E-Sports: A Must for Electronics Retailers!
By Emre Bilginoglu, Attorney-at-Law, Istanbul, Turkey Enthusiasm for e-sports has demonstrated itself quite palpably in the last few years in financial markets, benefiting all actors in the game, including electronics retailers. The same goes for developing markets. For example, Turkey ranked 18th in the world in 2018 in terms of gaming revenues with a solid US$ 850 million. More importantly, there are 30 million gamers active each month, more than a third of the population! Just a few numbers to summarise the current situation. Compared with a year before, notebook computers shrank by 2%, while gaming notebook computers grew by a stunning 90%. Monitors have stagnated, while gaming monitors have doubled their revenues. Gaming products have reached a hefty 18% of the whole of IT. Meanwhile, Teknosa, the Turkish technology retailer giant, has raised awareness of e-sports with a promotional campaign, named “Play Big”. The campaign aimed at drawing attention to gamer scholarships and to the fact that one can become a pro-athlete through e-sports. Moreover, the company has also realised its interest in e-sports by providing online and offline education to its employees on the subject. Consequently, Preo, Teknosa, its private label gaming mouse, has become the best seller in its category. Steve Ballmer, who was the CEO of Microsoft for 14 years, stated in an interview that the only way to be present in the living room was video gaming, thus building hardware. Microsoft moved into gaming with X-Box, which was a major success. Nowadays, smartphones and tablets are also the means to exist in the living room, but gaming products continue to enhance their significance. Teknosa has made an astute move by raising awareness of e-sports and appealing to gamers, hence setting an example for all competitors! Emre Bilginoglu, who is also admitted to practise Law in the State of New York, USA, may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
