MSN Messenger has become an important tool of communication in recent years and Turkey, with its young population, has taken its place among the countries with most users. But it is not only the youth – grandmas and grandpas are ’going online,” too
Turkey ranks third in the world with 25 million MSN Messenger users since even grandmothers have learned to use the Internet to keep in touch with their grandchildren.
According to the president of MSN Europe, Turkey ranked first in video chatting and Windows Live applications, and fifth in hotmail users. ’Turkey is an incredible market for us,” John Mangelaars said.
’The Turks are all over the world. Therefore, they want to be in touch with one another. Besides, the Turks are culturally fond of talking. All these make Turkey an incredible market for us,” said Mangelaars.
The younger take care of complicated bits:
Mangelaars said three years ago the rate of users aged above 50 was almost nil, but now it was over 5 percent, and added, ’the young make use of MSN to communicate now. So, their grandmothers start using Messenger to contact their grandchildren. This is most obvious in picture sharing. The young engage in more complicated applications like updating or sharing pictures, and their grandmothers only click on the links to access the pictures and share memories.”
More female users:
Mangelaars said the rate of computer and Internet prevalence in Turkey was not any lower than in Europe, and added, ’there are 25 million Messenger users in Turkey, with its population of around 75 million. This ratio of one third is similar to other countries. Half the users are below the age of 35, and 65 percent are men. Women users made up around 22 percent some time ago, but their share keeps getting larger.”
20 percent of advertising:
Mangelaars said Microsoft services met consumer needs, and added, ’we aim at expanding our services and finding new partnerships to go on as such. We also intend to offer more services by increasing our share in the advertising market. Some 20 percent of online advertisements in Europe take place on our network. The figure is even higher in Turkey because there are more customers here.”
More products to come:
Emphasizing that the better the services, the more Web sites make use of networks, Mangelaars said, ’as the number of Web sites keeps increasing, so does the number of advertisers. I believe 40 percent of online advertisements will be through our services in the future. We will keep on improving ourselves in this respect. We will promise advertisers better targeting and increase their value.” Mangelaars said that in order to do this, they aimed at increasing both the number of users and the time spent on Microsoft services by offering more social, active and video-content services.
Turks inclined toward innovation:
Mangelaars said Turks wanted to have fun, be included on the Internet via all kinds of connectivity devices, and added, ’Turks predominantly want to access chat, video and picture services and search for information for school on MSN. They are very interested in innovation. Turkey is a very successful market for us.”
Expanding the service for free:
Mangelaars explained why they removed ’hotmail.com.tr” in Turkey, saying, ’we removed the application that provided users with Turkish content and larger storage limits in return for a certain amount of payment, because we started offering all services for free in Turkey. It was nonetheless a pilot application.”
Internet cafés for those without a computer:
Mangelaars said Internet cafés had gained importance in eastern Anatolia, where computer use is less prevalent, and added, ’according to our survey, those without a computer at home make use of internet cafés. And such cafés play a major role in the expansion of the market.”
Turkey: The apple of MSN”s eye:
Of the 300 million MSN users worldwide, 25 million are Turkish.
Turkey ranks third in using MSN Messenger:
Turkey ranks first in the world in using video-chat and Windows Live services.
Turkey ranks fifth in the world with 19 million hotmail user accounts:
Turkey is among the countries with many other ’most”s” in using mobile communication applications even though exact figures have not been released.
National News – Resource: Hürriyet Newspaper
