Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/tcehy-stock"></a><ul class="summary-list"><li>The global investment group <keyword id="8087626" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Prosus">Prosus</keyword> is selling $14.6 billion of <keyword id="9718057" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tencent-stock">Tencent stock</keyword>.</li><li>The deal will increase Prosus's cash reserves from $4.6 billion to roughly $19.2 billion.</li><li><keyword id="212412" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tencent">Tencent</keyword>'s American ADR has fallen roughly 20% from February 12 highs of nearly $100 per share.</li></ul><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/tcehy-stock">Tencent's</a> American ADR sank as much as 9.7% on Wednesday after the firm's largest shareholder, Prosus, said it plans to sell $14.6 billion worth of its stake in the Chinese multinational technology conglomerate.Tencent's Hong Kong shares fell 3.75% on the day.Prosus, the international internet assets division of the South African multinational <keyword id="6356837" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="naspers">Naspers</keyword>, will remain Tencent's largest shareholder holding some 28.9% of the company.Prosus also said it will not sell any more Tencent shares for at least the next three years.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/naprf-stock">Naspers</a><a href="https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/NPSNY?mod=chiclets"> </a>paid $34 million for a 46.5% stake in Tencent in 2001, three years before the company went public in Hong Kong in June 2004. The acquisition was one of the most lucrative venture capital deals of all time netting Naspers billions.Before the latest sale, Naspers, through Prosus, owned a 30.9% stake in Tencent.The deal is set to increase Prosus' cash reserves from $4.6 billion to roughly $19.2 billion.Tencent is the world's largest videogame company by revenue and operates the popular WeChat app. The company outperformed in 2020 amid an increased stay-at-home audience for its games and apps during the pandemic.Tencent's stock has made huge strides over the past few years due in large part to its lucrative investments in tech firms like Snapchat, the Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo, and the delivery and shopping platform Meituan.The company's ADR, which trades on OTC <keyword id="31671" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="markets">markets</keyword>, reached highs of nearly $100 per share on February 12-giving the company a valuation of over $900 billion-but has fallen roughly 20% in the past few months.Share prices were hurt by investors' fears of <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tencent-sheds-65-billion-government-crackdown-ant-group-2021-3-1030203312">China's recent crackdown</a> on big tech names. After Wednesday's fall, Tencent has lost over $150 billion in market cap from its record highs. Shares of the company's ADR traded down 7.63% as of 3:23 p.m. ET after mounting a mild recovery.<div type="image" title="tcehy chart" height="708" width="830" msid="81959098" hostid="261"></div>

Tencent falls nearly 8% after the firm's largest shareholder said it plans to sell $14.6 billion of its holdings

New Delhi, Apr 10 (PIT) Consumer internet firm Prosus, which has invested in companies like Swiggy, Byju's etc, on Friday pledged to donate Rs 100 crore to the Prime Minister's relief fund for supporting coronavirus relief work. "Prosus, the global consumer internet group of Naspers, has committed Rs 100 crore to the Indian government's response to the Covid-19 crisis. The donation will be made to the 'Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund'," the company said in a statement. Prosus has invested around USD 5 billion (about Rs 37,900 crore) in Indian technology companies since 2005. Its portfolio includes Brainly, Byju's, Codecademy, eMAG, Honor, iFood, LazyPay, letgo, Meesho, Movile, OLX, PayU, Red Dot Payments, Remitly, SimilarWeb, SoloLearn, Swiggy, and Udemy. "These are unprecedented times and we want to play our part in contributing to the efforts underway in India. By working with government and civil society, we hope to help India overcome this very difficult period," Prosus and Naspers Group CEO Bob van Dijk said. In addition to its direct contribution to the PM CARES Fund, Prosus is working closely with the companies it partners with to support measures designed to help Indians affected by the situation, the statement said. Byju's has offered its learning platform for free in India until the end of April to help parents support their children's learning while away from school. On the other hand, Olx is allowing advertisements to stay on its site for an additional 30 days, at no extra cost and PayU has built a platform to enable any brand in India to start raising funds from its customers for the PM CARES Fund. "Swiggy has launched a campaign to donate meals to persons in need in India. The public can also donate to this campaign. The campaign is currently donating approximately 35,000 meals per day, with a goal of raising this to 500,000 meals per day as soon as possible," the statement said. PRS ANU

Prosus commits Rs 100 crore for PM's Covid relief fund

<ul><li><keyword id="5890319" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Social-E-commerce">Social e-commerce</keyword> startup <keyword id="3480589" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meesho">Meesho</keyword> has raised $125 million from Naspers. </li><li>The startup was in the news for being Facebook’s first direct investment in India. </li><li>Meesho has over 2 million ‘social sellers’ across 700 towns in India.</li></ul>Meesho, the online marketplace raised $125 million funding led by Naspers. The round also saw participation from Facebook and existing investors SAIF, Sequoia, Shunwei Capital, RPS and Venture Highway and former Vodafone Group CEO Arun Sarin. Meesho is a marketplace for resellers, which connects them with customers via social media channels like WhatsApp and Facebook. “Our social sellers are small retailers, women, students and retired citizens, with 70% being homemakers who have found financial freedom and a business identity without having to step outside their homes,” said Vidit Aatrey, Meesho Co-Founder and CEO. One of the investors of this social e-commerce startup is Facebook. It’s the first time that the global giant picked up equity in an Indian startup. “With this investment in Meesho, we want to fuel a business model that can result in rapid job creation and the rise of a female entrepreneurial class in India," <keyword id="736869" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Facebook-India">Facebook India</keyword> head Ajit Mohan had then said in an <a href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/facebook-invests-in-bengaluru-based-meesho-1560427873327.html">interview</a>. Meesho has over two million ‘social sellers’ across 700 towns in India along with a distribution channel of 15,000 suppliers in traditional manufacturing hubs. Its focus is largely on apparel, home, wellness and electronics items. The startup intends to create 20 million entrepreneurs by 2020. With the latest investment, Meesho wants to grow its community of women entrepreneurs and also reach out to remote customers of India. The startup was also a part of the global accelerator programme Y-Combinator. It had earlier raised a funding of $65 million from Sequoia India, DST Partners and Shunwei Capital.

Facebook-backed Indian startup Meesho raises $125 million from Naspers

<ul><li>E-commerce giants <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> are teaming up to garner support against the Indian government’s new e-commerce policy that will come into effect on February 1.</li><li>If the policy is implemented the ‘Republic Day’ sale on January 26 will probably be the last ‘big sale’ that both companies will be able to offer. </li><li>Industry moderators like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) are being lined up as allies to help lobby support. </li><li>Investment stakeholders like SoftBank, Tiger Global, Sequoia and Naspers are also reportedly being pulled into the loop.</li></ul>The new e-commerce rules rolled out by the Indian government pulls the red carpet out from under the feet of e-tailers like Amazon and Flipkart. Now the two e-commerce are teaming up along with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and other stakeholders according to a <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/flipkart-amazon-to-put-up-united-front-against-populist-e-commerce-policy-119010200954_1.html">report</a> by Business Standard. Investment companies like SoftBank, Tiger Global, Sequoia and Naspers are also reportedly being pulled into the loop in order to get the Indian government to relax the new directives. On the other side of the table are organisations like the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and Swadeshi Jagran Manch that have been pulling pressure on the Indian government to keep the interests of local traders in mind. If the new e-commerce is truly implemented on February 1, then the ‘Republic Day’ sale will probably be the last ‘big sale’ by Amazon and Flipkart until they’re able to reconfigure their supply chain. It’s not leveling the playing field — only removing competition The report cites sources claiming that the new policy is a ‘populist’ and ‘titled’ e-commerce policy that is only being rolled in order to appease local traders since it’s right before the 2019 General Elections are set to take place in India. Taking away the deep discounts that make the online giants are attractive online shopping market is only one part of the story. The primary concern is that if the e-commerce giants are unable to sell through associated vendors, then they will have to completely revamp the way that their supply chain works — something that is easier said than done, especially since that’s Amazon and Flipkart’s modus operandi. Experts that side with the e-commerce firms feel that they’re being targeted unfairly. Physical retailers also sell their private labels within the larger brand. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Fresh sells ‘Reliance Select’ products and Aditya Birla’s More supermarket has ‘More Choice Superior’ items lining the shelves. Both brands also have e-portals where consumers can order these things online and have delivered to their doorstep. Even Future Group’s Big Bazaar and Easyday outlets have their sub-brands readily available claiming superior quality at cheaper prices. The larger implication is that if Amazon and Flipkart are forced to cut down on their business, then the direct and indirect jobs under their purview will also be at risk.

India’s new e-commerce policy has rivals Flipkart and Amazon teaming up to counter the new directive — and the ‘Republic Day’ sale will probably be their last

Ready to take full advantage of the current market situation, both eCommerce companies and brick-and-mortar retailers want to make maximum profit and debating over who can be tagged as a marketplace. Both share different views over Foreign Direct Investment (<keyword id="44528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="FDI">FDI</keyword>) in online stores. 
 eCommerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart and <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> operate as marketplaces in India thus allowing any retailer or trader to sell goods on their platform. But companies such as <keyword id="64373" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Shoppers-Stop">Shoppers Stop</keyword>, <keyword id="6398216" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Tesco">Tesco</keyword>, <keyword id="6357823" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Big-Bazaar">Big Bazaar</keyword>, <keyword id="58448" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Reliance-Retail">Reliance Retail</keyword> and others work only with their chosen vendors, which makes them closed marketplaces. 
 
The two models of retail - online and offline - have different business models and cannot be looked upon with the same lens, said Aamir Jariwala, secretary, E-commerce Coalition of India, which represents firms such as YepMe, Ferns n Petals and IndiaMart, told the Economic Times. 
 Among all eCommerce companies, only <keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword> supports opening up online retail to FDI. 
 <keyword id="113282" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Retailers-Association-of-India">Retailers Association of India</keyword> (RAI), a lobby organisation for companies such as Reliance Retail and <keyword id="44949" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Future-group">Future Group</keyword>, has demanded a clarification from the government about what constitutes a marketplace and sought status equivalent to their online rivals, as several large offline retailers, too, explore opening online fronts. 
 
Many of these online stores that could make use of foreign capital are demanding opening up India's ecommerce sector to 100% FDI. But the move is being opposed by larger online marketplaces such as Flipkart and Snapdeal. The government is hearing various retail industry representatives before framing its policy. 
 
While, traditional retailers such as Shoppers Stop and BigBazaar are putting up a united front with RAI. "A lot of our members are either already running or want to open online channels and get access to foreign capital. This ambiguity on 'retail marketplaces' creates a sense of risk," said Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive at the lobby group. 
 
Offline retailers are also demanding that the government not differentiate within the retail sector by sales channel for drafting FDI regulations. "Creation of a policy on FDI just for online or offline retail is very myopic. It will create an imbalance in the sector," Rajagopalan said. 
 
Ecommerce firms argue that they will lose a good share of the market due to such policies. 
 
Nasir Jamal, secretary general at ECAI, said financial and strategic investors would flock to offline retail if the government equates online and offline retailers with respect to FDI. "Inventory-led ecommerce companies are facing a capital crunch, and are on the lookout for funds and they also need support," he said. 
 "Offline and online retail is converging and the government should precipitate this by having similar policies," said Nitin Gupta, CEO of <keyword id="1493567" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="PayU-India">PayU India</keyword>, owned by South Africa's <keyword id="1634215" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Naspers-Group">Naspers Group</keyword>. 
 
India's ecommerce trade accounts for 2% of the overall retail sector, which grosses over 31.7 lakh crore ($500 billion) annually. The country's online retail sector grew to $12 billion last year. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Fearing competition, Flipkart, Snapdeal oppose 100% FDI in India’s eCommerce sector

New Delhi, Prosus-owned OLX Group on Monday said it has appointed former <keyword id="421566" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Star-Sports">Star Sports</keyword> President and CEO <keyword id="1479800" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gautam-Thakar">Gautam Thakar</keyword> as <keyword id="203686" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-CEO">Global CEO</keyword> of its pre-owned car marketplace <keyword id="10367965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Olx-Autos">OLX Autos</keyword> effective March 15 of this year. Thakar will lead a worldwide organisation with a workforce of more than 4,000 employees across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the US. OLX Autos runs online digital trading platforms in addition to more than 500 inspection centres across the Americas, Asia and Africa, each year inspecting 300,000 vehicles and enabling 130,000 vehicle transactions. "I'm extremely pleased to welcome Gautam as Global CEO of OLX Autos," Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO, OLX Group, said in a statement. "He brings a unique set of capabilities to this exciting opportunity including an exceptional general management track record, strong customer orientation, deep marketplace experience, and a rich experience leading and inspiring teams on a global footprint." Most recently, Thakar was CEO of Star Sports in India which was acquired by the Walt Disney Company. Prior to that Thakar was in the US for over a decade and brings leadership experience in digital marketplaces as former global CEO of Shopping.com and LivingSocial acquired by <keyword id="384914" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Groupon">Groupon</keyword>. Thakar was a part of the founding <keyword id="404408" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="management-team">management team</keyword> of baazee.com which pioneered e-commerce in India before being acquired by eBay in 2005. "I am delighted with the opportunity and responsibility to lead the impressive global OLX Autos team. I've long watched the bold and ambitious approach taken by <keyword id="6356837" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="naspers">Naspers</keyword> and Prosus as they've built great companies in so many exciting markets, including India," Thakar said on his appointment. "OLX Group's commitment to this business is unparalleled and I am inspired to join the team to build the world's most trusted platform for buying and selling cars." He will remain based in India in his new global role. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/discounts-have-dropped-lower-on-the-customer-priority-list-say-indian-online-retailers/articleshow/81145830.cms">Discounts have dropped lower on the customer’s priority list, say Indian e-tailers</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/how-to-check-railtel-ipo-share-allotment-status-online/articleshow/81145120.cms">Indian Railways owned RailTel’s IPO: Here’s how to check share allotment status</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/india/news/puducherry-government-falls-as-chief-minister-v-narayanasamy-loses-trust-vote-in-assembly/articleshow/81148119.cms">Puducherry government falls as Chief Minister V Narayanasamy loses trust vote in Assembly</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/deutsche-bank-plans-to-hire-1000-freshers-in-india-as-it-looks-to-build-core-technologies-in-house/articleshow/81147886.cms">INTERVIEW: Deutsche Bank plans to hire 1,000 freshers in India as it looks to build core technologies in-house</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/analysts-reports-showed-that-90-percent-of-unsecured-retail-loans-have-gone-to-salaried-government-employees/articleshow/81150110.cms">One in every five rupees lent by SBI to individuals, goes to government employees</a>

Star Sports President Gautam Thakar appointed Global CEO of OLX Autos

Taiwanese electronics maker <keyword id="168792" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Foxconn-Technology-Group">Foxconn Technology Group</keyword> is looking to invest in Indian startups and is gaining deep insight into Indian startup ecosystem. 
 For this, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal are helping the Taiwanese electronics maker to scout for the best deals in the <keyword id="2902522" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="indian-startup-market">Indian startup market</keyword>. 
 
Over a dozen Indian startups met Wen-Hsin (Vincent) Tong, Chairman and Director of investments at FIH Mobile Limited, an investment arm of Foxconn, at the New Delhi office of Snapdeal recently, according to two people with direct knowledge of the initiative. 
 
The meetings were designed as fact-finding missions and were set up for Foxconn to gain a deeper insight in one of the world's most dynamic startup hubs. 
 
"(However) they could potentially lead to investments in these ventures," said the sources who briefed Economic Times on the developments. 
 
Though names of the startups were not known but sources told ET that among those present were several mobile-based ventures that offer on-demand services. "All the startups who met (Tong and Bahl) have raised significant amounts of venture capital funding and several of them are already in talks for a new round of equity financing," one of the persons quoted above told the financial daily. 
 
Foxconn, however, declined to confirm the meetings. 
 
"As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on rumours or speculation. As we have stated in the past, we would consider investments in India if they made commercial sense," a Foxconn technology group spokesperson said in an emailed reply to ET's questionnaire. 
 
Snapdeal also declined to comment on the developments. Foxconn's interest comes at a time when several Asian corporate behemoths are looking to invest in consumer-focused technology startups. 
 
Earlier this month ET had reported that Foxconn was one of the frontrunners to invest in Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates Snapdeal.com. 
The Taiwanese manufacturing giant is a contract manufacturer for a number of iconic brands, including Apple, Amazon, Sony and Microsoft. 
 
Strategic investors scouting for investments in India have increased over the last two years. Apart from South Africa's Naspers, which is an investor in India's biggest e-Commerce company Flipkart, others such as SoftBank have promised to invest close to $10 billion in the country. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Snapdeal founders are helping Taiwanese company to get best deals in Indian startups

NEW DELHI: A day after Flipkart announced raising $1 billion in funds, e-commerce giant <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> on Wednesday said that it will invest an additional $2 billion in India to support its growth in the country. 
 "After our first year in business, the response from customers and small and medium-sized businesses in India has far surpassed our expectations," said <keyword id="191583" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jeff-Bezos">Jeff Bezos</keyword>, founder and CEO of <keyword id="6391410" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amazon-com">Amazon.com</keyword>. 
 "We see huge potential in the <keyword id="6356076" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="indian-economy">Indian economy</keyword> and for the growth of e-commerce in India. With this additional investment of $2 billion, our team can continue to think big, innovate, and raise the bar for customers in India," Bezos said. "At current scale and growth rates, India is on track to be our fastest country ever to a billion dollars in gross sales. A big 'thank you' to our customers in India - we've never seen anything like this," he added. 
 
Amazon, which just announced second-quarter loss of $126 million, has become increasingly aggressive in India. In about 13 months it has launched 28 categories of products and has grown to host 8,500 merchants on its platform. 
 
Meanwhile, Flipkart, which raised $1 billion from a group of investors including Tiger Global, Naspers and Singapore's GIC, is the largest online retailer in the country. It reached $1 billion in sales last fiscal and, according to sources, is on track to breach the $3 billion mark this fiscal. And Flipkart now has a marketing budget that is in the millions of dollars. 
 The seven-year-old company has so far raised over $1.7 billion in risk capital. In May, it sucked in $210 million led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global a few days after announcing its acquisition of fashion portal <keyword id="319719" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Myntra">Myntra</keyword> for an estimated $370 million. 
 "This <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> ensures that Flipkart can now invest in building on the promise they have shown," said Arvind Singhal, chairman of retail advisory firm Technopak.

Amazon To Invest $2 billion In India, A Day After Flipkart's $1 Billion Funding

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie BortSimilar Web CEO Or Offer</div></div></div>The first thing you have to know about Or Offer, the charismatic young CEO cofounder of Israeli startup SimilarWeb is that he thinks big. Really, really big.And that's how he wound up running a company called SimilarWeb that seemed to spring out of nowhere a couple of years ago to become a star in the web and mobile app analysis world.SimilarWeb has been profitable almost from the get-go, has raised more than $40 million, all from long-term strategic investors including British billionaire David Alliance and Africa's huge internet investment conglomerate Naspers. (We were told the total funding amount but we promised not to share.) While Offer also isn't publicly sharing the valuation for his company, word on the street in Israel is that if SimilarWeb isn't a unicorn yet, it will be soon.The company's growth has gone bonkers since 2013, when it released its competitor to Alexa, the Amazon-owned Web analytics firm. In the past year alone SimilarWeb grew from 60 employees to 200 and is hiring in New York and Israel like crazy, recruiting about 20 people a month, Offer says.And it all happened because Offer was trying to build a jewelry business.<h2>Stalking David Yurman on the internet</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie BortSimilarWeb office</div></div></div>Offer's parents are artists. His dad a painter and sculpture. His mom a jewelry designer He finished his three-year tour in the army (a requirement for all Israeli citizens at age 18), and had to find a career."I decided I would go back and scale my mother's workshop into a big empire, like Pandora with her brand name," he said.He started selling to more jewelry stores and then directly to consumers. Employees grew from 10 to 20. He hired factories in India and China to make the products. He and a buddy started to open a chain of jewelry stores.One day, he had a meeting with a partner selling the jewelry in the US who told him that his designs were beautiful and very similar to David Yurman, the uber popular American designer."I said, I don't know him," Offer told Business Insider. "He was looking at me like you don't know David Yurman? He's a big thing in the US. I went home and researched David Yurman, saw this amazing jewelry design and immediately fell in love. I was shocked that I never heard of him, he was in my niche. I thought, I want to be like him, how could I never have heard of him?"He wondered what other huge designers he didn't know about."I want to see all the other sites on the Internet that had designers like David Yurman. Who are they? And I couldn't find them," he said.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie BortSimilarWeb CEO Or Offer in his Tel Aviv office</div></div></div>The problem bugged him for days. "I was always a coder from a very young age. I don't look like a computer geek, but I assure you I am," he says."Then one night I had this vision that I would have something on my browser that there was something I could click that would say, 'If you like David Yurman, here are all the other sites like his.' It's called website recommendation, similar to what you see on YouTube. I wanted the same thing for websites and I decided to build it," he said.He called a fellow geek from high school, who called two of his friends from the army, "a secret Israeli unit that did crazy coding" and in 2007 the four of them went to work."After a year and a half of bootstrapping, I was funding all of this from my jewelry business, we launch it in 2009," Offer says.SimilarWeb was born.The browser plug in was a huge hit but there was a problem, there was no way to make any money from it.<h2>A business model came to them</h2>In a short while, internet researchers started calling them. The plug ins were collecting a lot of data about people's surfing behaviors that these researchers wanted to buy. "We had found a business model," Offer laughed.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie Bort</div></div></div>That encouraged them to build more apps, collect more data to sell. And they were profitable. "but it wasn't interesting," he said. "In 2011, we wanted a better reason to wake up in the morning, to bring something very valuable to the world. We all want to build stuff that matters." In fact "Build stuff that matters" became his motto. He had a poster made and hung it on his office wall, across from the gorgeous original painting his dad gave to him. (SimilarWeb's headquarters is filled with art made by his parents.)"We decided we wanted to become the leading digital measurement company in the digital world. In 2011, we were crazy enough to think we would succeed. Our main goal was to take over Alexa," he said.They spent over a year building the product but when they showed it around, people "didn't get it."So he scrapped it and started over. "At that point we had a lot of revenues coming from other sources. We were small but profitable back then, so we could take our time," he said.For instance, SimilarWeb had invested in a startup called AfterDownload that sold to another big-name Israeli tech company, IronSource, for $28 million. "We had a nice exit," Offer smiles. He's now become a big angel investor in Israel himself who's <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/oroffer">backed a handful of other cool young companies.</a><h2>Bigger than big</h2>Offer says that from the start, "it was very clear that this was going to be big. The potential and market size was crazy big. Funny thing, we never understand how big it is. So every year it's like, stop, it's not a $100 million business, it's a billion-dollar business. And then, it's not $1 billion it's a $10 billion business," he says.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie BortAn employee at SimilarWeb's Spiders group responsible for crawling and categorizing all the websites on the internet</div></div></div>SimilarWeb isn't quite a $10 billion business yet, but they do have one huge customer and investor: gigantic African internet investment conglomerate Naspers.Naspers has backed about a hundred huge internet companies around the world outside of the US. It owns about a third of China's Tencent and has stakes in Russia's Mail RU and India's Flipkart.Naspers was using SimilarWeb to make investing decisions and in late 2014, an executive called Offers and asked to meet with him."Then they told me the dream that every entrepreneur want to hear: How much money do I want and at how much valuation? I threw some crazy numbers at them and they said ok. They are amazing investors and they are our biggest customers, our biggest fans."Because he has long-term investors instead of VCs, and the company is profitable, he's in no hurry to go public, though he hasn't ruled it out, he says."I started my way selling jewelry and ended up measuring the whole internet," he laughs. "You never know where life is taking you."Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/legend-trailer-with-tom-hardy-2015-6">Tom Hardy makes a crazy transformation playing identical twins in this new gangster movie</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1uYjh4dTpwTQV0B9vjmmDX3JuE4LMeFF" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

This guy was trying to build a jewelry business and wound up with a hugely successful tech company

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">BrainlyBrainly founder Michal Borkowski</div></div></div>One of the things Michal Borkowski is most proud of is that his startup, Brainly, has created a place on the internet where being smart is cool.Brainly is a bit like Quora for students, a social network where children and teens come to help each other work through homework problems that are stumping them. "Peer-to-peer learning" is how the company describes it.Students earn points for the quality of their answers, and can eventually climb into the leaderboards for subjects like math, biology, and so on."On Brainly, when you show you have knowledge, you are cool," Borkowski tells Business Insider. And the network even has its own stars, though not to the extent of places like Instagram.When Brainly started in Poland in 2009, the goal was a simple one: to bring the fun and useful elements of study groups to the internet. The startup has since grown to 60 million users, 81% of which (48.6 million) are active on a monthly basis. Borkowski says one of the keys to the success of the platform is that its users give back to the platform and don't just take from it: around half of students who come in asking a question stick around to answer one themselves.Now Brainly is trying to supercharge its growth in the US (where Borkowski will only say it has "millions" of users), and has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Naspers, bringing its total funding to $27 million. Borkowski says investors were most impressed by Brainly's traction in new markets, like the US, and the company's ability to easily scale the platform.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Brainly</div></div></div>Another goal of the raise is to build advanced personalization into the network. Brainly wants to use machine learning algorithms to predict what a student will likely struggle with in the future, based on the questions he or she has asked in the past. Brainly could then preemptively make sure they connect with students who might be able to help them.And what subjects do students need the most help on? Not surprisingly, Borkowski says it's math. Brainly spans 35 countries, and Borkowski says when they enter a new market, they see around 60% of the activity around math. But after around two years in a country, that drops to around 25% - still the biggest category, but not overwhelmingly so.Students come for math help, but realize that Brainly can be a useful tool for a variety of subjects, Borkowski says. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flatev-machine-makestortillas-2016-5">There's a Keurig-inspired machine that makes individual tortillas</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BjN25iMzE68FpOZaFVlMzElTr_kW1TXD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "Naspers Group" and got 10 results

Tencent falls nearly 8% after the firm's largest shareholder said it plans to sell $14.6 billion of its holdings

Will Daniel

Prosus commits Rs 100 crore for PM's Covid relief fund

PTI

Facebook-backed Indian startup Meesho raises $125 million from Naspers

Sanchita Dash

India’s new e-commerce policy has rivals Flipkart and Amazon teaming up to counter the new directive — and the ‘Republic Day’ sale will probably be their last

Prabhjote Gill

Fearing competition, Flipkart, Snapdeal oppose 100% FDI in India’s eCommerce sector

BI India Bureau

Star Sports President Gautam Thakar appointed Global CEO of OLX Autos

IANS

Snapdeal founders are helping Taiwanese company to get best deals in Indian startups

BI India Bureau

Amazon To Invest $2 billion In India, A Day After Flipkart's $1 Billion Funding

Economic Times

This guy was trying to build a jewelry business and wound up with a hugely successful tech company

Julie Bort

This startup has built a community of about 50 million monthly users where 'being smart is cool,' and it just raised $15 million

Nathan Mcalone

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides