South African media giant, Naspers, has announced that its Turkish e-commerce and fashion company Markafoni will be shutting down on the 30th of June 2017.
Naspers says this closure is due to Turkish’s challenging economic environment.
“Despite initial success, the business (Markafoni) is not scaling sufficiently to be sustainable, and in a challenging economic environment for this type of business the decision was taken to close.”
According to Turkish Informatics Industry Association, Turkey’s growing e-commerce market was worth 24.7 billion lira ($6.99 billion) in 2015, accounting for only 2 percent of total retail revenue.
The e-Commerce company has already posted a notice to this effect on its website
“We thank all of you for the support and trust you have shown us since we were established in 2008.”
It did not give a reason for the closure, but Turkish media reports said the business has failed to turn a profit.
Naspers said the closure was a standalone decision and would have no impact on other Naspers companies and investments in Turkey, including OLX, Letgo, PayU and Delivery Hero.
“We believe that Turkey remains a good growth opportunity for these other businesses, which all continue to gain traction and scale,” Naspers said.
