mijobooks Chapter 116 Naspers' Layout
Chapter 116 Naspers' Layout
"Mr. Qi, and Transsion is pre-installing software on AfriLink so users can use it as soon as they turn on their devices."
We...we need to get users to download it from the store.
The pre-installed price is also very low, reportedly less than $1 per phone.
Qidi panicked completely. He knew what this meant: pre-installation meant a traffic entry point, and a traffic entry point meant winner-takes-all.
Afro Chat is being squeezed out of the table, just like Konnect.
…………
On the other side, in South Africa.
Cape Town, headquarters of Naspers (South African media group).
There were seven people sitting in the conference room. The youngest one, in his early forties, was the investment manager of MIH, a South African newspaper subsidiary, named Van Dijk.
Eight years ago, he spent a total of $32 million to acquire 46% of Penguin's shares, which solidified his position in the company.
The projector showed AfriLink, Afro Chat, and another local software, MTN...
"When we invested in MTN," Vandit began, "they said that Africa would have over 500 million mobile phone users within 5 years, and they could capture half of that."
"This curve tells us something else now."
The data on the big screen at this moment showed that MTN had only 800 million registered users, less than half of Konnect, the worst performing company in the Huaxin Group...
The main reason for the low number of registered users is that the features and gameplay are outdated. After all, with them as major shareholders, GG has never skimped on funding.
But now they have to give up. Transsion S1, now the largest internet gateway in the African market, has physically blocked them.
"This is not actually MTN's fault. Transsion mainly promotes the Taishan system and the companies they have invested in."
Their biggest problem right now isn't technology, but search.
A video also started playing on the screen, and the user searched for an MTN, but AfriLink appeared instead.
Van Dijk gave a soft "hmm," tacitly agreeing to abandon the company and use the funds on more promising ventures.
"Mobile phone companies are eating up the market share of carriers," Van Dijk said. "And this Chinese company called Transsion has eaten up the biggest piece of the pie."
He looked at everyone and said seriously, "We need to go to Guangzhou."
You need to come up with a plan as soon as possible. If necessary, we can invest in Transsion Holdings. Our main goal remains control of these companies.
A series of company names appeared on the screen again, all 28 remaining companies in the Huaxin Group were on the list...
Valuations range from $300 million to $1 billion.
The South African media empire's reach is far deeper than Chidi imagined.
He remains a useless pawn. Huang Tianya and Van Dijk agree on this point.
…………
12 month 28 day.
Shenzhen, Huaxin Investment Office.
Huang Tianya was looking at a briefing, which contained data that had just been sent by the investment department.
AfriLink has 4200 million registered users.
The company has 2700 million daily active users and 3950 million monthly active users.
Since the launch of video calls, an average of 53 new users have joined daily.
Suggested latest valuation: $50 billion.
Of course, this valuation is for Naspers. In the eyes of most people, it may not be worth this price, but in the eyes of those who need it, it is worth this price.
The valuations of other companies also differed somewhat from what Van Dijk had envisioned.
Most of them doubled...
The front desk called at 3 p.m.
"Mr. Huang, there is a guest from South Africa who did not make an appointment, but he said he is from MIH."
Huang Tianya looked up and nodded. The main character had finally arrived.
"Please invite him up."
The two were both a little surprised when they first met in the office, both astonished by each other's youth.
Van Dijk has worked his way up to his current position through years of hard work, but the other party... although he has heard of him and read relevant materials, he still finds him frighteningly young.
After all, this guy's original account has already been blacklisted by the United States. But no one can guarantee how many accounts he has.
"Mr. Huang, I apologize for coming uninvited."
Huang Tianya gestured for him to sit down.
"Mr. Fan, the names Naspers and MIH are more well-known in China than in South Africa."
Van Dijk smiled. "Because of penguins."
"Because of penguins." Huang Tianya nodded. "A 400-fold return, a miracle in the history of human investment."
Van Dijk didn't respond to that question; Penguin was his prized possession, and he wasn't about to give it up so easily...
When Huaxin Investment invested in Tencent last time, it acquired an extra 3% of their shares, but the benefits they offered were clearly worthless...
It has already caused them losses of over a billion dollars, but they have no choice but to swallow their anger, all because of the person in front of them and the boss behind them...
"Mr. Huang, to be honest, I came here this time because of AfriLink."
A Chinese company owns more than 70% of the largest social media platform in Africa, which is detrimental to the company's development, just as we have been reducing our stake in Tencent.
For the better development of the company...
As Van Dijk spoke, Huang Tianya nodded to signal him to continue.
"With the booming sales of Transsion mobile phones and the official completion of the East African submarine optical cable system, the African Internet market has reached a new peak. Therefore, we want to get involved and provide them with better protection."
This will also better safeguard our common interests.
Hearing such a straightforward explanation, Huang Tianya remained silent.
He got up and walked to the window, looking down at the security team training below.
This is a new batch of instructors who are currently undergoing final training. Next, they will travel to Africa again to conduct a new round of intensive training for Transsion's security companies in Africa.
In addition to intensive training, a new security team of 1500 people is in place to ensure that company property is not damaged in any way.
"Mr. Fan," he turned around, "AfriLink has plenty of money; they've already achieved initial profitability."
Furthermore, if you are truly short of funds, we can provide interest-free loans. After all, Huaxin is the controlling shareholder.
Van Dijk nodded: "I know, Huaxin is very wealthy. AfriLink and other high-quality internet assets are also excellent..."
"So what do you want to vote for?"
Van Dijk's most pressing issue is that Transsion controls over 70% of these shareholders, leaving the founding team with very few shares, and everything is inseparable from Huaxin.
He's definitely a puppet; otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to make this trip.
Faced with Huang Tianya's persistent questioning, Van Dijk remained silent... Although Qidi and Said wanted to get closer to African capital, the problem was that they had already embarked on a dead end.
The market has been established, and the capital comes from Huaxin.
"We'd like to change our boat tickets."
Huang Tianya remained silent and continued watching his performance.
"The internet boom in Africa is just beginning," Van Dijk said. "Undersea fiber optic cables are in place, bandwidth prices are collapsing, and smartphones are becoming ubiquitous."
With the fiber optic cable now operational, the number of internet users in Africa is expected to increase from 100 million to 300 million within the next three years.
He looked at Huang Tianya seriously. There was no need to hide these issues; going straight might be more effective.
"Whoever can acquire these 300 million users will be the penguin of Africa."
He looked at Huang Tianya.
"Naspers, we're willing to pay any price to get on this ship."