Naspers to up web stake

MEDIA company Naspers’ appetite for the internet market continues to grow as it plans more acquisitions for its ecommerce, or online shopping, businesses in emerging markets.

The group this week said online shopping was a global consumer trend and it anticipated that affordable tablets and smartphones would accelerate the uptake of services in markets where the group had a presence.

Kalahari.com CEO Caren GenthnerKappesz said that, in South Africa‚ the internet and services industry was reportedly growing at a steady rate of 30% per year.

“E-commerce is a nascent market in South Africa‚ but this is changing quickly as internet and smartphone penetration takes hold. The challenges around the affordability of unlimited and fast internet access remain a barrier to some and we continue to support new business initiatives in this regard‚” she said.

Over the past few years‚ progress had been made and, with the ubiquity of smartphones in the market‚ the future looked promising‚ Genthner- Kappesz said. Naspers’ e-commerce revenues doubled to R11.4-billion‚ through a combination of organic growth and a few acquisitions.

The group extended the breadth of products‚ with particular emphasis on e-tailing‚ or online retail and web classifieds.

E-commerce, as a percentage of total retail, was between 1% and 4% last year in emerging markets, including Brazil‚ Russia and Mexico, Naspers said.

The group said any market where ecommerce was between 1% and 4% as a percentage of total retail sales “is a sizeable opportunity”.

Analysts said Naspers’ plans to expand its e-commerce businesses would take a number of years to yield benefits‚ but once it did the group could rake in earnings.

Mvunonala Asset Managers’ portfolio manager, Farai Mapfinya, said the accessibility of mobile connectivity might be an inhibitor in certain areas and the adoption of online transacting had been seen to take a while‚ even in the presence of accessibility.

He said: “It does take time for users to be comfortable with other forms of transacting . . .” — BDLive