Nabız (Nabd Türkiye)

What did it do?

Nabız (Turkish for “pulse”) launched in Turkey in April 2016 as the first international expansion of the Dubai-based news aggregator Nabd. The app aggregated content from more than 300 Turkish-language news sources on subjects ranging from technology and health to sport and cars, and delivered breaking news through push notifications. It was free on iOS and Android and could also be accessed through a web version.

Why did it shut down?

The Nabız team announced that the app would be shut down permanently on 31 October 2025, and confined itself to thanking users; it gave no detailed reason. According to the Turkish daily Sözcü, there was talk in technology circles that rising operating costs and difficulties with news licensing had played a part in the decision. As early as the 2016 launch, Webrazzi had remarked that Nabd would not have an easy time in Turkey's news vertical. Nabız was an intermediary that aggregated its content from other publishers' stories, which tied its revenue and costs to licensing terms beyond its control. As an interpretation, in a market where advertising revenue pools on the big platforms, it looks hard for such an intermediary to reach profitability even as it grows in scale.

The story

Nabd grew in the Arab world as an aggregator that brought news together in a single app. According to Wamda, the app, founded in 2013, pulled news from more than 1,500 Arabic-language sources and reached more than 9 million users. According to VentureBeat, it was number one in the iPhone news category in 37 countries. Co-founders Abdur-Rahman El-Sayed and Abdullah El-Sayed chose Turkey as their first stop abroad.

In April 2016 the app launched in Turkey under the name Nabız. The founders explained their choice by Turkey's news consumption habits resembling those of the Arab world, and by its more than 30 million smartphone users. Nabız aggregated news from more than 300 Turkish-language sources and sent breaking news by push notification. According to Wamda's report, the app was featured by Apple as an editors' choice, appeared on the Google Play home page and rose to number one in the news category of the Turkish App Store. Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, was cautious in those same days, writing that the news vertical in Turkey would not be easy.

In the years that followed, Nabız quietly became one of the daily news sources for millions of users. At the end of October 2025, however, users were met with a farewell message. The team announced that the app would be shut down permanently on 31 October 2025 and that neither the mobile app nor the web version would be accessible after that date. The statement gave no detailed reason. According to the Turkish daily Sözcü, there was talk in technology circles that rising operating costs and difficulties with news licensing had influenced the decision.

The Nabız story shows the fragility of products that grow by aggregating other people's content. The app found users easily, but the value it created depended heavily on news sites' content and on conditions in the advertising market. Its Turkish adventure, lasting roughly nine and a half years, ended with an announcement once the gap between costs and revenue widened.

Lessons for founders

• In a product that aggregates other people's content, factor in licensing and copyright costs from the outset.
• When taking a model that worked in one market to another country, test the local competition and advertising market separately.
• Reaching the top of the app store rankings does not mean you have built a long-term revenue model.

Sources

1. Popular Arabic news app Nabd (Nabız) now in Turkey (Webrazzi, 2016-04-07)
2. Chart-topping newsreader app Nabd launches in Turkey as Nabız (VentureBeat, 2016-04-06)
3. Meet Nabiz, the Turkish version of Nabd (Wamda, 2016-04)
4. It had millions of users in Turkey: popular news app is closing (Sözcü, 2025-10-28)
5. Shock Decision: Popular News App to Shut Down on 31 October (Hedef Halk, 2025-10-28)

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