From Reuters via MoneyWeb

South Africa’s Naspers aims to transform itself into a “predominantly mobile” company, its new chief executive said on Wednesday, as it looks to bring its stable of e-commerce and auction sites to tablets and smartphones.

Naspers, one of the world’s largest internet companies by market value, will continue to target e-commerce firms for acquisitions, Bob van Dijk told Reuters in an interview, seeking to add to operations that reach 120 countries.

Naspers has already reinvented itself at least once, going from an apartheid-era newspaper publisher to a media and online giant focused on technology and emerging markets.

“We will be more of an operator in the Internet than we have been … the most exciting part is adjusting ourselves to be predominantly a mobile company,” van Dijk said at Naspers’ Cape Town headquarters.

“It’s really hard to comment on future M&A, but I think focus-wise, e-commerce will be very important for us.”

While he gave no details of the mobile strategy, Naspers’ recent acquisitions – and van Dijk’s background at eBay Inc – suggest the $52 billion company could increase the mobile presence of its online classifieds and retailing businesses.

“It’s a direction where we see a lot of traction and it works well in markets we operate in,” he said of e-commerce.

This year the group consolidated its online classified services in southeast Asia and eastern Europe into the OLX brand. Last year it bought an 80 percent stake in redBus.com, India’s largest bus ticket portal.

Van Dijk took over Naspers in April, succeeding Koos Bekker who stepped down after 17 years of explosive growth that started with a push into pay television and later, an investment in China’s Tencent Holdings.

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