公司標誌

MIS 648 International IT country report

TURKEY

Jui PatilRuby Tsai

Dij Stefanovski

Agenda• Geographic and Demographic picture• Socio-cultural picture• Economy• IT Infrastructure• IT Industry• E-commerce• IT Strength/ Weakness-Contrast: Syria• Recommendations

Geographic picture• Capital city: Ankara• Located on two continents: Europe and Asia. Bordering t

he Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria

• Prone to severe earthquakes especially in the North.

Demographic picture

• Population : 69,660,559 (July 2005 est.)• Population growth rate:1.09% (2005 es

t.) • Median age: 27.7 years • Life expectancy:72.36 years • Literacy rate : ( Age 15 and over can

read and write) 86.5%

Socio-Cultural picture• Languages:

Turkish (official), Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian, Greek

• Religions: Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2%

Everyone in Turkey has freedom of religion and belief. • Ethnic groups:

Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20%

Economy• Labor force: 25.3 million agriculture 35.9%, industry 22.8%, services 41.2% note: about 1.2 million Turks work abroad (2003) • Unemployment rate: 11.7% (1Q 2005)• GDP – PPP: $508.7 billion ; Per capita: $7,400 (2004)• GINI Index: 42 (2003)• Inflation rate: 9.3% (2004)• Currency: New Turkish lira (YTL after 1 January 2005) • Exchange Rate: 1 USD = 1.37 YTL• In recent years the economic situation has been marked by erratic eco

nomic growth and serious imbalances.• It has a strong and rapidly growing private sector, yet the state still pla

ys a major role in basic industry, banking, transport, and communication.

Economy Trade :• Imports: $ 68.7 billion: Petroleum, machinery, motor

vehicle, and electronics. • Exports: $ 28.6 billion: Textile & apparels, iron & steel,

electronics, and tobacco.• Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey remains low

averaging less than $1 billion annually, but economic and judicial reforms along with possible EU membership are expected to boost FDI.

• Major partners:Germany 12.9%, Russia 9.3%, Italy 7.1%, France 6.4%, US 4.8%, China 4.6%, UK 4.4%

• International affiliation: Member of OECD, NATO, and candidate of EU

Telecommunication Infrastructure• Turk Telekom is the incumbent fixed line

telecommunication operator, provides basic fixed line voice telephony of which 100 % is government owned.

• Turkey currently has more than 19 million telephone lines with a density exceeding 25 percent.

• Until recently, all telecommunications were state-owned. The first private telecom firms were the cellular networks but is highly regulated. It is expected to be privatized soon.

Telecommunication Infrastructure• Cellular networks The Cellular networks market has experienced rapid growth and is competitive.

Turkey has three cellular service operator, Turkcell , Telsim and Avea ; subscriptions reaching a estimated penetration rate of about 50 per 100 in 2004, well above countries in the Middle East such as Egypt (10%), but below that in EU countries, where penetration rates are in the 70-100% range.

• Cable TV Only the major cities such as Ankara, and a few others, enjoy the presence of a

cable TV network. These systems are still at the development stage, have not reached all households yet. Cable TV is fully owned by Turk Telekom

• Satellite : 3• ISP provider More than 40% of the ISP market is held by Superonline, which offering service

s via Turkish Telecom's TurkNet monopoly.

Internet Usage• The creation of TURNET and a competitive ISP market led

to a dramatic expansion of Internet usage in Turkey.• 11.3m Internet users (2004), a penetration rate of 15.6%,

compared with rates of 30-35% in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

• DSL and cable modem broadband Internet connections are available, but numbers of subscribers are low.

• 58.8 % of the Internet users are in the 20-30 years of age range.

• Mostly consumers use Internet for banking. 60 % of the Internet connection market is dominated by two ISPs, of which Superonline is the largest.

PC Usage There are only 0.2 PCs per 1000 capita in Turkey. This

low figure can be explained by the facts that 65% of the population is rural, and the economy is highly dependent on agriculture (as much as 56% of the labor force is in the agricultural sector)

• PC usage is thus concentrated in metropolitan areas more specifically in the business world, though the decreasing prices of computer hardware are allowing for an important increase in household usage of PCs.

IT industry – Hardware manufacture• Turkish electronics industry is dominated by consumer

products ( 50.8% ) and telecommunications equipments (21.4%).

• Turkish electronics industry currently has been the fastest growing manufacturing sector and has become a basic industry for all other manufacturing sectors.

IT industry – Hardware manufacture• Turkey exported the 48% of its production in 2000.

Consumer products are the largest portion of the exports (62.7%), followed by telecommunication products (13.8%) and defense electronics (12.8%).

• Multinational companies (e.g. IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Siemens) import components and assemble personal computers (PCs) and other IT hardware locally, either for sale within Turkey or for export to the EU or the Middle East.

IT industry – Software development

• The software industry has not yet reached the production levels of other industries due to limited expertise

• The number of software company now in Turkey is overwhelming. Such firms produce accounting planning, inventory control, and other database analysis programs, as well as customized software for financial, manufacturing, and other applications .

• The manufacturing sector is the largest user of computer software in Turkey, followed by the finance and education sectors.

• Widespread piracy of both domestic and foreign is the main drag on increased software sales

• Turkey's export of computer software and services is very few.

E-commerce• At the beginning of its introductory stage • Banks are expected to be the driving force for the e-commerce

development• Obstacles in e-commerce are similar to those faced in other

European countries, namely, stolen credit card numbers and customs regulations.

• Turkish consumers are often unwilling to purchase  goods due to a fear of supplying credit card or personal information over the Internet. Turkish banks attempted to create a solution to this problem by issuing special debit cards for Internet use, but these are only a temporary fix.

• No clear regulations of government-mandated firewall protections and encoding put a damper on public trust of e-commerce in Turkey

Human capital• Most universities offer computer science and/or MIS

majors. The schools that specialize in teaching computer software are numerous.

• Turkish who leave their country for studying especially in the United States tend to return back to Turkey. Those students know that there exist great job opportunities for them in Turkey.

• Brain drain of computer specialist is low, the demand for computer professionals is extremely high

• Also, many Middle Eastern students who graduate from computer-related majors in Turkish universities choose to stay in Turkey, for the job opportunities there are much more attractive than in their own countries. Pakistanis and Lebanese are examples of such immigrants

• Turkish are in general not fluent in English language.

IT policy• Government Plan National Information Infrastructure Master Plan (TUENA)

• Support for IT Investments• R&D program• E-Government

        

TurkeyTurkey SyriaSyria

• 69,660,559 (2005 est.)

• total population: 86.5%

• 8.2% (2004 est.)

• 18,448,752 (2005 est.)l

• total population: 76.9%

• 2.3% (2004 est.)

Comparison

PopulationPopulation

* ( age 15 and over can read and write )

GDPGDP

Literacy*Literacy*

IT Strength

• Sharp increase in IT market• Government support• Investment opportunities • Software development • E-Commerce expansion

• IT education improvement• Government Support• Telecommunications

modernization and expansion

• Oil industry IT system

TurkeyTurkey SyriaSyria

IT Weakness

• Software piracy • Recent economic crisis • Struggle to enter the EU • English language • Lack of E-Commerce trust

TurkeyTurkey SyriaSyria• Government controlled IT

sector• Software Piracy• Economic State• Poor IT infrastructure• “Brain drain”• Low IT usage and

awareness• Lack of E-Commerce

initiatives• IT laws not enforced

Business Opportunities Cellular network:• Turkey is the second largest potential consumer market

in Europe (behind Germany). • Cellular density is expected to grow rapidly in the

coming years. The market was expected to reach over 12 million by 2005, and enabling investment in the mobile market.

• Turkey has already auctioned four mobile cellular phone licenses that private sector owns 3 of them where as Turk Telekom owns only 1.

• Additional opportunity exists for the Turkish market in international calls due to the widely dispersed Turkish population around the world, primarily form Western European and the United States to Turkey.

Business Opportunities Software:• In Turkey software products  range from packaged pr

ograms to customized software that are being developed for specific needs.

• Requirement of customized built software is in high demand for government purposes and the mix of customized product and packaged software for the private sectors ,e.g. network security appliances, professional software for corporations and commercial software packages in accounting, finance, human resources. Thus making customized software the biggest market.

Business Opportunities Internet service:• While Internet penetration remains low, subscriber growth

rates have been rapid. Internet service markets are expected to expand substantially within the next five years.

• The chamber of commerce in Turkey estimates an additional 1.6 million people entering the IT market with purchases of internet services.

• Having the competitive and developing telecommunication infrastructure provided by the privatization, the investors will be able to find consumers who could be targets for the online services.

Recommendation

• Turkey's parliament has finally passed a telecom law that paves the way for privatization.Turkish government will privatize 55 percent of the shares of Turk Telekom this year. The privatization of Turk Telekom will provide more opportunity for Turkey's IT market to grow and expand throughout the country.

• Make investments by joint venturing with local companies. This joint venture will let the foreign investors to share the risk associated to the investment, which will save the both parties from the instability impact of the economy.

Recommendation• In terms of internet usage and software marketing,

Turkish consumers have the same patterns as the European consumers have, particularly in mobile cellular phone market. Turkish consumers are interested in high technology and they are known as the fast adaptors to the technologies as long as they are served with affordable offers.

• Small and Medium Enterprises in Turkey started to computerized their business and got connected to portals which can provide them large view of customers. Government encourages these enterprises to develop their activities so there had been a serious increase in SME's portion in IT investments.This fact motivates IT suppliers to have better access to those companies.

Recommendation• Although many people in the larger urban commercial

centers understand English, language may be a serious barrier in rural areas. It is therefore imperative that marketing information and user guides be written to the consumers’ own language. To win over the local customer, a Turkish language web site would be extremely useful. Having a local representative or partner could help in translating your advertising so as to catch the eye and interest of the Turkish consumer.

Sample of websites

• Turkish: http://www.kultur.gov.tr

• English: http://www.turkishpress.com/

Questions?