Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Turkey

Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Turkey program celebrates and appreciates the developments in technology and innovation both locally and globally. Technology and innovation have various current and potential impacts on each aspect of life. These impacts will continuously increase by rapidly growing technology providers and users. By 2020, it is anticipated that there will be over 26 billion Internet-connected devices and around 4 billion global Internet users.

This will lead to an increasing demand for digital products and services, and to a greater emphasis on innovation and technology. Businesses and start-ups, are acting now not to miss out on a rapidly growing digital population and to become a part of the ongoing digital revolution worldwide. Turkey, with its vivid ICT sector, has a great potential to reap the benefits of emerging technologies and capitalize on the opportunities presented by the digital transformation and beyond. Turkey is ranked 48th according to the Global Information Technology Report 2016’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) and remains in the top third of the rankings in terms of its business and innovation environment, a good basis from which to push further ahead. Turkish ICT sector has grown by 14,4% (based on TL) and reached to a size of 94,3 billion TL in 2016, with Information Technologies market size being 29,6 billion TL and Communications Technologies market size being 64,7 billion TL.2 Considering how difficult 2016 was, the growth of the sector is impressive.

Another important success story in the ICT sector in 2016 has to do with its improving export potential. The exports of the sector has increased significantly and the expectation is to see an increasing presence in international markets going forward with a goal to reach 15 billion USD in ICT exports by 2023. The results of our CEO survey conducted within the scope of 2017 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program −asking CEOs about their growth strategies, future expectations and challenges ahead− once again reveal facts that are parallel to this expectation.

According to our survey, over the next 5 years, the percentage of companies primarily focusing on international markets is expected to increase from 30% to 47%. What is significant this year is that the “Central & Eastern Europe and CIS” market has become the most popular international market for 56% of the Turkish technology firms. Last year’s top region “Middle East and Africa” moved to the second place with 50% and North America took the third place with 35%. What is also noteworthy is that last year’s second popular region i.e. Western Europe appears to have lost popularity and took the forth place on the list of the popular international markets. Also for the first time this year, Latin America became a market where Fast 50 companies are doing business in. The CEOs also declare that in the next five years the best global opportunities will be in Central & Eastern Europe and CIS, Middle East and Africa, and North America. The top 3 markets that the respondents would like to invest are UK (30%), UAE (26%) and USA (17%).