“I Still Give Flipkart An Edge Over Amazon”

Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk on finding the right local entrepreneurs and backing them to do great things.

- Rajiv Singh

I am photogenic,” grins Bob van Dijk. That’s not the only reason the Naspers CEO isn’t too keen to spend too much time getting clicked (Forbes India got just two minutes for a photo shoot). The head of Africa’s most valuable company would rather use every minute available to scout for investment opportunities across the world. The South African internet giant has invested over $2 billion in the Indian startup ecosystem over the last few years—it has stakes in Swiggy and MakeMyTrip, and owns PayU and OLX. And it counts its stake in China’s Tencent as its most prized bet.

Naspers raised $9.8 billion in March by selling a 2 percent stake in Tencent, and netted another $1.6 billion profit from the sale of stake in Flipkart to Walmart in May. In spite of exiting Flipkart, Bob still gives the local ecommerce player an edge over American rival Amazon. “Local entrepreneurs, at times, can do things that others can’t do,” he argues, stressing on his love for Indian food as well. “I like making butter chicken and chicken tikka,” he says. In New Delhi to host a Naspers global summit, Bob spoke exclusively to Forbes India on a wide range of issues. Excerpts:

Q Naspers is a strategic investor. So what made you exit Flipkart?

It was not an easy choice for us to sell our shares in Flipkart. It’s a great company. We have been in Flipkart since its early days. When Sachin (Bansal) and his co-founder Binny (Bansal) started the company, there was no reliable logistics, people didn’t have methods to pay and there was little structured retail. So the persistence to get the company where it is today is a fantastic story. That’s what we are about as Naspers. We try to find amazing entrepreneurs in a market like this and then be with them in their amazing journey.