this is worklife from bbc news, with sally bundock and karin giannone. losing friends on wall street. facebook posts its slowest growth ever — as antitrust and privacy concerns mount up. live from london, that's our top story on thursday 30 january

facebook records its first annual fall in profits in at least five years — as its efforts to respond to privacy and content concerns took a toll on the firm's bottom line. also in the programme the death toll from the coronavirus rises as the virus spreads to every chinese region. we will be live in hong kong. plus — with two days to go — will brexit put the squeeze on britain's winemakers or uncork their potential? and we'll be getting the inside track on selling your home. popular online estate agent, purple bricks, says it does away with hefty commission fees and offers a fixed price for its services — but how much expertise will that buy you? and don't forget you can get in touch with us about anything on the programme — just use the hashtag bbcworklife.

a warm welcome to the programme. we start with facebook, because shares in the social media giant were down sharply after its fourth—quarter results. that's despite another set of mind boggling numbers. revenues for the three months to december were just over 21 billion dollars — up by around a quarter on the same time last year. more than a third of that was profit. but investors are used to a faster growth from facebook — 25 per cent is the slowest growth rate ever. shares fell 7% in after hours trading. but how much bigger can it grow? almost 2.9 billion people use one of facebook‘s services at least once a month — including instagram and whatsapp. since january 2019, facebook shares have risen by over 50% to hit a new record high — valuing the company at 636 billion dollars.

that's despite a number of high profile investigations into whether it has too much market power — as well as general concerns over privacy. with us now is shona ghosh, uk tech editor, business insider uk welcome to the programme. 25%, the slowest growth in its history, what do you make of the results?” slowest growth in its history, what do you make of the results? i think long street has —— wall street has long had an emphasis on continuing growth forever, that's not possible, we are heading a point, everyone who is going to sign up to facebook, instagram, whatsapp has already signed up. this idea of slowing growth being a terrible thing, actually, it shouldn't be too much does the figure actually matter as perhaps being interpreted as by the markets? perhaps not, where is facebook going to get the extreme growth unless it's a bunch of new users signing up. it's got almost 3 billion monthly active user,

extremely impressive, it owns the most popular social apps on the world right now. the results are pretty strong. what does it say about other aspects of the business, oculus, that kind of thing? surprisingly, very little about other aspects of the business where it may make money. we had ad revenue, the way facebook makes money on software but where it seems to be struggling is making money through hardware. oculus sales facebook doesn't tend to break up those numbers, mark zuckerberg said they made $5 million through sales over christmas through content which is really impressive but sounds like it was a one—off. they didn't mention hardware sales from smart speakers which suggests it's not doing that well somewhere facebook seems to be struggling is making money from other sources. how intense is the scrutiny on facebook over how it uses its data? pretty intense. it's being forced to explain itself much more, forced to rule out tools that makes it clear to users how their data is used of

facebook and its platforms. mark zuckerberg will be in brussels and burberry explaining himself to regulators, the scrutiny is not letting up anytime soon. the digital services tax could be kicking in in the uk in april, france in negotiations with the united states on this but that could hit facebook looking ahead, couldn't it? on this but that could hit facebook looking ahead, couldn't mm could, it will be an interesting test of how facebook under the giants who don't want to see this come into force cannot be against that and how they might arrange sales set up, operations in different countries to try and potentially get around the tax. interesting question. thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news google is temporarily closing all of its offices in china, hong kong, and taiwan as a result of the coronavirus. other tech giants, including amazon and microsoft, have also taken action to protect staff from infection. this week global corporations have been shutting operations in china and advising overseas staff not to visit the country.

tesla shares have surged to a new record high after the electric car maker posted the second quarterly profit in a row — on record vehicle sales. tesla says it will deliver over half a million vehicles this year. its shares have more than doubled since its last set of results — valuing the company at over 100 billion dollars, more than german car giant volkswagen microsoft shares also hit a new record high after its latest numbers beat wall street estimates. it's seeing strong growth in its cloud business — where it is battling rival amazon in renting out computing power to companies. revenues at its cloud division — known as azure — were up 62 per cent president trump has formally signed into law the us—mexico—canada agreement — or usmca — following its approval by congress. the deal replaces the north america free trade agreement — governing trade between the three countries worth 1.2 trillion dollars a year. mexico has already approved the deal but canada's parliament still needs to ratify it before it can take effect

the coronavirus has now killed killed 170 people and spread to at least 15 other countries, rattling global markets and prompting evacuation plans. mariko oijoins us from hong kong. how is hong kong dry to protect itself? well, as of midnight local time, all the railway services out of china, all the high speed rail from china has been suspended as well as ferries also. some of the borders had been closed. limiting the numberof borders had been closed. limiting the number of buses and flights coming in from mainland china. this is what a lot of people here in hong kong have asked the authorities to do in orderto kong have asked the authorities to do in order to stop the spread of the virus. they are, of course, concerned this could have quite a

significant impact on the city 's tourism industry. remember the city has already been affected by months of pro—democracy protests which hit the retail and tourism sectors hard. so there are some the retail and tourism sectors hard. so there are some concerns the retail and tourism sectors hard. so there are some concerns that this kind of measure could affect the city 's economy even further but nevertheless, the city still remembers the sars outbreak from 2003, when nearly 300 people lost their lives and that's why a lot of people are actually asking the government to close all the boarders from mainland china. all right. thank you. let's look at this is being interpreted by the financial markets. it's really the story dominating the minds of traders globally. you can see in asia, we saw declines right across the board. heavier declines in china and elsewhere. if we look at europe. very similar story. the main markets all lower, germany

down by i.2%. france seen all lower, germany down by i.2%. france seen more all lower, germany down by i.2%. france seen more declines there. markets are focusing on the application of the coronavirus, what does it mean for the world ‘s second biggest economy and for the global economy. now to the us, where worries about a slowdown in the economy are mounting. samira hussain has more from new york. us president donald trump talks about and takes credit for the us economy a lot. a recent poll shows 36% of americans approve of the president's handling of the economy which is higher than his overall approval rating. stock markets continue to reach record highs, the labour market continues to add jobs and the us economy continues to grow. the federal reserve remains cautiously optimistic on the outlook for the global economy. even the drawn—out trade war between the world's two biggest economies has not had a massive impact on growth. but increasingly, economists are worried that times are changing and

the next set of growth numbers which are out on thursdayjust might reflect the slowdown in momentum. time now for our daily look at some of the newspaper and website stories which have caught our eye. joining me is russ shaw, the founder, of tech london advocates. welcome to you. we've been talking about this, the coronavirus, testing the dependence on china. about this, the coronavirus, testing the dependence on chinam about this, the coronavirus, testing the dependence on china. it is, in many different ways and especially technology sector. you mentioned microsoft, amazon, google scaling back, apple came out with their announcement earlier this week and they gave guidance this year because they gave guidance this year because they simply don't know how their business is going to be impacted in terms of sales of iphones. but their production and supply chain will be hit hard by this. it's quite interesting. you read the article in the new york times talks about the company is taking action. i read facebook is stopping the movement of

staff to a degree. but a company like facebook isn't affected in the same way as say apple, for example. there are not and it's an interesting indicator of how a social media business operates in this era of global tech. they don't have to worry about it as much, they are not sending their employees there but they don't necessarily have the deep infrastructure in china away say, apple dollars and can help it. talking about dependence on china. we are talking about huawei. we have been all week. about whether the uk should allow it into its five g network and the infrastructure. talking about in the telegraph, sleepy business park on the edge of banbury, special unit set up to look into the activity of huawei. tell us. it's cold the cell and it's really interesting, doesn't get enough coverage in terms of the debate and discussion around huawei. i think this is a unique way for the uk and uk government to say, any softwa re uk and uk government to say, any

software or hardware that gets sent in from huawei needs to go through this independent evaluation centre, i think they employ a0 people and they give the green light or the red light on any thing that gets deployed and i think in this age of where the us are simply blocking companies like huawei, the uk and its government is right to say we have another solution. we need to make sure they adhere to our standards under principles and data privacy rules. but, you know, if they pass all of those inspections, they pass all of those inspections, they should be able to come in. are you concerned about where this is going in terms of the relationship between the us and the uk? going in terms of the relationship between the us and the uk7m going in terms of the relationship between the us and the uk? it will have an impact because clearly the us is upping the pressure on the uk in terms of wanting to just block anything related to china. i think, you know, as long as the uk can stand its ground and demonstrate why these decisions are being taken, it will create tensions, especially if we are talking about a future trade deal between the us in the uk, i'm sure it will have some degree of

impact. but i think ultimately, the uk has to do what is right for the uk. time for a look at our 3&3, landmark case. that's decided it's an online platform rather than an actual property agent but what does that mean or change? actual property agent but what does that mean or change ?|j actual property agent but what does that mean or change? i think for them it puts them into a different regulatory space. they are not treated like a property company facing all of those rules and regulations, they are an online platform, it may be closer to google or facebook which i think is good news, especially in advance of their potential ipo this year so i think for them, it's a win but what they are now saying is we want a global regulator to look at how to address the business across europe. and to me, that's also an indication, when we've talked a lot about digital tax, france, uk, potentially going on its own, the company is saying it would be much better if there were one european wide regulator that we could deal with. it would help them

with their business. and i think there a good template out there for gdpr. is that quite unusual for them to say that, do you think? it's not what you hear from the other tech giants. sally, i think it's what you hear from the other tech giants. sally, ithink it's starting to change and more big tech companies are saying, we are ok to be regulated. there is advantages to them if they are regulated in certain areas, especially if you have disruptors certain areas, especially if you have disru ptors coming certain areas, especially if you have disruptors coming out there who potentially have to adhere to the same regulators. they have the size and scale to deal with regulation, hire the lawyers to manage through it and it ensures that others won't necessarily get into their space. i think we will see more of it. interesting. we appreciate your time. thank you. still to come what's the best way to sell your home? online estate agent, purple bricks, says it does away with hefty commission fees and offers a fixed price for its services — but how much expertise will that buy you? you're with worklife from bbc news.

newcastle city council has been named the most inclusive employer in the uk, by the lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality charity, stonewall — as part of the campaign groups 2020 top 100 employers list. it's the first ever local authority to reach pole position since the charity started this annual ranking 16 years ago. joining us now is sanjay sood—smith, executive director at stonewall. i presume you are very happy about this result? it's fantastic that we've got our first ever local authority in the top of our annual top 100. the top 100 is a list that stonewall produces every year that celebrates the organisations that are leading the way on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans inclusion in the workplace and if you think about it, we spend most of our adult lives at work so it's really important that organisations create welcoming workplaces for everyone and people perform better when they can be

themselves so it's really important that organisations do this work and that's why it's fantastic to celebrate these organisations leading the way including newcastle city council. tell us about who is on the list, education establishments are pretty high up, aren't they, they dominate this? we've got a huge range of different types of organisations, stonewall works with over 800 organisations and we had more than 500 entries this year from the public, private and third sectors. we got a major high street supermarket on there. a numberof high street supermarket on there. a number of law high street supermarket on there. a numberof law firms, high street supermarket on there. a number of law firms, universities. multiple government agencies as well. it's really important because lg bt well. it's really important because lgbt people still face huge amounts of discrimination in the workplace and over one of discrimination in the workplace and overone in of discrimination in the workplace and over one in three hide the fact they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans because they are scared of discrimination or abuse and one in five have actually been the recipient of negative conduct or behaviour from our colleagues because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans.

in 30 seconds, what tangible things should be in place and companies to create an inclusive atmosphere. it is important companies and strong policies in place that support their staff, through from recruitment, the organisations they work with, encouraging them to be lgbt inclusive as well and if your networ group set up to support staff. stonewall and experts who want to get in touch, will be so glad to help. thank you very much. you're watching worklife. a reminder of our top story: facebook has recorded its first annualfall in facebook has recorded its first annual fall in profits facebook has recorded its first annualfall in profits in at facebook has recorded its first annual fall in profits in at least five years. as its efforts to respond to privacy and content concerns took a toll on its bottom line. now, if you have ever purchased or sold a home, you know that it

can be a stressful experience. ina in a couple of minutes, we are going to talk to the ceo of purple bricks. for some people, the most excruciating aspect of the whole process is paying the hefty commission fees usually associated with the use of estate agents. well, our next guest says his online firm — purplebricks — has a solution to this problem. founded in 2012, the uk—firm — which also operates in canada — claims its platform can save people money by offering fixed low fees for its services. with us now is vic darvey, chief executive of purplebricks welcome to the programme. thank you. good morning. when you started you we re good morning. when you started you were a real disruptor, you took the uk market by storm, you see an immense growth in five years. but the bricks and mortar estate agents don't like you, do they? that's right, the first thing i would say in the last five years, we've gone from start—up to the largest estate

agent in the uk, we sell three and a half times more homes than the two in the marketplace. we are a disruptive force. as you said, the keep mission in life is to reduce the cost of moving against the average commission in the uk, we can save households thousands of pounds when moving home. that's incredibly disruptive. that's if the house is sold, isn't it? the person selling has to pay the fee regardless whether the house sells are not. so what is your success rate? this is very well documented, currently we sell 77% of the houses we list over the last 12 months which is against the last 12 months which is against the industry average of around 48%. we look at it a slightly different way. we charge a fair fixed fee, you can save thousands of pounds in the process and your 50% more likely to sell your home through purple bricks than using a traditional high street agent. a few years ago you

launched in australia, america, canada. you had to pull out of australia and america. what went wrong?” had to pull out of australia and america. what went wrong? i think the first thing to say, we have a very entrepreneurial mindset, we will give everything ago. i think one of the things we recognise without a high street presence you need to build a brand, one of the only ways you can build a brand into new markets is through tv advertising, it very expensive. the market at the time was very difficult. i think if anything, it made us realise what a great business we have here in the uk and canada. we sit here today with 97% brand awareness, largest estate agent in the uk and i think we are very focused on extending the market leadership. you had to put up your fees by £100, why? i think we looked at it, we've got plenty of headroom to put up fees, we want to invest further in people and technology. we have 600 local property experts on the ground, we want more and to provide a localised presence. as i said, we've got the headroom, we believe you can still save thousands of pounds when moving home through

purple bricks. 3ut there is concern about what's been going on in purple bricks canada, employees, it is alleged, were getting paid days off if they got their family and friends to write reviews. fake reviews, essentially. that's not good, is it? it is alleged, just tell me what your responses to that. well, we would say the integrity of the reviews, we take that seriously, 72,000 reviews with trust pilate, we've won the gold trust service award in the uk. what about canada. in canada we had an isolated incident, we rebranded purple bricks, we couldn't take the reviews with us, there was an isolated mistake. we've now put processes in place that doesn't happen again. doesn't that put people off? that's a concern. and i think the estate agency business in general is one thatis agency business in general is one that is viewed with a lot of concern and trust is a big deal. it's really important element, isn't it, when your home? yes,

i absolutely agree. i think for us it's very much about the benchmarks that we use so trust is very important to us but we are consta ntly is very important to us but we are constantly looking at our trust values, the processes we put in place to maintain that trust and things like net promoter score in the uk is plus 86. higher than the industry average, and than any other category you see in the digital space we category you see in the digital space we are category you see in the digital space we are continuously looking at how we adapt and evolve our processes to ensure we continue to build trust with consumers over the next few years. it can't have escaped anyonepos macro notice we area escaped anyonepos macro notice we are a day away from brexit to what has the uncertainty of the last month of brexit done to your business and the housing market generally? it's certainly the questions on mines at the moment. looking back to 2019 consumers were sitting on the fence, adopting a wait—and—see attitude. so there's been some pent—up demand, we are seeing that released into the marketplace at the moment, quite a big uptake across the category. from our perspective i think we are

cautiously optimistic but i think there are a number of things we need to look at as well. one thing for us is stamp duty isn't working, we have consta ntly is stamp duty isn't working, we have constantly called on borisjohnson to honour his pledge when he was seeking election as prime minister, since 2015 when they reduce the threshold 8% less homes have come in the market. we'll talk about brexit but there are other issues within the marketplace that we need to address. your are by nature, money supermarket dot—com, at last minute, you are now with purple bricks. where do you see purple bricks going in the future, are you going to try again to expand internationally beyond canada and the uk? absolutely not. i think at the moment we are focused on the uk and canada. we think if you look at some of the other trends in other categories, consumer expectations will continue to evolve. we are looking at data, artificial intelligence to understand how we can support our mission is which is how do we reduce the cost of moving home in the uk and how do we introduce greater

transparency into the buying and selling process? thank you very much for your time. i'm calling this brexit eve. all day. it's just two days until britain leaves the european union. all this week we are looking at the potential opportunities — and risks — for different industries. father and daughter ian and rebekah sargent own laurel vines in east yorkshire, one of england's most northerly wineries. will brexit uncork their potential — or squeeze their profits? people don't realise you can grow grapes this far north. we have two and a half thousand vines in the ground at the moment. we don't know how long trade delays are going to be, barriers to trade as well, are we going to get extra import taxes? 80% of the equipment is actually from europe. things like these tanks we've ordered those six months in advance of what we would normally to

ensure we've got them here. we've now stockpiled about 10,000 bottles in order to prepare ourselves to have in excess of the year ‘s quantity. this uncertainty, that is the biggest single concern. it's the fourth time we've been contingency planning. it's not a level playing field at this moment in time and i think because of uncertainty, certain suppliers are taking advantage. we've seen between ten and 15% increases in materials. the ca psules and 15% increases in materials. the capsules which go on top of the wine bottle, the cork, that has increased as well. the supply company blaming brexit. we will be exploring how can we get maybe some of the products that we use from british suppliers?

i think we have to turn brexit into a positive thing, to embrace the changes and see how we can help our market continue to grow. that's it from worklife today. we'll see you again tomorrow. good morning. if you've been outside this morning already you will notice its mild compared to yesterday morning, when we were talking about frost and ice. temperatures, look at the difference, seven or eight celsius first thing this morning. we are going to keep this milder weather for the next few days. temperatures above the average for the time of year but it comes with a lot of cloud and for today some rain as well. but the air is coming in

all the way from the south—west, you can see the yellow colours across the uk. that will bring temperatures this afternoon into double figures. but as i mentioned, within that, there is some weather systems, area of low pressure to the north bringing heavy rain to scotland. this weather system across southern parts bringing outbreaks of rain across south wales, through southern areas of england. there could still be drizzle at times over higher ground of north—west england, the bulk of the rain in the north—west of scotla nd bulk of the rain in the north—west of scotland but north—east scotland bugging out, some sunshine for you, elsewhere it staying quite cloudy, quite windy conditions in the north. look at those temperatures. 10—13 or even 1a degrees. through tonight we lose rain across scotland before further rain spreads into scotland and northern ireland by the end of the night. we keep cloud, mist and murk, mild night, temperatures in the south are not going below ten or 11 degrees. throughout friday we have this area of low pressure towards the west, this weather front bringing the rain across northern

ireland come into scotland. moving gradually south and east words but as it does so, it will weaken. this area of rain breaking up into showers as it moves into the south—east of england. quite wet at times for wales, northern parts of england, further heavy rain into the west of scotland. but look at those temperatures. 10—13 maybe 1a degrees celsius, feeling very mild. through into the weekend we have still got weather systems moving in. this one particularly during sunday will spread its way into southern areas, moving northwards throughout the weekend but because that air is coming in from the south—west, it's going to remain quite mild both on saturday and sunday. temperatures will still be around 12—13d, there will still be around 12—13d, there will be rain at times, as i said, particularly during sunday, quite heavy across southern areas as it moves its way further north. it will turn colderfor a time into next week. goodbye for

now.

you're watching bbc news at nine with me, annita mcveigh. the headlines: plans to evacuate 200 britons from the virus—hit chinese city of wuhan won't go ahead today as planned. now the ministry of defence say they've sent a small team of medics to china. it comes as the death toll of the coronavirus rises to 170. the virus has now spread to every region in mainland china. a boost for hs2. the chancellor gives his backing to the scheme ahead of a key meeting with borisjohnson today. new figures show that nearly 2,000

prison officers in england and wales took time off work last year because of stress, anxiety or depression. astronomers reveal remarkable, never before seen images of the surface of the sun — all captured by a solar telescope in hawaii. estate agents in some parts of france have report a ‘brexit boost‘, with uk buyers in a race to find a home there before britain leaves the eu. we'll have more at quarter past nine. and she deserves it. and an upset at the australian open women's semi final as spain's garbine muguruza beats the world number three simona halep to reach the final.