Bad times triggering creativity in Turkey, says leading businessman

Turkey's economy has been experiencing difficult times, but such times trigger creativity for companies, especially when they use digital data in an efficient manner, according to a leading businessman. 
"Turkish markets have not been in a 'honeymoon' mood. But these difficult times have fortunately triggered creativity," said Boyner Holding Chairman and CEO Cem Boyner at a meeting that was jointly organized by the Information Society Forum of Turkey's leading business organization, TÜSİAD, and Bilkent University in Istanbul on Nov. 2.

Boyner noted that customer behaviors had completely changed with the rise of digitalization and that this trend had created big data, which needs to be evaluated wisely.

"Our company makes 11 percent of its revenue through the internet, and 60 percent of this has come from mobile devices... The game is now based on making effective data analysis and creating new business from this analysis, which gives an amazing competitiveness advantage," he said.

Boyner also added that Boyner's mobile shopping application, Hopi, had reached 4 million subscribers and 2.5 billion Turkish Liras in sales revenue.

TÜSİAD and Bilkent University joined forces to create the Information Society Forum in order to support the country's transformation toward becoming an "information society."

Their first joint event was held in Ankara in December 2015, according to representatives from the initiative.
At the second event, which focused on big data, TÜSİAD Chair Cansen Başaran-Symes said that around 50 billion mobile devices and billions of sensors were expected to create data at twice the volume of today by 2020.

"It is possible to cut costs, increase productivity and create a difference by analyzing...