Yemeksepeti, Turkey’s Most Popular* and Most Technological** Online Food Ordering Brand, shared its quarter-century order data with the public at the press conference held in Ortaköy Feriye on its 25th anniversary. Data on Turkey’s changing consumption habits were announced at the meeting, which discussed the current point of the operation, which started with dial-up modems and fax devices in 2001.

Yemeksepeti, which started out with a handful of restaurants in a single city in January 2001, is today at the center of a wide ecosystem with more than 135 thousand business partners in all 81 provinces. Over the past 25 years, the platform has served 37.6 million users and created a large digital archive.

From fax devices to artificial intelligence

Yemeksepeti’s story began with an infrastructure where orders were delivered to restaurants by fax, at a time when the internet was not yet widespread in Turkey. While 64% of orders came via the web in 2014, today 9 out of every 10 orders are placed via mobile application.  

The platform began to pioneer the “fast commerce” category in Turkey with the expansions of Yemeksepeti Market in 2019 and Yemeksepeti Mahalle in 2021. Today, even a single grocery store in a district of Ardahan is integrated into the digital world with Yemeksepeti infrastructure.

Prominent choices and records in 25 years

The data shared at the press conference also revealed Turkey’s palate preferences and unusual user habits in the last 25 years. Lahmacun, which was at the top of the list with a total of 141 million units in a quarter of a century, was followed by ayran with 69 million units and cola with 51 million units. The largest order in the platform’s history was a huge basket with a total of 400 products, including 200 lahmacun and 100 soups.

Loyalty and discovery also came to the fore in user habits; While one user broke the record for the longest series by ordering every day without a break for 703 days, another taste enthusiast experienced 418 different restaurants in just one year. On the fast trade side, tonnages reached remarkable levels; To date, 1,361 tons of bananas and 1,285 tons of cucumbers have been delivered to tables through Yemeksepeti Market and Mahalle, while 2.7 million bagels were ordered in the morning and 642 thousand liters of cola were ordered after midnight.

Flavor signatures of cities

Yemeksepeti data shows that there are significant city differences in ordering preferences. Boyoz in Izmir, meat bread in Konya, and chicken doner wrap in Gaziantep ranked first in their categories. The 25-year archive reveals that local cuisine preferences continue strongly in digital ordering channels.

Most popular order notes

Order notes left by users at restaurants have formed repeating patterns over 25 years. The sentences “no pickles”, “let it be hot” and “please have plenty of sauce” were among the most repeated order notes in the history of the platform and became a cult over time. These notes provide a concrete data set on what users prioritize when ordering. In addition, users strengthened this digital bond by thanking the couriers for their efforts 17.3 million times through the online tipping system.

legendary restaurants

In Yemeksepeti’s 25-year history, business partners who joined the system early and remain active until today stand out. There are 24 “legendary restaurants” that were included in the system between 2001 and 2005 and are still active today. 17 of these restaurants are in Istanbul and 4 in Sivas. Sivas is the city represented by the most restaurants on the list, other than Istanbul. The number of users who registered to the system in the first five years and still actively use the platform today stood out as 21,723.

Yemeksepeti CEO Oytun Çalapöver: “Our focus is on artificial intelligence investments”

Yemeksepeti CEO Oytun Çalapöver, in his speech at the meeting, shared the brand’s 25 years of experience and future plans with the following words:

“Yemeksepeti started out in a small apartment with a small team 25 years ago. Our goal at that time was to create the food ordering category within the newly shaped online commerce in Turkey. Considering the point we have reached today, we see that over 1.7 billion order data is valuable not only for us but also for understanding Turkey’s consumption habits. Working with 135 thousand business partners in all 81 provinces, from a grocery store in Ardahan to a large restaurant chain in Istanbul, It really means a wide ecosystem.  

Our focus in the coming period will be on artificial investments intelligence that will make the lives of our users and business partners easier. We are working on voice command, visual search and personalized recommendation systems. Our goal is to be a platform that can quickly offer the right solution when the user needs it. “We want Yemeksepeti to remain at the center of Türkiye’s daily ordering habits in the coming years.”