Behind the scenes, two companies - South Africa's Naspers and Germany's ProSiebenSat1 - are making quiet, yet significant, moves in online travel. Sally White reports

Well away from the main headlines there is an interesting new sector diversifying into online travel. It is has all the right qualifications for a successful incursion - plenty of both money and connections. Its members are two giant international media companies with interests spreading from TV, e-commerce and advertising to video, to name just a few.

While from two very different parts of the world, both are spreading fast internationally. They are South Africa’s Naspers and ProSieben.1 Group from Germany. Both are making significant, if small, moves. Yet, sitting as online travel does very comfortably within the groups’ strategies, at this level additions can be cherry-picked.  

Naspers has direct interests in India and other parts of Asia, and indirectly in China, through its 34% stake in giant internet conglomerate Tencent. In fact, the Tencent stake, started with an initial $32 million investment in 2001, accounts for almost all of Naspers stock market price, now having around a $65 billion value. Ownership of this stake makes Naspers South Africa’s biggest company. However, its original, ageing print base has shrunk, and it is the e-commerce and classified ad business, stretching over 40 countries, that have transformed the group.

However, Naspers has raised a large war chest of funds for its quest to find another Tencent, launching a successful $1.2 billion bond issue last summer.Under the leadership of billionaire chairman Koos Bekker, it is scouring the globe for new internet acquisitions. In particular, it is looking for companies that will capitalise on the switch by consumers to smart devices for shopping, banking and other services, including travel. 

Its Indian subsidiary, The MIH Group, has travel investments that include Goibibo (travel aggregator), Tradus (for deals and discount coupons), redBus(an online bus ticketing platform bought for $138 million cash),TravelBoutiqueOnline (a B2B online travel platform) and PayU (online payment). Naspers says its travel business under the Ibibo Group brand is eight times the size of the nearest competitor in bus ticket sales.

Ever up with the latest trends, its online travel firm Ibibo Group is also venturing into the budget and alternative accommodation space. This is with a new platform, GoStays.

“The online travel space is a space we find interesting,” Bob van Dijk, who left US online trading company eBay to join Naspers as head of e-commerce, told financial news agency Bloomberg. “We’ll keep looking at merger and acquisition opportunities and we’ll be scrubbing them carefully.”

While local commercial conditions and competition make India a less than easy market in which to operate, it is a good testing ground for elsewhere in Asia. Naspers is using ibibo to take its bus ticketing service redBus to Singapore and Malaysia, and has just opened up operations there. The strategy is to enable travellers to book bus tickets between the two South East Asian countries and for inter-city travel within Malaysia.

Once that is rolled out, there are plans to build a redBus platform to support multiple currencies, languages, time zones and iOS/Android-based local apps.

German style low-profile travel diversification

Back in Europe, at ProSiebenSat.1 Group, one of the largest independent media corporations in Europe, the growth is also from advertising but from TV ads. With the stations SAT.1, ProSieben, kabel eins, sixx, SAT.1 Gold and ProSieben MAX it is No. 1 for ads in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. There are also video interests and entertainment apps.

For diversification it has, over the last few years, built up a strong e-commerce portfolio in which the products are particularly suited to marketing via TV advertising. This is now one of its most important growth drivers. For the future it is looking to add the English-speaking markets of the UK and US.

Through its main travel brand, Travel7 and online publication Snooze, ProSiebenSat.1 Group has told the trade that it has ambitions to become a major European player. Like Naspers it keeps low profile on its travel wing.

Near the end of last year it bought ETraveli, an online flight specialist, from a Nordic private equity group for €235 million, by far its largest travel purchase to date. Thus it has 12 different brands in its portfolio including Seat24, GoToGate, BudJet, Charter and GoLeif.

“With our investment in Etraveli, we have taken a significant step toward internationalising our existing travel portfolio and we have laid the foundation for additional growth that extends far beyond the borders of Europe. Our strategic goal is to gradually globalise the digital business fields..” Dr. Christian Wegner, member of ProSiebenSat.1’s board said in an October press release.

Etraveli joins an international portfolio that includes travel portal weg.de; billiger-mietwagen.de (Germany's largest portal for rental cars); mydays.de (specialist for experience gifts and events); OTA reise.com and weather portal wetter.com. There is also the hotel price comparison site Discavo as well as a stake in Travador, a platform for last-minute and adventure trips.

Jörg Trouvain, CEO 7Travel, says that: “Etraveli adds .. the flights segment to our 7Travel portfolio as a key element for further profitable growth. We're supporting the market entry in Germany with TV backing and integrating the Etraveli flights package into the offerings of our other 7Travel companies..” 

So, loads of synergies in house!