The tech giants in the us are dominating the business agenda today. Jeff bezos is stepping down as amazons Chief Executive. The Online Retail giants founder will move to become the compa ny� s executive chairman. He will be replaced as ceo by andy jassy, the current boss of amazons Cloud Computing business. And this comes as the firm reported 386 billion in sales in 2020, thats up 38 on the year before. Their profits almost doubled, rising to 21. 3 billion. So whats been the reaction to the news bezos is stepping to the side, and what do we know about the new boss . Duncan howe is e commerce strategist at cheil uk, which is a Digital Marketing and advertising agency. Duncan, welcome to the programme. Executive chair man still means he will have a lot of control and very much involved in and is on, but it is the day to day responsibility. What do you think about this move . I responsibility. What do you think about this move . I think it is a bit of think about this move . I think it is a bit of a surprise it is a bit of a surprise to the market. Obviously, but i also think with andy jassy stepping into that position, the business is in an excellent position. And he has been an outstanding leaderfor a number outstanding leader for a number of outstanding leaderfor a number of years. He has famously been there almost as long asjeff. I dont think the business will suffer at all from the transition happening this year. Also the fact it is someone coming from the aws arm speaks volumes to how important that is within amazon. Is within amazon. What do you mean by w5 . Is within amazon. What do you mean by ws . Cloud is within amazon. What do you i mean by ws . Cloud computing . And is on web mean by ws . Cloud computing . And is on web services and is on Web Services Amazon. And is on Web Services Amazon and is on Web Services Amazon. ,. , amazon. That is the direction the will amazon. That is the direction they will be amazon. That is the direction they will be going amazon. That is the direction they will be going for . Amazon. That is the direction they will be going for . It amazon. That is the direction they will be going for . It has| they will be going for . It has been an important they will be going for . It has been an important part they will be going for . It has been an important part of. They will be going for . It has| been an important part of the business for a long time, especially through the covid pandemic. A lot of businesses have been trying to get online quickly and scale and aws has helped them do that. It makes sense that andy is the man to step into the role. Step into the role. Markets reacted step into the role. Markets reacted. There step into the role. Markets reacted. There wasnt step into the role. Markets reacted. There wasnt a step into the role. Markets l reacted. There wasnt a huge reaction, amazon says up i in close of trade and after close as well. Jeff bezos says he has energy and is not retiring. He has the Washington Post and his find blue origin as well fund blue origin, but what other concerns for the future of amazon . Regulators are looking at it closely, arent they . Looking at it closely, arent the . ,. , they . They are. Implement amazon perspective, they . They are. Implement amazon perspective, i they . They are. Implement amazon perspective, i do i they . They are. Implement i amazon perspective, i do not think they will be concerned about that. Their intention is to continue to grow as quickly as they came, they have doubled down quite a lot this year on infrastructure and growth in their Performance Centres and their Performance Centres and their logistics capabilities. Obviously in the news a little while ago they had been firing up while ago they had been Firing Up Aeroplanes to help improve their transport over the us, over here in the uk, they have recently been starting a trial running 50 electric vehicles. Their intention is certainly to continue to grow. I dont think we should be expecting them to slow down. We should be expecting them to slow down slow down. And who is threatened slow down. And who is threatened by slow down. And who is threatened by the slow down. And who is | threatened by the news that andy jassy is in charge . Everyone is saying is on amazon is going into cloud competing in a more determined way . Competing in a more determined wa . ~ , , way . Yeah. I think the business is very well way . Yeah. I think the business is very well set way . Yeah. I think the business is very well set up way . Yeah. I think the business is very well set up as way . Yeah. I think the business is very well set up as it way . Yeah. I think the business is very well set up as it is. Way . Yeah. I think the business is very well set up as it is. I is very well set up as it is. I think the Retail Sector is going fantastically well. They have reported fantastic, fantastic results. Have reported fantastic, fantastic results. Who is written by fantastic results. Who is written by the fantastic results. Who is written by the move fantastic results. Who is| written by the move into fantastic results. Who is written by the move into web services . Microsoft, others . Amazon themselves have always thought of people like microsoft and google and facebook as key competitors. Amazon themselves have been working on a new Model Learning System for their advertising on site and have been seeing good success without. I am sure advertisers will be paying very close attention to this. Close attention to this. Great. Yeah, close attention to this. Great. Yeah. Yeah close attention to this. Great. Yeah, yeah duncan, close attention to this. Great. Yeah, yeah duncan, we yeah, yeah duncan, we appreciate yeah, yeah duncan, we appreciate your yeah, yeah duncan, we| appreciate your analysis. Yeah, yeah duncan, we appreciate your analysis. Lets stick with the letter. Letter a. Amazon is not the only tech giant doing well. Alphabet the owner of google reported Quarterly Sales that beat wall street estimates, buoyed by heavy Digital Advertising spending during the christmas season. Fourth quarter revenues came in at 46. 43 billion. The Youtube Division did exceptionally well, as people spend more time at home due to the pandemic youtube ad revenues jumped 46 to 6. 9 billion. Shares of alphabet gained 7 in extended trading. Joining me now is liam patterson, ceo and founder of bidnamic. Thanks of being on the programme. Yourjob, oryour programme. Your job, or your business, programme. Yourjob, oryour business, is all about helping Companies Make the most of the online world and what they can get from it. You said, as you can see Youtube Youtube has seen explosive ad revenue growth. Has seen explosive ad revenue urowth. � ,. , has seen explosive ad revenue rowth. � ,. ,. , growth. Its all about attention. Growth. Its all about attention. Peoples l growth. Its all about attention. Peoples attention behind screens. What else have we been able to do . We havent been able to travel or do the other things we like to do. We are stuck behind our screens and Companies Like google and youtube benefit from that study in addition to that, youtube advertisement has also started to integrate e commerce. If you have been looking at videos, you might have noticed a carousel of advertisements appearing typically showing five products copy so, starting to weave in that huge growth in e commerce we are starting to see into youtube, generating more targeted revenue by sharing the rate types of products alongside the content people are watching. Right types. People are watching. Right es. � people are watching. Right es, � ,. , people are watching. Right es. ~ , people are watching. Right types. And people saying you can watch types. And people saying you can watch youtube types. And people saying you can watch youtube as types. And people saying you| can watch youtube as various ducts are brought before you in terms of advertisements and then in the future you may be able to click and buy there and there products. I5 able to click and buy there and there products. There products. Is not so far away there products. Is not so far away in there products. Is not so far away. In america there products. Is not so far away. In america and i there products. Is not so| far away. In america and the there products. Is not so far away. In america and the us there has been more integration of that it is not too far away. Use a cost per click model, meaning advertisers put up model, meaning advertisers put up their advertisements, when someone clicks on it, they pay google a set amount for that quick, regardless if it generates a sale. So, we could see that model being used more widely. Its not too far away. Amazon has had an incredible year, and google as well. Give us your take on the reach of google. Will regulators be looking to clip its wings, do you think . Looking to clip its wings, do ou think . ~. , you think . Yeah, i think we are startin you think . Yeah, i think we are starting to you think . Yeah, i think we are starting to see you think . Yeah, i think we are starting to see this you think . Yeah, i think we are starting to see this narrative i starting to see this narrative around the big, big big tax, and more regulations which are starting to threaten google. As you mention, the Cloud Computing component, but i also think google is really starting to overlap and compete with amazon now, maybe that will start to come into the narrative because people will say google is totally dominating search, they are totally dominating the other sectors, and as they would say with and two in web services, which duncan mention prior to me, google has a web platform vision, which has grown really well as well. Thank you, liam. Amazon and alphabet werent alone in announcing massive profits this year as most of the big tech firms had a hugely successful 2020 prompting more questions about their overwhelming dominance in financial and business terms. From san francisco, heres james clayton. There have been winners and losers from this pandemic, and some of the biggest winners are also some of the Richest Companies in the world, based around san francisco. Take here at apple, last week, the Company Posted record Quarterly Sales of more than £80 billion. At that rate, during this 2. 5 minute news report, apple will have done £1. 5 million worth of sales. Big tech has had an astonishingly profitable pandemic. We all turned to technology more during the pandemic. Its as simple as that. We were doing more things online than ever before, from gaming to shopping, to seeing our doctor, you know, theyre not charities. Laughter you know, they are making money out of, you know, what theyre enabling. But some believe that making so much money at a time of Economic Hardship shows that theres something fundamentally wrong with the economy. Lets take tesla for example, just look at its share price over the last year. Its now worth more than the nine next largest Car Companies combined. Its made elon musk the richest man in the world. Speaking of wealth, out of the ten richest people in the world now, six are us Tech Entrepreneurs elon musk, tesla, jeff bezos, amazon, bill gates, ex microsoft, larry ellison, oracle, mark zuckerberg, facebook and larry page, google. Joe biden has said he wants to look closely at competition around big tech, according to those close to him. I dont think he has a huge choice in the matter. Within the business community, there is a growing chorus of voices who are realising that theyre operating on a very unfair playing field. President biden is also reportedly considering hiring an Antitrust Tsar to look into monopolies in tech. Other senior democrats have even called for Companies Like google and facebook to be split up. Big tech has had a bumper year, but Withjoe Biden as president , theyre likely to face more and more scrutiny. Should so much power and wealth be concentrated in the hands ofjust a few companies on the west coast of america . James clayton, bbc news. It isa it is a busy time for companies telling us in terms of how they have been doing in terms of profits and losses. Shares of pfizer slipped by 2. 3 in new york after the drug makers profits missed wall street forecasts. The company gained prominence in recent months as the covid i9 vaccine it developed with Germanys Biontech became one of the first shots to be approved sales of the vaccine would not be reflected in these numbers and pfizer is not the only runner in the race to vaccinate the world against the coronavirus. Us Treasury Secretary janet yellen says that new Growth Forecasts from the Congressional Budget Office shows the United States desperately Needs Congress to act on president joe bidens coronavirus rescue package. She says, last year, the economy shrunk more than any other since the end of world war ii. It will be years before the country reaches full employment again. From Stock Manipulation to a hollywood movie the rights to the story of the Gamestop Reddit stock saga have been bought by the mgm film studio. But will there be a happy ending for the mass Investor Movement that hijacked the Financial Markets and is ruffling the feathers of investors all over the world . Well, dr Richard Smith is Chief Executive of the foundation for the study of cycles. Welcome to the programme. We mentioned janet yellen, the us Treasury Secretary, she is reported to be calling a meeting of key financial regulators to look into what has been going on. What you think may happen from that perspective . Think may happen from that perspective . Well, i think it is interesting perspective . Well, i think it is interesting that you are l is interesting that you are covering this story at the same time you are talking about google and amazon and others, because i think part of this story that is not really being talked about is this user as product Business Model from the likes of google and others that is being experimented with in the Financial Services space right now. I think what is not really being talked about is how good this has been for the owners of the platform, the Technology Platform robinhood and Market Makers that partner with robinhood. Whether this Free Technology model is really good for consumers or not. So, i think that is part of what is going to be examined here are. Robinhood earns a lot of its income on payment for order flow, which is Market Makers paying them for sending orders, and then it is able to offer free trade. I think there is a bit of moral hazard here that needs to be examined more closely. Needs to be examined more closel. ,. ,. , closely. So, from that, do i take you closely. So, from that, do i take you to closely. So, from that, do i take you to believe closely. So, from that, do i i take you to believe regulators should take control . I take you to believe regulators should take control . Should take control . I believe regulators should take control . I believe regulators should should take control . I believe regulators should encourage l regulators should encourage transparency, and i do think that there are some of the Overflow Model that does need to be examined more closely. I believe it is not allowed in the uk and australia, it is illegal, for example. And i think it does ask questions about what is really good for Retail Investors in terms of what happens in the market behind the scenes. Mil what happens in the market behindthescenes. All right. We will keep behindthescenes. All right. We will keep an eye on behindthescenes. All right. We will keep an eye on that l behindthescenes. All right. | we will keep an eye on that for sure. Doctor Richard Smith, thank you for being on the programme. Thank you for having me. It has been a tech heavy show today, hasnt it . Chinas alibaba has reported strong results for the last to 34 billion. Affiliate company ant group would be delayed indefinitely sending shares down in us trade. Sharanjit leyl is following the story from our Asia Business hub. This problem when trying to float ant group has been in the news for a while though is a completely off the agenda now . It has been put off indefinitely, according to the ceo of alibaba, daniel chang and they have very much squashed it unbelievably, despite the strong results from alibaba, the chinese e commerce giant for the last quarter, 2020. Really, looking at the result, it is in line with chinas comeback great from the pandemic. They knew revenues were up against the same quarter in 2019 and remember thatis quarter in 2019 and remember that is the rise to pre pandemic times and we know the virus and global lockdowns have meant that many people have turned to Online Shopping which has benefited alibaba as much as amidon has which you were talking about earlier. Add singles day, has by far