Naspers launching gaming services in SA?

Despite great results in the internet space recently, it appears Naspers has no plans to launch South African gaming services similar to those provided by its investment interest, Tencent in Asia.

South African media giant Naspers owns a 34.2% stake in Tencent, a massive Chinese Internet company which, among other things, specialises in multiplayer online games and social media portals.

Tencent owns a minority stake in Epic Games (Unreal, Gears of War), and invested US$400-million in Riot Games (League of Legends).

The company is mainly a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide mass media, entertainment, Internet and mobile phone value-added services, and it also operates online advertising services in China.

The Tencent portfolio includes social networks, web portals, e-commerce, and multiplayer online games.

MyGaming asked Meloy Horn, Naspers Group investment relations officer, if the company had any plans to launch localised online gaming services such as multiplayer online games, mobile games, and social network games.

“Naspers has no plans to launch any online gaming services in SA,” Horn said.

As reported by BusinessTech, Naspers heralded a 22% rise in revenue for the six months ended September 2012, to R22.6 billion – Tencent and Mail.ru (also a Naspers stake) contributed significantly to that. Internet revenue improved 70% to R14.1 billion. Overall, the company’s managed internet businesses brought in trading profits of R3.1 billion.

Following that report, the group said it’s continuing to expand its businesses with an increasing focus on e-commerce.

“The internet segment remains our area of fastest growth, whilst pay television put in a solid performance,” Naspers said.