Naspers is a South African media company that transformed itself into a global technology investor through a single, high-stakes bet on China. In 2001, the group paid roughly $32 million for a 46.5% stake in Tencent, a small Chinese internet firm best known for its QQ messaging service. China’s internet economy was still in its infancy, the dot-com bubble had just burst, and Tencent was struggling to find a sustainable business model. It was not obvious at the time that this investment would turn Naspers into one of the world’s largest technology owners. Tencent eventually expanded from messaging into gaming, social media, advertising, payments, fintech, and cloud services. WeChat, launched a decade later, became an essential part of daily life in China. The stake eventually became so valuable that it dwarfed the rest of the company, creating a valuation disconnect that the group has spent the last decade trying to resolve.
Naspers has spent the last few years shifting from a passive owner of internet assets to an operator of digital ecosystems. The group has built or acquired businesses across food delivery, online classifieds, and payments, aiming to connect them through shared technology and data. iFood, the Brazilian food delivery giant, has become a major focus. It generates roughly $400 million in adjusted EBITDA annually and operates iFood Pago, a fintech unit that produced $463 million in revenue in the year to March 2026. In India, PayU processed around $90 billion in payments during the same period. Meanwhile, OLX reported revenue of $992 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of about 48%. These numbers suggest that Naspers is no longer reliant on a single cash cow to sustain its valuation.
The strategy relies on connecting these businesses so they share customers, payments, and technology. This integration is already visible in Brazil, where 21% of Despegar’s net revenue comes from iFood customers. Despegar, a Latin American travel platform acquired by Prosus, recorded $5.9 billion in gross bookings in FY2026. Europe has become another key region. The acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com placed it alongside OLX and other operations, creating a broader European footprint. The shift toward active operations began in 2024 when Fabricio Bloisi became chief executive of Naspers and Prosus. Bloisi, who previously built Movile in Brazil, signaled a move away from simple capital allocation toward hands-on management of digital platforms.
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It is difficult to replicate the success of a company like Tencent, which emerged in a rapidly growing market with few dominant players. Naspers has faced plenty of failed bets along the way. Flipkart, an Indian ecommerce company, was sold to Walmart for $2.2 billion in 2018, producing an absolute return of roughly $1.6 billion. That exit proved the group could make money from technology investments outside of China, but it was still a single win. The challenge now is to prove that Naspers can create value repeatedly without the help of a single historic investment. The latest financial results show progress. In FY2026, ecosystem revenue reached $9.7 billion, adjusted EBITDA climbed to $1.3 billion, and free cash flow hit a record $1.5 billion. All three of the group’s regional ecosystems were profitable, a sharp contrast to the past when critics argued that Tencent generated all the value while other investments consumed cash.
South Africa remains part of the portfolio. Takealot, the group’s local ecommerce platform, generated roughly $1 billion in revenue in FY2026 and reached adjusted EBIT profitability for the first time. For Africa’s technology industry, Naspers represents a unique case study. Its lesson is not that every investor should hunt for the next Tencent, a strategy that rarely succeeds. Instead, it highlights the value of staying invested in markets where local companies have room to grow and of building digital platforms that can scale across borders. Twenty-five years after the Tencent investment, Naspers has already proven it can spot an extraordinary company early. The next test is whether the organization built around that success can generate value consistently over time.
The group’s ability to manage this complex web of assets offers insights into how markets evolve. Investors often look for the next big winner, but the long-term value comes from supporting companies that solve practical problems for users. Naspers has shifted from a holding company to an operator that builds these solutions. This approach requires patience and a willingness to invest in infrastructure that may not pay off immediately. The financial results from FY2026 demonstrate that this patience is paying dividends. Each region contributes to the whole, creating a resilient network that can withstand economic shifts. [1]How to price Africa’s voluntary carbon market
