# Bilio.com (Ucuzu.com) (2004 – 2016)

- URL: https://girisimcikafasi.com/en/startup-graveyard/bilio/
- Sector: E-commerce
- Country: Turkey
- Total funding: unknown
- Cause of closure: Business model failed

## What did it do?

From 2004, Ucuzu.com was a site comparing product prices across online shops in Turkey. After Naspers bought out the remaining shares, it was repositioned in 2014 under the name Bilio.com. It listed products from hundreds of shops in one place, from mobile phones and white goods to holiday and hotel deals, and through its trusted-shop system aimed to highlight not only the cheapest seller but also the most reliable.

## Why did it shut down?

According to Webrazzi, the closure announcement cited profitability problems; the site had also been suffering from problems with its technology platform. The 2014 name change had caused a temporary drop in traffic and revenue during the transition. That picture suggests that, for a site that drew much of its traffic from brand awareness, dropping the decade-old Ucuzu.com name was a costly step. In 2016 Naspers chose to close Bilio while keeping its other investments in Turkey.

## The story

Ucuzu.com, as its name suggests (ucuzu means "the cheap one" in Turkish), answered a single question: on which site is the product you want cheaper? Launched in 2004, the site became one of the best-known names in price comparison during the years when e-commerce was growing in Turkey, and it operated under that name for a decade.

In 2014 South Africa's Naspers, the majority shareholder in Markafoni, also bought the company's remaining shares. Naspers ran price comparison sites in 13 countries around the world and repositioned the Turkish site under the name Bilio.com. General manager Can Günay's approach summed up the change: the aim was to offer consumers not just the cheapest option but the widest choice. According to Webrazzi, at the time the site listed 4 million products from 800 e-commerce companies. A new design arrived, along with barcode search in the mobile app and a trusted-shop system rewarding fast delivery and hassle-free returns; holiday and hotel prices were also being tested. During the name change, however, traffic and revenue dropped temporarily.

On the evening of 14 July 2016 Webrazzi wrote that Bilio.com staff had been told of the closure. The next morning the company confirmed the news. The statement cited profitability problems; Webrazzi added that the site had recently been suffering from problems with its technology platform. In the official statement reported by egirişim, Bilio was described as one of the Naspers group's most important internet investments in Turkey, and it was announced that it would cease operating as of 31 July 2016. At the time of the closure the site listed around 4.5 million products from more than 800 shops.

Bilio's story shows how a twelve-year-old brand can come to an end through an acquisition, a name change and a portfolio decision. The price comparison market, meanwhile, carried on with other players.

## Lessons

- Changing an established brand is a serious risk for a business that gets its traffic from search; measure the transition as you make it.
- In intermediary models, revenue depends on shops' advertising budgets; when those budgets shrink, profitability deteriorates fast.
- Being part of a large group provides resources, but it also leaves you open to being deleted as a single line in a portfolio decision.

## Sources

- [Bilio.com is closing [Confirmed]](https://webrazzi.com/2016/07/14/bilio-com-kapaniyor-son-dakika/)
- [Naspers's Turkish subsidiary Bilio.com closes on 31 July](https://egirisim.com/2016/07/15/naspersin-turkiyedeki-istiraki-bilio-com-31-temmuzda-kapaniyor/)
- [Having shelved Ucuzu, Bilio.com picks up speed again after its transition](https://webrazzi.com/2014/11/16/bilio-com/)