Next time you enter a mall wearing an Apple Watch, while passing by the grocery section, you feel a "tap" on your wrist. That's your smartwatch informing you with a message about a discount on fresh strawberries. That's iBeacon technology in a nutshell. These little matchbox-sized devices broadcast low energy radio signals, interact with smart devices in their coverage zone and exchange information with them through a mobile application. That means you need an accompanying app for the messages to be delivered.Blesh Ceo Devrim SönmezThe coverage zone of a beacon device is usually 50 to 70 meters, and their interaction distance can be fine-tuned within this range. So if placed correctly, stores, hospitals, institutes or any other physical structures doing business can not only give their customers/visitors general information about their services, but they also can send individual perks via two-way communication.This is why iBeacon is so disruptive, changing everything we know about retail and marketing in general. Because the interaction is extremely power-efficient (It's based on Bluetooth's new tech called Bluetooth Low Energy – BLE (a.k.a. Bluetooth Smart)), it's always on and doesn't need extra settings in smart devices. That's why it is so popular across the world. Turkish malls, supermarkets, cafes and even banks are using iBeacon in 49 cities across the country as a new way of serving their customers.The research data comes from Blesh, a tech startup in Turkey. Their work on beacon technology even predates the iBeacon. The name is derived from the initials of Bluetooth Low Energy Smart Hub. Three Turkish entrepreneurs, Devrim Sönmez, Uğur Gökdere and Selçuk Kızılkaya, set to work on the possibilities that this new communication technology raises."Soon after, we built a preliminary beacon device that signaled BLE. With Apple's introduction of iBeacon in 2012, the greater tech community acknowledged beacon technology. Hence, the Blesh team took pace. Strengthened by support from its strong angel investor network, Turgut Gursoy, Kemal Ciliz, Ali Sabanci and Emre Berkin, Blesh was officially founded in 2013." According to Gökdere, the CTO of the company, the trio were friends several years before they worked on Blesh.So what is Blesh doing?"Blesh makes it possible for brands to build location and context aware communications via smart devices using smart sensors, also called beacons. For enterprises, with the soaring penetration of mobile devices and smartphones, the most effective way to reach out to their customers is through such connected devices," explains Gökdere.Beacons are a game-changing technology, particularly for mobile marketing. The Blesh beacon platform offers business enterprises the opportunity to reach their customers at the right time in the right place.When an enterprise deploys a beacon device in their venue, they can communicate with their customers or visitors exactly at the time of their visit. Retail stores, airports, bank branches, museums, event arenas, shopping malls, hospitals, all can use this two-way interaction between the venue and visitors through their mobile devices.Currently, more than 10,000 Blesh beacon devices in 49 cities in Turkey have been deployed for more than 250 brands.It all started with one questionDuring one of their gatherings in a restaurant and looking at all the people who were sitting there looking at their smartphones, Gökdere asked, "How many people are here, right now, and what if we wanted to reach them now, right in this place?"A couple of days later they started to come up with answers to that question and worked on a preliminary beacon device that worked with Bluetooth Low Energy technology, which was around 2012. With the advances in the technology, especially with Apple announcing its own iBeacon, the team finalized their product in late 2013 and was ready for their first pitch with Turkey's most influential investors.They did business mostly in Turkey, especially in Istanbul back then. Fast forward a few years, in November 2014, they became an external partner with Google and began their international adventure. With the Internet of Things trend gaining traction, Blesh is a company that exports its services to more than 30 countries and provides Service as a Solution (SaaS) services around the world - from Palo Alto to Shanghai.Their team also got bigger: "We are also growing in size so it is definitely a lot more crowded than it was a couple of months ago. We started with four people in late 2013, and now we are more than 20. There is a lot of excitement for the next round for Blesh in the team as we get to partner with more global clients and deploy more beacons. Ours is a fun office with a young team, and as you can expect there are lot of beacons around that we play with during the day."20K beacons this yearGrowing both in Turkey and globally, Blesh aims to become one of the main actors that lead the micro-location-based marketing landscape as well as working with all the major blue-chip companies in Turkey. Gökdere says this much about their plans: "Our projection is to have approximately 20,000 beacons by the end of 2015. Aside from our two offices in Istanbul and Palo Alto, we are planning to expand our growth globally by reaching more developers around the world and through partnerships, particularly with companies based in the U.S. and Europe."So next time you go to a restaurant in Manhattan, their micro communication devices may have a Turkish signature on them.