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Schibsted Investing in Pakistan

Most people have heard of OLX, they are the strongest comptitor in the classfied space in Pakistan and heavily advertise on digital, media and BTL channels. OLX is owned by Naspers, a South African media company that until the last 15 years was only involved in print media. Its most notable investment was actually in TenCent in 2001, which owns and runs China’s enormous QQ messaging platform.

In the classifieds sector Naspers has always faced very tough competition with Schbisted, a European based “old” media company which like Naspers has transformed itself into a new media giant. Schibsted classified portals are the largest in Sweden, Norway and France with Blocket, Finn and Le Bon Coin respectively. Listed on the Norweigian stock exchange, their 2013 annual reports states that they are taking “significant steps towards fulfilling our ambitions of becoming a global leader in online classifieds”.

One of many display ads

In September 2013 they partnered with Telenor, to expand their ventures in South Asia and South America. The partnership is partially aimed at bringing Schbisted classified companies into South East Asia, and they have already begun operations in Pakistan with Asani.com.pk in February. They currently seem to have around 6.5k listing on their site and with their heavy advertising are aiming to get to the №2 spot in the local classified market after OLX.

Schbisted’s investment in Pakistan marks the entry of the third large foreign investors who choose to bring in their own platforms. The other two being Naspers with OLX and Rocket Internet with eight ventures.

Schibsted | Asani.com.pk | Telenor Partnership |

Multinationals Sentiment Towards Pakistan is Growing

A recent study by the Frontier Strategy Group, which surveyed 200 multinational companies finds that sentiment towards Pakistan as an investment base is growing rapidly. With more companies taking an interest in the country as compared to to African countries, Pakistan now ranks as the 15th on the most watched list by the companies that were surveyed.

Wall Street Journal

Other News

• The fundamental conditions for female entrepreneurship are lacking | Guardian

• Pakistan’s Emerging IT Entrepreneurial landscape by Umar Saif | The News

• Facebook Under Fire for Blocking Pages in Pakistan | NYTimes

• Pakistan Is Using Smartphones to Stop Dengue | Slate

• P@SHA applications for Blackbox Connect is now open | P@SHA

• Invest2Innovate Accelerator Applications are Open | I2I

• Telecom Industry faces New Taxes on Handsets | BRecorder

• Pakistani Startup Secured 1st Runner up Position at Angel Hack Dubai | ProPakistani

• Role of Startup Incubators in Pakistan | TechJuice

• Burq Starts WiFi Broadband Services in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar | ProPakistani

• Pakistan’s First Online Hate-Speech Report is released | Global Voices

• China CMCA keen to manufacture mobile phones in Pakistan | The Nation

• Telecom imports reaches US $ 662.1m in 9 months | Pakistan Today

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