meta's financial results confirm it is not all doom and gloom in the tech sector. plus, the latest episode of american's culture wars — disney takes legal action against florida's governor. hello and welcome to asia business report. i am karishma vaswani. we begin the programme with meta and its surprising quarterly results. shares of the facebook parent are up nearly 12% in extended trading, after the company reported its first sales increase in nearly a year, and forecast that second—quarter revenue would be above market expectations.

this confirms the view that digital advertisers are betting on well—established platforms, such as facebook and instagram, in the face of challenging economic conditions. those concerns have led meta and other tech giants to embark on a cost—cutting campaign that has so far resulted in 150,000 lay—offs across the sector. earlier i spoke with ray wang, the founder of the tech advisory firm constellation research and he told me that meta has managed to keep eyeballs on its platforms and advertisers know that. yeah, they showed the digital ad winter is thawing and that is a really important piece. what you mentioned earlier was important, advertisers are flocking to the big platforms. if you don't have the users and the eyeballs, they are not going to be there and what meta showed was that they were able to keep their monthly active users still at 2.99 billion, almost 3 billion, intact, and were able to drive sales up 3% and give a queue to guidance

that was much higher between the 29.5 billion to 32 billion range. and that is coming on the heels of 20,000 job cuts and this year of efficiency that mark zuckerberg has hushered in. so is that what has led to the brighter outlook, has just been about cost—cutting, efficiency and therefore better profits? that's one part of the story. i think the other part of the story is the fact that wheels are starting to take hold. that will require some investment and it is coming from thejob cuts but more importantly the bulk of the job cuts are being used to pay for the metaverse aspect of meta, and that will require a tonne of cutbacks over the next two to three years, that is why the job cuts were put into place. so this bet on the metaverse, do you think that is likely to yield strong results, or the kind of future that mark zuckerberg is hoping facebook and meta will move into? it's one part of the strategy. the other part is really getting more monetization capabilities within facebook,

but at the moment meta really has to focus on finishing the metaverse to fulfil their promise of a more immersive opportunity and more opportunity to sell ads and sell targetted personalization. that will be their big driver in the future but i will not all happen at once. the barriers are there, the headsets are clunky, they last for a short period of time, they need more advancements, and if we can get to that they will at least get more people on board. what do you think this signals for big tech? it is notjust meta we have seen results from, we have seen other big tech firms reporting. the good news is microsoft did better than expected, there is some growth going on in azure, the cloud part of the business. which is important. we are about to see what amazon does tomorrow in terms of their earnings in the cloud, and then we also saw some good growth overall, in terms of what's happening with overall tech companies

from service now to others that show that enterprise tech is doing well and that is what people are looking for. ray wong speaking to me earlierfrom constellation research. samsung electronics has also reported quarterly earnings confirming a massive 95% plunge in profit. a sharp global downturn in semiconductor demand has sent prices plummeting, meaning the south korean company's operating profit came in atjust over $478 million. but the conglomerate also has a smartphone division that looks pretty dominant. itjust recently edged out rival apple in terms of market share. sanyam chaurasia says samsung will continue to face stiff competition from apple though, particularly in the premium a smartphone segment. samsung, in terms of global shipments are stable, the brand faces stiff competition in the premium segments especially from apple. apple has a good share of in the upper $500 segment.

the gap between apple and samsung in terms of global shipment has narrowed the last few years, and we see that trend continue. we expect this year from samsung is to focus more on the premium segment. the house of mouse is wading into legal waters. dysney is suing the governor of florida ron desantis. the company claims that mr desantis and his officials violated its constitutional rights. the media giant says the governor has waged a campaign of retaliation against disney after it criticised a law promoted by the florida state government. the bbc�*s north america busines correspondent michelle fleury reports now from new york. yes, the escalating feud between one of america's biggest companies and a potential white house contender is now headed to court. disney filed its suit on the same day that officials appointed by governor ron desantis voted to block development plans for the florida theme park. the entertainment giant claims it is a victim of a relentless

campaign to weaponise government power against disney. a spokesman for mr desantis dismissed disney's lawsuit as an attempt to undermine the will of the voters in his state. this battle started last year, after the firm spoke out against a law banning discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity in primary schools, often referred to as the �*don�*t say gay law'. the florida governor and likely presidential candidate has clearly decided that taking on a company perceived by his base as woke is good for politics, but starting a fight with one of the state's biggest employers and taxpayers comes with costs, of which this lawsuit may only be the first. michelle fleury reporting on that story for us. shares in first republic have tumbled nearly 30% to a new record low amid renewed fears the us bank could be the next to collapse. the selloff extended steep

declines from a day earlier after the bank said customers had pulled $100 billion in deposits in march. first republic has been under pressure since a series of us bank failures last month sparked fears of a wider crisis. chinese police have visited the office of the us management and consultancy firm bain & company in shanghai and questioned its staff. a statement from bain�*s spokesman said the company is cooperating with chinese authorities but offered no further information. chinese authorities last month raided the office of the american corporate due diligence firm mince group and traders are increasingly pessimistic about their prospects there according to a survey by the american chamber of commerce in china. to india now because the country is estimated to overtake china as the world's most populous country by the end of april, with more than 1.4 billion

people according to the united nations. india's youth demographic makes up about 65% of that massive number, and experts agree that is a huge potential for economic growth, but there aren't enough women in the workforce, and efforts are under way to change this as my colleague went to find out. a few years ago this would have been a rare sight. in what once was a male—dominated manufacturing industry. gabriel, an auto parts company, employs over 20% of women, it has been six years since this woman travelled over 1700 kilometres from her home town to work in this factory in the small town. translation: i wanted to try something new, something challenging. if i had remained there, i probably would not have been able to work at all. it is a welcome change,

especially because women account for less than 20% of india's manufacturing sector. companies like gabriel say it makes sense to invest in female employees, since their attrition rate is much lower than male workers. india is slowly seeing companies push for more gender diversity in the workforce. while they are trying to get more women in, the challenge still remains in ensuring they stay on for the long term, rather than dropout mid—career. this woman works in hr and is on her daily rounds at the tbs factory, one of india's leading motorcycle manufacturers. eight years ago the engineering and management graduate chose to focus on motherhood, after having two children in quick succession. getting back to work was tough. don't look at the compensation package, they are very polite about it, what they are saying is take a 20 to 30% cut

on what we last drawn. like, i'm already behind in my careerfor years. she is not alone. in india only 32% of women work after they get married. she finally found work at tvs under their progress programme for women who have dropped out. it offers flexible working hours, mentoring and training to women trying to re—enter the workforce. in india, nearly half the population is female, and yet, in the last two decades, the number of working women fell by nearly 15%. a majority of indian women work in the agriculture sector. i think that creating non—farm opportunities in the rural areas, where women don't only have to look for agricultural work, but they can look at manufacturing or secondary sector work, would be the way to go if you wanted to reap the productive potential of women. while there is change, india still has a long way to go if it wants to turn its rising

population to be a boom and not a burden. that's it from us. goodbye. preparing to take flight. it is here at the aerodrome in brackley that is the base for an epic mission. challenge that is centred on aviation, to visit 120 airfields around the uk to commemorate the 120th year

of powered flight by the right brothers. dollar's wright tour 2023 is all in aid of the mission fellowship. we fly to more destinations than other airlines, we are about to release a malaria campaign to make sure people can help to give people the medication they need to break the fight preventable diseases. one of the things is on a sunny day, flying across the sea is just great and be able to express that aspect of life is just brilliant. he has completed his challenge across the south of england, he will now focus on airfields across wales and scotland. hello, i'm jack with the catch up. ed sheeran has been in court today to deny that this song... # when your legs don't work

like that used to before... ..sounds like this song... # i've been really trying, baby. people related to marvin gaye's co—writer argued that ed, warner music group and sony music publishing all owe them money for allegedly stealing the song. i am here forjustice, protecting my father's intellectual properties. all i am expecting is his name to be honoured. some other stories for you then, and movement in sudan. loads of people are being moved out of the country because of fighting there. leaders have agreed to stop it for 72 hours. the first uk flight touched down at stansted carrying around 200 people. loads more to come though, as over 2000 brits are registered with the foreign office there. microsoft's $68 billion deal to buy activision has been blocked in the uk.

if it went ahead, microsoft would have owned the call of duty franchise but the group of people who make sure the gaming market is fair said the move would of gamers less choice. both companies say they will appeal. i will leave you with ten seconds of inspiration, because ali goldstein, who has down syndrome, has been revealed as a cover star for vogue magazine in the uk. the new issue focuses on disabled people from the world of fashion, sport and the arts. she told the bbc she wants to be a role model to others in the industry. ali, you totally are. see you later.

hello, i'm qasa alom, from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme: manchester city overwhelm premier league leaders arsenal to take the charge in the title race. inter milan beatjuventus to make the final of the coppa italia. and a huge scalp taken in the world snooker championship — seven time winner ronnie 0'sullivan is out.