Sporena

What did it do?

Sporena was a sports-focused e-commerce site that Rocket Internet opened in Turkey in November 2011. It sold sports shoes, clothing and accessories from nearly 40 brands, with free shipping and returns within a month. Its goal was to be the online sports store with the widest choice of brands in Turkey.

Why did it shut down?

Sporena gained traffic quickly, but it was in no position to decide its own fate. In early August 2012 Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, reported that Rocket Internet planned to continue in Turkey only with Zidaya, which was doing better, and that Sporena would go offline in September; Zidaya was already selling Sporena's products too. A few days later Rocket decided to close its Turkish operation altogether. According to Nurettin Özdoğan, writing as a guest author on Webrazzi, the vertical e-commerce model may not have reached the expected scale in a Turkish market dominated by campaign-driven shopping. Habertürk also wrote that Sporena closed with Rocket's exit from Turkey.

The story

Sporena was one of the pieces of the rapid investment wave Rocket Internet launched in Turkey in the second half of 2011. According to a Webrazzi report in December 2011, the site went live as a joint effort by Serhat Karahan and Aslı Fidangenç. Targeting users who loved sportswear and were interested in alternative sports, Sporena sold shoes, clothing and accessories from nearly 40 brands. Free shipping and the option to return or exchange within a month were the promises the site put front and centre. Aslı Fidangenç summed up their goal as becoming Turkey's most comprehensive online sports store.

The first months went by fast. According to a comparison Webrazzi made in May 2012 using Google Ad Planner data, Sporena had reached 350,000 monthly unique visitors, and its traffic had grown by 171 per cent over the previous three months. Sporcum.com, cited as its closest rival, had around 120,000 monthly visitors.

But Sporena's future depended on its place in Rocket's Turkish portfolio. On 7 August 2012 Webrazzi, citing sources close to the company, wrote that Sporena would go offline in September and that Rocket would continue in Turkey only with Zidaya, which was doing better. Zidaya was already selling Sporena's products too. Ten days later Rocket Internet decided to close its Turkish operation altogether; according to Webrazzi, most of the company's roughly 400 employees were expected to lose their jobs. According to the same report, Rocket's sites in Turkey would take in no new products from then on, would sell only the stock they had on hand and would then go offline.

In September 2012 Sabah's Teknokulis page wrote that complaints that Sporena, Evimister and Zidaya had closed had turned out to be true. Habertürk, in a list compiled in 2017, also counted Sporena among the sites that closed with Rocket's exit from Turkey.

Lessons for founders

• If you sell the same products to the same customers as sister companies under the same roof, you may be the first to be shut down.
• Traffic growth is no substitute for profitable unit economics.
• A vertical store struggles to scale if it does not offer a better selection or experience than general sites.

Sources

1. A new vertical e-commerce site for sports enthusiasts from Rocket Internet (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2011-12-06)
2. A look at the Turkish operations of Rocket Internet, master of clones [Dossier] (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2012-05-08)
3. Rocket Internet showcases its ventures with a new website (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2012-08-07)
4. Rocket Internet is closing its Turkish operation! [Breaking] (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2012-08-17)
5. Why did Rocket Internet leave Turkey? (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2012-08-19)
6. E-commerce site Zidaya.com shut down (in Turkish) (Sabah Teknokulis, 2012-09-05)
7. Turkish e-commerce sites that closed before Markafoni: why did online shopping sites shut down? (in Turkish) (Habertürk, 2017-06-02)

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