Naspers to back out of Bounce News

South African media and internet company, Naspers, will be shutting down its aggregator-based news platform Bounce News Nigeria.

The news website was launched with a personalised application and a website in 2017.

Though most of its content is aggregated from different sources, Bounce News Nigeria also produces original news content.

Bounce was branded and marketed as a “personal news service – as you read, it learns what you like and recommends better stories every time.”

However, the news medium has had a hard time scaling despite its app having about two million downloads.

The stiff competition in Nigeria’s digital publishing space has made it difficult for the news aggregator platform to truly take flight. Despite spending heavily on marketing, Bounce News Nigeria have struggled to direct more users to their platform. They have also struggled to gain enough visibility.

Naspers have offered the workers the opportunity to assume ownership of the company. They also paid a year’s rent for the office space but the South African investment firm will not be releasing their app.

It continues the trend of the South African media giants failing with their investments in Nigeria’s internet and e-commerce space.

In January 2019, Naspers shut down Carrers24, a job portal operating since 2014, stating the company had not gained expected traction on the job-listing market.

Early in 2018, the South African company also closed its OLX office in Nigeria. In the same year, Naspers sold its stake in e-commerce site Konga to Zinox Group, recording a $38 million loss on Konga.

Naspers still has Media24 and PayU listed as part of its investments in Nigeria. Cable TV, Multichoice, also remains one of its most profitable ventures.