Naspers made its landmark early investment in Tencent in 2001.
Naspers is a South African multinational media and technology investor founded in 1915. Through its subsidiary MIH, the company invested about 32 million U.S. dollars in Tencent in 2001, acquiring a substantial minority stake when Tencent was still a young internet company.
Tencent's later growth transformed that investment into one of the most valuable technology holdings in corporate history. Naspers eventually distributed much of its Tencent stake through Prosus, its international internet-investment subsidiary, while retaining significant exposure to Tencent's value.
The investment is often confused with Naspers's later corporate structure. Naspers did not found Tencent, and Tencent was not a Naspers subsidiary in the ordinary operating sense. Naspers was an early strategic investor whose Tencent holding became central to its market value and global profile.