Naspers is going after Craigslist: report
JSE-listed media and internet business, Naspers is keen on unseating US classified advertisements giant, Craigslist, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
In May, Naspers set up a company in San Francisco, called Naspers Ventures, having changed the presentation currency in its financial statements to from the South African rand to the US dollar earlier in the year.
Naspers told BusinessTech at the time: “Today we are announcing the opening of our Naspers Ventures office in San Francisco – historically a hub for internet innovation, where we see an opportunity to invest in US technology/internet companies with the potential to succeed in the US and internationally.
“We believe we can utilize our deep knowledge of consumer internet and international markets to identify companies with business models that can scale internationally. We think, given our experience, that we can help these companies ‘go global’ faster.
Naspers chief executive, Bob van Dijk, told the WSJ that the company aims to replicate its successes in online classified platforms including Mail.ru, in Russia, and OLX, the biggest classifieds site in India and Brazil, ‘by dethroning Craigslist’ in the US.
“The US as a market is obviously extremely interesting; it’s also very crowded,” van Dijk told the WSJ.
“[Craigslist] is actually executed in quite a sub-optimal way…A mobile-oriented generation doesn’t really want to interact with a clunky ’90s website…That market I think is ripe for disruption.”
Read: Naspers sets up shop in the United States
Reuters meanwhile reported that interest in Naspers’ Polish online auction website Allegro, could value the business at approximately $2.2 billion (R31 billion).
Reuters said that the site is set to receive at least four bids, citing sources familiar with the talks.
According to Forbes, Craigslist serves over 20 billion page views per month, making it one of the biggest websites in the world.
The four bidders are expected to submit offers for “the Polish eBay” ahead of a Tuesday deadline for first-round bids.
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