Millions Of New Customers

The increase in national income and young population produces 600,000 households each year and have meant that over the last three years companies have gained many new customers for tens of products in unsaturated markets, such as credit cards, mobile telephones and computers. In the last three years, there have been more than 27 million new GSM subscribers. Eight million people have flown for the first time and been added to airlines’ customer portfolios… We have studied these developments and examined which sectors have gained how many new customers in Turkey in the last three years.

Over the last five years there has been intense competition in virtually every sector and product group. In addition to targeting existing customers, the competition resulting from the entry of foreigners and new companies has also seen production calculations being made according to new customers. In any case, in the last three years the addition of new members to customer portfolios has had a significant impact on many sectors.

For example in the period 2005-2007, bankers gained nearly 12,5 million new customers. The number of credit card users rose by 5,6 million. During this period, the number of people buying mobile telephones for the first time reached 5,9 million. In the last three years, 8 million passengers are believed to have boarded a plane for the first time by taking a domestic flight.

From white goods to computers, insurance, private pensions, automobiles and housing, many sectors have enjoyed a boom in terms of new customers in 2005-2007 and grown considerably. Capital studied how many customers different sectors have gained in recent years.

The Gsm Subscriber Target Is 70 Million
The number of GSM subscribers in Turkey, which stood at 34,707,000 at the end of 2004, reached 61 million at the end of 2007. This means that the sector, in which three companies are active, gained 27,2 million new customers and grew by 78,5 percent.
Since 2000, the credit card market has grown considerably and become one of the most important growth areas for banks. The number of credit card users, which was 14 million at the end of 2004, gained more than 3,5 million new customers in three years. The Interbank Card Center (BKM) is expecting growth of at least 15 percent in 2008.

New Customers Account For 10 Percent In Automobiles
Over the last two years, sales have been falling on the domestic market in the automotive sector. Sales of passenger cars, which were 438,597 in 2005, decreased to 357,465 in 2007. There was also a decline in the sales of light commercial vehicles. Sales of light commercial vehicles declined from 285,257 in 2005 to 237,297 in 2007.
Otokoç General Manager Cenk Çimen notes that, when one looks at the figures, sales of vehicles over the last three years have been 650,000-750,000 and that people who are buying a car for the first time account for 10 percent of the total.

5,9 Million New Customers
Approximately three billion people are estimated to be using mobile telephones in the world as a whole, Since 2005, the global mobile telephone market has grown by around 35 percent. In 2007, particularly as a result of promotional campaigns by GSM operators, the market expanded by approximately 40 percent.
According to a study by GfK Türkiye, 7.1 million mobile telephones were sold in Turkey in 2005. The number of mobile telephone customers grew from 8,2 million in 2006 to approximately 11,5 million in 2007. This means that the number of customers in the sector grew by 61 percent between 2005 and 2007.

8 Million Experience The Excitement Of Flying
Competition, which started with the opening of domestic lines to scheduled private airlines in 2003, has increased the number of people using airlines. Companies such as Pegasus, Onur Air and Atlas Jet have made an important contribution to refuting the impression that flying is expensive.

This intense competition has resulted in 8 million new customers on domestic lines being added to the airline sector. According to data from the Civil Aviation General Directorate, the number of passengers on domestic lines was 20,5 million in 2005. By 2007, the figure had reached 31,9 million. The number of passenger rose by 56 percent between 2005 and 2007.

Özlem Aydın
oaydin@capital.com.tr