At first glance the three firms could not look more different.
DST was created in 2005 when two Russian internet investors, Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger, pooled their interests in mail.ru, a Russian web portal. Today the firm controls many of the country’s leading websites and boasts an interesting mix of owners, including Goldman Sachs and Alisher Usmanov, a Russian billionaire, who holds 27%.
Based in Cape Town, Naspers is nearly 100 years old and is the publisher of the Daily Sun, South Africa’s biggest newspaper. But it is one of the most ambitious old-media companies anywhere in its move online. It still makes most of its sales—28 billion rand ($3.6 billion) in the year to March—from print and pay-television, but it uses the cash to buy online firms.
Tencent hails from Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. Founded in 1998, it had revenues of $1.8 billion in 2009 [Full article here].
This year the real action for risk-tolerant global investors is on the frontier.
The MSCI Barra Frontier Markets index tracks equities of 25 countries, including six in the Middle East that account for 55% of the index’s total market capitalization. Year-to-date as of Apr. 12, the Frontier Markets index was up 13.66% compared with a 4.09% gain by the BRIC countries (Brazil, India, China, and Russia) in aggregate and a 5.25% increase for the emerging markets overall.
The distinction between emerging and frontier markets mostly concerns size and how far along they are in developing legal and regulatory systems, critical elements for international investors [Source].
More on Frontier Markets van be found here:
Frontier Markets: To boldly go where few investors have gone before!
MSCI Frontier Markets Indices.
It was probably only a matter of time before China and Google would find themselves in a major conflict. On the one hand, you have an authoritarian government that believes it has the right to censor information available to its citizens. On the other, you have a California-based Internet company committed to the free flow of information.
In mid-March, Google halted operation of its Internet search engine on the Chinese mainland and started directing users to its Hong Kong site, which is uncensored. Chinese officials retaliated on March 29 by blocking some of Google’s mobile Internet services. Knowledge@Wharton discussed the entire matter here.
China has achieved a spectacularly high rate of economic growth over a sustained period for more than two decades. Nevertheless, today China faces the challenge of making the transition from sustained to sustainable growth from social, economical, ecological and envionmental points of view. Here’s a list of Chinese companies that are in the forefront of innovation not only in China but also far beyond.
Since 2009, innovation has been identified as a main engine for this new growth model, and the Chinese government has launched a national strategy to build an innovation-driven economy and society by 2020. Will China be able to succeed in making this challenging transition? What will it require in terms of policy and institutional changes? How will China’s emergence as a future innovation economy affect the world economy, as well as the global systems for knowledge production, dissemenation and use? [Source (PDF)]
Google Korea has unveiled a new homepage that radically breaks out of the company’s trademark scantiness. Google’s Korean homepage now displays more content right up on its front page, featuring popular search keywords, most searched-for people (“who’s hot”), and the directory of Google Korea’s services.
It remains to be seen if Google Korea’s move will help or hurt the company to gain more turf in this tough Korean market, but one thing is very clear: This is a very big move by Google. This new, content-rich homepage is only available in Korea — and this is worlds apart from Google’s seemingly unrelented pursuit of simpleness.
In a way, this shows Google is very much committed to the Korean market, even to the point where the company is willing to ditch its hallmark simpleness, something many in and out of the company has long regarded to be near impossible. Will Koreans like this move and pay more visit to Google Korea for their internet search? The jury is still very much out.
Stimulus spending and other emergency measures have set the stage for global economic recovery, but nations must push ahead with free trade and investment to ensure growth, President Barack Obama and fellow Asia-Pacific leaders said Sunday.
Obama and 20 other leaders, meeting in Singapore for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, rejected protectionism and agreed to develop long-term strategies that take into account the diverse needs of economies in a region stretching from Chile to China [Source].
The economies of China and India are set to grow by more than previously thought in 2009, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said [Source].
Furthermore, when the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, told a Washington think-tank this month that “the recession is very likely over at this point”, he was careful to add that the American economy would remain weak for some time yet. Analysis released on Tuesday September 22nd by IMF economists who have been studying the aftermath of 88 banking crises over the past four decades, supports Mr Bernanke’s cautious talk. While most discussion of the worst recession since the Depression looks at the immediate pain from lost jobs and shuttered shops, the IMF analysis suggests that the effects of the downturn will be felt long after it is technically over [Source].
Emerging market countries are facing increasing difficulties around the world because of the spreading global economic crisis, with demand falling for their exports, investment slumping, and cross-border lending drying up.
As the crisis becomes more prolonged, a growing number of emerging economies will find room for policy manoeuvre becoming increasingly limited, and large-scale official support is likely to be needed from bilateral and multilateral sources.
Overall, risks are largest for emerging economies that rely on cross-border flows to finance current account deficits or to fund the activities of their financial or corporate sectors. Countries with pegged exchange rate regimes may have little scope for interest rate cuts to the extent that the crisis has put sustained pressure on their exchange rates.
Foreign direct investment is set to slow significantly, given the fall in private equity assets, the lack of credit available to finance acquisitions, and sharply deteriorating growth prospects in emerging markets.
This report (PDF) highlights the main policy issues facing emerging market economies, and IMF action to support its emerging market members.
Southeast Asia is home to more than half a billion people, but the region’s economy is dominated by some 40 families, most of Chinese descent.
In New Asian Emperors, authors George Haley, Usha Haley, and Chin Tiong Tan highlight the business models and management practices of these family-run conglomerates, drawing lessons for Western multinationals.
To read a sample chapter from the book click here.
Despite continuing concerns about corruption, red tape, and political instability, it’s suffering far less from the financial crisis than other parts of the world. Some companies operating in the region continue to do well, as demand for everything from computers to discount airline tickets remains strong.
Southeast Asia’s strength is an encouraging sign that the region is still a player. Though it may have been half-forgotten by many investors since the crisis, its educated workers, natural resources, and—in some countries, at least—first-class infrastructure make it worth paying attention to. ASEAN has a total population of 560 million, and its combined gross domestic product of $1.3 trillion is greater than India’s.
Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Singapore—which account for about 95% of the region’s economy—attracted nearly $50 billion in foreign direct investment last year, vs. China’s $92 billion [source].
At first glance the three firms could not look more different. 
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