative ai tools that rely on the cloud to reach customers. alphabet announced some good news for investors, its first—ever dividend of 20 cents per share, and first—ever dividend of 20 cents pershare, and an first—ever dividend of 20 cents per share, and an additional $70 billion buy—back. that initially sent shares into double digits after the bell. and for microsoft's part, its intelligent cloud division delivered greater revenue than expected — thanks to microsoft partnership but with openai, the creator of chatgpt. shares rose on the news. and together, they should go some way through restoring confidence in the tech sector which was shaken wednesday after meta's stock fell after its own earnings report and after the market was rattled by slowing us gdp and stubborn inflation.

in other earnings news, intel also announced its results but it was its outlook for the second quarter of the year that sent should shares lower in later trading. intel says weak demand for its traditional datacentre and pc chips is what led to the lower forecast. investors are investors a re now investors are now trimming expectations that the federal reserve will cut rates before september. the latest data show its economy grew at its slowest pace in nearly two years in the first three months of the year. the personal consumption expenditures price index — which is a key indication of inflation — rose 3.4% for the quarter.

us secretary of state is meeting chinese officials on a three—day trip. economic ties have been a flashpoint. antony blinken has called for a level playing field for american companies doing business in china. let's bring in our business reporter monica miller who has been following the story for us. this is the latest high level meeting between officials from washington and beijing. 0ne one of the biggest issues is the economy. mr blinken has brought up nonmarket practices as well as manufacturing capacity. 0ne as well as manufacturing capacity. one of the things that the us has toyed with is slapping additional tariffs on chinese goods such as electric vehicles was not china makes an abundance of them and they are very cheap. what the us is worried about is if they flood the market that is really going to have a major impact on american automakers. mr blinken also met with us business leaders in shanghai yesterday and one of the things that they had been arguing for is this level playing field. they argue that the chinese government heavily subsidises some industries, especially in the green space, especially when it

comes to solar panels, the global market. in response to what mr blinken has said, here is what the spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs had to say. translation: ., ., ., translation: trade cooperation, we ho -e translation: trade cooperation, we hepe that _ translation: trade cooperation, we hope that the _ translation: trade cooperation, we hope that the us _ translation: trade cooperation, we hope that the us side - we hope that the us side earnestly respects the principle of fair competition, observes_ principle of fair competition, observes the rules, and works with_ observes the rules, and works with china _ observes the rules, and works with china to create favourable conditions for the sound and stevie — conditions for the sound and stevie development of china — us economic relations. —— steady— us economic relations. —— steady development. us economic relations. -- steady development.- us economic relations. -- steady development. this has ha--ened steady development. this has happened a — steady development. this has happened a day _ steady development. this has happened a day after- steady development. this has l happened a day after president biden signed legislation that would essentially ban tiktok from being able to function in the united states if it's chinese parent company, bytedance, it doesn't divest of its portion of the company. the company as it is looking into legal options in the us courts.

thank you for the update, monica miller in the newsroom for us. let's stay in china, where the country's biggest auto show has kicked off in beijing, with car makers showing off their latest electric vehicles. china is currently the world's biggest car market and the world's biggest car exporter, and has seen stiff competition over the past year especially amongst domestic players. i spoke to auto analyst bill russo who gave us his outlook for the market. there is a focus on electrification with the dominance of the chinese companies who now have almost 80% share of the electric vehicle segment. this is eaten into gasoline powered vehicles by more than 10 million units. but the other important trend is the emergence of the smart device companies that are now present on the landscape. a

big amount of attention given to xiaomi, the su7 shown at the show. it by far drew the biggest crowds. and also ito as supplier and manufacturer. the chinese consumers have really embraced the idea of evs and particularly smart evs. at the same time the market almost feels saturated and the economy not doing so well so in terms of sales of those evs, what kind of numbers are we seeing? the ev share of the market is for passenger vehicles 35%. more than every three individually owned vehicles that are purchased right now in china are electric vehicles. that has come in a market that is not growing —

the market overall has been negative since 2017, in terms of domestic sales — so for every ev that sold, it's at least one fewer gasoline powered vehicles so it's basically cannibalising the gasoline powered segment, which is creating a bit of a structural problem for china, with far too many factories configured to build the wrong types of products. as you mentioned, china has been accused of producing way too many cars, we seen factories cutting production or even closing, so will that continue? china is guilty of obsoleting its own manufacturing industry when it comes to gasoline—powered vehicles being less popular now. so by eroding, by successfully getting consumers to consider and purchase evs, it's actually created a structural problem for its own market with fewer demand in china for gasoline—powered vehicles but with their finding is there is demand for good value for the money everywhere in the world, and that's caused china to be

the largest export country in the world for all types of vehicles. 4.9 million vehicles were exported from china last year, and three out of every four of those vehicles were gasoline—powered. there's plenty of demand in the world for affordability. it is officially friday and if like me you are looking forward to putting your feet up and spending some quality time with your loved ones this weekend, for some, your loved ones this weekend, forsome, it your loved ones this weekend, for some, it includes tampering that very friends with some of the best treats money can buy. aaron heslehurst has been talking to the founder and big boss of the dog agency about being a dogfluencer on social media. , ., , ., ., ., media. this generates a lot of mone . media. this generates a lot of money- each _ media. this generates a lot of money. each one _ media. this generates a lot of money. each one of _ media. this generates a lot of money. each one of these - media. this generates a lot of| money. each one of these pets is an independent little business. they have multiple revenue streams, do partnerships with brands, traditional influenza work, creating content and putting it on social media. we have

clients that have new york times bestselling books, merchandise, product lines, do appearances. the revenue streams are endless. they started with instagram and social media collaborations, but they have expanded beyond that to be true businesses with limitless potential of earnings. although figures if you are a bigger influence with a large following, engaged audience, you can be getting five figures per instagram post. that adds up. you do a lot of posts a year. they have various revenue streams, from simple things like branded t—shirts to books, novels, children's books, independent products and production now, that i can't talk about now, butjumping into that revenue stream right now, the plans are exciting where people are launching their own brands. and launching their own brands. and can ou launching their own brands. and can you give _ launching their own brands. and can you give me _ launching their own brands. and can you give me an _ launching their own brands. and can you give me an example of the types of brands that are wanting a slice of this ever—growing pie? wanting a slice of this ever-growing pie? the types of

brands looking _ ever-growing pie? the types of brands looking into _ ever-growing pie? the types of brands looking into this - ever-growing pie? the types of brands looking into this across | brands looking into this across the board. we have had facing brands, human facing brands, entertainment companies are movie studios, travel brands, it is endless. it makes a lot of sense because the influences are pets, but the humans are involved with their living audience. if involved with their living audience.— involved with their living audience. ., ., audience. if you want to find more about _ audience. if you want to find more about the _ audience. if you want to find more about the picture - audience. if you want to find i more about the picture industry and the business is driving it on bbc news, talking business will be airing here in the uk, iipm will be airing here in the uk, 11pm on saturday, and in the rest of the world 10:30pm on friday. the japanese central bank is meeting and there is a lot of focus on the weakness of the japanese currency, the japanese yen.

and that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching.

hi — i'm here the catch up. tonight, schoolkids are smoking. gigs getting cancelled and a dog with a robot. we start with something that might shock you. england has the highest rate of schoolkids drinking alcohol out of more than a0 countries — that's according to the world health organization. they looked at 280,000 ii—is—year—olds and found by the age of 13, just over half of girls and half of boys had drunk alcohol. the study also found teenage girls are more likely to smoke than boys, and two in five girls than boys in england and scotland have tried vaping by the time they were 15. numbers of children drinking in the uk has been falling, though, but experts want more to be done to stop it. a 13—year—old girl has been charged with three counts of attempted murder after two teachers and a pupil was stabbed at a school in southwest wales. police say the three victims have all been released from hospitals. next, rebel wilson's autobiography has finally been released in the uk — but certain sections have been

covered up, here. that's because of allegations against borat star sacha baron cohen, which he denies — bits about him have been hidden. and kid cudi has cancelled his appearance at coachella. and kim cattrall has had to pull out of her appearances because of health issues. and now ten seconds of a guide dog becoming friends with a robot, after a specially arranged date. amelia reacted badly to the delivery bot when they first met. when they first met but now as you can see, it is all fun and games. i love it. you are all caught up i love it. you are all caught up now. see you later. hello and welcome to sportsday with me, lizzie greenwood—hughes. here's what's coming up:

manchester city close in on arsenal at the top of the premier league. shock in f1 as the man behind red bull's success says he's leaving the team. and seven—time world champion ronnie o'sullivan powers past his opponent at the crucible, proving age is just a number. what is possible in this game? how long can you keep going for? you know? can you win a world championship at 50, who knows? i'm probably the only player who's able to do that. so welcome to the programme. lots coming up tonight. we're starting with the premier

league because just look