ANALYSIS
Gallery Stock, Getty Images
We nowhave the
computing power
tomine huge amounts
of unstructured data
Balance sheet
New technologies such as the cloud
and big data are revolutionising our working environment
as well as the consumer economy.Those technology
companies with a sustainable business model could
be a sound long-term investment.
bank account. Emerging market employers
may load a card with wages that can then be
spent in the normal way. It’s less dangerous
than carrying cash, and more convenient in
areas where there are few banks.
Mobile phones can be loaded with credit
under similar circumstances, notably in Kenya,
where merchants download payment from the
customer’s phone.Mobile technology, the
cloud and big data come together in Precision
Planting, a subsidiary of agribusiness
Monsanto.A device on the planting unit
combines micro-level topographical and
climatological data with GPS to carry out
variable density and depth planting for
individual elds for optimum yields.
Amazon is the master of logistics, and by
providing a channel for third-party sellers, gives
a global reach and two-day shipping anywhere
in the world to otherwise small companies who
may be located o the beaten track.
Sands Capital Global Equity fund is a holder
ofAmazon, Facebook,Monsanto andVisa.
Some of its other stocks include MercadoLibre,
the conversations to gain a richer perspective
on product requirements or brand image – for
much less than what traditional research
methods would cost.’Many think that, in this
way, customer‘co-creation’ will become an
important source of future innovation.
Two important things are required to make
e-commerce work, according toThakor.‘One
is payments and the other is logistics,’ he says.
‘Without those, you have only got a website,
and that’s why so many dotcoms failed in the
1990s.’ Sands is invested inVisa, the payment
card company and a world payments hub,
whose platform allows people to go anywhere
in the world and complete a transaction.‘That’s
an enormous enabler of commerce,’Thakor
says.‘And now less infrastructure is required to
accept payment at point of sale.’
Food carts – US mobile food vans – for
example, can now swipe credit cards on a
dongle plugged into the charging jack of a
mobile phone. Payment cards are also a
powerful tool for facilitating transactions like
money transfer for those who do not have a
THE INVESTOR
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a
LatinAmerica’s number one e-commerce
site and eBay’s regional partner, and Naspers,
a SouthAfrican-based media company.
Naspers owns one-third of Mail.Ru, the
largest third-party e-commerce company
in eastern Europe.
The fact of the matter is that waves of
investment in technology have always
been with us in one form or another. From
the steam engine and the railway revolution
to the transistor, the microchip and the
internet, investors have always been excited
by new ideas.They often get too excited,
which is why booms are inevitably followed
by busts.What’s required is the ability to
recognise those technology companies with
a business model sustainable enough to
withstand the short-term ups and downs of
the nancial markets.
