GittiGidiyor

What did it do?

GittiGidiyor was founded in Istanbul in 2001 as an auction site. With the HemenAL! (Buy It Now) option added in 2002 and a stores section opened in 2004, it moved into fixed-price sales as well. It grew into a broad marketplace connecting individual and business sellers with millions of buyers.

Why did it shut down?

After eBay took control of the company in 2011, GittiGidiyor's future became tied to the portfolio choices of its global parent. The announcement on 20 June 2022 justified the closure by the ongoing competitive dynamics of the Turkish market and gave no further detail. Just before closing, the platform was contributing around 4 million active buyers to eBay. Even so, eBay said the closure would not materially affect its annual financial results. This suggests the market was not a priority worth increasing investment in for the parent company.

The story

In February 2001 in Istanbul, Burak Divanlıoğlu and Serkan Borançılı set out with an idea Turkish internet users were not used to: a site where you could sell things from your home by auction. Even the name GittiGidiyor (roughly “going, going, gone”) came from that auction culture. With the HemenAL! (Buy It Now) option added the following year and a stores section opened in 2004, the site went from being a bidding-only platform to a large marketplace selling at fixed prices.

The growth caught the attention of global players too. eBay took a majority stake in the company in 2007 and raised its holding to 93 per cent in 2011. According to Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, that deal was worth $217.5 million. In 2016 the last 7 per cent stake, held by early investor iLab Ventures, also passed to eBay, and GittiGidiyor became wholly an eBay company. Its user numbers passed 2 million in 2008 and 28 million in 2019.

But that size on paper was not enough to keep the company going. On 20 June 2022 eBay announced it would cease GittiGidiyor's operations. The reason given was brief: the ongoing competitive dynamics of the Turkish market. New listings were stopped the same day, shopping continued until 18 July, and access to accounts ended on 5 September. According to the Anadolu Agency, just before closing the platform was contributing around 4 million active buyers to eBay's figures; even so, eBay said the decision would not materially affect its annual results.

GittiGidiyor's story tells how one of the pioneers of e-commerce in Turkey quietly passed into history. The company the founders built changed hands in a successful exit, but the product's fate no longer lay with the team in Istanbul; it lay in the portfolio choices of a global company. As competition intensified, eBay chose to withdraw rather than invest more, and the 21-year-old brand closed.

Lessons for founders

• The fate of an acquired start-up becomes tied to the parent company's global priorities; factor this into the exit deal.
• Being first to market does not bring lasting leadership; when competition speeds up, the pace of investment must speed up too.
• A large user base is not enough on its own once the capital backing behind it is withdrawn.

Sources

1. The 20-year journey of GittiGidiyor, now at the end of the road (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2022-06-20)
2. GittiGidiyor is closing (in Turkish) (Anadolu Agency, 2022-06-20)
3. eBay to Close GittiGidiyor Operations (eBay Inc., 2022-06-20)

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