well on the way to 2 billion friends — facebook gets more popular, more profitable and more powerful than ever before. plus, driving a brexit bargain — why britain's the place to snap up a cut—price supercar. welcome to world business report. i'm sally bundock. also in the programme: a rare bit of good news for mexico's car industry — but first... we start with facebook — because despite predictions of a slowdown, the world's biggest social network keeps getting more popular, more profitable and more powerful. late on wednesday it reported quarterly numbers that were much better than expected. they round off another year of rapid growth that has seen it become one of the biggest advertising businesses on earth. its massive reach has also of course raised concerns about the amount of influence it can have and the reliability of information that's shared on it. so let's give you an idea of how big facebook now is. by the end of last year, over 1.86 billion people around the world were logging on at least once a month, so—called monthly active users. that's an annual rise of 17%. 1.25 billion of those log on every single day — and the vast majority via smartphones. advertisers love it — last year, they spent almost $29 billion placing ads on facebook — a jump of 57% on 2015. that made facebook profits of well over $10 billion which is a hugejump of 177%. however facebook is warning it's reaching saturation point for the amount of advertising it can show people on their newsfeeds. reports suggest it is looking into video ads as seen on youtube. and it could give companies more opportunity to promote themselves on instagram, the image sharing platform it bought in 2012. instagram though is facing tough competition from rival snapchat which is about to sell shares in new york in the biggest tech flotation since facebook itself. and it wasn't all celebration for facebook after a jury ruled its virtual reality division 0culus had infringed another compa ny‘s intellectual property and should pay them $500 million. 0ur north america technology reporter dave lee is at facebook headquarters in menlo park, california. nice to see you. it's the middle of the night there now. it is incredible, really, the news from facebook in terms of the earnings but this 0culus rift ruling is a thorn in its side? it really is. mark zucker berg had testified in that trial to convince the jury it was facebook‘s oh and innovation. —— zuckerberg. 0riginally was facebook‘s oh and innovation. —— zuckerberg. originally the company which brought the lawsuit, they wa nted which brought the lawsuit, they wanted $2 billion in damages. they got $500 million relating to the breach of a nondisclosure agreement so breach of a nondisclosure agreement so the got some damages. both sides are calling that a victory for themselves. it is a bit of a destruction. just a drop in the 0cean given the enormous amount of money facebook is making. you mentioned in the queue, over $10 million profit —— $10 billion profit in the last year. that is because in this transition to mobile which originally facebook were concerned about, they thought people would not click on ads on mobiles, it makes up 80% of their and revenue. they've made the transition and made it very well. that trick is to keep that growth. facebook is cautious. it does not like to get investors hopes up. for the time being, facebook is matching those expectations. dave outside facebook headquarters. let's get more analysis with matthew. the 0culus story is not fantastic. the year has been a good one but how long can they keep this up? particularly impressive, the user growth but over the next year, some things to look out for in terms of short—term areas to improve facebook, for example, time spent on the platform in the core markets as well as the average price paid by advertisers so facebook needs to convince advertisers of the value. and it has to be about the value. there is only so much advertising that facebook users will tolerate. it has to be less but advertisers pay more for that. facebook is limiting the overall and load on its main facebook and and that limit is being reached late this year. we have seen growth in american users given how far its reach is there already but also an increase in asia. china has been a real problem for facebook. it's not been able to penetrate china and has issues with the authorities. it wants a piece of that massive cake in terms of the number of users in mainland china. nacro two was asked about china and he put it in an interesting way, saying they will consider going to china if they can come up with an agreement. that illustrates how it might bea agreement. that illustrates how it might be a trade—off between compromising the date of the users when it comes to chinese authorities and their copperheads and surveillance. all right, thank you for joining surveillance. all right, thank you forjoining us this morning. very interesting. there is so much on the interesting. there is so much on the interest —— on the internet so do ta ke interest —— on the internet so do take a look. now — think supercar and bargain isn't the word that immediately comes to mind. but since the uk's vote to leave the european union, wealthy petrol—heads from around the world have been heading here to do their shopping thanks to the slump in sterling. luxury car dealer tom jaconelli explains what it has meant for his business. iam tom i am tom jaconelli at roman is international. we are a family run business. we sell mclaren, ferrari are the very best of the supercars. what it is meant to european buyers is with the falling pound, they have managed to bag themselves a bargain. the price of one of these mclaren p1s used to cost $2.2 million in america but now they are buying it here for 20% less which is $1.9 million to its $300,000 saving. a real increase in sales to foreigners. cars that have gone to hong kong, americo, you're up. we normally sell probably three or four ca i’s normally sell probably three or four cars overseas every year. we mainly sell to the uk but since brexit, we have seen that threefold. we are selling ten or 11 cars since brexit overseas which is unheard of for us. we didn't expect it. it is a bonus for us. mexico has found itself under huge pressure since the election of president trump as us companies freeze their investment plans there. but there's been some good news — this press conference on wednesday heralded a major car manufacturing deal with china rico hizon is following this story for us in singapore. what's going on? it is indeed good news and it's green and gopher china mexico mexico alliance in the automotive sector. you have jac and giant motors teaming up to invest more than $200 million us in the plant to produce sports utility —— utility vehicles in central mexico and they are expected to start at the end of march with the goal of making 10,000 units per year by 2021. the suv will be sold in mexico and central america and south america. the announcement comes as us president donald trump has threatened to impose stiff export ta riffs threatened to impose stiff export tariffs on companies that ship jobs to mexico. we have seen ford decide last month to cancel plans for a $1.6 billion factory in northern mexico. trump is also lashed out against general motors and toyota. mexico is the world's fourth biggest car exporter and of course, china is one of the biggest markets for cars. we will see more alliances in manufacturing industries as well. very end of —— interesting. good to see you. 0il giant royal dutch shell reports results later. annual profits are expected to be more than double the previous year — when they slumped 80%. extreme weather and a pledge by 0pec to cut oil production has seen crude prices surge over the past few months. the dollar has weakened quite a bit —— quitea the dollar has weakened quite a bit —— quite a bit since the us federal reserve had delivered a press conference keeping rates on hold. no surprises from the fed but a stronger yen is not helping japan trade today. everybody is wondering when the next move might be from the fed and it will probably be march or junein fed and it will probably be march or june in terms of an interest rate rise in the states. i will see you $0011. the number of students from the european union applying to study at universities in the uk has fallen by 7% according to the admissions service ucas. there's also been a drop in applications from uk students, with nursing being hit particularly badly. gillian hargreaves reports. these figures give us the first indication of how many undergraduates will enter university in the autumn. a 7% drop in applications from eu students might be explained by uncertainty following the decision to leave the eu. a number of uk students applying has also fallen by 5%. one of the biggest falls in applications has been for nursing courses in england. until this year, trainee nurses were eligible for an nhs grant to cover fees and living costs but now like other undergraduates they will have to ta ke other undergraduates they will have to take out alone. the of nursing applicants in england has fallen by 23% since 2016 according to ucas figures. there were 43,000 applicants compared to 33,000 this year and that means 9990 fewer people will study nursing to better last year. the chief executive of ucas said the overall fall could lead to unprecedented choice for applicants later in the year. gillian hargraves, applicants later in the year. gillian harg raves, bbc applicants later in the year. gillian hargraves, bbc news. coming up at 6am on breakfast — charlie stayt and steph mcgovern will have all the day's news, business and sport. they'll also have more on a new study showing that anti—semitic incidents have risen to record levels in the uk. the community security trust says there were over 1300 anti—semitic incidents last year, 36% increase on the previous year. the trust says causes include hate comments social media and a perceived increase in xenophobia following the referendum and allegations of anti—semitism in the labour party. that and more at six o'clock on this channel. join steph and c. i'm adnan nawaz. the top stories this hour: the biggest demonstrations in romania since 1989 have taken place over a government decree decriminalising some acts of corruption. the decree means public officials won't go to jail if their offence caused damage less than $50,000. several leading members of the governing parties had been barred from ministerial office by anti—corru ption laws. violent protests at the berkeley campus of the university of california have led to its lockdown. students smashed windows and lit a fire in anger at a planned speech by the ultra—right breitbart news editor, milo yiannopoulos. police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently hung police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently hung up police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently hung up on police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently hung up on malcolm police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently hung up on malcolm turnbull, police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently hung up on malcolm turnbull, the police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently hung up on malcolm turnbull, the prime police responded with tear gas before his appearance was cancelled. donald trump apparently hung up on malcolm turnbull, the prime minister of australia, while discussing an immigration deal. malcolm turnbull says he only spoke frankly with donald trump. now it is time for our news review. we start with the romanian daily national, which shows protestors in the streets of the capital bucharest. a quarter of a million people demonstrated against new government measures to decriminalise some levels of corruption. the guardian writes about the trump administration, quote, "officially putting iran on notice." it's after the middle eastern nation tested a ballistic missile at the weekend. 0ne commentator in the article calls the white house's comments reckless and dangerous. india's finance minister is on the front page of the business standard. the government there has unveiled its annual budget, with promises to boost rural spending and pull more people out of poverty. the japan times reports that former un secretary general ban ki—moon has