New opportunities in international trade!...

The demands of today's technology era are presenting important opportunities for the developing countries.

If you can remember; the market structure after World War II provided many obstacles in the international trade to be lifted and brought various advantages to some countries.

In that process, the countries with strong industrial structures and high political activity throughout the world, were reinforcing their position in the global market even more.

In such a structure, which was solidified in years from the point of developed countries, there were no open doors for the developing countries.

In the 90s, this had changed.

The far spreading internet was presenting opportunities for the developing countries to increase their shares in the global market and opening the locked doors. By adding the low labor cost on top of the advantage of reaching the global market easier, the countries were on the rise towards the end of the 90s.

After the last 20 – 25 years, we can see that the international trade has been changing its format.

In 2014, the financial magnitude of the e-trade activities reached 1.5 trillion dollars.

55% of the transactions were carried out by China and US.

When we leave the U.S. aside, we can say that China used the internet's advantage of accessing the global market to a considerable degree.

When we say China, the first thing that comes to mind is the e-trade giant, Alibaba. As you already know, the first objective of Alibaba, which had been established with a 60.000 dollar capital in 1998, was to provide e-trade services between the companies. While connecting Chinese producers with the other suppliers around the world, the company was also acting as the middle man between them and making the whole process easier for both sides.

The company started its activities in December 1998. In 1999 and 2000, the company successfully gathered a 25-million-dollar fund from various financial institutions and managed to move into profit only 3 years after its foundation. As the profitability levels increased and the company gradually flourished, Alibaba diversified its services in the following years.

Alibaba, the symbol of China's economic rise, is challenging many international companies with their 8-billion-dollar turnover at the end of 2013 and 1.4-billion-dollar net profitability levels.

Seeing that this success had been acquired within 15 years, it shows us that if the technology is used correctly, there are no boundaries for gains.

Then, how much did we, as a country, benefit from the e-trade?

Unfortunately, our entrepreneurs avoided taking risks and in a sense they refused the opportunity of being the symbol of Turkey's economical rise.

However, we should also look at the positive developments.

Especially in the recent period, it's possible to say that the e-trade investments in our country are rapidly increasing. After all, as new players entered the game, the rivalry increased in the e-trade field and we can see that there are not just corporate establishments, but also individual sellers active in that field. This situation means that the Turkey-based goods have a serious potential in accessing the global market.

As a result; even though we couldn't fully benefit from the easy access to the global market over the internet, which became widespread in the 90s, we can see that with the initiatives in the recent period we might regain the time lost swiftly. Thus, it's necessary to state that the e-trade, which will continue expanding in the forthcoming process, will provide serious gains for our country.