Written on August 15, 2008 – 1:20 pm
Şekip Can Gökalp, Next Web Turkey WebTipr
Some markets of the new economy come first when we look at expansion possibilities of web giants. Europe, of course, because of the high penetration rate and China, with the highest rate of usage growth and more than 1 billion potential customers. It’s clearly a good idea to take a chance in those markets. But what about possible others?
Let’s take a look at Turkey. With an estimated Internet penetration of 37%, Turkey has a total Internet user amount of 26 million people. You can find more to it in this study of Sina Afra from Ebay. I wish to give an introduction to this newly blooming market, which, I think, should be on the list of every company who has the goal to be successful on a global scale.
Where is the buzz?
It is a clear fact that the Turkish society is into socializing. According to Wave 3, social networks are by far the most used Web 2.0 tool in Turkey. 67% of the Internet users have a profile on social networks, which also makes it clear why Facebook has 3.6 million users from Turkey. Myspace, Hi5, Perfspot and the local Yonja are also some of the bigger social networks that are very popular in Turkey. Next to social networks, blogging and news are the other most important areas in the Turkish Internet market. News are of course ruled by local players, which are mostly web sites of existing news providers like NTV, Hürriyet, Milliyet and Habertürk, but Google seems to be aware of the gap and launches the Turkish Google News.
E-commerce is also an important area, where the Turkish market is far from satiety. Because of some cultural characteristics, Turkish people still don’t think it is safe or clever to shop online. Surely this doesn’t mean that there is no one there. Ebay for instance made a move and bought 20% of gittigidiyor, which is the leader of the auction market.
Turkish startup scene; a newborn baby
When we look at the innovative Web 2.0 applications and services that have been built so far, we see a small amount of startups behind them. These are mostly people with international relations who have seen the future, and want to create it in their own country. 2008, however, has been a very productive year for Turkey, with many milestones. In my opinion, the startup scene was born just this year. What we’ve seen in the Valley, in Berlin, or in London, is now also happening in Istanbul. Small teams do roadshows, weekly or monthly events take place and the first VC funds were founded (Leventure, LabX, Ilab, Golden Horn Ventures etc.). Also, the first investments were raised in a way it happens in the world. For me, events, fresh startups and foreign players are important benchmarks to evaluate a country’s potential. That’s why I’ll sum these up. (more…)
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Written on May 24, 2008 – 3:30 pm
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France
The greatest threat to any successful startup is competition. The more successful you become, the more competition you will piss off, and each contender will bring with them a new strain of hassle.
I’m not talking simply about competitive products, no I’m actually referring to the many underhand tactics that will be employed by at least some of these so-called competition. So what are these threats and how to best deal with them?
The Murky World Of Business
The first port of call for underhand competitors will be to learn everything they can about you, looking for any weaknesses they can find. These typically involve ‘competitive intelligence’ techniques which is a fancy way of saying they employ private investigators who will even sniff through your garbage.
Competitive Intelligence
This typically takes many forms and practitioners are not afraid to stoop to low levels. Private investigators are generally extremely creative and efficient, not least cost effective, who have many contacts and techniques that they leverage to build a portrait around individuals within the company. They can get access (break in) to bank account details, tap phone lines, bug offices, cars, even homes, follow people, pose as reporters / employees (man on the inside) etc. to gain access to people and information that could be useful.
Utilization Of Competitive Intelligence
Depending upon the nature of the rewards, a campaign to ‘levy distress’ will be initiated with various arms but the same goal. The goal being to chop the legs off ‘metaphorically speaking of course’ the main targets.
Legal Assault
One of the most cherished methods is to create phony legal cases against the targets. They do not need to be serious, just a host of frivolous nonsense is sufficient. It is very cheap to send out threatening letters and tie targets up in court battles which can become exponentially destructive and costly to fend off. Typically they will be cases that are 99% twisted around so that the aggressors will be claiming the targets are actually distressing them.
Creating Havoc
Paying off disgruntled employees to cause hassle within the company, setting traps for the targets, reporting the targets (to officials and dependencies) for anything and everything they can. Disconnecting ties between targets and their networks (such as distributors, retailers, suppliers etc.) and any other psychological torture they can muster.
Intellectual Property Theft
There is nothing like learning from others mistakes, all services, products etc. will be reversed engineered to learn secrets from the targets, then the cream will be repackaged into similar offerings, where the ‘competition’ use the building blocks that have been successful along with their greater financial muster to encroach upon the targets market. Patents and copyright laws are of very little significance for young companies who have not the experience, nor resources to leverage the law to their favor. Further, the rogues will be carefully protected from legal assault themselves as they use ‘front’ (disposable) companies for their full on attacks.
David Vs Goliath
Typically the targets ‘upstarts’ that enjoyed early success will be naive to the murky world of ‘business’ where cannibals and dinosaurs await the fresh bloods arrival for their feasts. In order to survive, here are some practical tips:
- Remain focused on the ‘real problems’ within the business.
- Continue to innovate and move the market.
- Learn the tricks of Goliath’s trade, the more you know about him and his tactics the better.
- Be very careful who you trust, especially when it comes to these ‘pillars of society’.
- Learn how to bat!
Batting
If you do find yourself in the middle of a ‘war of terror’ then the quicker you learn how to fight, obviously the better. Understand that the world of business is much like nature, it is not personal and brutal. Speed, intelligence, posture, bravery and trickery are the necessary assets to be packed in your survival kits.
Good luck out there! You will need it…
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