Tiger Management invests in technology, telecommunication, and media sectors, mainly focusing on United States, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe companies. For private equity investment, it specializes in investing in early stage companies. This hedge fund had $6.44 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2013.
As per the recent 13F filing with the SEC, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), and Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCA) are among the top three holdings of Tiger Global Management. These companies account for 20.95% in its portfolio.
Global expansion and new payment strategy
Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) is focusing on the global cash transaction conversion opportunity, as 85% of the world’s transactions are done in cash. The company considers ‘Cash Transactions’ as its main competitor. It is expanding its operations in both the U.S. and international market.
The U.S. market generates 35% of the company’s revenue. The credit business in the U.S. is expected to improve with the recovery occurring in the economy this year. The remaining 65% of Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA)’s revenue comes from the international market. The on-going consumer shift from cash spending to debit cards and credit cards in these international regions provides opportunities to the company to enhance revenue. With global expansion, the revenue will rise from $10.10 billion last year to $11.22 billion this year, and $12.78 billion next year.
Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) revised its old mobile payment strategy by introducing the digital cloud-based service MasterPass. This new wallet enables fast and secure checkout regardless of consumer location. It saves large amount of credit card and shipping information via attached digital cloud-based service, and it has multiple layers of security that protects a consumer’s Masterpass account from fraud.
In April 2013, the company launched its first Masterpass in Canada. The country has the highest rate of digital payment in the world with approximately 65% of payments done electronically. Initially, the company launched with four merchants offering this service. Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) will expand this payment platform to 800 merchants by end of this year and 2,800 merchants by next year.
Pull strategy along with emphasis on mobile device
In the initial three years, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) was using a push marketing strategy. Under this strategy, it reached customers through emailing them deals. The emailed deal connected merchants to consumers, offering a full range of discounted products and services. Initially, the company was able to provide deals for only one or two merchants per day. With an increase in the number of merchants, it was difficult for the company to decide which merchant deals to run and dedicate the fixed shelf space.
To overcome these constraints, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is now shifting towards a pull strategy instead of push. This pull strategy allows direct deal marketing, opens its services to all consumers and not just to subscribers of Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), and eliminates the difficulty of limited shelf space. The company’s transition to pull from push has reduced marketing expense in North America to 3.5% in the first quarter from 29% in the last nine quarters. Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN)’s transition to the pull strategy will grow its billings by more than 20%, to $2.57 billion in this year and $2.84 billion next year compared to $2.33 billion last year.
Additionally, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is now focusing on providing daily deals on mobile devices. Groupon reported revenue growth of 8% year-over-year in the first quarter ending March. This was driven by 42% revenue growth in the North American market due to the accelerated use of mobile devices.
