ECONOMY er-sectors

Turkish food order website targets Russian, Mideast markets

ISTANBUL – Anatolia News Agency | 1/13/2011 12:00:00 AM |

Food order website yemeksepeti.com intends to become a global brand by expanding in the Russian and the Middle Eastern markets, both of which it has already begun operating in. General Manager Nevzat Aydın says the firm also plans to expand its Turkish network from 21 provinces and to launch new services for subscribers that are similar to those offered by private shopping websites

Food delivery website yemeksepeti.com intends to become a global brand by expanding in the Russian and the Middle Eastern markets before the end of 2011, General Manager Nevzat Aydın has said.

Aydın also said the company revised its website’s software infrastructure in 2010 with a change in interface and had started its Russia and Dubai operations. It further expanded its Turkish network to 21 provinces, he added.

The company prefers to start its own operations rather than looking into acquisitions when expanding into foreign countries, he said, adding that they planned to stick with this method in the future.

“But for domestic expansions we may consider purchasing food and eating-related websites if we determine that they would complement our concept,” Aydın said. “We will continue growing in 2011. Our target is to be in 10 provinces in the Russian market by the end of 2011.”

Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry apps to follow website’s iPhone app

According to figures provided by Aydın, the company closed 2010 with a 50 percent growth on a dollar basis over 2009 and they expected a 45 percent growth in 2011. Aydın also said they seek to increase the number of their subscribers from 900,000 to 1.2 million. He said in all subscribers the rate of those ordering food at least once through the portal in the last month was 27 percent, adding that the number of daily orders through the website was around 28,000. “Given that in one order, an average of three people get food, we can say an average of 80,000 people get their meals by virtue of our website’s services everyday. We now are working with more than 4,000 restaurants in 21 provinces and we are targeting 6,000 restaurants in 50 provinces by the end of 2011.” Aydın said their performance in the mobile world was going remarkably well and they currently received almost 1,300 orders daily from people who have downloaded their iPhone application. “We will launch our Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry applications very soon and we predict that these new applications will boost the number of orders we receive from mobile devices to around 4,000 daily.”

The online service also expects to expand its United Arab Emirates operation to Abu Dhabi and Sharjah before the end of February, he said. “We are also aiming to enter other Middle Eastern markets, like Qatar, Bahrain and the [other] countries of the Persian Gulf.”

By the end of 2011, they intend to be active in 50 provinces of Turkey, he said. “I predict that by 2015, yemeksepeti.com will be active in all provinces of Turkey.”

Yemeksepeti.com serves as a database for restaurants providing delivery services. Restaurants, who sign up for membership on the website, can reach a variety of Internet users using the portal to make restaurant or grocery delivery orders. The website does not charge its users and offers a wide range of dishes, from traditional Turkish food to fast food opportunities from big global chains like McDonalds or Dominos and even world cuisine like Chinese, Indian and Thai food.

[HH] New projects to come

Noting that the company would start operations other than online food order and delivery services in 2011, Aydın said, “Yemeksepeti.com is the first thing that pops into one’s mind when they think of delivering food, but now we want to be the first thing that pops into their minds when they think of food.”

In order to realize this goal, Aydın said the company planned to launch a series of new services that would provide their subscribers the opportunity to find local dishes from around Turkey, such as Gaziantep’s baklava or Trabzon’s special cornbread, in other corners of the country.

These new services would also include sharing recipes provided over blogs and a “food project” that resembles the way successful private shopping portals work, he said.

“The project will be totally integrated with yemeksepeti.com, it will not be a separate website. It will be a project to provide our subscribers meals at more affordable prices,” Aydın said.

“The ‘elite’ project, which is already a part of yemeksepeti.com, will change its name and content and we will turn it into a more active project. The truth is the elite project was the product of an idea that is very similar to the private shopping website system. But when we opened that website in 2004, there was no such trade concept as ‘purchasing a discount,’ and therefore we converted it into a restaurant and booking guide. With the new facelift, we will turn it into a different ‘going-out portal’ which will include user reviews to be published,” Aydın said.

He said all of the projects would be implemented within the next six months.