# Memurfoni (2011 – 2013)

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

## What did it do?

Memurfoni was a Turkish group-buying site launched in May 2011 to offer exclusive discounts to the roughly 1.1 million verified members of Memurlar.net, a popular news site for civil servants. Ankara-based İhtiyaç Grup handled operations, while Memurlar.net handled promotion. The site also experimented with different sales formats, such as 1-lira campaigns announced in live broadcasts.

## Why did it shut down?

The group-buying market swelled rapidly in 2010 and 2011, after which customer complaints and a crisis of trust grew. According to Memurfoni's closure statement, companies in the sector ignoring customer satisfaction was deepening the crisis of trust between deals sites and buyers by the day. The company also wrote that Chinese goods flooding the market were further damaging the sector's reputation. According to Webrazzi, Memurfoni had attracted attention despite entering the market late, but the deteriorating balance of the market led it to step back. General manager Hakan Yiğit said a return might be possible if measures were taken against these problems.

## The story

In mid-2010 deals sites suddenly multiplied in Turkey. Memurlar.net, a widely read site among civil servants and civil service candidates, decided to join the wave with its own audience. According to project manager Mahmut Yıldırım, speaking to Webrazzi, the idea grew out of a collaboration between Memurlar.net and İhtiyaç Grup's distance-learning site. Ankara-based İhtiyaç Grup took on operations, while Memurlar.net took on promotion. Memurfoni.com went live in May 2011 with a starting reach of around 1.1 million verified members.

The first campaign was a discount on a driving school in Ankara. In July 2011 the site tried different sales models, such as 1-lira deals announced in a live broadcast every two weeks. Products tailored to its civil service audience were also sold, such as an annotated edition of Law No. 657 on Civil Servants for 9.90 lira and 1-lira KPSS (civil service exam) study sets. Despite entering the market late, Memurfoni kept growing; according to information general manager Hakan Yiğit gave Webrazzi, membership approached 250,000 and sales were made to a total of 74,518 people.

Meanwhile, however, the balance of the group-buying market was breaking down. A statement published on the site on 6 March 2013 said that the crisis of trust was growing by the day because of practices by companies in the sector that ignored customer satisfaction. According to the statement, Chinese goods flooding the market were also pushing the sector's already falling reputation to an even worse point. For these reasons, Memurfoni announced that it was pausing sales indefinitely, while pending orders would be delivered.

Hakan Yiğit did not rule out a return if solutions to the problems were found. Four years later, however, in 2017, Memurfoni appeared in Habertürk's round-up of closed e-commerce sites as a site that had operated between 2011 and 2013. Memurfoni's story shows that even a ready-made audience cannot on its own save a collapsing business model.

## Lessons

- Having a ready-made audience does not protect you from the problems of a market that is deteriorating fast.
- A business model's reputation can be only as strong as the worst player in the sector; make trust a differentiator.
- When the market is souring, halting sales in a controlled way is an exit that preserves the customer relationship.

## Sources

- [Memurlar.net's group-buying site Memurfoni.com launches [Interview]](https://webrazzi.com/2011/05/16/memurfoni/)
- [Memurfoni joins the group-buying sites that have closed](https://webrazzi.com/2013/03/07/memurfoni-kapandi/)
- [Turkish e-commerce sites that closed before Markafoni! Why did the online shopping sites shut down?](https://www.haberturk.com/ekonomi/teknoloji/haber/1517700-markafoniden-once-kapanan-turk-e-ticaret-siteleri/)
- [Shopping sites that have closed so far](https://www.kartal24.com/73531-kapanan-alisveris-siteleri)