The usage of smartphones increased unprecedentedly during the coronavirus pandemic. People have made great progress in their shopping and sales through digital platforms. Meta, the owner of platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp, which have millions of users in Türkiye, is constantly increasing its influence on global and local trade.

Meta Türkiye Country Director Ilke Toptaş stated that just as is the case around the world, people in Türkiye use Meta platforms to create meaningful communities and to be a part of these communities.

Toptaş emphasized that there are businesses that create a community through Meta and then create their own brand or grow their initiative that they started as a hobby through platforms such as Instagram.

"The conditions of the pandemic period also enabled the acceleration of digital transformation in terms of Türkiye’s economy. Some 77% of small businesses in Türkiye in 2021 said that they use Facebook when setting up their businesses, and 1.7 million SMEs, that is, one out of every two SMEs, have an active business account on Meta platforms," he noted.

In addition, he said that since these platforms offer equal tools for everyone, entrepreneurs who have just established their businesses also have access to marketing methods that large companies benefit from.

"About 80% of the people who use Facebook in Türkiye every month are connected to at least one enterprise on Facebook, while more than 210 million people around the world are in touch with a business in Türkiye via Facebook," Toptaş added.

Training to 5,000 women

Toptaş also said the company had implemented more than 15 programs and provided training to over 20,000 people in the first year of its community center called Facebook Station.

"For example, with our She Means Business program, which we have conducted in recent years, we have provided training on the use of digital marketing tools to more than 5,000 women from different regions of Türkiye. In the e-export-oriented program called SMEs Beyond Borders, training is given on how Meta products can be used effectively, as well as the basic information that businesses need to take part in the digital world," he noted.

In this process, he said spreading their training to cities/districts outside of Istanbul had become one of their top priorities.

"Now, taking one step further, we are moving the community centers we have established in Istanbul and Habitat Association to different cities of Türkiye together with the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB)," he added.

New marketing environment

Toptaş said technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which are the building blocks of the metaverse experience, are helping deepen the connections between people.

He said more than a billion people used AR and VR experiences supported by Spark AR and elaborated on the emerging metaverse economy.

"The acceleration in digitalization is enabling the adoption of AR and VR on a large scale, making these technologies more important for brands as well. For instance, in 2020, there was a six-fold increase in the adoption of AR among global enterprises. For example, Ray-Ban Stories, which we released as a Meta, are smart glasses that allow users to take photos and videos, listen to music, and answer phone calls. I think that the content producers economy will be a term that we will hear a lot in the coming period and it will grow exponentially," said Toptaş.

He said more than 50 million people in the world today identify themselves as content producers, citing the Content Producers Economy survey conducted by the Influencer Marketing Factory.

"This year alone, we see that content producer-oriented startups have received more than $2 billion in investments. It represents an economy of about $14 billion in 2021. We know that content producers especially love formats such as video and Reels."

$50M research fund

The gaming sector ranks first with 14% among the metaverse experiences in Türkiye, followed by activities such as land purchase, cryptocurrency, travel and sightseeing, said Toptaş.

"At Meta, we launched the two-year XR Programs and Research Fund by investing $50 million in global programs and external research aimed at building the metaverse responsibly. We have also invested $150 million to help the next generation of content creators adapt to the metaverse, fund high-quality immersive experiences that take the way we learn to another dimension, and increase access to education through technology," he noted.