Yakala.co

What did it do?

Yakala.co was a group-buying site launched in 2010 in close partnership with the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet. It sold discount vouchers for restaurants, entertainment, travel and beauty services and, unlike its rivals, stood out with a humorous brand voice. It started in Istanbul and soon expanded to Ankara.

Why did it shut down?

The company gave no reason for its closure; the site carried only a short notice saying operations had ended as of 16 December 2022. A 2012 analysis by Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, shows that the group-buying market shrank quickly after its peak: total users fell from 3.4 million to 2.3 million in a year. Although Yakala.co increased its share during this period and rose to third place, the overall appeal of the voucher model declined. This picture can be read as the site closing after surviving for a long time in a shrinking market.

The story

In 2010, with Turkey's group-buying craze in full swing, Yakala.co arrived on the scene with a different tone. Mehmet Keteloğlu, who had returned after about 16 years as a technology and strategy consultant in the US, launched the site with two partners and in close partnership with the newspaper Hürriyet. In a December 2010 interview with eTohum, a Turkish start-up community, he explained that their aim was to offer campaigns with personality and surprise rather than dry deals.

The first big test was striking. According to Keteloğlu, hundreds of thousands of people visited the site during a five-minute iPad campaign, and the target of 75 units was beaten with 221 sales. The traffic provided by Hürriyet and a partnership with Garanti's credit card gave the site a fast start. By December 2010 it was operating in Ankara as well as Istanbul; İzmir and other big cities were next in line. Keteloğlu said they saw the business as a marathon, not a sprint.

The sector itself, however, was cooling fast. According to a May 2012 analysis by Webrazzi, total users of group-buying sites fell from 3.4 million to 2.3 million in a year. Yakala.co stood out in this picture by rising to third place with 659,000 monthly unique visitors; Grupfoni, once the market leader, declined rapidly. Although voucher culture took root, the market's total volume never returned to its former level.

Yakala.co kept going quietly for years. In the end a short notice posted on the site announced that the yakala.co website had ceased operations as of 16 December 2022, and directed users to an email address for questions. The reason for the closure was not made public.

Yakala.co's 12-year journey is the story of one of the longest-lived domestic players of the group-buying wave. A strong media partner and a distinctive brand voice kept the site going longer than most of its rivals; but in a shrinking market those advantages were not enough to deliver lasting growth.

Lessons for founders

• A strong media partner brings traffic, but that traffic is not enough if the model itself is not profitable.
• Gaining share in a shrinking market may not mean long-term growth.
• Brand personality makes a difference; even so, you need a value proposition that brings people back beyond the voucher.

Sources

1. Notice: the yakala.co website ceased operations as of 16.12.2022 (in Turkish) (Yakala.co, 2022-12-16)
2. Mehmet Keteoğlu - Yakala.co, 16 December 2010 (in Turkish) (eTohum, 2010-12-16)
3. How far has the group-buying market come in a year? [Analysis] (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2012-05-31)

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