Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum

What did it do?

Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum (roughly "Living on Applause") was a Turkish video content site founded by Fatih Aker in August 2004. It stood out for funny videos shared by users, comments and engagement-focused features. During the years when YouTube was blocked in Turkey, it became an important alternative and contributed to the growth of caps and meme culture on the Turkish internet.

Why did it shut down?

The site's farewell announcement on 23 July 2020 said that increasingly frequent legal proceedings and their costs had put the team under too much strain. The announcement also complained that, as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram rose, the site's content was being used on other platforms without credit or payment. According to Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, users' large-scale move to social networks such as YouTube and Instagram also played an important part in the decision to close. In short, the site kept carrying the legal burden alone while losing its traffic to the giant platforms. After the closure, the files on its servers were removed and its social media accounts were shut down.

The story

Founded by Fatih Aker in August 2004, Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum was one of the first big comedy video sites on the Turkish internet. Users shared short funny videos, wrote comments underneath and spent time immersed in the site's distinctively friendly tone. For a while the site was published under the umbrella of Serdar Kuzuloğlu's MYK Medya, before going its own way independently again.

Its real heyday coincided with the years when YouTube was blocked in Turkey. Users turned to local alternatives to watch videos, and Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum was one of the sites that filled the gap. In June 2011 Nokta A.Ş., which had received investment from Intel Capital, bought the site. According to a Webrazzi report at the time, the site was reaching more than 50,000 unique visitors a day, and Fatih Aker stayed with the team after the acquisition.

Over time the picture changed. YouTube became accessible again, and Facebook and Instagram became the main distribution channels for comedy content. Webrazzi wrote that users' large-scale move to these networks played an important part in the team's decision. The site's own announcement, however, said the real burden lay elsewhere: increasingly frequent legal proceedings and their costs.

Published on 23 July 2020, the farewell message kept the site's familiar humorous style. The team described the site as perhaps the internet's biggest comedy archive and complained that its content was being used on other platforms without credit or payment. According to egirişim, the files on the servers were removed during the night after the announcement, and the social media accounts were shut down too.

Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum neatly sums up the fate of local platforms that grew in the gap opened up by a ban. When the gap closed, the traffic flowed to the giant platforms while the legal risks stayed with the site. Sixteen years on, the site ended its run having, in its own words, completed its mission.

Lessons for founders

• On a platform built on user content, budget for the cost of legal proceedings from the start.
• Once you have lost distribution to the giant platforms, owning your content is not enough to keep you alive.
• If you grew thanks to a ban or a gap in the market, plan in advance for what happens when that gap closes.

Sources

1. Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum ended its run today (Webrazzi, 2020-07-23)
2. Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum, the video site founded in 2004, has ended its run (egirişim, 2020-07-24)
3. Alkışlarla Yaşıyorum Acquired by Nokta (Webrazzi, 2011-06-30)

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