DİLŞAH KEFLİOĞLU A special day has been assigned to celebrate coffee, a product with a history of nearly a thousand and three hundred years. October 1 International Coffee Day is an occasion to celebrate and promote coffee. In line with the International Coffee Organization’s (ICO) decree adopted in March 2014, International Coffee Day is defined as a celebration of coffee industry’s diversity, quality and passion for coffee. This occasion is an opportunity for coffee-lovers to share their passion for this drink and support millions of farmers that depend on the aromatic products to make their living. Millions of coffee workers involved in coffee production can get a 10 percent cut from the global value chain of the product. FIVE GLOBAL STAGES In our times, coffee is defined as the most consumed drink after water. Five countries and stages stand out in building the culture and extending the product across the globe: TURKISH STYLE OF COOKING COFFEE BECOMING POPULAR A global drink coffee is served with different preparation methods that vary in countries and regions. First and foremost is the Turkish coffee method. What makes the Turkish style distinctive is that it is based on cooking rather than brewing. Thanks to the Turkish coffee machines developed in recent years Turkish coffee style is becoming more global. 1. Discovered in Ethiopia Coffee is known to be discovered in Ethiopia (former Abyssinia) around 700-800 A.D. It is reported that coffee was named after Kaffa – a province in Ethiopia and moved onto the Arabic peninsula with the name Qahwah. The widely recognized story about coffee’s discovery is goatherd Kaldi’s story. Rumor has it that, Kaldi notices that some of the goats that stayed awake at night ate the tree’s red berries. He picks some and takes them home. The berries billow an enticing aroma when cooked and thus begin coffee’s global adventure. 2. Consumed as a drink in Yemen first Coffee discovered in Ethiopia was initially used as an ingredient in baking bread. Its present style of consumption took place for the first time in Yemen. Though there are many different stories, according to widely recognized one, this product’s journey as a drink starts with the Sufis. The dervishes of the Shazeli order consumed the drink for staying awake and praying during nighttime. As a reference to this story, the following saying is placed at the entry of the coffee shops in the Ottoman Empire: We recite Basmalah as we open our doors and his Holiness Sheikh Shazeli is our master! 3.Introduced to the world from Istanbul No doubt, Turks were the ones to globalize coffee, which was a local product and consumable. During the campaign in 1516-1517, Ottomans conquered Ethiopia, where the coffee was discovered and Yemen, where it was first consumed as a drink. In this way, coffee reaches to the capital of the Empire, Istanbul. A coffee shop craze surrounds Istanbul - thecity that dominated three continents and thus, coffee’s journey around the world moves onto a brand new stage. 4. Innovation of the Italians Coffee was introduced to the world by the Turks with the ‘Turkish Coffee’ cooking style. However, its current popular consumption method’s innovation belongs to the Italians. Italian’s innovation is based on the Espresso brewing method. Espresso is a coffee preparation method, just like the ‘Turkish Coffee’ method. The developments in Espresso machines and brewing techniques have been centered in Italy since 1884. 5. USA carries out the global trade The leading player of the global coffee trade is undoubtedly the US based retail coffee chain. This chain has 523 coffee shops in Turkey, which introduced the coffee to the world. According to this brand’s distribution map circulated in the digital environment, Turkey is the second country with the highest number of this brand’s shops, following the United Kingdom. Whereas in Italy, one can spot only nine coffee shops of the brand. Coffee is reported to be the second most traded commodity, following the oil.

25 Mart 2021 Perşembe

HAMİT KARDAŞ The Institute of Communication Sciences and Internet established within Istanbul Commerce University, is a revolutionary institute in Turkey regarding its content and scope. This institute aims to contribute to the development and globalization processes of research and studies in communication sciences and the internet. The swift and extensive developments in communication and media technologies required the communication sciences’ inclination towards new areas of research and education. Thus, the institute established in 2019 launched its activities this year. The institute intends to include the scientific data generated on communication processes and communication and media technologies in post-graduate programs, enhancing students’ know-how while extending their perspectives. Institute of Communication Sciences and Internet Institute will also function as a catalyst in developing research in communication sciencesand internet and have a say in the international arena. GLOBAL PROJECTS The institute offers post-graduate programs in ‘corporate communication’, ‘media and communication studies’ and ‘cinema’ and PhD programs of ‘public relations and advertising’ and ‘media and communication studies.’ Students previously studying at the programs as mentioned above at the Institute of Social Sciences continue their education at the Institute of Communication Sciences and Internet. In addition to the post-graduate programs it offers, the institute will participate in international projects and develop new research projects by cooperating with the prominent academies abroad. AIMING FOR AN INTERNET INDUSTRY Director of the Institute of Communication Sciences and Internet, Prof. Dr. Füsun Alver stated that they have been intending to establish such an institute since the 2000s to build an Istanbul school in communication sciences. Alver mentioned the power of communication and media technologies changing the communicative and social practices distinctively and having a tendency to transform the culture, economy, politics and the society as a whole. Alver continued, “An industry based on internet does not exist in Turkey yet. So, we decided to establish this institute to fill this gap. This institute is founded to establish the theoretical connection to link communication sciences with the internet, to improve the research methods in this area and to design education plans in post-graduate and PhD programs.” 150 STUDENTS Mentioning their perspective that combines the communication sciences with internet research, Prof. Dr. Alver added: “The establishment of our institute was approved by the Council of Higher Education and the Presidency in 2019. We officially launched our activities in October 2020. Formerly, the Istanbul Commerce University’s post-graduate programs used to be introduced by the Institute of Social Sciences. Those programs were transferred to our institute last October. We have a total of 150 students and three master’s degree programs with or without thesis and 2 PhD programs in our institute.” COOPERATION WITH THE UNIVERSITIES ABROAD Regarding the research areas of the institute, Prof. Dr. Alver commented: “Particularly through corporate and journalistic perspectives, we will be examining the international and comparative communication, corporate and public communication management, internet researches, communication in digital social networks, digital and social media studies, researching the effects of digitalization over journalism practices, employment of artificial intelligence in journalism or in broad terms we will be studying the digital communication networks. And our focus will be the internet.” Prof. Dr. Alver also expressed their wish to enhance their perspective in the global communication sciences and internet areas by cooperating with the universities abroad. ALGORITHM BASED ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Emphasizing the interdisciplinary orientation of the institute, Prof. Dr. Alver noted that they wished to include graduates of social sciences, cultural sciences and engineering faculties in addition to communication science scholars and continued: “Internet may require engineering know-how. We aim to work on artificial intelligence algorithms. The internet economy is also quite substantive and there are graduates of economic and administrative sciences faculties interested in this area. Of course, our priority is the communication science students, but our doors are wide open to the graduates of other science branches. We are the first institute in Turkey to include internet in its programs and its title. Our objective is to conduct post-graduate programs based on research. We intend to work on the planning of post-graduate education processes while directing our students towards research.”

25 Mart 2021 Perşembe

BTM is founded by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ICOC) as a social institution to spread entrepreneurship culture and provides a professional and multifunctional service to startups and entrepreneurs in commercialization processes. For BTM, investors are as important as entrepreneurs because the entrepreneurship ecosystem’s harmony is the most criticalfactor for development. ONE THOUSAND INVESTORS That’s why BTM launched the Startup Investor Club Program in the middle of 2020 to transform investors who work in the traditional type of economy into startup investors. In this context, BTM, which set out with the goal of one thousand investors and ten thousand entrepreneurs by the end of 2022, started to work for the Investor Club Program’s businesspersons to become startup investors and mentors. The first participants of the program, where training, interviews and workshops were held on startup methodology, venture capital and angel investment processes, graduated. THEY STARTED INVESTING It is stated that some of the graduates have established their angel investor ecosystem and started investing in startups called the economy of the future. BTM decided to start this program for they understood that it is challenging to attract business people such as traders and SMEs, who have gained their revenue and profit from the traditional type of economy, to invest in future and startups. They preferred to stay away from innovative works developed in the virtual environment especially. Business people mostly, kneaded with the traditional economy, have chosen to invest such less risky ones as gold, foreign currency, real estate for so many. Since it is seen that this situation led to a lack of attention to startups, BTM concluded that their investors and business people should also be educated and improved about the next generation type economy to empower the future and smart investment. The Investor Club Program was established entirely for this purpose. SIXTY CANDIDATES GRADUATED Within BTM Investor Club Program’s scope, investor candidates take some courses and training like; ‘Startup Investments Trainings,’ ‘Focus Group Talks,’ ‘Investor-Investor Matchmakings,’ ‘Workshop Studies’ and ‘Study Visits’ for eight weeks. Sixty successful candidates who attended the Investor Club have graduated from the program so far. BTM FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS The ‘Rising Brands’ project was launched with the cooperation of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ICOC), The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), Istanbul Women Entrepreneurs Board and Commercialization Center of Istanbul (BTM). ACCEPTED 416 WOMEN Four hundred sixteen women entrepreneurs who started to sell by producing their products and services were accepted to the project, to which hundreds of women entrepreneurs applied already. These women entrepreneurs operate their businesses mainly in fashion, textile, design, cosmetics, care products and food products. As part of the project, participants are taken some training by business people who are famous experts in their fields. In addition to that, various mentoring services are provided to the participants by BTM. TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE The trainers and teachers participating in the program continue to transfer their knowledge, know-how and experience in to the participants through such activities as educational courses, training, workshops and mentorship sessions throughout the project. This project aims to increase the rate of women entrepreneurs (%16) in the Turkey entrepreneurship ecosystem. Commercialization Center of Istanbul focuses on women entrepreneurs to support the ecosystem’s development curve positively, both in quantitative and qualitative terms.

25 Mart 2021 Perşembe

To date, over US$28 billion has been spent on the GAP. Yet, the project has already amortized itself even through the power generation worth at US$28.4 billion. Thanks to the added value achieved in agriculture, industry and tourism, the project has been proceeding towards becoming a model. ŞEREF KILIÇLI Started its journey in 1977 as an investment program in irrigation and hydro-electric power generation at Euphrates-Tigris Basin, with the master plan designed in 1989 the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) turned into a regional development project which includes investments in agriculture, industry, transport, education, healthcare, rural and urban infrastructure. Covering nine cities consisting of Adıyaman, Batman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Kilis, Mardin, Siirt, Şanlıurfa and Şırnak, GAP represents nearly 10 percent of Turkey’s surface area and population. THE MOST EXTENSIVE PROJECT As the most extensive and costly project in the history of the Republic of Turkey, GAP is being implemented as an integrated regional development project based on multi-sectorial and sustainable human development that aims to increase the region’s competitive power while strengthening economic and social integration. Within the project; elevating the economic and social indicators of the region to country’s average and increasing the living standards and welfare of the region’s inhabitants are intended through investments in agriculture, industry, energy, transport, education, and healthcare, rural and urban infrastructure. ENERGY AND IRRIGATION TARGETS Initially, the construction of 22 dams, 19 hydro-electric power plants and irrigation networks were planned as part of GAP. An area of 1.8 million hectares was projected to become eligible for irrigation upon the completion of the project. A large part of the country’s energy demands were to be fulfilled through a yearly hydro-electric power generation of 27 billion kilowatt-hours.. INVESTMENT SHARE EXCEEDING 14 PERCENT Completing the project rapidly, the region’s investments started to be increased regularly as of 2003. The share of GAP Region investments in the country’s assets decreased to 5 percent in 2001. In 2003-2019 periods, this share exceeded 14 percent. During this period, nearly TRY137.4 billion of resources at current prices were allocated to the investments as part of GAP, and almost 90 percent of these resources turned into investments worth TRY122.9 billion. In 2020, the funds allocated to the GAP Region from the Public Investment Program reached TRY4.7 billion. 90 PERCENT OF THE ENERGY PROJECTS COMPLETED A total of 215 thousand hectares of land was opened to irrigation in the GAP Region until the end of 2002. This figure increased to 572 thousand hectares by the end of 2019. The energy projects’ actualization rate exceeded 90 percent with the Ilısu Dam and HPP Project launched in 2020. As the hydro-electric power plants completed as part of the project started operating, the monetary value of the electric energy they generated until the end of 2019 reached US$28.4 billion. This achievement stated that the GAP amortized itself. As part of the land consolidation and on-farm development projects in the region, the consolidation activities in 2.5 million hectares were accomplished. Investments were completed in industry, transport, culture, tourism and other infrastructural areas for contributing to the economy of the region and country through rapidly benefiting from the potential to be revealed with the irrigation of agricultural lands and strengthening of agricultural infrastructure in the region regarded as the ‘Fertile Crescent.’ SIX CITIES PRIORITIZED In line with the new incentive law, Batman, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Siirt, Şanlıurfa and Şırnak of GAP Region remained in the 6th Region receiving the highest amount of support. Adıyaman and Kilis were assigned to the 5th Region, while Gaziantep was assigned to benefit from the 3rd Region funds. In 2002, 155 incentive certificates were granted in the GAP Region and an employment of 8 thousand and 753 people with a fixed investment of TRY872 million was foreseen. In 2019, 757 investment incentive certificates were drawn for the cities in the region and the projected fixed investment amount reached TRY9.7 billion and employment went up to 51 thousand and 182 people. In January 2003-September 2020 term, 8 thousand and 234 incentive certificates were granted in these cities. As part of these incentive certificates, an investment of TRY78.2 billion and an additional employment of nearly 381 thousand people were projected. THE NUMBER OF OIS REACHING 18 Southeastern Development Project Regional Development Administration under the Ministry of Industry and Technology assumed a strategic role in developing the region with the projects on agriculture, industry, energy, environment, culture and tourism and social life it implemented in 2002-2019. In this period, the number of organized industrial sites (OIS) in the region reached 18 and the number of small industrial sites went to 38. In 2002, exports, amounting to US$584 million that equals 1.6 percent of Turkey’s total exports were conducted from the region. Though, in 2019 the region’s exports increased by 15 times and reached US$9.2 billion. This amount corresponds with 5.3 percent of Turkey’s total exports. INVESTMENTS IN EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE AND SOCIAL AREAS The investments in the region in social, educational and healthcare areas continued. 35 thousand and 642 classrooms were built in 2008-2019. The number of universities in the region was merely three in 2002, it increased to 12 by the end of 2019. Regarding healthcare, in 2018 the number of hospitals reached 130 from 62 hospitals in 2002 and number of beds rose to 20 thousand and541, from the 8 thousand and 223 beds in 2002. The construction of sports halls and swimming pools to support the social development of the region continued. Within this scope, a sports hall with a viewer capacity of 28 thousand and 550 people, 10 football fields and 7 indoor swimming pools were launched to service in 2008 – 2019. 71 social institutions such as nursing homes and social protection centers, social services, barrier-free living and youth centers started to deliver services in the same period. PROGRESS IN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE AND TOURISM Critical developments in transport infrastructure that enable access to other regions, cities, ports and neighboring countries have also been achieved. The number of domestic and foreign tourists visiting facilities certified by municipalities remained at 380 thousand in 2002; in 2018 this figure reached 866 thousand. The number of overnights of domestic and foreign tourists increased to nearly 1 million 438 thousand from 586 thousand in the same period. Compared to 2002, the number of tourists accommodating at facilities with tourism certificates increased by 3.5 times in 2018 and rose to approximately 1.9 million while the number of overnights nearly quadrupled and went to 2.8 million.

25 Mart 2021 Perşembe

With its 54 million active social media users, Turkey bears a critical potential for s-commerce. The 44 percent utilization rate of social media for business purposes in Turkey renders s-commerce effective in its e-commerce. ŞEREF KILIÇLI As social media becomes more influential, s-commerce (social commerce) is becoming a more significant channel within the e-commerce. S-commerce’s impacts are more potent now that the global brands publish advertisements on social media and form sales channels. S-commerce, regarded as a subset of e-commerce, covers the employment of social media platforms for e-commerce. WILL EXCEED %3 OF E-COMMERCE Therefore, researches are being carried out to identify the size s-commerce will reach. Technavio Global Social Commerce Market Report is one of the outputs of such studies and according to this report; s-commerce will achieve a volume of US$166 in 2021. Global e-commerce retail sales are projected to reach US$4.92 trillion in the same year. In other words, 3.4 percent of the e-commerce will be realized through s-commerce in 2021. THE SOCIAL MEDIA REALITY The main reason behind the occurrence and development of the s-commerce concept is without doubt, the social media’s becoming a part of the daily life. We Are Social and Hootsuite’s joint report, ‘Digital 2020’, revealed that 3.8 billion people worldwide are using social media platforms. According to the global averages, every person spends an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes per day on social media. This duration displays that more than one-third of the total amount of time spent in the internet is spent on social media platforms. TURKEY IS ABOVE AVERAGE In terms of social media, the source of s-commerce, Turkey is a country with intense utilization since there are 54 million active social media users. This figure implies that social media is used by nearly 64 percent of the total population. The daily time of social media usage in Turkey is 2 hours and 21 minutes on average. This duration renders the 15th in the world. Considering the total number of active users based on the population, social media penetration is 64 percent.Taken together with this rate, Turkey remains at the 28th rank in the globe. 44 PERCENT FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES The global social media penetration is at 49 percent. The social media accounts per person are an average of 8.6 in the world; in Turkey, the rate is at 9.1. The rate of social media utilization for business is reported to be at 44 percent in Turkey. ONLINE REPUTATION PLATFORM In addition to being a powerful advertisement platform for the brands, social media is also an ever-developing platform fors-commerce purposes. Under KPMG’s ‘Is the era of s-commerce near’ report, brands used to benefit from the social networks rather than create awareness. Yet, nowadays the social media platforms started to be used for performance marketing. Additionally, as they become accessible for the consumers, social networks are being used as online reputation platforms since many consumers benefit from thesocial media for product recommendations or reviews. THE SHOP WINDOW OF THE FUTURE KPMG’s report states that seeing positive reviews on a product or a service on social media encourages 61 percent of the consumers to buy. According to Gartner’s research, 74 percent of the consumers state that they depend on social networks when deciding to purchase. On that note, the social platforms are expected to turn into the shop windows of the future. AN ADVERTISING MARKET OF US$100 BN Companies’ interest in social media platforms can be identified with their advertising investments in these areas. The research conducted by Statistica revealed that the advertising expenditure in the social media segment in the globe reached US$92.85 billion in 2019. The 2020 projection for this figure is US$98.64 billion. The report on ‘Media and Advertising Investments Forecast in Turkey by the end of 2019’ by Deloitte hints about Turkey’s situation. According to the report, the digital media investments’ size reached TRY2 billion 940 million in 2019. Meanwhile, in 2019 the social media investments increased by 46.7 percent compared to the previous year and achieved TRY603 million. Moreover,20.5 percent of the digital media investments are comprised of social media investments. Global digital media investments, on the other hand, have already reached half of total media investments. E-COMMERCE BENEFITS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA’S INFLUENCE Doç. Dr. Adnan Ertemel, Istanbul Commerce University academician, underlined the upward trend of s-commerce and commented on the issue: “Lately, we have been witnessing the undeniable rise of the influencers and their impact on the decision-making process in purchasing. Therefore, a severe increase has been achieved in social commerce, which gained momentum thanks to platforms such as Instagram. Compared to 2019, the volume of social commerce is projected to increase by 20 percent and reachUS$23.3 billion only in the USA, despite the pandemic. This year, the rate of increase is expected to be 34 percent. Online shopping became inevitable for consumers of all age groups during the pandemic, resulting in an increase by 119 percent compared to last year in the consumers’ rate using e-commerce for the first time. Qualified as the social version of the e-commerce, social commerce enablese-commerce’s execution by benefiting from social media. Consumers trust the recommendations of people like themselves instead of trusting the brands and this fact indicates the importance of social media (on a global scale, 14 percent of the consumers trust the brands while 79 percent trust other buyers’ recommendations). The researches reveal that over 30 percent of the consumers are open to shopping over social media platforms. This rate reaches the level of 50 percent for the millennials. Grasping the importance of the battle of social media platforms that peaked with the TikTok between the USA and China is possible from this point of view.”

25 Mart 2021 Perşembe