Atıf Ünaldı » lifehacker

Turkish Internet Industry: A Market Research Primer

atifunaldi — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:43:45 +0000

Last week Onur Kabadayı, wrote an aricle about, Turkish Internet Industry. It is really look like a summary of Turkish Internet Industry from the begining too its near end. We, Turkish people, like to have technology in our life but, not likely to make a business with new business models.

But as of all you an easily see that there is a big potential in Turkey. We all like to buy and have everything we like.

1. High Level Facts on Republic of Turkey:

• Turkey is an Eurasian country of 74 Million people, about 50% of which below the age of 25.
• It’s a member of G-20 major economies group, with a GDP growth rate larger than 5% since 2002 (USD 10,436 per capita in 2008).
• It’s also an EU member candidate country, having formal accession negotiations since 2005.
• Europe’s most populous city is located in Turkey, and it’s the beautiful mega-city of Istanbul.

2. Internet Penetration and Engagement

• The Internet audience in Turkey was the seventh largest in Europe with 17.8 million visitors (excluding traffic from public computers and mobile), making it the second largest country in Eastern Europe behind Russia (31.3 million visitors).
• When all the Internet users are counted in, Turkey’s Internet users add up to almost 27 million, making it the #11 worldwide.
• The Internet penetration rate was only about 37% in 2007, as compared to the European average of 59%, which makes it very promising for future growth.
• There were 7.5M broadband subscribers in 2007, which grew at a CAGR of more than 65% during 2005-2007.
• There were 66 million registered mobile subscribers in 2008, which consitutes a 7.3% increase from 2008.
• Turkish Internet population is young. 77% of users are between 16 and 34 years old.
• An avarege active user have spent 7.3 hours per week on the Internet during may 2009.

3. Total & Internet Ad-Spend

• Advertisers spent a total of USD 2.5bn in 2007 (for all media types), which is expected to grow to an estimated $4bn in 2012 or 2013.
• The share of Internet advertising in total ad-spend has soared to 5,5% in 2008 – a 33% increase from previous year.
• By 2010, Internet is expected to be third largest advertising area (7%), after TV (49%) and newspaper (31%)
• Also, total Internet ad-spend is expected to hit USD 250M by 2010.
• Google and Dogan Group capture a significant amount of advertising dollars by owning 4 sites each from top 25 websites. They’re followed by Microsoft, Facebook, and Yahoo in an order.
• Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Turkey chapter was founded on 2007, and it’s expected to start full traffic and behavioral monitoring of its member sites during 2009. This is expected to strongly boost advertising confidence and facilitate more precise targeting.

4. E-Commerce Industry

• Turks are behaviorally adjusting to buying online, total e-Commerce spend grew 90% on average each year during 2006-2008 (in local currency, Turkish Lira).
• Total e-Commerce spend is expected to hit USD 9 BN in 2009.
• Number of issued credit cards were 44 M in 2008.
• Top 3 e-commerce and marketplace sites, in an order of their total transaction volume are Gittigidiyor.com, sahibinden.com, and hepsiburada.com.
• Sina Afra, a senior eBay executive in Europe predicts the near future of the industry as follows:

• Strong entrepreneurship is expected along with market fragmentation, especially in the long tail.
• Turkish stand alone companies and brands can survive as independents, but are more likely to be aggressively pursued by larger companies.
• Some companies are expected to successfully pursue a multi-global strategy, perhaps using partnerships and acquisitions.

5. Social Media Trends

• Turkish people are#4 on active Facebook user country rankings list, after USA, UK, and Canda.
• Turkish social networking audience is reported to have spent 3.7 hours and view 427 pages on social networks in May 2009 on average.
• About 66% of active internet users have indicated that they created a profile on at least 1 social website , and 40% indicated they have created at least 1 blog.
• Also, about 50% of active internet users indicated that they sometimes share their photos online, and 40% share videos.
• Most popular social networks in Turkey (in approximate order): Facebook, Mynet (eksenim), Netlog, Yonja, Sevenload, and Zurna. Blogcu and Blogger are the most popular blogging platforms.
• Forum-like community environments, such as Eksisozluk, FRMTR, and online worlds, such as Travian are extremely popular.

6. Business & Entrepreneurial Context

• Political and economic environment in Turkey is relatively stable since early 2000’s, due to single-party ruled government, ongoing EU accession negotiations, and successful structural reforms.
• Lately inflation rate is low, and currency exchange rates are relatively stable. All these positive indicators made Turkey the 15th most attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world in 2008.
• Government provides strong incentives for Technology companies and those who engage in R&D activities. Also, EU provides significant funding for technology projects that present socio-economic development prospects.
• Venture Capital scene in Turkey is fairly young, and quite unestablished. Prominent VC funds are Leventure, LabX, Ilab, and Golden Horn Ventures.
• “Angel” investors are very scarce in Turkish Internet Industry. Thus, events such as e-Tohum (e-Seed), constitute the only chance to provide young Turkish entrepreneurs with seed investment and mentorship.

7. Top 10 Internet Properties in Turkey, Comscore / April 2009
(Ranked by unique users aged 15+ who accessed the Internet from non-public locations)

1. Google sites, 16M
2. Microsoft sites, 15.5M
3. Facebook.com, 12M
4. Dogan Online sites, 10M
5. Milliyet.com.tr, 8.5M
6. Blogcu, 8.2M
7. Mynet, 7.8M
8. AOL sites, 7.5M
9. Hurriyet.com.tr, 6.8M
10. Yahoo sites, 6.5M

Top 15 trafficked websites, Alexa March 2009

1- Google Search Turkey, Search
2- Facebook, Social Network
3- Google sites, Search & Portal
4- Windows Live, Portal
5- Hurriyet, News
6- YouTube, Video Sharing
7- Milliyet, News
8- Mynet, Portal
9- Blogger, Blog
10- RapidShare, File Sharing
11- Yahoo, Search & Portal
12- Microsoft Network (MSN), Search & Portal
13- ekolay.net, Portal
14- sahibinden.com, e-Commerce
15- Wikipedia, Information

8. Buzzed Turkish Internet Start-ups and Success stories

• Yonja, once the most popular Turkish social network, attracted a lot of buzz by selling 50% of its shares to Mynet and TigerGlobal (a hedge fund) for a total of USD 15M. Yonja was founded by Kerim Baran, a Turkish Harvard MBA graduate.
• XING, Europe’s leading business networking platform acquired Cember.net for €4.36 M. Founder Caglar Erol has now become a serial entrepreneur, founding DoktorSitesi together with Kerim Baran, and Eumedia.
• San Francisco based Grou.ps, founded by Emre Sokullu, concluded 2 small VC rounds, and recently made its way to alexa top 5000. Grou.ps is basically a Ning competitor.
• Chicago based waves.tv (now defunct) attracted angel investment and lots of buzz (such as CNET, Lifehacker, Killerstartups, bigumigu) with their photobooth and live reality shows. When webcam penetration rates stalled, so did VC’s, making waves.tv a history. Onur Kabadayi was one of the founders (that’s me).
• Turkish start-ups that recently started getting more traction and buzz include Knowband – an e-learning social network, Mekanist – an Istanbul city guide, yogurt – an upcoming virual world, messengerFX – an integrated web messenger.

9. Resource List

These were the resources that I relied on most while compiling this research:

1. Telecommunications Sector in Turkey, by Turk Telekom
2. Turkey Internet Sector Overview, June 2009 (short), May 2008, by Sina Afra (also see this interview / Turkish)
3. Comscore Turkey review May 2009, Comscore Russia review July 2009
4. Ipsos Turkey review June 2009 (see the Engligh translation here)
4. McCann Social Media Tracker, March 2008
5. Invest in Turkey website

Top 10 websites you have to watch

atifunaldi — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:49:45 +0000

Joost TV

What’s Joost? It’s a way to watch videos – music, TV, movies and more – over the Internet. We could just call it a website … with videos … but that’s not the whole story.

We’re giving you new ways to find what you’d like to watch. You can search in “traditional” ways – by title or category – or you can find suggestions from other people on Joost. They may be your friends, or they may just be people who have something in common with you – but either way, they can direct you to great things to watch.

Samepoint

As user-generated conversations and content are becoming the dominant form of online media, consumers and marketers alike are seeking new ways to tap into the dialogue and become part of the conversation. Enter SamePoint.com, a Web 2.0 start-up that offers a different type of search engine – one that monitors conversations taking place across the major social media points of interaction.

Samepoint.com utilizes it’s unique technology to bring conversations together from multiple sources to one defined point.

SamePoint.com is presently tracking millions of conversations, taking place across in more than tens of thousands blogs and social media sites. User-generated discussions are typically not indexed by major search engines, such as Google, as they do not reside on static pages. SamePoint.com converts these discussions into web pages, or permalinks, and organizes them within a tag cloud. As an aggregator, we are able to serve as the nexus where these conversations meet, providing a common point, or samepoint, of all discussions on a specific topic.

Conversational search represents the next wave in search technology, as user-generated content becomes an increasingly important form of online expression. For more information, email us at learn@samepoint.com.

TED Talk

The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 400 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All of the talks feature closed captions in English, and many feature subtitles in various languages. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

Livestream

Livestream is the most powerful live broadcast platform on the internet.

Producers can use the Livestream browser-based Studio application to create LIVE, scheduled and on-demand internet television to broadcast anywhere on the web through a single player widget.

Our service comes in two flavors Free (ad-supported) and Pro (white-label, no-ads, pay for usage).

Unique features include the ability to mix multiple live cameras, imported videos clips, and overlay graphics.

With Livestream, producers can broadcast live from a mobile phone; use a customizable flash player with integrated chat; and develop a branded channel page on Livestream.com that incorporates interactive chat.

Posterous

What might be the simplest blogging platform to date… I’m seriously liking posterous.com.

Mashable

Founded in July 2005, Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news. With more than 6 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web and offering social media resources and guides. Mashable’s audience includes early adopters, social media enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, influencers, brands and corporations, marketing, PR and advertising agencies, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. Mashable is also popular with bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users — an increasingly influential demographic.

Lifehacker

Welcome to Lifehacker, an award-winning daily blog that features tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help you get things done smarter and more efficiently. Lifehacker launched in January 2005, and now ranks as one of the top-linked blogs on the internet according to Technorati. Since its inception, Lifehacker has been named Best Blog by Wired, won several Bloggies, and found its way onto many best-of lists by the likes of TIME, Slate, and many more. Lifehacker’s also been mentioned in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, O, The Oprah Magazine and PC Magazine as well as other mainstream press outlets.

The Content Wrangler

Scot the owner of the site is one of the best internet professional that I have ever follow. He is very good at the internet trends and follows best conferences. So it will be googd for you to follow him also on twitter.

Bored about checking your all social network sites every day?

atifunaldi — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:35:18 +0000

I read an article about ppl who are bored about checking social networks everyday. There is a good solution for it.. But for those also like to followed by others maybe my second solution which is a really big hype in Turkey the friendfeed will also be a good solution.

The Sledgehammer: NutshellMail It might seem counter-intuitive to sign up for another web service to majorly reshape the others, but you have no idea what kind of power NutshellMail can give you. It solves what we’ll call the Email Alert Circle, which goes something like this: * You log into social sites and speed-read all the new stuff, but it’s destroying your free time, and your brain! It’s just too much. You stop visiting so often, but wish you could still get the most relevant stuff from them. So you switch to… * Oh, look, email alerts! Now you can get just the direct messages, replies, and relevant friend posts. Two weeks later … * You’re now avoiding your email inbox and decide it, too, is just too much. So get a free account at NutshellMail. Authorize it to parse your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and/or LinkedIn accounts, and it takes all those “John Smith commented on your status” and “Lindsay Jones sent you a direct message” emails you really don’t need to see Right This Minute and delivers them in a digest whenever and however you want them. “But my Twitter replies are crucial to my self-est..I mean, it’s an of-the-moment service!” you say. Fine—go ahead and schedule your NutshellMail updates to arrive every so many hours, depending on your addiction. You’ll still get all the updates for everyone you’re following, and you won’t even have to hop into Twitter.com/TweetDeck/Tweetie/whatnot to reply, because NutshellMail lets you @ reply via email links. For those who can be realistic about how connected they need to be, NutshellMail takes the constant back-to-work hurdles of email updates, known as bacn in some circles, and pounds them into one flat page of your kinda-need-to-know.

Friendfeed

It’s fast and easy to start a conversation around shared items, or to show that you like something a friend has shared. You can subscribe to updates from individuals and groups, such as your family or a team of people you work with. On FriendFeed, you and your friends contribute to a shared stream of information — information that you care about, because it’s from the people that you care about.

You don’t need to install anything to use FriendFeed. You can read and share your FriendFeed however you want — from your email, your phone or even from Facebook. If you make your FriendFeed publicly visible, your friends can see what you’re sharing without creating an account, and you can embed your feed in your home page or blog. FriendFeed also lets you pull in updates from other sites around the web, and even publish your feed to services you already use, like Twitter.