Hemalhemsat

What did it do?

Hemalhemsat was a Turkish shopping and marketplace site that ran under the slogan "Buy, sell, earn". Individual sellers and shops listed products across a broad range of categories, from antiques to electronics and from clothing to motoring, and buyers shopped from those listings. According to a round-up by Habertürk, the site began operating after absorbing Pazaryerim.com.

Why did it shut down?

According to the farewell message the company published on its site, Hemalhemsat ceased publication from 2 August 2010 in order to create a new business model and a different structure in future. The announced new platform, however, never arrived; the farewell page stayed unchanged on the domain for eight years. According to a tip reported by Webrazzi in 2008, Doğan Group had decided to close the site as it pulled out of its internet ventures and had let its staff go with severance pay, then brought the site back into operation after acquisition interest emerged. A report the same year of a majority stake sale was denied by the company concerned. It is arguable that the site never reached the scale needed to compete with rivals that were growing stronger in the marketplace space; this is an interpretation.

The story

In the mid-2000s buying and selling second-hand and new goods online was spreading fast in Turkey. Hemalhemsat emerged on that wave. According to a 2017 round-up by Habertürk, the site began operating in 2005 after absorbing Pazaryerim.com; the internet archive also shows the pazaryerim.com address redirecting to Hemalhemsat in 2006.

The site ran under the slogan "Buy, sell, earn". According to an archive capture from December 2008, it had a broad category tree ranging from antiques and art to baby products, from computers to collectibles and from jewellery to motoring; shops sat alongside individual sellers, and credit card instalment options were offered. According to Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, Hemalhemsat was one of the internet ventures of Doğan Group, the Turkish media conglomerate.

2008 was the year the group's internet strategy changed. In July 2008 Webrazzi wrote that it had heard Doğan Group was starting to exit its internet ventures and that Hemalhemsat would also be closed. According to the tip, staff had been let go with severance pay, but when would-be buyers for the site appeared, the employees were called back and the site was kept running. In November 2008 Webrazzi reported that Alibaba.com had bought a majority stake, but the same story was soon updated when Alibaba said no such partnership existed. Another Webrazzi article in January 2009 also listed Hemalhemsat among the e-commerce sites that had made negative headlines in 2008.

Despite this uncertainty, the site stayed live for two more years. In August 2010 a farewell letter appeared on the home page: Hemalhemsat was ceasing publication from 2 August 2010 in order to create a new business model and a different structure in future. The letter said goodbye to visitors in the hope of meeting again on a brand-new platform. Habertürk's 2017 round-up also listed the site among those that had ended operations for the purpose of a new structure.

That new platform never arrived. According to the internet archive, the farewell page stayed unchanged on the domain until 2018, after which the site disappeared entirely. Hemalhemsat's story shows how fragile a marketplace launched with the backing of a large group can be when the group's priorities change. This is an interpretation.

Lessons for founders

• If you are going to announce a closure as a new beginning, also pin down the timetable and the owner of the new model; otherwise the announcement is merely a farewell.
• A marketplace inside a group needs a revenue model that can stand on its own when the group's strategy changes.
• When the market leader is getting stronger, being a clear number two requires a distinct edge in category, price or trust.

Sources

1. hemalhemsat.com closure announcement, internet archive capture (Internet Archive, 2011-10-04)
2. Turkish e-commerce sites that closed before Markafoni (Habertürk, 2017-06-02)
3. A move from HemAlHemSat.com that seems like a joke (Webrazzi, 2008-07-23)
4. AliBaba.com becomes a partner in HemAlHemSat.com (Webrazzi, 2008-11-13)
5. Contradiction in e-commerce: Hepsiburada.com and estore.com.tr (Webrazzi, 2009-01-05)
6. hemalhemsat.com shopping page, internet archive capture (Internet Archive, 2008-12-04)
7. hemalhemsat.com farewell page, internet archive capture (Internet Archive, 2018-01-08)

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