S African media giant Naspers looking to India for growth

South African media giant Naspers is looking to India to emulate its success in China, eyeing the rapid growth in the online shopping sector.
Naspers has decided that it wants to focus its investments in areas with strong internet growth potential rather than in mature markets through a linkup with China-based internet leader Tencent.
India is seen as one such market with Naspers eyeing the rapid growth there in the online shopping sector, which the company said has been growing at a compound average rate of 77 per cent between 2009 and 2013.
This compared to 32 per cent in China and 34 per cent in Brazil, Naspers said in a report, adding that India's e-commerce market was expected to reach about USD 180 billion by 2023.

"What is exciting about India is that the uptake of smartphones is bringing internet users online. Growth opportunities are great (in India) but it's not an easy market by any standard," Naspers Chief Executive Officer Bob van Dijk was quoted as saying by Business Day.
Blue Label Telecoms has made losses for several years now as its tries to establish its pre-paid voucher and payment system in India.

Just last week, insurance giant Sanlam also reported a huge loss in earnings from its partnership with Shriram in India.
Naspers, which this year celebrated the centenary of its first newspaper De Burger has diversified in the past two decades into all types of new media as they emerged, with investments in a number of foreign countries.

Its stake in Tencent has seen phenomenal growth since the Chinese company listed in 2004.
Even though the current global slump in stock markets has brought down the value of Naspers shares because of Tencent's downward trend, analysts remain optimistic that it will rebound.