Another Chapter Begins for GittiGidiyor

Apr 12, 2011 | 392 comments

Back in 2006, when we first invested in GittiGidiyor, Internet penetration in Turkey was around half of what it is today. Similarly ecommerce transactions did not constitute a meaningful portion of overall retail in Turkey.

At around the same time, we made our second investment in Kariyer.net, becoming sole owners of that asset.  Again at the time, most jobs were found in newspapers and other traditional venues.

Today GittiGidiyor boasts 6.5M registered users completing thousands of transactions every single day and Kariyer.net is the platform to look for jobs and employees in Turkey.  While this may sound like mere self promotion, my intent is to actually underline how proud we are to have believed in the entrepreneurial spirit of Turkey and that a young population would embrace the most important technological breakthrough of the last 20 years:  The Internet.

Turkey has over 35 million internet users today, 70 times the figure from ten years ago.  We constitute the fourth largest Facebook following in the world and we now do our banking, vacation planning, reading, studying, and communicating online.

Increasingly we are doing more of our shopping on the Internet but we are still behind our peer countries in this regard. I, for one, believe the next five years will see the explosion of ecommerce in Turkey and that is why I am extremely excited to continue our strategic alliance with eBay in the years to come.  eBay’s vast expertise and worldwide presence will make a significant impact on ecommerce in Turkey and the chance to work closely with them was the main driver for our partial exit today.

On another note, I firmly believe that the success of GittiGidiyor should lead the way for future Internet entrepreneurs in Turkey.  There can be no greater encouragement than the solid reality of today’s news but I would like to highlight a couple of points about what GittiGidiyor did right to get to where it is today:

1. GittiGidiyor wasn’t an entirely original idea, however it didn’t clone, it adapted. The zero-risk payment system served to alleviate wide-spread and sometimes justified fears in Turkey regarding fraud on the Internet and allowed Turkish shoppers to buy in confidence.
2. GittiGidiyor formed partnerships through affiliates, advertised wisely and attracted shoppers from all corners of the Internet, not just those coming to the site.
3. GittiGidiyor sought and found venture capital at the right time. iLab’s investment in GittiGidiyor paved the path for stellar growth and resiliency to macro-economic shortfalls that heavily affected other players in the market.

As I mentioned in my welcome statement , we are constantly on the lookout for entrepreneurs eager to take the next step in their growth process to become the next GittiGidiyor, Kariyer.net or Sigortam.net.  iLab is totally committed to bring, along with capital, know-how, expertise and the power of its network to bear for these ventures.

Finally I would like to congratulate the founders of GittiGidiyor and wish them well in all their future endeavors.

Mustafa Say

Managing Partner

iLab Ventures