Digital Engagement: Turkcell Unveils Turkey’s Search Engine Yaani

Turkcell adds Turkey to the list of countries which have their own search engines. Yaani mobile app is now available for smartphone users as a search engine developed specifically for Turkey.

Turkcell continues its journey as an innovative digital operator originating in Turkey that provides global products and services. Turkcell built Turkey's largest data center last year and has taken a significant step towards keeping the data generated by BiP, fizy, lifebox, TV+, Paycell and other services used by millions of users, in Turkey. With Yaani, Turkcell has added Turkey to the list of countries with their own search engines.

Turkcell’s CEO Kaan Terzioglu said that having its own search engine puts Turkey on a privileged list with a few other countries and continued: “The source of power is recently changing. Data is now the most important source of power. If we want to be strong as a country in this new era, we should keep the digital data in our country and process it to develop innovative services. Services we have developed are used by millions, not only in Turkey but also around the world. We now take another step with Yaani and enter the search engine market which is among the industries which generate enormous amounts of data. It is Turkey's search engine, not Turkcell's. It will grow by our support.”

Terzioglu reminded that Turkcell commissioned Turkey's largest data center last year in Gebze and continued: “We cannot stop by just building the database. It is important to develop services working on the database. We will store the data generated by Yaani at Gebze Datacenter. Yaani's design is based on Turkey's patterns of use and it understands Turkish very well. It learns as we search. So, it will give us better search results every time.”

“Our objective is to reach a market share of 25%”

Terzioglu also spoke on their objectives regarding the search engine and said: “Our primary objective regarding Yaani is to reach a market share of 25% in Turkey. After reaching this goal in Turkey, we can repeat the same achievements on a regional scale.”

A search engine with the best understanding of Turkish

The native language of Yaani is Turkish. This means that Yaani is designed to understand the unique syntax of Turkish very well. This will ensure that Yaani will return better results to searches made in Turkish. Yaani uses a blue bead icon, a specific symbol representing Turkey. The search engine learns from the search patterns of the users. Similar searches are easily displayed to the users using historical data.

Everything closest to you is at Yaani

For its initial phase, Yaani has been designed as a mobile app and it sets the bar high in location-based searches. Yaani users can view the closest locations based on their search location. For example, Yaani users can directly access the movie theaters and times while searching for movies. Those looking for dining options can access the closest restaurants and cafes along with contact information through Yaani.

Fully integrated with Turkcell services

Yaani works in integration with Turkcell services to facilitate the lives of its users. Kaan Terzioglu said that TV+, BiP, Lifebox, Fulltrip, Dergilik, Paycell and other services would be integrated with Yaani in a few months. Terzioglu mentioned that the cheapest online shopping options would be available on Yaani shortly and continued: “Yaani will grow with the mobile ecosystem in Turkey. The data resulting from the searches made on the search engine will be stored in the country and processed in accordance with the applicable regulations to help the national economy. This step will lay the foundation of ‘Big Data Platform’. Collected big data will help us create a platform to closely monitor the economic, commercial, health and social trends as well as relevant needs and problems. We are now integrating Turkcell services and developers will soon be able to use their services in integration with Yaani. This will bring new business opportunities.”