EUROPE
The acquisition of 100% of Tradus was concluded in March 2008. This is a leading provider of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce platforms, offering online auction and fixed-price sales services. The primary market is Poland. It also has operations in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania and Estonia. Over the past year registered users increased by 41% to 12 million.
Following the acquisition, the Tradus group was divided into Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Eastern Europe will be known as the Allegro Group and Western Europe as the Ricardo Group, operating as independent companies.
Allegro is replicating its successes elsewhere in Eastern Europe. It has extended its C2C expertise into price comparisons (ceneo.pl), car (otomoto.pl) and real estate classifieds (otodom.pl) in Poland. Allegro is now the leading C2C platform in the Czech Republic (aukro.cz) and has gained market traction in the Ukraine (aukro.ua).
In December 2007 MIH acquired 97% of the equity share capital in Warsaw-listed Gadu-Gadu, the leading instant-messaging platform in Poland. The numbe of active instant-message users grew to
5,9 million at year-end. Monthly page views more than doubled to 3,7 billion. The social networking site, Moja Generacja (new generation), grew to 3,2 million users in March 2008.
RUSSIA
mail.ru is a leading provider of internet products and
services, with the largest Russian-speaking internet audience. By year-end the number of unique users on the mail.ru portal expanded to 52 million. Its core offering of e-mail services has been growing at a compounded rate of 59% per annum in recent years.
Last year mail.ru launched its own social networking
site, Moi Mir (My World), which now has a unique user base
of 13,5 million. The popularity of its e-mail and instant- messaging communication products has led to mail.ru becoming a market leader in display advertising. It is well
positioned to benefit from growth in online advertising in Russia, fuelled by increasing broadband internet penetration.
Cooperation opportunities are currently being explored between mail.ru’s comparison shopping services and the molotok.ru trading platform, in which Allegro shares an interest.
SOUTH AFRICA
MWEB ISP
MWEB is one of the largest residential internet service providers (ISPs) in South Africa and also owns the largest VSAT (very small aperture technology) corporate internet base in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa slow deregulation has hampered internet growth. MWEB conducted a WiMAX (wireless broadband technology) trial in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Soweto to deliver broadband services to homes and businesses. Given the
anticipated pace of broadband deployment in South Africa, MWEB intended to invest in wireless broadband infrastructure to maintain its leadership position.
Since the group owns no other ISP and the nature of this business is more infrastructural than our other units, offers of purchase have been requested and is currently being evaluated.
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million registered users on Tradus platforms |
24.com
24.com is the biggest internet publisher in South Africa. A variety of its sub-brands (including News24, Health24, Property24, Fin24 and Wheels24) are category leaders in their fields.
24.com is also active in the online classifieds field through Netads24. Careers24 has a growing base of job-seekers and provides an attractive online advertising opportunity for recruiters. Kalahari.net confirmed its status as the leading online retail destination in South Africa. 24.com is developing new-generation functionality for consumers.
MOBILE VALUE-ADDED SERVICES
Nimbuzz
The group acquired an interest in the young Nimbuzz,
which focuses on instant-messaging aggregation, VoIP
and telecommunications applications. Users are connected to various communities such as MSN, AIM, Yahoo and Skype, providing a ‘buddy’ network on the Nimbuzz platform. Partnerships are being formed with regional players.
MXit
MXit, a mobile instant-messaging provider, grew revenue in South Africa by 110% and users by 88% during the year. MXit recently begun expansion into Brazil, India and other markets. Several challenges were faced during the year, including a major platform upgrade. |
