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In times of global financial flux and uncertainty, a highly dynamic new market
is evolving for financial and strategic investors looking for the next opportunity:
Turkey. This report provides comprehensive and in-depth insight into the fast
growing Internet and Digital Media markets in Turkey.
A number of factors are converging in Turkey — favorable demographics
(young, prospering and engaged), a developing risk-capital ecosystem, a
reverse brain transfer (Turkish talent returning home from abroad),
widespread mobile penetration, emerging Internet ecosystem and maturing
eCommerce sector, stable government, strong online and offline consumption
habits and more, making Turkey one of the most anticipated markets in the
world.
The promise demonstrated by evolving sector dynamics and vastly changing
entrepreneurial conditions led last year to considerable hype with regards to
investing in Turkey. This enthusiasm in turn boosted a perception somewhat
in advance of reality, stimulating premature expectations.
Now it’s time, for all concerned to come back to Earth. Particularly in regard to
the eCommerce sector, and the hard work called for may be more mundane
than the glittering fanfare. Survival of the fittest is eliminating lagging players
and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The young market is in fact
maturing, and early investors now have the kind of opportunity that comes
around only when a particular constellation of conditions prevail.
This report acknowledges and provides context for short-term caution
associated with emerging markets such as this. However, the overall findings
suggest substantial potential in the mid to long-term for the Turkish Internet
market to be a new growth region for entrepreneurs and investors alike.
INDEPENDENT TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH SECTOR INITIATION APRIL 2013 DIGITAL MEDIA
ALI DAGLI [email protected]
US: +1 415 412 2015 Turkey : +90 532 245 7505
DANIEL MAGGS
[email protected] London: +44 207 101 7660
Important disclosures appear at the back of this report GP Bullhound LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK
GP Bullhound Inc. is regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Market Overview ...................................................................................................................... 2
Turkey in Context .................................................................................................................... 4
SWOT Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 5
Emerging Internet Ecosystem in Turkey ............................................................................... 5
Private Capital Environment .................................................................................................. 7
Digital Media Landscape ........................................................................................................ 8
Hot Topics................................................................................................................................ 9
Three Paths to Success .................................................................................... 9 Leadership Position and More Innovation ......................................................... 9 “Copy Now” and “Sell Fast” Does Not Work ...................................................... 9 Chicken-and-Egg Paradox .............................................................................. 10 Undue Focus on User/Revenue Growth .......................................................... 10 Appointing Additional Leadership When Needed ............................................ 11 One-way Ticket Back Home ............................................................................ 11
Selected Sector Overviews .................................................................................................. 12
eCommerce ..................................................................................................... 12 Gaming ............................................................................................................ 17 Digital Agencies, Online Advertising and Marketing ........................................ 22 Social Media and Online Content .................................................................... 25
Selected Private Placements ................................................................................................ 30
Selected M&A Transactions ................................................................................................. 32
Facebook and Mobile Internet Rankings............................................................................. 33
Company Tree Diagrams by Sector ..................................................................................... 35
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Market Overview
Turkey is a country where East and West have always met, diverse cultures co-exist, and a
dynamic young population is expanding. A quarter of Turkey's 75m people are less than 15
years old, growing up in the world of Facebook, Twitter, and mobile Internet, and promising a
stronger future for the Turkish economy and its emerging Internet and Digital Media sectors.
Turkey is the world's 15th
, and Europe's 6th, biggest economy by GDP. According to the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Turkey is expected to overtake
India as the world’s second fastest growing economy by 2017.
E X H I B I T 1 : T U R K I S H G DP, 2 001-2 013
Source: The World Bank
Since the Turkish economic crisis of 2001 and the reforms initiated by Kemal Dervis, the
Minister of Economic Affairs and the Treasury at the time, inflation has fallen from 18.4% in
2003 to around 7.4% (expected) in 2012, and unemployment has fallen from 13.3% in April
2009 to 9.2% in 2012 — the lowest level since 2005. Although the budget deficit and foreign
debt remain cause for concern, in November 2012 rating agency Fitch raised Turkey’s credit
rating to investment grade as a vote of confidence in Turkish officials’ efforts to transition the
country towards a more self-sustaining, export-driven economy.
There is an exponentially developing appetite for digital media consumption in Turkey. Use of
IP-based platforms such as web, social networks, and mobile Internet is growing at an
unprecedented pace. 36.5m Turks are Internet users — the fifth largest digital population in
Europe after Germany, UK, Russia and France, and with more room for growth. Broadband
Internet subscriptions have grown 38% year-on-year to 19.3m in 2012.
E X H I B I T 2 : I N T E R N E T B R O A D B A N D P E N E T R A T I O N I N T U R K E Y
Source: IMF, The World Bank
Mobile penetration is high at 90% with 67m users. Turkcell, Vodafone, and Avea are the
dominant carriers with 52%, 28%, and 20% market shares respectively. 60% of mobile users
are currently on 3G data plans. According to Flurry, Turkey is one of the top ten fastest
growing iOS and Android markets at 185% year-on-year growth. 71% of mobile subscribers
$841bn $912bn
$0bn
$200bn
$400bn
$600bn
$800bn
$1,000bn
$1,200bn
2001A 2002A 2003A 2004A 2005A 2006A 2007A 2008A 2009A 2010A 2011A 2012E 2013E
5.9 6.8 8.6
14
19.3
25.8%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2008A 2009A 2010A 2011A Q3 2012E
No. of Broadband Users (m) Penetration as % of Population
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connect to the Internet via mobile phone at least once a day. Every major eCommerce and
Digital Media — and even traditional — company in Turkey is releasing new mobile initiatives
and experiencing significant upside from this rapidly growing medium.
E X H I B I T 3 : M O B I L E I S B E C O M I N G MO B I L E I N T E R N E T – 3 G S U B S C R I B E R G R O W T H
Source: www.tk.gov.tr
People in Turkey are extremely digitally engaged and social, evident on the ground and in the
statistics. Turkish people spend the third-longest time online in Europe after the Netherlands
and the UK, and with 32.4m Facebook users — 89% of all Internet users and 43% of the total
population — Turkey is ranked the seventh largest country on Facebook. With 9m users and
rapidly growing, Turkey is also becoming one of the largest Twitter-using countries. Just
recently, leading mobile operator Turkcell and Twitter reached an agreement to better
integrate Twitter into Turkcell’s mobile phone architecture.
Turkey's overall infrastructure is well developed. Credit-card penetration, at some 60%, is
higher than the European average of 50%. And, relative to for example Russia, logistics and
physical infrastructure are good. Thanks to heavy investment, communication links are strong.
The third-generation network, at least in major urban areas, is often faster than that found in
many other European countries.
Available data indicates that Turkey’s economic environment is, and appears likely to remain,
strong; likewise the political environment is, and appears likely to remain, stable. With more
"profit-focused" execution, innovation, and smart money/investors feeding into Turkey, these
positive digital media trends are on track to continue for years to come.
7.1 19.4
31.4 34.9 37.7 40.3
65.8 55.7 42.4
33.9 30.8 28.5 26.9
92%
87% 85% 89% 88% 89%
90%
80%
82%
84%
86%
88%
90%
92%
94%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2008 2009 2010 2011 Q1 2012 Q2 2012 Q3 2012
No. of 2G Subscribers (m) No. of 3G Subscribers (m) Mobile Penetration (%)
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Turkey in Context
TU
RK
EY
RU
SS
IAIS
RA
EL
FIN
LA
ND
SW
ED
EN
BR
AZ
ILU
KU
S
Po
pu
latio
nan
d A
rea
Popula
tion
75.6
m143.4
m7.9
m5.4
m9.6
m193.3
m63.2
m315.6
m
Popula
tion D
ensity
97/k
m2
8/k
m2
360/k
m2
18/k
m2
23/k
m2
23/k
m2
255.6
/km
234/k
m2
Are
a783,5
62/k
m2
17,0
75,4
00/k
m2
22,1
45/k
m2
303,8
93/k
m2
410,3
14/k
m2
8,5
14,8
77/k
m2
243,6
10/k
m2
9,1
61,0
74/k
m2
Larg
est C
ities
Is
tanbul (1
3.3
m)
A
nkara
(4.3
m)
Iz
mir
(2.8
m)
M
oscow
(11.5
m)
S
t. P’b
urg
(4.8
m)
N
ov’b
irsk (1
.5m
)
Jeru
sale
m (0
.8m
)
T
el A
viv
(0.4
m)
H
aifa
(0.3
m)
H
els
inki (0
.6m
)
T
am
pere
(0.2
m)
T
urk
u (0
.2m
)
S
tockholm
(1.3
m)
G
oth
’burg
(0.5
m)
M
alm
ӧ(0
.3m
)
S
’Paulo
(11.2
m)
R
io d
e J
.(6
.3m
)
S
alv
ador (2
.7m
)
London (9
.5m
)
B
’ham
(2.4
m)
M
’cheste
r (1.9
m)
N
Y (8
.2m
)
LA
(3.8
m)
C
hic
ago (2
.7m
)
Eco
no
mic
Ind
icato
rs (2
011 A
ctu
als
, IMF
)
GD
P (P
PP
)$1,2
60bn
$3,0
15bn
$216bn
$202bn
$392bn
$2,2
89bn
$2,2
34bn
$14,9
91bn
GD
PG
row
th8.5
%4.3
%4.6
%2.7
%3.9
%2.7
%0.8
%1.8
%
Infla
tion R
ate
6.5
%8.4
%3.5
%3.3
%2.9
%6.6
%4.5
%3.1
%
Unem
plo
ym
ent R
ate
9.8
%6.5
%7.1
%7.8
%7.5
%5.9
%8.0
%8.9
%
Users
an
d In
frastru
ctu
re
Inte
rnet U
sers
*36.5
m (4
8%
)70.6
m (4
9%
)5.4
m(6
8%
)4.8
m (8
9%
)8.7
m (9
1%
)87.3
m (4
5%
)51.6
m (8
2%
)245.5
m (7
8%
)
3G
Penetra
tion**
20%
8%
n.a
.n.a
.73%
41%
53%
64%
Cre
dit C
ard
Pe
netra
tion*
60%
(45.4
m)
5%
(7.2
m)
n.a
.n.a
.n.a
.21%
(40.6
m)
n.a
.33%
(104.0
m)
So
cia
l Med
ia
Fa
cebook U
sers
***32.4
m (8
9%
)7.7
m (1
1%
)3.8
m (7
0%
)2.3
m (4
8%
)4.9
m (5
6%
)65.2
m (7
5%
)32.8
m (6
4%
)167.4
m (6
8%
)
Tw
itter U
sers
***9.0
m (2
5%
)5.0
m (7
.1%
)0.1
m (1
.9%
)0.3
m (6
.3%
)0.3
m (3
.4%
)41.2
m (4
7%
)10.0
m(1
9%
)59.0
m (2
4%
)
Sam
ple
Su
ccess S
torie
s
Local S
uccesses
Joygam
e
Mark
afo
ni
vK
onta
kte
Yandex
--
Blo
cket.s
e
Kla
rna
Marc
adoliv
re
Subm
arin
o
Rig
htm
ove
Moneysuperm
ark
et
Gilt G
roupe
Uber
Glo
bal S
uccesses
-K
aspers
ky
Shoppin
g.c
om
Waze
Rovio
Superc
ell
Spotify
Skype
Te
rraB
etfa
ir
Kin
g.c
om
Fa
cebook
No. U
S-b
ased
Com
panie
s o
n
NA
SD
AQ
, NY
SE
and
Am
ex
24
64
13
28
39
n/a
Sourc
es: T
he W
orld
Bank, IM
F, C
apgem
ini, S
ocia
lbakers
, Wire
d, W
ebra
zzi, Beantin
, Ara
bsocia
lmedia
report.c
om
, Sem
iocast R
esearc
h V
ISA
, KP
CB
, * As
% o
f tota
l popula
tion ** A
s %
of m
obile
subscrib
ers
*** As %
of
Inte
rnet u
sers
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SWOT Analysis
E X H I B I T 4 : SW OT A N A L Y S I S
Source: GP Bullhound
Emerging Internet Ecosystem in Turkey
New Internet startups are being formed and large traditional corporations are announcing new
online initiatives in Turkey virtually every day. Large conglomerates such as Dogan and
Dogus have numerous Internet companies under their umbrellas (such as Amazon-like
HepsiBurada and Hulu-like Tvyo). The spread of entrepreneurship in Turkey is taking place
not just at the corporate level, but at the startup level as well. Many Turkish professionals
have embraced the Internet as the forward-looking direction for growth. There is tremendous
energy behind a push to create what might one day become the Silicon Valley of Anatolia.
Entrepreneurship and Internet studies are being taught in every major university across
Turkey, and entrepreneurs and sector experts frequently attend panel discussions and give
lectures to stimulate debate and initiative. Arda Kutsal and his team at the very popular
Turkish tech portal Webrazzi are playing a major role in cultivating the Silicon Valley paradigm
in Turkey — by updating Turkish entrepreneurs on a daily basis as to what’s going on in
California, and how to emulate or localize these dynamic developments in Turkey.
Burak Buyukdemir has done an outstanding job of mentoring and incubating up-and-coming
entrepreneurs through his incubation platform eTohum. In fact, there are growing numbers of
incubators and accelerators (Fit Startup Factory, Dunya Invest, Inventram, among others).
The Turkish arm of Endeavor, which offers strategic advice, mentorship and global contacts to
promising startups, is working hard to help mature the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The quality of advice available from some of the local counsels — such as Sidika Baysal
Hatipoglu of B+B or Enver Sezer Caliskan of Caliskan & Kizilyel — compares favorably to that
which one would get from seasoned professionals at Wilson Sonsini or Fenwick in Silicon
Valley.
Strengths Opportunities
Weaknesses Threats
Strong macro trends and growing economy
Young, educated and engaged population
Large Internet user base w/ room for growth
90%+ mobile penetration
Robust logistics, payments and Internet
infrastructure
Entrepreneurial energy and quick problem-
solving capability
Hard-working and low-cost labor force
East/West geographical and cultural magnet
R
Young Internet ecosystem
Lack of private capital, small set of smart
institutional investors
Insufficient innovation
Unbalanced activity in eCommerce versus
other digital media segments
Undue focus on revenue growth
Dependence on Google user acquisition
Lack of non-founding employee incentives
and stock options
Immature business models failing with
potential chilling effect on new investment
Domestic challenges to modernization
Internet censorship by government agencies
Unstable conditions in nearby countries
Exponentially growing appetite for digital media
Pressing move in 2013 towards more
innovative and profitable businesses
Money-spend online to catch up with time-
spend online (consumers and advertisers)
Massive growth trajectory in smartphone and
broadband penetration
Foreign investors looking to invest in Turkey
Investment incentives from government
Affluent professionals coming back home
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The Turkish government, recognizing these new developments as vital for boosting the
accelerated growth Turkey has been experiencing in recent years, has been initiating a host of
policies — legal and fiscal measures and infrastructure projects — to attract entrepreneurial
activity and job seekers to the Internet sector. Especially helpful for growing startups is
"Government R&D company status" incentivizing them to rent offices in numerous tax-exempt
‘technoparks’ located on university campuses throughout the country. Such government
support is aimed at overcoming some of the known liabilities inherited from the past, creating
a friendly, proactive and robust environment for new businesses.
Despite all these positive trends, the Turkish Internet ecosystem is still young and
inexperienced in regard to the mores and skill sets of Silicon Valley. The older generation is
still bound by tradition and this can hamper younger players from developing and deploying
the entrepreneurial spirit to which Silicon Valley is accustomed. Cronyism, lack of vision, fear
of failure, insufficient skill in planning and cooperation are formidable deterrents.
At times, new business leaders can be impatient and naïve, underestimating what it takes to
grow a sustainable enterprise. There is a lack of institutional private funding, and existing local
investors want too much control, being unwilling to allow entrepreneurs to chart untried
trajectories. This results in a lack of innovation, premature abandonment of good ideas, and
inadequate financial incentives.
Of course, all these shortcomings are natural part of continued growth and development. And
as the country’s new business leaders demonstrate that they are finding their feet in this newly
developing arena, Internet entrepreneurship in Turkey is increasingly acquiring a distinctive
flavor, both local and global, creating a new and as yet untapped sphere of opportunity for
investors.
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Private Capital Environment
To date, the Turkish private capital environment has been largely dominated by local
investors and a small set of outside investors. Many of these are angel investors in the form
of successful entrepreneurs such as Emre Kurttepeli, founder of leading Internet portal
Mynet, Hasan Aslanoba, CEO of Aslanoba, and Tolga Tatari, Ahmet Emre Sari, and Sina
Afra, co-founders of eCommerce giant Markafoni. Turkish angels have generally invested in
rounds of up to $1m so far, although in some cases they have joined larger rounds alongside
non-angel investors.
We see significant deal activity from a number of key local digital media investors. 212 and
iLab in particular have been highly active and have played a key role in building awareness
of and confidence in the Turkish tech scene.
212 is the largest early-stage VC fund dedicated to making investments in Internet and
technology companies in Turkey, investing in a broad range of verticals including social
gaming, eCommerce, cloud services and social media.
iLab is unique in being both an investor and incubator, and focuses primarily on the
classifieds, comparison, e-commerce and content categories – all proven models and highly
scalable businesses. Founded in 2000, iLab is an icon of the Turkish tech scene - it has
holdings in 12 businesses with a combined total of over 700 employees, more than 400m
page views, 24m users, 6m unique monthly visitors, and a reach of 25% of the Turkish
Internet market. iLab invested in GittiGidiyor in 2006 and still owns a minority stake.
Generally speaking, the serious money has been provided by a small set of international
investors, with the largest raises to date coming from General Atlantic ($44m for Yemek
Sepeti, together with Endeavor Global) and Tiger Global Management (large stakes in Mynet
and Trendyol). Hummingbird and Earlybird have also made multiple investments. As global
investors get comfortable with the idea of investing in Turkey, we expect foreign capital
inflows to increase significantly.
E X H I B I T 5 : S E L E C T E D V C F I R M S W I T H T U R K I S H I N T E R N E T I N V E S T M E N T S
Source: CapitalIQ, Webrazzi, GP Bullhound
Investor Key Investments
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Digital Media Landscape
Pric
e
Co
mp
aris
on
Priv
ate
Sh
op
pin
geT
aile
rs &
Mark
etp
laces
Paym
en
ts
Gro
up
Bu
yin
g &
Da
ily D
ealsV
ertic
al e
Co
mm
erc
e
eC
om
me
rce
Ad
ve
rtisin
gC
onte
nt
Ga
min
g
Mo
bile
Mark
etin
g
Bra
nd
an
d
Perfo
rman
ce
Ad
s -
Bu
ysid
e
Bra
nd
an
d
Perfo
rman
ce A
ds
-S
ells
ide
eM
ail M
ark
etin
g
Cla
ssifie
ds, Y
ello
w P
ag
es, a
nd
HR
So
cia
l Med
ia
Tra
ditio
nal N
ew
s O
utle
ts
On
line V
ideo
& M
usic
Co
nso
le G
am
ing
Web
/ Do
wn
load
So
cia
l Ne
two
rk G
am
ing
On
line V
ideo
Mo
bile
Inte
rnet
En
ab
ling
Te
chn
olo
gie
s
Lic
en
sed
Be
tting
Mo
bile
Gam
ing
MM
O
3rd
Party
Serv
ices
Dig
ital C
reativ
e A
gen
cie
s
Vid
eo
Ad
Ne
two
rks
Inte
rnet-O
nly
Med
ia C
om
pan
ies
Vertic
al C
on
ten
t
On
line D
atin
g
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Hot Topics Three Paths to Success
For an emerging country such as Turkey, we see three major routes to entrepreneurial
success. The first is to clone existing products/services that are already successful in
developed markets, but need a lot of work to flower in new territory. To date this has been a
common strategy for many Turkish entrepreneurs, and has been highly profitable for first-
movers such as eBay-clone Gittigidiyor and Gilt-clone Markafoni.
The second route is to create a unique or differentiated product/service for the local market
only — in this case, offerings with specific appeal to the Turkish population. Peak Gaming’s
flagship title Okey, for instance, has created unique appeal for Turkish gamers by
successfully porting the tea house experience of playing tile games to the Internet. Players
can also send each other topical gifts such as Turkish coffee, a nargila water pipe and even
a belly dancer!
The third and less well trodden route is to create a product/service with global appeal which
can compete outside of Turkey as well as within it — here the most innovation is required.
Already we see a number of success stories in the making. In mobile Internet games, for
instance, we see promising, high-quality, products such as Picnic Hippo's Bucketz, Duello's
iSlash, and Fugo's Wordz.
Leadership Position and More Innovation
Naturally, Turkish entrepreneurs and investors at first directed most of their attention and
money into types of businesses with which they and consumers are most familiar and
comfortable. That is, selling offline goods through online channels with a new make-up and
social mechanics. Accordingly, the majority of Internet-based businesses in Turkey and
MENA have been about selling offline goods online. And this has been fine, as a start.
However, we have to keep in mind that by their nature online shopping businesses have
relatively lower margins. In addition, low barriers to entry result in intense competition and
additional margin pressure. This means that only companies in the leading position by a high
margin and/or offering proprietary products will be embraced by consumers over the long
term.
Thus there are two ways to move forward in creating more local and global online success
stories in Turkey. Either the leading players further ramp up to widen the margin between
themselves and the competition, or entrepreneurs retool and come up with a wider range of
innovative, diversified, differentiated, and disruptive businesses — both in eCommerce and
other under-penetrated Internet sectors — that can in due course reach scale and
profitability.
In Turkey so far, Hepsiburada.com (online retailer), Sahibinden (online classifieds), Cicek
Sepeti (online flower delivery), Yemek Sepeti (online food delivery), Mynet (online portal),
Joygame (online gaming), Kariyer.net (online recruitment) have revenue scale and profitable
growth. All these companies offer differentiated products and are distinguished leaders of
their respective sectors. What is needed is more of them.
“Copy Now” and “Sell Fast” Does Not Work
Being inspired by and “cloning” a business that has been successful elsewhere can be a
smart move for entrepreneurs, and may bring considerable success. And it may at first
appear that this route is a shortcut compared with launching an enterprise that is brand new
on the scene. This perception may, however, be deceptive. Whether it is cloning a winning
business model or innovating from the ground up, local case studies support the common
experience of excessive workloads before payback can be expected.
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In other words, successful and enduring companies are not built easily or overnight. When
we look at the time span of some of the successful online businesses in Turkey, where there
is both revenue scale and profitability (or a successful exit), this point becomes evident:
E X H I B I T 6 : S E L E C T E D C O M P A N I E S W I T H R E V E N U E S C A L E A N D P R O F I T A B I L I T Y
Source: CapitalIQ, GP Bullhound
Chicken-and-Egg Paradox
Today, investors all over the world are looking for growth, but with developed countries in
abeyance and many developing countries (such as Brazil and India) experiencing lower than
anticipated growth, attractive opportunities without high risk are few and far between.
In many respects, Turkey is becoming a standout place to look for high growth opportunities,
and investors are now keen on investing in Turkey. However, many are sitting on the
sidelines, waiting for more definitive signs. Optimistic and willing though they may be, they
remain cautious.
On the other hand, Turkish entrepreneurs require early-stage capital and seasoned investors
backing them up to unlock the ecosystem’s underlying value, to maturate the nascent
developments into the solid opportunities the investors are waiting for. Thus we have at the
moment something of a chicken-and-egg paradox, awaiting bold moves on the part of
frontrunner investors to break into a new and profitable arena.
Undue Focus on User/Revenue Growth
As commonly experienced in the western European and Silicon Valley start-up community, we
see many examples in Turkey where Turkish entrepreneurs focus on customer acquisition
and revenue growth as markers of success. However, this mentality can prove to be short-
sighted. Investors, on the other hand, anticipating changes wrought by maturity, need to see
not just revenue growth but a path to profitability.
2000 20122002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2013
Amazon
$235m
eBay
iLab Ventures iLab Ventures
$7.2m
Trayas
Allegro
(Naspers)
Tiger Global
Management
European Founders
Fund Management
1998
iLab Ventures eBay
$44m
General Atlantic
Endeavor Global
LEGEND
Private Placement M&A (Exit)
13 years old
15 years old
7 years old
6 years old
4 years old
14 years old
5 years old
14 years old
13 years old
12 years old
11 years old$2.5m
Intel Capital
Hummingbird
Ventures
$15m (50% stake)
CJ Games
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For example, for long-term value, Turkish e-commerce entrepreneurs need to look beyond
simply acquiring large numbers of users, instead focusing on the lifetime value of customers,
conversion rates, user royalty, and organic channels of customer acquisition and other key
performance indicators.
Emre Aydin, founder and CEO of Cicek Sepeti, has successfully demonstrated this by a
relentless focus on analyzing customer data and leveraging it to make operational
enhancements, as well as ongoing product innovation. And the result is clear — over the
years, Cicek Sepeti has enjoyed strong revenue growth with unprecedented EBITDA margins
of around 20%, delivering flowers online, in many respects, better than its global counterparts.
Appointing Additional Leadership When Needed
It is very common, both in Turkey and globally, for founders of Internet companies to be
wearing lots of hats. Although these talented leaders have had what it takes to get their
enterprises off the ground to considerable acclaim, Turkish entrepreneurs sometimes
underestimate the need to delegate authority and to widen the talent pool by bringing in
professional personnel with additive experience and complementary responsibilities. Such
limitation can prove to be damaging. Not only does it constrain the scope of realizable
potential for the enterprise, but the leader may be blindsided by the success they’ve enjoyed,
becoming overwhelmed and spending a lot of their time where they are not needed or as
valuable.
It was a smart decision, when Burak Balik, the founder of the highly successful online gaming
company Joygame, brought in Baris Ozistek as CEO in March 2011, two years after the
company’s founding. Today Burak is leading the product teams, game selection and on-going
platform innovation with Baris leading day-to-day execution and dealing with the corporate
development needs of the business. We expect this leadership to continue to translate to
exciting milestones for Joygame that the Turkish ecosystem as a whole can be proud of —
Korean entertainment and media company CJ E&M recently acquired 50% of Joygame for
$15m.
Another great example of successful additional leader appointment is in the case of Sina Afra
joining Tolga Tatari and Ahmet Sari in order to bring organizational experience and discipline
to the initial Markafoni team. The three leaders truly complemented each other with their
respective roles and turned Markafoni into the great success story it has become. Naspers
acquired 66% of Markafoni in 2011 and continues to back Markafoni with their new initiatives.
The collective goal is to turn Markafoni into a billion dollar company and have an IPO in a few
years.
One-way Ticket Back Home
A fairly recent phenomenon of significance for the tech sector in Turkey is the accelerating
“reverse brain transfer,” whereby Turkish professionals who have been studying and working
abroad are returning home to seek newly emerging opportunities. The tech sector has been a
major beneficiary of this trend.
For example, after 17 successful years in the US — having sold SelectMinds to Oracle —
entrepreneur Cem Sertoglu returned home in 2006 and became one of the early pioneers of
the (then non-existent) VC community. Two companies Sertoglu invested in — Gittigidiyor and
Grupfoni — have already enjoyed exits.
In addition, well-regarded sector executives such as Hakan Bas of Lidyana, Rina Onur of
Peak Games, and Demet Mutlu of Trendyol studied in leading US universities and returned
home after a few years of investment banking experience to participate in this rapidly growing
sector. In another manifestation of coming back home, there are numerous Turkish executives
working abroad for US-based enterprises being asked by their companies to return to Turkey
to lead their operations in the region. Just recently, Baris Aksoy was asked by Intel Capital to
relocate from Silicon Valley to head their new offices in Istanbul.
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Selected Sector Overviews eCommerce
eCommerce is arguably the sector in the Turkish digital media landscape which has attracted
the most attention and investment. The combination of a young and affluent demographic,
rapid economic growth, developed infrastructure and strong Internet, mobile and credit card
penetration has created fertile ground for eCommerce players to thrive. As penetration has
risen, the value of domestic eCommerce transactions has dramatically increased, from
around $3.1bn in 2007 to over $17bn in 2012, representing a 41% CAGR. Likewise, the
volume of such transactions has surged from 54m in 2007 to 162m in 2012, a 24.5% CAGR.
Even in 2012, when other sectors slowed down, domestic eCommerce spending rose by
34%, and volumes by 29%.
E X H I B I T 7 : V O L U M E A N D V A L U E O F D O M E S T I C E C O M M E R C E T R A N S A C T I O N S
Source: Interbank Card Center, xe.com, GP Bullhound
Turkish people are spending more online not only in aggregate terms, but also per transaction –
average basket sizes have grown 13.1% in 2012 alone. Turkey already has around 10m online
shoppers. Assuming Turkish Internet penetration will continue towards EU averages, this number
should reach around 16m by 2016.
E X H I B I T 8 : A V E R A G E D O M E S T I C E C O M M E R C E T R A N S A C T I O N V A L U E S ($ )
Source: Interbank Card Center, xe.com, GP Bullhound
Investor interest in Turkish eCommerce has been heightened by a series of landmark transactions
which took place in 2011. First, eBay acquired 83% of Turkey’s largest auction site GittiGidiyor, in a
deal rumoured to value the company at $215m. Then South African media conglomerate Naspers
acquired 70% of Markafoni, one of Turkey’s largest private shopping companies, in a deal valuing it
3.1 5.1 5.8
8.6
12.9
17.3
54.1 64.6 66.5
91.9
125.9
162.0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
0
5
10
15
20
25
2007A 2008A 2009A 2010A 2011A 2012A
Transaction Value ($bn) Transaction Volume (m)
57.8
79.6 87.3
93.6 102.7 107.0
2007A 2008A 2009A 2010A 2011A 2012A
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around $200m. Lastly, Amazon invested in leading online flower store Ciceksepeti. Since then,
Turkish fundraising activity has been dominated by e-commerce plays as investors seek to tap the
sector’s long-term growth potential (see Selected M&A Transactions and Private Placements on
pages 30-32 for details).
At the same time, the sector faces a number of challenges. The success of and hype surrounding
leading companies such as Markafoni, Yemek Sepeti, Grupfoni and Lidyana has spawned
numerous imitations, creating intense competition for market share and driving down (already low)
gross margins for the market as a whole. There are hundreds of small-scale firms in each
eCommerce segment, but many lack distinctive sustainable business models and are too small to
attract investment.
That said, the overall long-term picture is still one of considerable optimism. Turkish per capita
income currently stands at c. $10,000, and is projected to reach $60,000 by 2050. GDP growth will
further the infrastructure investment needed to bring increasing numbers of Turks online. High
mobile penetration will go a long way to overcoming current infrastructure issues. In addition, the
ongoing and anticipated demise of large numbers of companies will bring maturity to the Turkish
eCommerce sector. Entrepreneurs and investors will need to have a more considered and
disciplined approach, and will need to focus more on product differentiation, sustainability, unit level
economics, and paths to profitability along with revenue growth. With eCommerce penetration
standing at around 0.6% of retail sales, the sector is still in its infancy with a long and profitable way
to catch up with the consumption levels of already mature European counterparts.
E X H I B I T 9 : E- C O M M E R C E S H A R E O F R E T A I L S A L E S (20 11 , N O N -T R A V E L )
Source: Center for Retail Research
General eTailers and Horizontal Marketplaces
Leading general business-to-consumer eTailers serving Turkish customers, such as Dogan Group’s
Hepsiburada and Amazon, work with large numbers of merchants and sell hundreds of thousands of
products across a broad range of categories. Founded in 1998, hepsiburada.com is the largest
eCommerce site in Turkey with over 6m monthly unique visitors, 900,000 monthly purchases and
annual revenues of over $300m. The Company offers 350 SKUs in 32 categories and employs 250
employees. Although much smaller, Sabanci Group’s Kliksa and Hurriyet’s newcomer Yenicarsim are
other prominent players in this segment.
Horizontal marketplaces act as virtual bazaars that bring together merchants, small businesses, and
individuals to trade almost anything. Sahibinden is currently the leading marketplace and classifieds
destination in Turkey, with over 13m monthly unique visitors. It claims over 3m listings at any one
time and around 50,000 new listings a day. eBay’s GittiGidiyor is currently second in the space with
over 6m monthly unique visitors. eBay’s 2011 acquisition of GittiGidiyor remains the largest Internet
acquisition in Turkey, with a deal value of $217m.
10.7%
8.0% 7.4% 7.0% 6.8%
6.0% 5.8%
4.3% 3.3% 3.0%
2.5%
0.6%
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Online Private Shopping
Online private shopping clubs offer an environment that hosts sales of designer brands for members
at deep discounts. They often encourage members to introduce friends in their online social networks
with additional savings and offers. UK-based Vente Privee offered this model to online customers for
the first time in 2001 and remains one of the most valuable private companies in the world, with
revenues in 2011 of $773m and valuations estimated between two to three billion dollars. Gilt Groupe,
the first to bring the luxury sample sale to the US online market when launched in 2007, has also
experienced extraordinary growth. Realizing this massive opportunity, Turks were fast to follow, with
private shopping clubs Markafoni and Trendyol launching in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Other
sizable (and somewhat challenged) players are Limango, Vipdükkan, Morhippo, and 1v1y.com.
Group Buying and Daily Deals
Group buying sites offer products and services at significantly reduced prices providing that a
minimum number of buyers purchase the same item. They are viral versions of traditional
daily deal sites, bolstered by integration with Facebook and various social features. Huge
consumer demand and hype for this segment was reflected in the creation of 150+ new
players and a rash of deals in Turkey in 2011. That year, Intel invested in Grupanya, Quants
Financial Services took a majority stake in Grupfoni, and betting site Bilyoner acquired
Grupca. However, with intense competition, low barriers to entry, and questionable ROI, this
market has been shrinking. Currently, Istanbul-based Grupanya and Chicago-based Groupon
are the leading players in Turkey, with Yakala.co, Grupfoni, and Bonubon chasing after them.
Price Comparison and Lead Generation
Price comparison services allow individuals to see different lists of prices for specific products from
large numbers of retailers. These sites typically do not charge users to use the service, but charge the
retailers a flat fee or have them pay every time a user clicks through to the retailers’ product (CPC).
Since price is a big value driver of eCommerce for Turkish consumers (in many instances versus
convenience), price comparison sites are quite popular. The price comparison sites with the most
traffic are Akakce, Ucuzu, and iLab’s Cimri.
Vertical eCommerce Companies
In Turkey, 2010 was the year of private shopping, 2011 was all about group buying sites, and in 2012
vertical eTailers and Marketplaces grabbed most of the attention. These are destinations where
consumers go to buy products or services in a specific vertical, varying from cars, consumer
electronics, cosmetics, accessories, baby products, and home decoration.
Certain verticals, such as food and flowers, already have their well-established leaders. Yemeksepeti,
founded in 2001, and Ciceksepeti, founded in 2006, have done an excellent job of executing their
business plans and attracting high quality investors such as General Atlantic, Amazon, and
Hummingbird. Benefiting from the company’s strong and influential investor and celebrity network,
Lidyana is emerging as the leading player in the accessories market. There is both huge growth and
intense competition going after the “golden mom” in the baby and home decoration verticals. The
travel vertical is still largely owned by offline players, and there is huge room for growth online.
Vertical eCommerce in Turkey has had some consolidation — Dogan’s acquisition of Evmanya and
Pera Bulvari buying WestWing — but has yet to see large M&A transactions. The investment
landscape, on the other hand, has been very active as investors have started to follow companies
that identify a niche and become proficient in catering to it.
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E X H I B I T 10 : L E A D I N G T U R K I S H V E R T I C A L E C O M M E R C E C O M P A N I E S
Source: GP Bullhound
Vertical Leading Player(s) Selected Investor(s)
Accessories and
Jewellery
Automotive
Books
Conservative
Fashion
Consumer
Electronics
Cosmetics
Flowers and Gifts
Food
Home Decoration
Mother and Baby
Personalised
Fashion
Shoes
Travel Bookings
Rentals
Local Events
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Payments
The Turkish payments industry has benefited greatly from the eCommerce boom of the last
few years. As we discussed at the outset, Turkey’s continued GDP growth, 60% credit card
and near 50% Internet penetration generated 162m eCommerce transactions in 2012, with a
total transaction value of $17.3bn and a per-transaction average of $107. However, as we’ve
also noted, only 0.6% of Turkish retail sales take place online, so the balance of payments is
firmly weighted towards offline for the time being. This is not just a matter of economic
development; there are important market factors which have caused eCommerce to lag
behind. Many small businesses which would otherwise sell online lack an appropriate point
of sale. Ability to absorb chargebacks is also a concern for small vendors, who may struggle
to meet shipping deadlines for large volumes of purchases in a time and cost effective
manner. Prior to 2009, eCommerce was largely limited to retail in small-ticket consumer
electronics purchases – thin margins meant that few saw an opportunity. A number of large
online retailers were also badly damaged by the 2008-2009 financial crisis, which did little to
raise confidence in eCommerce. On the demand side, trust and security are important
concerns for Turkish consumers.
Despite all this, things are clearly changing. The explosive growth of private shopping and
group buying sites has been a major boon for Turkish eCommerce. By leveraging social
networks and an attractive sense of exclusivity, they have succeeded in creating
environments where Turkish users feel comfortable making high-ticket purchases they would
previously have made in-store.
We now see close to a dozen serious payment players in Turkey:
i) Leading micro/mobile payment solutions are Mikro Odeme, Paybyme, PaytoGo /
GameSultan, This segment has seen the most transaction activity. On January 25,
2012, Mikro Odeme, Turkey’s leading mobile payment service, received a majority
investment from London-based private equity house Mediterra Capital. And in
February 2013, Asian e-payments giant MOL acquired a majority stake in
PaytoGo/GameSultan.
ii) Leading digital wallet solutions are Interbank Card Center’s BKM Express,
Turkcell’s Cuzdan (Wallet), Paypal, and Vodafone’s Cuzdan (Wallet). These digital
wallet platforms make eCommerce purchases easier and faster by letting users
register their debit, credit and/or prepaid cards on the platform in advance.
iii) Rapidly growing pre-paid solutions include Ininal Mastercard, Vodafone’s CepNakit
Kart, Turkcell’s Cep-T Para Cart, Magir Kart, and Paysafecard. Ininal is the only
independent player that offers reloadable prepaid cards with 90% market reach
given its large merchant ecosystem and retail distribution system.
iv) POS and merchants solutions include Paypal, PayU, Mikro Odeme/3pay, ipara, and
multipaynet.
Given the rising acceptance of eCommerce in Turkey and considerable room for growth in
terms of Internet, mobile and credit card penetration, the payments vertical will continue to
remain a competitive but exciting space.
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Gaming
Turkish gamers — a quarter of the population — are proud to call themselves gamers, and
have always embraced gaming without limits. There was a point in 2008, however, when the
Ministry of Finance banned Knight Online, Irvine-based K2 Networks’ micro-transaction-
based F2P massively-multiplayer online game on the basis that, “there were thousands of
people in Turkey that were becoming addicted to games and companies were earning profits
without being taxed.” Knight Online was a victim of its success — the profits from Turkish
players were reaching $1m a month. The ban was unfortunate, but the game’s popularity is
an indicator of the very promising online gaming sector in Turkey.
E X H I B I T 11 : T U R K E Y ’ S G A M I N G P O P U L A T I O N (20 12)
Source: Newzoo
Turkey is estimated to have approximately 22m active gamers, or 29% of its total population
of 75.6m. Of these 22m, more than half are estimated by Newzoo to be spending money on
games.
E X H I B I T 12 : M O N E Y S P E N T O N G A M E S I N 2 012 - D I S T R I B U T I O N
Source: Newzoo
According to recent Newzoo research, the Turkish gaming market is estimated to reach
$450m in 2012. Although more traditional genres (console, PC, and massively-multiplayer
online games) still comprise the largest share (at 24%, 21% and 12% respectively), emerging
platforms such as social networks and mobile Internet are already at 20% levels with
projections for much higher growth and innovative vehicles, such as in-app purchases, for
monetization.
76 m (100%)
Total Turkish population
37 m (48%)
Internet Population
22 m (29%)
Active Gamers
11 m (15%) Paying
Gamers
Console games 24%
MMO games 21%
PC/Mac download
15%
PC/Mac boxed 12%
Mobile phones
10%
Social networks
9%
Casual websites
9%
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E X H I B I T 13 : G R O W T H I N MENA I N T E R N E T U S E R S
Source: Arabnet and Discover Digital Arabica
In addition to Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region offers attractive
conditions for gaming growth and a significant area of expansion for Turkish gaming
companies. According to Arabnet and Discover Digital Arabica, in 2011 the MENA region
had around 72m Internet users and is expected to have 150m by 2015, representing an
annual growth rate of 21%. Turkey is also a young demographic; the average age is 28.
Utilizing the new opportunities afforded by global app store distribution on social networks
and Mobile Internet devices, small players in atypical locations have been developing gaming
app revenues of a million dollars a day. Turkish gaming companies are becoming alert to
such opportunities, and investors are on the lookout for those most likely to break through.
PC/Console Gaming
According to Newzoo, PC and console gaming currently occupies the largest share of the
Turkish gaming market, estimated at around $170m each generating around $85m.
Playstation 3 was the dominant console platform with 80% market share by hardware and
software sales in H1 2012, with Xbox and Wii sharing the rest of the console market.
On the PC and console gaming side, we cannot point to a successful Turkish game developer
since the large global developers/publishers dominate the Turkish market. Top publishers are
EA, Activision, Konami, Take 2, and UBISOFT. As per 2012 sales, Turkish players favored the
following games the most: Pro Evolution Soccer, Fifa, Call of Duty, Medal of Honour, and
Need for Speed. In addition to these multi-platform games, Diablo 3, Football Manager and
Sims 3 were the most popular titles on PC.
The only semi-Turkish global success story is German-based Crytec, led by three Turkish-
German brothers, Cevat, Faruk, and Avni Yerli. The company is known for creating
exceptionally high-quality games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by
proprietary 3D-game technology CryENGINE. The company has been on an aggressive
expansion spree over the last several years opening offices in the United States, Ukraine,
South Korea and, most recently, in the founding brothers’ ancestral Turkey. It is worth
mentioning that, Mr. Yerli recently announced that all Crytek games would be free-to-play
going forward. It is rumored that the Company’s most recent free-to-play first person shooter
game Warface — still in beta — is generating a few million dollars a month in Russia alone.
MMO Games
Massive multiplayer online (MMO) games in Turkey are hugely popular. According to
Newzoo, more than one in five dollars spent on games in Turkey goes to MMO, higher than
in many other countries. Turkey is estimated to have around 9.8m regular MMO gamers,
80% of whom are under 35. The share of paying MMO gamers is high at 46%, although
average monthly spending is several times lower than in the US. 96% of MMO gamers play
free-to-play and 27% play subscription-based MMO games. In revenue terms, free-to-play
games take slightly more than half. Spending on MMO and console games at gaming cafes
is estimated to add at least another $30m to the picture. The growth and popularity of MMO
15m
70m
150m
2006A 2011A 2015E
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games has been driven by the same factors driving social gaming – a young population, high
Internet penetration and usage, and rising disposable income - important for covering the
cost of subscriptions. That said, ultimately MMO in Turkey, like MMORPGs, caters more to
hardcore gamers than casual ones.
Established in 2009, the leading Turkish MMO publisher is Joygame. Unlike social gaming
company Peak Games, Joygame does not produce any titles, but localizes and publishes
existing ones into the local market. However, the company truly shines when it comes to
publishing foreign titles in Turkey, and the user metrics, revenue growth, and strong margin
profile speak to this fact. The team spend days working on the graphics, language, local
jargon, and analyzing user data as part of the localization process. The company currently
has 15m registered users, 2.5m monthly active users and 400,000 daily active users.
Wolfteam is the biggest title of Joygame and actually the most popular MMO first-person
shooter (FPS) game in the region, estimated to be generating above $2m in monthly
revenues. Joygame started out by publishing localized titles for the Turkish market only, but
in 2011 it expanded its operations into MENA, first by opening an office in Egypt. Korea-
based CJ E&M acquired 50% of Joygame in March 2013.
Sobee is a truly Turkish multiplayer game development company founded by highly regarded
video game developer Mevlut Dinc. Mr. Dinc moved to his homeland after developing global
hits such as the First Samurai and Street Racer to share his wealth of knowledge with the
Turkish game developers and gamers. The company develops server based multiplayer
games that are available and customised for a Turkish audience.
Social Network Gaming
Social network gaming typically includes games that are played on social networks and/or
have some type of social graph integration. These games are generally monetized through
virtual currency, free-to-play and have strong virality components attached to them.
Facebook, which went from 100m users in 2008 to 1bn in 2012, has been the main driving
force in the surge of social network gaming.
E X H I B I T 14 : T O P F A C E B O O K D E V E L O P E R S B Y DAU ( J A N 2013 )
Source: Appdata.com
Out of 32.4m Turkish Facebook users, 89% play games. After three years of operations,
Zynga’s smash hit Farmville franchise is still the most successful franchise on Facebook,
which speaks to the retention and monetization potential of successful social network games.
Turkish people are participants in the success of Farmville - 1 out of 8 Internet users in
Turkey plays Farmville.
Rank Name CountryCompany
Metrics
MAU DAU
1 Zynga US 142.3m 16.5m
2 King.com UK 38.3m 4.7m
3 Electronic Arts US 17.4m 3.7m
4 Peak Games Turkey 11.8m 3.4m
5 Wooga Germany 21.6m 3.2m
6 Social Point Spain 21.3m 2.1m
7 FunPlus Game China 9.8m 2.0m
8 Playdom US 7.4m 1.7m
9 RockYou! US 2.9m 1.2m
10 Playtika Israel 6.1m 1.1m
11 PlayQ US 5.6m 1.1m
12 Miniclip.comz UK 6.1m 1.1m
Rank Name CountryCompany
Metrics
MAU DAU
13 FreshPlanet US 10.2m 1.0m
14 Rovio Finland 10.3m 1.0m
15 Geewa Czech Rep. 10.1m 1.0m
16 Tetris Online US 5.1m 1.0m
17 Kiloo Games Denmark 5.0m 1.0m
18 SGN US 6.4m 1.0m
19 6waves Hong Kong 2.2m 0.8m
20 THX Games Hungary 2.8m 0.7m
21 Boyaa China 4.3m 0.7m
22 Digital Chocolate US 4.4m 0.5m
23 Mynet Turkey 3.8m 0.5m
24 Qublix Canada 3.6m 0.4m
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The Turkish poster child of global social gaming is Istanbul-based Peak Games, a company
which in little over three years has become the world’s fourth largest gaming company on
Facebook by daily active users (DAUs). This is impressive, since DAU is a metric that
measures highly engaged users and is a proxy for monetization potential. The company’s
flagship title is Okey, a digital version of a popular Turkish tile-based game usually played
with four people. After resounding domestic success with Okey, Peak released Turkey and
MENA focused Happy Farm, a farming simulation game in the style of Zynga’s Farmville.
While Happy Farm’s core mechanics are similar to Farmville’s, notable modifications include
the use of Arabic instead of English, and characters in local dress (and the absence of pigs).
Mynet is another Turkish company that gets a top-25 spot on Facebook’s developer
leaderboard. Whereas Peak Games is a dedicated game development and localization
studio, Mynet is a diversified Internet media company with a massive user base on its web
portal, mobile apps and Facebook, from which online games can be distributed.
Mobile Internet Gaming
In terms of the number of new games in development, media consumption and monetization,
mobile Internet is the current rising star in the Turkish gaming landscape. Despite local
complaints with regard to the lack of local developer talent (those who can write code in
objective C or Unity) we expect to see more and more high quality games developed in
Turkey targeting local and global mobile audiences through Mobile Internet devices such as
iPhone, iPad, and Android.
E X H I B I T 15 : T O P 15 G R O S S I N G I P H O N E G A M E S I N T U R K E Y ( J A N 20 13)
Source: Apple iOS and Google Play App Stores
Although there are a large number of Turkish game developers offering their games on the
Turkish app store, only Peak Games finds itself a spot in the top 15 grossing rankings with its
highly successful mobile game, Okey Plus. Out of 15 top-grossing games, eight of them are
localized for Turkish players, which shows the importance of localization. Two other important
points to highlight from our analysis concern the file size and business model. When a mobile
game is more than 50 megabytes, consumers cannot download it on the fly, through 3G
mobile networks, which creates significant friction. Numbers speak to this fact. 14 of the 15
top-grossing games on the Turkish app store are less than 50 megabytes. In terms of the
business model, all of the 15 top-grossing games are free-to-download and monetize through
in-app purchases. Finland-based Supercell has the perfect recipe. The company’s highly
successful social mobile games, Clash of Clans and Hayday — which are both localized, less
than 50 megabytes, and free-to-play — have been consistently ranked first and second in the
top-grossing charts in the last few months.
Turkish mobile game developers have not only achieved some domestic success, but global
recognition as well—with studios such as FUGO, Duello and Picnic Hippo achieving good
traction in a very short time. Founded in 2009, FUGO has been a global name in mobile
gaming through its popular word challenge game Wordz, which has been distributed in 35
languages downloaded over five million times. Duello, a developer of casual mobile games for
Turkish Developer Localised Smaller than 50MB Free-to-Play
1
8 15
14
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all ages, was founded in 2010 and has accumulated over 17m installations to date, over one
million paid downloads and close to 3m monthly active users through its popular iSlash
franchise. Moreover, it has already reached profitability with no outside financing, and is
preparing to roll out additional titles to capitalise on its success to date. Picnic Hippo, which
was founded in 2011, has also become a global success story with Bucketz, a simple and
humorous touch screen game which has been featured by Apple on 146 app stores worldwide
and is the number one ranking game by iPhone Quality Index, a site which condenses critical
opinion on apps from across the web into a definitive score. All of these studios have
produced innovative, popular and internationally accessible titles. They are also small and
lean, with no more than ten staff each.
Licensed Online Betting
Turkey has a complicated relationship with gambling. Although betting is officially illegal under
Turkish law, licensed online betting is permitted in a number of selective cases including the
state lottery (Piyango), sports betting (Sportoto) and gambling on horse racing. The national
lottery is something of an institution for Turkish people and forms a billion dollar market.
Soccer and horse racing are also highly popular - and the sports lottery generates in excess of
$1.5bn yearly, with track-side betting bringing in around $700m. The sports lottery has been
the primary driver behind the shift in Turkey towards betting online – unsurprising given that
the Internet provides a constant stream of sports news and insight. Licensed online players
are estimated to represent approximately 15% of total betting spend, and growing. The
leading “legal” players are Bilyoner.com, Nesine, Tuttur, Oley, and Birebin.
Similar to the United States, several changes have been made to Turkish gambling laws in the
last decade making it illegal for gambling companies to target Turkish citizens with their
products. While there are no legally-licensed Internet gambling websites operating out of the
country, foreign operators continue to target Turkish players. Betsson, for example, received
more than a quarter of its revenue from Turkey last year. In addition, Sportingbet recently sold
its highly popular Turkish bookmaking service Superbahis.com to GVC Sports for
approximately $200m, despite attempts from Turkish regulations to stop the sale.
The Turkish government has recently announced its intention to sell Sportoto - its only legal
sports betting organization - as part of a privatization bid expected to raise in excess of $10bn.
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Digital Agencies, Online Advertising and Marketing
Both globally and in Turkey, the Internet is the fastest growing advertising medium, attracting
advertisers with its rapidly expanding audience, extensive reach, interactive nature and
ability to target specific demographics and performance.
E X H I B I T 16 : G R O W T H A N D A L L O C A T I O N O F T U R K I S H A D V E R T I S I N G S P E N D ($ B N )
Source: Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies, GP Bullhound
Overall advertising in Turkey is estimated to be growing at a nearly 20% CAGR from $1.5bn
in 2009 to $3.2bn in 2013, with online advertising representing 10% of the market. Other
online verticals and online advertising can be expected to benefit each other in turn: as more
and more media consumption and spending shifts online, so will advertising dollars.
Conversely, with increased online ad spend, Internet companies and online retailers can be
expected to capture new consumers through both brand, performance, and video
advertising. According to Mediascope Europe, users spend more time with the Internet and
TV than any other media (18 hours per week on each), but last year, advertisers still spent
three times more on print media and six times more on television than they do on online
advertising. In addition, most Turkish advertisers still allocate far less of their marketing
budgets to digital and online marketing – around only 10% compared to a global average of
27%. These disparities are expected to be the driving force of double-digit growth rates in
online and video advertising spend in the years ahead.
E X H I B I T 17 : A V E R A G E H O U R S S P E N T O N L I N E P E R MO N T H P E R U S E R (20 12)
Source: Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies
People in Turkey spend more time online than any other European nation except the UK –
this gives advertisers a potentially long window of opportunity within which to engage and
capture consumers. In addition, online media consumption habits are shifting dramatically.
Passive, traditional, one-way media consumption is rapidly evolving towards active
39.1
30.7 28.9 27.8 27.6 26.3 25.5 25.2 24.7 24.5
UK Turkey France Finland Europe Spain Russia Germany Sweden Worldwide
TV Adverts
57%
Print Media 24%
Internet 8%
Billboards 7%
Radio 3%
2011A: $2.4bn
1.5
2.0
2.4
2.8
3.2
2009A 2010A 2011A 2012E 2013E
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interaction, dialog, and engaged communities. As previously stated, Turkey is the seventh
largest population on Facebook (more than 32m users). The high proportion of users
engaging with social media means that advertisers have real opportunities to generate
superior performance through rapidly growing web and mobile platforms. And advertisers are
embracing this change. According to Egon Zehnder International, more than 75% of
businesses in Turkey are using or planning to use Facebook, Twitter, and mobile marketing
for digital marketing, and are open to using alternative social channels such as YouTube,
blogs, communities, and adgames as long as brand safety remains intact.
E X H I B I T 18 : T R E N D S I N T U R K I S H E X E C U T I V E S P E N D I N G
Source: 2013 Marketing Trends Survey (StrongMail)
Likewise, in a recent survey by StrongMail of over 1,000 Turkish executives, 56% said that
they planned to increase company spending on email marketing, 52% planned to increase
social media spend, and 43% mobile. In accordance with this trend, a significant proportion
of executives planned to decrease spending on conventional forms of advertising such as
tradeshows, events and direct mails. Although the high importance of social media and
mobile is not a uniquely Turkish phenomenon, the fact that online forms of customer
engagement have achieved a higher priority than conventional advertising in such a short
period of time is a testament to Turkey’s rapid growth and socio-economic conditions
conduciveness to social media penetration.
Digital Creative Agencies
Digital agencies have proliferated in
Turkey as entrepreneurs have rushed to
match strong demand from businesses
seeking the best way to deploy email
marketing, social media, mobile and
other strategies under a digital agency
umbrella. It has consequently become
the most crowded and competitive
segment of the online advertising sector
in Turkey. Whereas many of these
agencies were originally service-led
businesses, competition and innovation have led players, such as Krombera, to diversify into
less labor-intensive and higher margin media products (such as software-driven social media
marketing tools tailored to the requirements of each client).
Programs for which Turkish executives
intend to increase spend
Programs for which Turkish executives
intend to decrease spend
10.2%
13.9%
15.4%
17.3%
26.8%
39.8%
42.8%
51.8%
55.5%
Other
Public Relations
Direct Mail
Tradeshows & Events
Advertising
Search (SEO/PPC)
Mobile
Social Media
Email Marketing
2.4%
3.4%
4.8%
9.3%
11.6%
17.6%
23.0%
33.6%
37.4%
Mobile
Email Marketing
Social Media
Search (SEO/PPC)
Public Relations
Other
Advertising
Tradeshows & Events
Direct Mail
EXHIBIT 19: SELECTED CREATIVE AGENCIES
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2.4%
3.7%
13.3%
18.0%
26.9%
28.9%
33.1%
34.4%
44.4%
Direct Mail
Tradeshows & Events
Advertising
Not sure yet
New customer acquisition
Driving revenue
Awareness building
Expanded reach to new audiences
Building loyalty and retention
Mobile Enablers
As consumption and spending habits move to emerging mobile and tablet (and smart TV)
platforms such as iOS and Android, leading Turkish companies need to connect and satisfy
their customers in this new and rapidly growing medium. Mobile enablers offer their customers
app development and software services. Some of the key solutions and applications include
mobile banking, mobile payments, mCommerce, mobile betting and sales force management.
Two leading players in Turkey are Pozitron and tmob.
Brand and Performance Advertising
Brand and Performance advertising businesses are less common in Turkey when compared
with digital agencies, and have yet to reach the level of sophistication seen in more mature
markets. The most common form of advertising is generic display banner ads and creative
campaigns, with performance advertising being deployed less often.
On the sell side, leading ad networks include Reklamz, (acquired by Ballroom International
Network in December 2011), reklamport and NetBook Media Network. In addition, large
media companies and content sites have their own ad networks; these include MedyaNet
(Dogan), Turkuvaz, Milliyet, Nokta Grubu, Netbook, Netcom and MCD. On the buy side,
leading media buying networks include, GroupM, OMD, Carat, Digitouch (backed by
Hummingbird Ventures) and DBI.
Online Video Advertising
As audiences increase the amount of time they spend consuming video content online, and
publishers continue to find ways to use video advertising to monetize non-video content such
as casual games, social games, online radio and mobile applications, brands are growing the
portion of their advertising budget allocated to digital video. Local online video leaders such
as Nokta (owns popular online video portals Izlesene and AlkislarlaYasiyorum) will likely
benefit the most from this shift. We also expect more premium content to be consumed and
monetized via web and tablets. Leading online video ad networks include Coolshark,
Medyanet’s Mobia, Ballroom’s Vidyoda, and Dailymotion’s MCD.
Mobile Advertising
Turkey’s mobile penetration of over 90% and rapid growth in smartphones make mobile
advertising a much needed and highly effective weapon for companies to deploy. Mobile is
the fastest growing consumption medium and according to StrongMail’s recent survey, 43%
of Turkish advertisers are looking to increase their mobile advertising budgets in 2013. Within
mobile, more than 40% of surveyed advertisers are interested in reaching consumers via
mobile apps. Leading players include Mobilikem, acquired by Madvertise in April 2012,
MoveZ, Rabarba and Project House.
Email and Mobile Marketing
E X H I B I T 20 : P R I M A R Y V A L U E O F MO B I L E M A R K E T I N G T O T U R K I S H E X E C U T I V E S
Source: 2013 Marketing Trends Survey (StrongMail)
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Email marketing is a key growth area for the Turkish advertising vertical. As shown in Exhibit
20, email marketing is expected to be a priority spending area for Turkish executives going
into 2013, so specialist providers of such services can be expected to benefit. Leading players
include EuroMessage, Sendloop, and ODC.
EuroMessage, which recently received funding from Dogus, provides a dedicated software
platform that can be operated via a choice of self-service, joint account management or full
service plans. The platform is supported by a comprehensive analytics offering, which both
draws from and feeds into the clients’ databases to maximize click-through rates and ROI.
Sendloop has a slightly different focus. It is primarily a DIY software proposition, focusing on
providing clients with a cost-effective, easy to use solution with minimal training requirements.
It also has a greater emphasis on email list management, providing a number of tools for
segmenting and organizing lists to improve campaign targeting. ODC, on the other hand,
provides an e-marketing and campaign management platform that aims to help companies
communicate with existing and potential clients, effect sales and create customer loyalty
through e-mail, SMS, MMS, wap-push and other mobile channels.
Social Media and Online Content
With Turkish people spending the third-longest time online in Europe (after the Netherlands
and the UK) social media players have – competition aside – a largely captive audience.
Turkey’s most popular destinations are all social media or content oriented – Google (online
search and Google products), Facebook (social media), YouTube (online video), Mynet
(online content, games, and Mynet products), and Microsoft Live (online search and content),
Nokta (online video and blogging) — all of which are reaching more than 15m monthly
unique visitors per comScore.
That Turkey is more socially penetrated than many more mature Internet economies is to a
large extent a reflection of the country’s highly social character. Turkey is known for having a
strong sense of community, both offline and now online. In a society where people are
typically known for being friendly, outgoing and direct, there is little resistance to sharing
thoughts and feelings with strangers and friends-of-friends via the Internet.
A third trend we observe is that Turkey is also comparatively advanced in terms of digital
media penetration rates.
E X H I B I T 21 : P R E F E R R E D M E D I U M T O F O L L O W T H E N E W S – C O U N T R Y C O M P A R I S O N
Source: Campaign Türkiye (campaigntr.com)
Although conventional channels are most popular with those over 55, online content is the
preferred choice of Turkey’s burgeoning 25-35 year-old bracket. Users access news through a
range of portals, including websites for established TV channels, but also online-only
platforms which source and generate their own content.
39%
28%
14%
6% 6% 2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
News Sites TV NewsChannels
TV PrimeNews
Newspapers SocialNetworks
Radio
Turkey USA China Poland Brazil Japan
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Social Media
Social media has an unusually strong and pervasive influence across the Turkish tech
ecosystem given the scene’s relative immaturity. Turkey is the seventh largest country on
Facebook - with over 32m users, or 89% of all Turkish Internet users; it is also one of the
most socially penetrated. Blogging sites are also highly popular. Dedicated blogging
platforms such as Blogger.com (owned by Google), Blogcu (owned by Turkish content portal
operator Nokta) and Wordpress attract high user volumes, as do more casual and accessible
micro blogs such as tumblr and Twitter.
E X H I B I T 22 : M O S T P O P U L A R S O C I A L M E D I A S E R V I C E S I N T U R K E Y ( D E C 201 2)
Source: comScore, GP Bullhound
As we can see from the above, the Turkish social landscape is dominated by established
non-Turkish names. There are however a number of local success stories, of which Nokta’s
Blogcu is one. Blogcu is a Turkish-language social blogging and blog discovery platform
which displays blog posts in the style of Pinterest. Another is Bobiler: founded in 2006, the
site began as an online community for Photoshop artists, before evolving into a broader
creative social network involving a range of online creaters and curators. Bobiler enables
creaters to submit their work to the platform for peer review – the pieces which receive the
most votes get published on the site’s main page. This scheme encourages people to submit
quality content to compete for publicity, and with high quality content come more users, more
votes and ultimately more advertising fees – a virtuous cycle.
Internet-Only New Media Portals
With more than 16m monthly active users, Nokta — backed by Intel Capital — is the fourth
largest (and largest local) Internet property in Turkey, after Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
Nokta’s diverse portfolio of content sites include the leading online video sites in Turkey,
namely Izlesene.com and Alkislarlayasiyorum.com. In addition, Nokta owns the leading
blogging platform Blogcu, photography portal Fotokritik.com, and highly popular niche content
sites such as Sinemalar (movie reviews), Doviz.com (finance), and YemekTarifleri (food
recipes). Leadership and growth in online video will likely be the primary focus for Nokta going
forward.
The second largest local online content portal in Turkey is Mynet and we believe that the
company still has much untapped potential. Launched in 1998, it offers over 40 different
services to more than 18m customers, including email, news, online games and social
networking — and leverages its large user base and strong brand presence to generate cross-
selling opportunities between them. Mobile, games, and videos will likely be the key growth
drivers going forward.
Yeni Media Internet Publishing is another successful Internet-only media company in Turkey.
The company owns two leading Internet news portals, namely Haberler.com and
SonDakika.com, intersinema.com, popular cultural portal Antoloji.com, health portal
Hastane.com.tr, woman’s portal YeniKadin.com, and eDevlet.com.
90%
55%
40%35%
20% 20%15%
10%7%
Facebook Blogger Twitter Blogcu Instagram Wordpress LinkedIn Tumblr Bobiler.org
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Another sizable player is ekolay. The company started as an Internet service provider before
pivoting into a news, magazine and entertainment portal, and is owned by Dogan Online. Two
new-comers are: Ilkekran.com and Onedio. Ilkekran is the first Turkish interactive digital news
and media platform to integrate rich content and eCommerce, and to have its own dedicated
24/7 news team. Ilkekran aggregates and curates content from variety of sources, third party
services and website users who contribute by posting articles, comments and reviews. Onedio
is an innovative social news portal which enables users to create, follow, share and comment
on content.
Traditional Media - Online News and Content Outlets
Big and traditional is still in control of most of the online content consumption in Turkey. The
top three players by unique users are Dogan Online and Publishing, Demiroren’s Milliyet
Group, and Hurriyet Internet Group (also owned by Dogan). All of these publishing groups
reach more than 15m unique active users per month. Following these top players are Calik
Holding’s Turkuvaz Publishing (Owns Sabah, Fotomac, and ATV), Ciner Medya Group
(Owns Haberturk), and Dogus Group (Owns Star, NTV, and CNBC).
Online Video
Turkish people are avid consumers of online video. According to comScore, nearly 22m
people watched an average of 210 online videos each month in Turkey in 2012 and video
views grew 32% in 2012. Average daily unique viewers and total minutes of video views,
metrics that act as a good proxy for engagement levels — grew about 20%. When we
segment the market to males aged 15-34: they account for 41% of the online video viewing, a
good indicator of future growth. 40% of this demographic watches online videos frequently,
indicating that online video is moving to the mainstream in Turkey. With more than 10m
monthly active users Nokta’s Izlesene is the most popular local online video sites in Turkey.
Magnet’s UzmanTV and Netbu’s Zapkolik are other highly popular video sites, with more than
5m monthly active users each.
E X H I B I T 23 : P O P U L A R O N L I N E V I D E O S I T E S B Y C A T E G O R Y
Source: GP Bullhound
Online Music
Digital music is a highly popular, yet still emerging, online content market in Turkey. The
dominant content providers are not third party aggregators, but large carriers and platform
players: TTNet’s Müzik, Nokia’s Ovi, Avea’s Müzik, Turkcell’s Genç Turkcell and Vodafone’s
Vodafone Live are the leading players for legal music listening. One of the exceptions to the
rule is Fizy – founded in 2008, it is an online music and video search engine which is based
in and only available in Turkey. In 2010 the site was banned after alleged copyright
violations, before being restored in 2011 under the ownership of cell phone operator Turkcell.
Karnaval, online radio platform, is another popular online music destination of note.
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Online Dating
Turkey’s young, social and mobile population makes the country a prime market for online
dating. With 50% of the population under the age of 30, there is a plentiful supply of potential
subscribers - and partners. Online dating has been a core business model since the early
days of Turkish tech: the first major player siberalem.com established itself in 2000, and offers
a broad range of content and dating tools including video chat, a match-making service and
dedicated customer support via email, telephone and online messaging.
Besides established, broad-based generalists such as Siberalem, we see more targeted
players such as Istanbul.net. Istanbul.net is a city-based dating network: launched in 2005 by
Magnet Media, it differentiates itself by accepting only members who are based in the capital
city. Users are able to search by district and are able to see who has viewed their profile and
add them to their favourites list. The site has grown rapidly and now has over 3.5m members.
Magnet also owns and operates the same type of site for 13 other large Turkish cities such as
Ankara and Izmir and reaches 7.5m members. Another specialist is eCift, which is Turkey’s
answer to eHarmony. Its differentiator is a proprietary personality test developed by a Turkish
psychologist, which is used to filter and match prospective partners. eCift currently has over
3m members, around 52% of whom are women and 48% men. It has also established a
presence in Germany through eCift.de. Three other players of note are Pembe Panjur,
Gayet.net, and YouLike.
Online Vertical Content
Within the online content verticals, sports portals are hugely popular among Turkish people.
Whereas around 46% of Europeans visit sports sites on average, Turkey has the highest
reach of the region with approximately 70% of Internet users – or 16.4m people - logging on
regularly to such portals, and is second globally only to the US (with a reach of 71%).
The top Turkish sports portals are Mackolik, Sahandan, Fanatik, and Sporx, with around 3m
monthly active users each. These sites typically source their own sports news and content but
provide access to betting through a third party online dealer, which in turn connects the user
with and provides quotes from government-authorized betting company Iddaa and licensed
online betting companies including Bilyoner, Nesine.com, Tuttur.com, Oley and Birebin.
Technology portals are also very popular in Turkey. Webrazzi is the country’s answer to
Techcrunch - it focuses mainly on issues regarding local and regional Internet and digital
markets, startups, investments, technological developments and events, and is available in
both Turkish and English. DonanimHaber and ShiftDelete are also highly popular technology
content channels, attracting over 8m and 3m monthly active users respectively with a targeted
focus on computing and video game hardware and software.
Reference sites have large dedicated audiences as well. Eksisozluk, Turkey’s
urbandictionary.com, is a collaborative humorous “dictionary” and one of the largest online
communities in Turkey, with over 5m monthly active visitors and 500,000 registered loyal
users. Antoloji, founded in 1999, is a highly popular culture, art, and poetry portal and caters
to over 3m monthly active users a month. SesliSozluk, founded in 1999, is the dictionary.com
of Turkey and between its web portal and mobile apps, is estimated to have more than 2m
monthly active users.
Fashion and women’s interest portals have been strong beneficiaries of the Turkish
eCommerce boom, and have themselves helped to fuel it. These sites not only aggregate and
generate content on a wide range of issues, but also have a notably strong social element –
much of the attraction is being able to discuss topics with other Turkish women, rather than
simply to read articles. Forumdas.net, Kadinlar Kulubu and Melekler Mekani, are all leading
sites with over 3m monthly unique users each. These sites have active, engaged audiences of
women with spending power – a valuable target for eCommerce players and a healthy source
of advertising revenue.
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For health and medical portals such as ilacpedia, Doktorsitesi.com however, the focus is
more firmly on the site’s own content – due partly to the greater gender mix, but also because
of the more specialized nature of subjects. Most of these still have a social element though –
ilacpedia, for instance, maintains a presence across most of the leading social networks. In
the case of Doktorsitesi, users actually connect directly with doctors online to obtain advice
and arrange consultations.
Given Turkey’s high credit card penetration, it is unsurprising that personal finance websites
such as Doviz.com attract a lot of traffic as well — more than one million active users in
Doviz’s case.
Last of all, Turkish movie portals have thrived on the back of what is now a booming film
industry. After the Turkish government implemented an incentive package to stimulate
growth in the film industry in 2004, the number of domestic movies being produced in Turkey
more than doubled from around 30 in 2005, to nearly 70 in 2011. Since the year 2000,
annual cinema ticket sales in Turkey have risen to 20m and the number of theatres to over
500 nationwide. Domestic films routinely surpass American blockbusters at the box office,
although foreign films are still highly popular. Sinemalar.com is Turkey’s leading film content
site with over 3.5m monthly active users, offering listings, reviews and trailer clips, as well as
discussion forums. IMDB also has a strong presence with over 2.5m users, although it has
no Turkish language option.
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Selected Private Placements
Date
Announced Target Investor Investor HQ
Deal Value
(US$m) Commentary
Mar-13 Clover Games eTohum Turkey - Mobile game developer
Mar-13 Tablet Seminerler Angels (Hasan Aslanoba) Turkey 0.50 Workshop marketplace
Mar-13 Muvizi eTohum Turkey - On-demand online movie streaming platform
Feb-13 Mapps Galata Business Angels Turkey - Saas solution for apartment managers and residents
Jan-13 59Saniye Eksi Sozluk Turkey - Short-form social video sharing platform
Jan-13 SOCIAPlus Galata Business Angels Turkey 0.45 Develops social commerce softw are solutions
Jan-13 StilSOS Galata Business Angels Turkey 0.23 Shopping aggregator and social shopping site
Jan-13 Boni Angels (Hasan Aslanoba) Turkey 1.00Mobile eCommerce app developer focused on the retail and service
industry
Jan-13 Solvoyo 212 Limited Turkey - Develops supply chain management softw are
Dec-13 Koding RTP Ventures, Greycroft Partners US 7.25 Developer community and cloud development environment
Dec-12 Ustaeli Galata Business Angels Turkey 0.10Home services lead gen portal connecting home ow ners w ith
tradesmen
Nov-12 Kaft Angels (Erdem Yurdanur and Tarkan Onar) Turkey 0.25 Online retailer of private label tshirts
Nov-12 Vipdukkan ePlanet Capital US NA Turkish private shopping club
Nov-12 Iste Oyun Angels (Erdem Yurdanur and Sadok Kohen) Turkey 0.63 Turkish gamification platform
Nov-12 idemama Angels (Alp Saul, Cem Sertoglu, Evren Ucok) Turkey - Design crow dsourcing platform for professional designers and SMEs
Sep-12 Yemek Sepeti General Atlantic; Endeavor Global Investment Arm US 44.00 Operates online food ordering and delivery portals
Aug-12 Inploid Galata Business Angels Turkey 0.17 Social platform enabling users to share content and ask questions
Aug-12 HemenKiralik 212 Limited Turkey - Provides information about daily short term rentals available in Turkey
Jul-12 Annelutfen Ventech and Angels France NA Operates an online discount shopping club for mothers and children
Jun-12 Lidyana ruNet Holdings Russia 3.30 Online retailer of fashion jew ellery
May-12 Evidea Tiger Global Management US 1.00 Online store for home furnishings and decorations
May-12 GrupHediye Angels (Ibrahim Harunoglu, Ali Harunoglu, Aydin Ulusan, Pimsa) Turkey 0.83Social gifting platform enabling people to share the cost of gifts w ith
friends
May-12 Ideasoft CIT Yatirim and Projectz Turkey 0.22 Provides solutions for small to midsize businesses
May-12 Sorula Angels (Erdem Yurdanur and Tarkan Onar) Turkey 0.03 Q&A platform enabling users to pose and receive answ ers to questions
Apr-12 Socialw ire First Round Capital US 2.00 Facebook advertising optimisation platform
Apr-12 Hazinem 212 Limited Turkey - Online retailer of gold, diamonds and semi-precious gemstone jew ellery
Apr-12 CloudArena 212 Limited Turkey - Offers SaaS digital marketing, search and booking travel solutions
Apr-12 Gimora Aksoy Internet Ventures Turkey 0.23 Online shop for accessories, bags, and jew elry
Apr-12 Unnado iLab Ventures Turkey - Operates an online discount shopping club for mothers and children
Mar-12 Anneysen Angels (Caglar Erol) Turkey - Social media site for mothers and mothers-to-be
Mar-12 euro.message Dogus Grubu Turkey - E-marketing platform
Mar-12 HemenKiralik 212 Limited Turkey - Provides information about daily short term rentals available in Turkey
Mar-12 Apsiyon Angels (Tarik Bugra Yildirim) Turkey 0.21 Apartment and residence management app and social netw ork
Feb-12 Sporcum Tiger Global Management; Angels (Emre Kurttepeli) Turkey 1.03 Online retailer of discounted sport and casual clothes
Feb-12 ArcadeMonk 212 Capital Partners Turkey -Game development company focusing on social, casual, and mobile
gaming
Feb-12 Biacayip Etohum Turkey - Web shopping for unique gifts
Feb-12 Trendyol Tiger Global Management; Kleiner Perkins US 13.79Private shopping site offering designer retail for men, w omen, kids, and
home
Jan-12 Balerin 212 Capital Partners Turkey - Online cosmetic shop
Jan-12 Butigo 212 Capital Partners Turkey - Online retailer of affordable fashion footw ear for w omen
Source: CapitalIQ, GP Bullhound
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GP Bullhound LLP
Selected Private Placements (Cont’d)
Date
Announced Target Investor Investor HQ
Deal Value
(US$m) Commentary
Dec-11 Ciceksepeti Amazon.com US - Operates an online f low er store
Nov-11 MARKmost Angels (Ahmet Emre Sari, Sina Afra, and Tolga Tatari) Turkey - Personalised recommendations app in the style of Foursquare
Nov-11 eCift European Investment Fund; 3TS Capital Partners Luxembourg 4.04 Operates an online dating platform
Nov-11 LuxyBox Angels (Çağlar Erol) Turkey - Online luxury perfume and cosmetics store
Nov-11 Yemek Sepeti European Founders Fund; Angels Turkey 2.77 Operates online food ordering and delivery portals
Oct-11 TeklifBorsasi Vallie Invest US 0.28 Service professionals lead gen marketplace
Oct-11 tasit Akinon; Angels Turkey 0.81 Provides an online auto classif ieds service
Oct-11 Grupanya Intel Capital US - Operates a daily discount deals site
Sep-11 Peak Games Earlybird Venture Capital; Hummingbird Ventures Germany; Belgium 11.50 Develops and publishes online social games
Aug-11 eCift B-To-V Partners Sw itzerland - Operates an online dating platform
Jul-11 Trendyol Kleiner Perkins; Tiger Global Management US 26.00Private shopping site offering designer retail for men, w omen, kids, and
home
Jul-11 Tamindir Angels (Devrim Demirel) Turkey - IT and computing content and review s portal
Jun-11 Vipdukkan ePlanet Capital US 5.00 Operates a number of e-commerce sites
May-11 sevenice Angels (Ahmet Alabalık) Turkey 0.50 Offers social media, site design and video production services
May-11 Rezztoran Grupanya Turkey - Online table booking platform
May-11 Mekanist Pond Venture Partners UK 3.36 Operates a place search engine
May-11 Sporcum Tiger Global; Angels (Emre Kurttepeli) US; Turkey - Online retailer of discounted sport and casual clothes
May-11 Peak Games Earlybird Venture Capital; Hummingbird Ventures Germany 5.00 Develops and publishes online social games
Mar-11 Nokta Intel Capital US 2.50Online media company connecting users through social media
properties
Mar-11 Grupca Bilyoner Turkey - Group buying and discount deals site
Mar-11 Unnado iLab Ventures Turkey 0.14 Operates an online discount shopping club for mothers and children
Feb-11 Hediyemo Angels (Emre Kurttepeli) Turkey - Provides a social and mobile online gifting platform
Dec-10 Trendyol Tiger Global Management US 10.00Private shopping site offering designer retail for men, w omen, kids, and
home
Jul-10 Mekanist Pond Venture Partners UK 0.65 Operates a place search engine
Jul-10 Trendyol Tiger Global Management US 2.85Private shopping site offering designer retail for men, w omen, kids, and
home
Jul-10 eCift B-To-V Partners; Euro Serve Media; Corp. Fin. Partners Germany - Operates an online dating platform
Jun-10 Dijimecmua iLab Ventures Turkey - Operates as a digital magazine platform
Jun-10 Neredekal iLab Ventures Turkey - Operates an online holiday and accomodation guide for travellers
Mar-10 Markafoni Trayas (Klaus Hommels and Oliver Jung) Germany 7.20 Web shopping club offering apparel, accessories and cosmetics
Jan-10 Peak Games Hummingbird Ventures Belgium 1.50 Develops and publishes online social games
Feb-09 Mekanist.net Angels (Mehmet Yucesoy) Turkey 0.20 Operates a place search engine
May-08 Yemek Sepeti European Founders Fund Management Germany 4.00 Operates online food ordering and delivery portals
May-07 GittiGidiyor eBay US - Online consumer portal offering auctions, stores and f ixed price listings
Feb-06 GittiGidiyor iLab Ventures Turkey - Online consumer portal offering auctions, stores and f ixed price listings
Source: CapitalIQ, GP Bullhound
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GP Bullhound LLP
Selected M&A Transactions
Date Deal Value
Implied
Valuation
Announced Target Buyer Buyer HQ (US$m) (US$m) Commentary
Mar-13 Joygame CJ Games Turkey 15.0 30.0 50% acquired. Publisher of massive multiplayer games
Mar-13 Beyazkutu DEMSA Group Turkey - - Private shopping
Mar-13 PaytoGo and Game Sultan Money Online (MOL) Turkey - - Mobile and gaming payments
Jan-13 Preview MyEmail SMTP US - - Email testing and analytics platform
Jan-13 Nasil TV Mynet Turkey - - Online video how -to guides on a range of subjects
Jan-13 Iyibilir Doga Bilisim Holding Turkey - - E-learning platform
Dec-12 Idefix Dogan Online Turkey - - Online retailer of books, e-books, e-readers, music and DVDs
Sep-12 WestWing Turkey (Rocket Internet) Pera Bulvari Turkey - - eCommerce site focuses on home & living products
Jun-12 Mackolik Perform Group UK 22.6 44.3 51% acquired. Ow ns and operates digital sports media portals
Apr-12 Mobilike Madvertise Germany - -Ad netw ork providing rich media and video ads on smartphones
and tablets
Apr-12 Enmoda.com (Ow ned by Dogus) Markafoni Turkey - - E-commerce site that retails online fashion products
Mar-12 Evmanya Dogan Turkey - - Internet shopping w ebsite for home decoration goods
Mar-12 e-bebek.com Topbas Family Turkey - - E-commerce site that retails mother and baby products
Feb-12 Kammelna Peak Games Turkey - - MENA-based social game developer
Jan-12 41? 29! WPP Ireland - - Digital marketing agency serving Turkish consumer brands
Jan-12 Mikro Odeme Mediterra Private Equity UK - - Mobile payments
Jan-12 reklamz, linkz, and sem A.S.Ballroom International
Netw orkGermany - - Leading Turkish advertising netw ork
Nov-11 Grupfoni Quants Financial Services Sw itzerland - - Operates a w eb portal w hich offers daily deals
Jul-11 Markafoni Naspers (via MIH Allegro) Netherlands - - Web shopping club offering apparel, accessories and cosmetics
Jun-11 AlkislarlaYasiyorum Nokta Turkey - - Popular humour video site
Jun-11 United Cellular Technologies Group Neomobile Italy - -Provides Internet platforms and services for mobile netw ork
operators
May-11 Cimri Bilgi Teknolojileri ve Sistemleri iLab Ventures Turkey - - Provides online product and price comparison services
Apr-11 Cimri GittiGidiyor Turkey - - Price comparison site
Apr-11 GittiGidiyor eBay US 217.0 261.4 83% acquired. Online ecommerce marketplace.
Mar-11 Genc Sinema Filmlerim Turkey - - Online content portal providing movie trailers, galleries and review s
Feb-11 Fizy Turkcell Turkey - - Online music search engine
Dec-10 Besinci Cadde Alamarka Turkey - - Online specialty perfume retailer
Sep-10 Project House Havas Worldw ide US - - Provides interactive, mobile and e-mail marketing services
May-10 Alamarka Investco US - - Online specialty perfume retailer
Jan-08 Cember XING Germany 4.4 4.4 Provides online business netw orking services
Nov-06 Biletix Ticketmaster US - - Provides an online event ticket booking and sales portal
Aug-06 Beyaz Perde MYNET Turkey - - Operates as a cinema w ebsite called beyazperde.mynet.com
Feb-06 MYNET Tiger Global Management US - -Internet portal offering email, social netw orking, games, music and
video
Source: CapitalIQ, GP Bullhound
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GP Bullhound LLP
Facebook and Mobile Internet Rankings
Top Grossing iPhone Apps
Top Grossing iPad Apps
Rank Game Company Country Turkish? P2P? Size
1 Clash of Clans Supercell Finland Yes Yes 47.8 MB
2 Hay Day Supercell Finland Yes Yes 36.4 MB
3 Candy Crush Saga King.com UK No Yes 34.3 MB
4 Top Eleven Nordeus Serbia Yes Yes 42.2 MB
5 Poker by Zynga Zynga USA Yes Yes 41.0 MB
6 Okey Plus Peak Games Turkey No Yes 19.8 MB
7 Lords & Knights XYRALITY Germany Yes Yes 43.1 MB
8 Temple Run 2 Imangi Studios USA No Yes 45.7 MB
9 KoC: Battle for the North Kabam USA Yes Yes 31.6 MB
10 Subway Surfers Kiloo Denmark No Yes 46.4 MB
11 Slotomania Playtika Israel No Yes 41.4 MB
12 CSR Racing NaturalMotion UK No Yes 134.0 MB
13 Türkiye Texas Poker Boyaa Interactive China Yes Yes 24.7 MB
14 Diamond Dash wooga Germany Yes Yes 25.9 MB
15 Mustang Tuning Crash Chase Anibal Soares Portugal No Yes 38.6 MB
Rank Game Company Country Turkish? P2P? Size
1 Clash of Clans Supercell Finland Yes Yes 47.8 MB
2 Hay Day Supercell Finland Yes Yes 36.4 MB
3 Candy Crush Saga King.com UK No Yes 34.3 MB
4 Minecraft - Pocket Edition Mojang Switzerland No No 3.1 MB
5 KoC: Battle for the North Kabam US Yes Yes 31.6 MB
6 Subway Surfers Kiloo Denmark No Yes 46.4 MB
7 Slotomania HD Playtika Israel No Yes 32.7 MB
8 Modern War Funzio US No Yes 36.5 MB
9 Agent Dash Full Fat UK No Yes 29.1 MB
10 FIFA 13 Electronic Arts US No No 1.4 GB
11 Poker by Zynga Zynga US Yes Yes 41 MB
12 Slotomania Playtika Israel No Yes 41.4 MB
13 Temple Run 2 Imangi Studios US No Yes 45.7 MB
14 Slots Shark Party US No Yes 45.9 MB
15 CSR Racing NaturalMotion UK No Yes 134 MB
Source: Apple iOS Store
Source: Apple iOS Store
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GP Bullhound LLP
Top Grossing Google Play Apps
Top 25 Facebook Game Developers
Rank Game Company Country Turkish? P2P? Size
1 Top Eleven Football Manager Nordeus Serbia No Yes 17 M
2 Blood Brothers Mobage Japan No Yes 29 M
3 KoC: Battle for the North Kabam US No Yes Varies
4 Candy Crush Saga King.com UK No Yes Varies
5 Age of Empire Silent Ocean ?? No Yes 18 M
6 Okey Plus Peak Games Turkey Yes Yes 12 M
7 Zynga Poker Zynga US No Yes Varies
8 The Hobbit Kingdoms Kabam US No Yes Varies
9 Arcade Legends Spacetime Studios US No Yes 5.9 M
10 Eternity Warriors 2 Glu Mobile US No Yes 161 M
11 Wild Blood Gameloft US No No 720 M
12 Subway Surfers Kiloo Games Denmark No Yes 22 M
13 Need for Speed Most Wanted Electronic Arts US No No 12 M
14 World at Arms Gameloft US No Yes 12 M
15 Smurfs' Village Beeline Interactive US No Yes 58 M
Rank Name CountryCompany
MetricsNo. Apps in Top 10 No. Apps in Top 100 Total
Apps
No. Apps by Type
MAU DAU MAU DAU MAU DAU Developed Published
1 Zynga US 142.3m 16.5m 3 4 38 35 96 95 1
2 King.com UK 38.3m 4.7m 1 1 7 6 13 13 0
3 Electronic Arts US 17.4m 3.7m 0 0 18 18 57 57 0
4 Peak Games Turkey 11.8m 3.4m 0 0 9 11 37 25 12
5 Wooga Germany 21.6m 3.2m 1 0 3 3 8 8 0
6 Social Point Spain 21.3m 2.1m 0 0 3 3 21 21 0
7 FunPlus Game China 9.8m 2.0m 0 0 2 2 11 11 0
8 Playdom US 7.4m 1.7m 0 0 21 21 59 59 0
9 RockYou! US 2.9m 1.2m 0 0 10 11 33 31 2
10 Playtika Israel 6.1m 1.1m 0 0 1 1 4 4 0
11 PlayQ US 5.6m 1.1m 0 0 1 1 3 3 0
12 Miniclip.comz UK 6.1m 1.1m 0 0 9 9 14 14 0
13 FreshPlanet US 10.2m 1.0m 0 0 3 3 6 6 0
14 Rovio Finland 10.3m 1.0m 0 0 2 2 5 5 0
15 Geewa Czech Rep. 10.1m 1.0m 0 0 5 5 7 7 0
16 Tetris Online US 5.1m 1.0m 0 0 2 2 8 8 0
17 Kiloo Games Denmark 5.0m 1.0m 0 0 1 1 1 1 0
18 SGN US 6.4m 1.0m 0 0 5 5 24 24 0
19 6waves Hong Kong 2.2m 0.8m 0 0 0 0 474 424 50
20 THX Games Hungary 2.8m 0.7m 0 0 0 0 7 7 0
21 Boyaa China 4.3m 0.7m 0 0 6 6 30 30 0
22 Digital Chocolate US 4.4m 0.5m 0 0 3 3 30 30 0
23 Mynet Turkey 3.8m 0.5m 0 0 3 3 17 16 1
24 Qublix Canada 3.6m 0.4m 0 0 0 0 10 10 0
25 Halfbrick Australia 2.0m 0.2m 0 0 1 0 2 2 0
Source: Appdata.com
Source: Google Play App Store
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GP Bullhound LLP
Company Tree Diagrams by Sector Horizontal eCommerce
Payments
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GP Bullhound LLP
Vertical eCommerce
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GP Bullhound LLP
Gaming
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GP Bullhound LLP
Online Advertising
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GP Bullhound LLP
Social Media and Online Content
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GP Bullhound LLP
DISCLAIMER
No information set out or referred to in this research report shall form the basis of any contract. The issue of this research report shall not be deemed to be any form of binding offer or commitment on the part of GP Bullhound LLP. This research report is provided for use by the intended recipient for information purposes only. It is prepared on the basis that the recipients are sophisticated investors with a high degree of financial sophistication and knowledge. This research report and any of its information is not intended for use by private or retail investors in the UK or any other jurisdiction. You, as the recipient of this research report, acknowledge and agree that no person has nor is held out as having any authority to give any statement, warranty, representation, or undertaking on behalf of GP Bullhound LLP in connection with the contents of this research report. Although the information
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information contained in this research report has no regard for the specific investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any specific entity and is not a personal recommendation to anyone. Persons reading this research report should make their own investment decisions based upon their own financial objectives and financial resources and, if in any doubt, should seek advice from an investment advisor. Past performance of securities is not necessarily a guide to future performance and the value of securities may fall as well as rise. In particular, investments in the technology sector can involve a high degree of risk and investors may not get back the full amount invested. The information contained in this research report is based on materials and sources that are believed to be reliable; however, they have not been independently verified and are not guaranteed as being accurate. The information contained in this research report is not intended to be a complete statement or summary of any securities, markets, reports or developments referred to herein. No representation or warranty, either express or implied, is made or accepted by GP Bullhound LLP, its members, directors, officers, employees, agents or associated undertakings in relation to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information in this research report nor should it be relied upon as such. This research report may contain forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information is provided for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to serve as, and must not be relied upon as a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and
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GP Bullhound LLP
THE GP BULLHOUND BANKING TEAM
GP Bullhound is a research-centric investment bank with offices in London, San Francisco, Stockholm and Berlin.
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52 Jermyn Street London SW1Y 6LX Tel: +44 207 101 7560 Fax: +44 207 101 7561 Authorised and regulated by the FCA
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PER ROMAN
Managing Partner
MANISH
MADHVANI
Managing Partner
LORD CLIVE
HOLLICK
Partner
CHRISTIAN
LAGERLING
Managing Partner
ALEC DAFFERNER
Partner
ANDRE SHORTELL
Partner
SIMON NICHOLLS
Partner
JULIAN
RIEDLBAUER
Partner
HUGH CAMPBELL
Managing Partner
GUILLAUME
BONNETON
Partner
GRAEME BAYLEY
Partner
SIR MARTIN SMITH
Chairman
ALI DAGLI
Director
PER LINDTORP
Vice President
CLAUDIO
ALVAREZ
Vice President
CARL BERGHOLTZ
Vice President
MARK KLIMMEK
Vice President
SASHA
AFANASIEVA
Vice President
CHRISTOPH
AMELS
Associate
STIRLING
ADELHELM
Associate
ALISTAIR MALINS
Vice President
CARL WESSBERG
Associate
DAVID RAABE
Vice President
FLORENT ROULET
Associate
ALESSANDRO
CASARTELLI
Associate
LILJANA XHEKA
Analyst
PHILIPPE
GREMILLET
Analyst
MALCOLM
HORNER
Analyst
RAVI GHEDIA
Analyst
OLOF RUSTNER
Analyst
ANTHONY
AUGUSTIN
Analyst
DANIEL MAGGS
Analyst
DANIEL HERTER
Analyst
CECILIA ROMAN
Director
ANTONY
NORTHROP
Senior Advisor
MALCOLM
FERGUSON
Associate
ALEXIS SCORER
Vice President