eBay announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire additional shares in GittiGidiyor, the leading online marketplace in Turkey. eBay originally acquired a minority stake in the company in 2007. Upon closing of the transaction, eBay will own approximately 93% of the outstanding shares of GittiGidiyor.

The company’s business model is complementary to eBay’s with the addition of a mandatory escrow service for payments between buyer and seller. Interesting to note that according to the press release, all of GittiGidiyor’s transactions come from fixed price listings with the largest categories being Fashion and Consumer Electronics.

GittiGidiyor, which was founded by Serkan Borançılı, Burak Divanlıoğlu and Tolga Kabataş, and launched in February, 2001 is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey. The company employs over 150 people and has more than 6.4 million registered users.

Turkey is the world’s 12th largest market for Internet usage, with a penetration rate of 45% according to Internet World Stats.

Here is the full press release.

Giddyup!
RBH