Getir: revenue travelled. The economics stayed in Turkey.
The Turkish quick-commerce company entered eight countries in about a year on venture funding. By April 2024 its four remaining foreign markets made up 7% of revenue, and it closed them all.
Proven success
Founded in Istanbul in 2015. By mid-2021 it delivered about 1,500 items in around ten minutes across 30 Turkish cities. Home-market profitability was never disclosed.
Winning system
A dense network of small warehouses, its own couriers and a short delivery promise. Two things outside the company also mattered: pandemic demand for home delivery and abundant growth capital.
The growth move
The format stayed the same while the cost base and the competition changed. The UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the United States followed within about 11 months. In December 2022 it bought a rival, Gorillas, for $1.2bn.
The new competitive system
Rivals in each market were funded on similar terms. Courier labour and rents cost far more than in Turkey. After lockdowns shoppers returned to stores, and order density per warehouse decided the economics.
Portability and capability gap
The app and the launch playbook travelled. Labour model, sites and order density had to be rebuilt in each city. Every rival copied the ten-minute promise, so it stopped being decisive.
Economics and the clock
The UK business lost £168m in 2022 on turnover of £80m. The company cut 14% of its staff in May 2022, two months after its highest valuation. Exits began in 2023 and all foreign operations ended in May 2024, 39 months after the first launch.
Test
One foreign city with a proven contribution per order would have shown whether the home cost structure carried over, before eight countries were opened.
The question that would have settled it earlier
Does a mature warehouse in London or Amsterdam earn a positive contribution per order without discounts?
Metric: contribution per order after courier, rent, discount and marketing cost, by warehouse cohort.
Its pair
Wolt. The same broad category in the same years, with the opposite outcome. Wolt's model was built under high labour costs from the start.
The pattern it illustrates
Revenue portability is not economic portability.
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