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A leading technology investor’s view of the world
Prosus, the international investment arm of South Africa’s Naspers, is a global tech colossus, with a $250 billion empire that includes food delivery, online learning, e-commerce companies — and a roughly 28 percent stake in Tencent, the Chinese internet giant.
It gives Prosus a unique view of the global business landscape. The company’s CEO, Bob van Dijk, sat down with DealBook to discuss dealing with the pandemic and economic downturns, China and more. Here are the highlights from that conversation.
On changing economic realities: Many of Prosu’s lines of business – including online restaurant and grocery delivery, e-commerce, online payments and online education – flourished during the pandemic. But even with the lifting of coronavirus restrictions, those divisions didn’t really suffer the kind of sharp setbacks that pandemic darlings like Zoom and Peloton did, according to Mr. van Dijk. Of online food delivery, he said: “You don’t have the same wave of new customers, but you keep the customers you have, and they keep growing into high-frequency and valuable ones.”
But as economies around the world slow, Prosus has urged its portfolio companies to focus less on explosive growth and more on making money. (The cost cuts have extended to Prosus itself.) That task has become somewhat easier as others have backed away from free-spending bids for growth, he added: “There’s less irrational competition.”
About China: Tencent suffered one of its toughest years last year, as regulators launched a sweeping crackdown on the tech sector and the pandemic undermined the Chinese economy.
Mr. Van Dijk said Tencent’s fortunes improved as the government eased its restrictions on the sector and ended its zero-Covid policy (though he largely avoided discussing how that process played out). He said he had observed “an even more pro-business shift in tone” from Beijing.
About investing: Prosus announced 69 deals over the past two years, according to PitchBook, but economic changes, particularly a rise in interest rates that have made financing more expensive, have changed its approach. “We’ve said no to more things than we had in the past,” Mr. van Dijk said. How much more selective has Prosus become? “I think we said yes to about one in 100 opportunities before. It’s probably more like one in 200 or so now.”
