Turkish

Uber’s planned ~$700M purchase of an 85% stake in Trendyol GO captures coverage shifting toward Turkish tech deals even as platform restrictions persist.

Who they are

Coverage uses “Turkish” chiefly as a descriptor for Turkey’s technology market: local startups, gaming and commerce companies, crypto platforms, and the country’s relationship with global internet services. Stories connect it to businesses including Trendyol GO, Hepsiburada, Fal.ai, Good Job Games and Thodex, as well as to policy actions affecting X, Instagram, Roblox, Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook.

The recent arc

The latest coverage has broadened from platform controls into investment and consolidation. In 2024, reporting focused on Turkey blocking Instagram and then Roblox, while December brought Agave Games’ Series A. In 2025, Fal.ai raised a Series B, Uber agreed to acquire an 85% stake in food-delivery platform Trendyol GO, and Good Job Games raised a $60M Series A; Kaspi.kz’s proposed acquisition of a majority stake in Hepsiburada also underscored cross-border interest in Turkish digital commerce.

The period also keeps the political and enforcement dimension in view. X suspended opposition-linked accounts amid protests in March 2025, following the 2024 Instagram and Roblox restrictions. The November 2025 report that former Thodex CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer was found dead in prison returned attention to the exchange’s collapse, one of the most consequential earlier Turkish crypto stories.

The tension

The central tension is between a market producing fundable startups, game makers and acquisition targets and a state willing to intervene directly in online distribution and speech. Global platforms including Instagram, X, Roblox, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia appear in coverage as targets of restrictions or account actions, while Uber and Kaspi.kz appear as buyers and investors seeking exposure to local consumer-internet businesses.

Why it matters

If dealmaking and startup funding continue alongside episodic platform restrictions, Turkey may become an increasingly important but operationally complex regional technology market. The coverage suggests that investors and operators must weigh the appeal of local commerce, gaming and AI businesses against policy risk that can quickly affect major platforms, public discourse and service availability; whether those forces can coexist without constraining growth remains uncertain.

Related: Turkey · Istanbul · Twitter · Wikipedia · YouTube · Getir