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Naspers

Naspers is a South African company established in 1915. Koos Bekker did not found Naspers; he became chief executive in 1997 and led its transition from a publishing and pay-television group towards global internet investment.

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Naspers is a South African company established in 1915. Koos Bekker was not its founder: he became chief executive in 1997 and led the group’s transition towards internet businesses after previously helping to build M-Net and MultiChoice. [1][2]

History

Naspers describes itself as established in 1915. Over its history it developed from a South African publishing business into a group with major media, pay-television and internet interests. [1]

Bekker led the founding team of M-Net/MultiChoice in 1985, joined Naspers as chief executive in 1997 and headed its transition to the internet until 2014. His role is therefore better described as company builder and transformer than founder of Naspers. [2]

Key milestones

  1. Naspers was established in South Africa. [1]

  2. Koos Bekker led the founding team of the M-Net/MultiChoice pay-television business. [2]

  3. Bekker became chief executive of Naspers. [2]

  4. Bekker ended his tenure as chief executive after leading the transition to internet investment. [2]

Company builders

  • Koos Bekker — South African media and technology executive who led the founding team of M-Net/MultiChoice and later transformed Naspers as chief executive.

Related articles

Sources

  1. Naspers, Group structure. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩
  2. Naspers, Annual Report 2021: Board biography of Koos Bekker, 2021-03-31. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩