Turkey aspires to become the capital of the technology industry in the whole of the European continent, and Turkey - according to Mustafa Varank, Minister of Industry and Trade - does not seek to be just a market, "but seeks to become a developer of a new generation of modern technology."

"Our goal is clear: to be one of the leading countries in the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a developer, not just a consumer market for next-generation technologies," Varank added at a virtual conference held by the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSIAD).

According to the "Daily Sabah" platform, in a recent report.

Varank indicated that the Turkish private sector has also accelerated the shift towards digitization during and after the Corona pandemic, saying that as a result, the e-commerce sector in Turkey has expanded to unprecedented levels, and explained that his ministry is setting up support and motivating mechanisms for companies to overcome the problems they face in digital transformation. "We place digital transformation as the main focus of our strategy," he said.

Billions of dollars are poured into Turkish technology companies

Tech investors around the world have spent billions of dollars on Turkish startups over the past year, and startup Getir, for example, is now valued at more than $7.5 billion.

And this company is the one behind the idea of ​​delivering groceries to homes in just 10 minutes, which it launched last April.

The founder of the company, Nazim Salor, said that money is pouring into Turkish startups now, but that was not the case in 2018 when the capital owners did not return our calls at the time, as the Financial Times recently reported.

"We did not have the necessary funds at the time, which delayed our ambitions and projects to expand outside the country for about 3 years, but we did not give up, we wanted to succeed so badly, which is what happened in the end," Salor added.

Jeter's big profits over the past year and its rising market value are part of the country's technology industry transformation. Turkish technology companies, including e-commerce platforms such as Trendyol and Hepsiburada, and other Turkish technology companies, have registered Developing games such as PeakGames and DreamGames have over $1 billion in market valuations, which is a huge success for these startups in global markets.

It is estimated that the volume of e-commerce in Turkey has increased from 3.5% 3 years ago to about 10% today (Getty Images)

major turning point

"Turkey's e-commerce market is at a major turning point, currently valued at $4.4 billion after the Nasdaq IPO last month," Hepsoprada founder Hanzad Dogan told the Financial Times.

Observers consider Hepsoprada, which was founded in 2000, to be the current Turkish Amazon.

It is estimated that the volume of e-commerce in Turkey has increased from 3.5% 3 years ago to about 10% today.

This is mainly due to the impact of the Corona pandemic on the online retail business in the country.

“The pandemic has brought a decisive change in the market, and everything is now ready for Turkish companies to start thinking about,” said Melis Cahya Akar, general manager of General Atlantic, who oversaw the $1.5 billion financing talks for Trendol by SoftBank. worldwide".

In fact, due to the huge investments that are being pumped into the market, Istanbul now stands side by side with other technology capitals in Europe such as London, Paris and Berlin, is a new star that has begun to shine in the sky of Europe, and is expected to glow a lot in the next few years.

Investment in the Turkish technology sector began 10 years ago, but it accelerated a lot during and after the Corona pandemic. For example, Tardinol has a market value of $16.5 billion. It started as an online fashion retailer in 2010 and has since expanded into other areas such as food delivery that coincided with its launch of digital wallets.

Turkish online retailers have flourished with the times, due in part to the absence from the market of big players such as Amazon and eBay who were unable to expand in the country due to various reasons, not least the geopolitical fluctuations in the region, including The attempted coup against the legitimate authority in Turkey in 2016, which made major tech companies hesitate to enter the market, and as a result, local companies flourished and grew large enough to attract international attention recently, and the beginning of the flow of global investments to Turkish technology start-ups, as I mentioned Financial Times in its report.

Companies playing the role of universities

The report stated that there is a strong demand now by experts, technicians, engineers and executives in the country to work in one of two promising companies, which is "Rocket Internet", a German business incubator that was launched in Turkey in 2011 and then suddenly withdrew from the market, and returned to work recently.

And Peak Games, an electronic game development company founded in 2010, was acquired by Zynga last year in a $1.8 billion deal.

These two companies have turned into something like a "university" of experts and engineers, and everyone who works in one of them for a period of time is flocked to by European technology companies to hire him for fantastic amounts.

Akimba Biget, a graduate of these two companies and then established his own electronic games company in the British capital, London, said that the great success of "Beck Games" has changed everything for Turkish startups, as the company has developed electronic games that have spread widely in various regions. All over the world, and from that moment on, Turkish companies began to think of spreading in global markets, after they were closed to the local market, but the success of Big Games opened their eyes to the great profit potential that can be achieved in global markets.

Since its first deal in 2017, San Francisco-based Zynga has invested more than $2.3 billion in 4 major acquisitions for companies operating in Turkey, including hyper casual games.

"Zynga was a bridge for foreign companies to come and invest in the country," said Bernard Kim, the company's CEO. "Zynga was impressed by the very competitive environment in a very promising market like that of Turkey."

Another alumnus of Rocket Internet and Big Games is Soner Idemar, who co-founded Dream Games in 2019, the company that designed and launched Puzzle Royal Match last June. Now over a billion dollars in record period.

"It was really easy to raise the necessary funds from the investors, and this is largely due to the stellar track record of the team, the team that invented the 'Pick Game' which became globally popular immediately after its launch...Everyone wants to invest in us now," Ademar said.

Turkey currently has world-class professional game developers, everyone wants to pay them, and the future is full of countless possibilities for development and prosperity in a country that seeks to lead in the field of modern technology industry in the world.