What Ekşi Sözlük does

Ekşi Sözlük is a privately held, community-driven collaborative dictionary and discussion platform founded in 1999 and operated by a small team (1–10 employees) headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey. Users create and curate entries ("entry'ler") on diverse topics, organized into themed channels spanning news, politics, sports, relationships, science, technology, and entertainment. The platform operates a freemium business model: free access is supported by advertising, while a premium ad-free subscription is offered through mobile applications on iOS and Android. Supporting sub-brands include Pena (a YouTube video channel) and Ekşişeyler (a related content website), which extend the Ekşi ecosystem into video and curated multimedia formats.

The platform's core technology is a web-based collaborative content system with user-generated entries, a voting and comment system, and channel-based topic organization. Trending topics ("gündem") and the previous day's most-liked entries ("debe") drive discovery and engagement. The company maintains a distributed presence across X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky, using organic social media as its primary top-of-funnel marketing channel. Distribution is self-serve/PLG: users access the platform via eksisozluk.com or the mobile app without any sales-led or enterprise go-to-market motion.

Revenue mechanics are entirely consumer-facing and distributed across a large base of Turkish-speaking users, with no enterprise customers, B2B contracts, or institutional revenue streams. The company has no disclosed funding history, no institutional investors, no parent company, and no recorded M&A or restructuring activity. Operating scope is limited to Turkey, with no claimed global footprint. CEO and founder Sedat Kapanoğlu leads the company.

Name

Ekşi Sözlük

Legal name

Ekşi Sözlük

Website

https://eksisozluk.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Ekşi Sözlük is a Turkish collaborative dictionary and forum platform, founded in 1999, where users create and vote on entries across diverse topics. It serves Turkish-speaking internet users via a freemium ad-supported model with a mobile subscription tier.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Community Platform

NAICS

Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (519290)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Social Q&A & Knowledge Communities (BPAMABAI)

Keywords

• Collaborative dictionary
• User-generated content
• Online community forum
• Social discussion platform
• Crowdsourced knowledge

Headquarters

HQ city

Istanbul

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Personnel

Revenue model

1. Advertising: The platform displays advertisements to free users. Premium ad-free membership is available through mobile app subscription.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Ekşi Sözlük is a Turkish-language online collaborative dictionary and discussion forum where registered users author, edit, and comment on entries across a wide range of topics. Entries are organized into topical channels, with content surfaced and ranked by user votes and engagement. The platform operates as a long-standing social knowledge destination for Turkish-speaking internet users.

Product overview

Ekşi Sözlük operates a single unified platform as an online collaborative dictionary (sözlük) where users contribute entries on diverse topics. The core product includes the main website with channel-based topic organization, trending topics (gündem), and popular entries from the previous day (debe). Supporting offerings include the Pena YouTube channel and Ekşişeyler website as branded sub-products. A mobile application provides ad-free subscription access for users.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Pena: Ekşi Sözlük's YouTube video channel featuring content from platform contributors
• Ekşi Şeyler

Products and services

• Ekşi Sözlük Web Platform
• Ekşi Sözlük Mobile Application
• Pena
• Eksişeyler

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Quora: A global Q&A and knowledge-sharing community where users post questions and answers. Ekşi Sözlük's dictionary/forum format — where users write entries on topics and discuss — directly parallels Quora's question-and-answer community model.
• Reddit: The closest global analog: a community-driven platform with topic-based channels (subreddits), user voting, and threaded discussions. Ekşi Sözlük functions as Reddit's Turkish equivalent, with the same core mechanics of user-generated entries and community curation.
• Stack Exchange: A network of Q&A communities with topic-based channels, voting, and user reputation systems. While more topic-specialized, the underlying community Q&A mechanics are highly comparable to Ekşi Sözlük.
• Uludağ Sözlük: Another Turkish collaborative dictionary/community platform in the same sözlük format, directly competing with Ekşi Sözlük for Turkish-speaking contributors and readers.
• KizlarSoruyor: A major Turkish Q&A and discussion community targeting younger female users. Operates with a similar user-generated question/answer and discussion format, making it a direct domestic peer for Turkish-language community engagement.

Broad incumbents

• Discord: A global community platform organized around interest-based servers with real-time chat and community engagement. Represents a broader incumbent in the online community space that Turkish users increasingly turn to for niche discussions.
• Medium: A larger publishing/community platform with user-generated content, voting, and topical organization. While more focused on long-form articles, it competes for Turkish-speaking writers and readers as an alternative UGC destination.
• Tumblr: A long-running user-generated content platform with community features, topical organization, and ad-supported monetization. Comparable as a legacy UGC platform navigating generational shifts and ad-market pressures.

Regional players

• Donanım Haber: Turkey's largest technology-focused forum/community, with user-generated threads, voting, and discussions. While vertical-focused on tech, it shares Ekşi Sözlük's community-driven forum DNA and competes for the same Turkish internet attention.

Others

• Ekşi Şeyler: A sub-brand of Ekşi Sözlük itself, but operationally adjacent as a related curated content property. Included to reflect the broader Ekşi media ecosystem that is directly related but distinct from the core forum.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/sozluk
• YouTubeyoutube.com/penavideo
• Facebookfacebook.com/eksisozluk
• Instagraminstagram.com/sozluk
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ek-i-teknoloji

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ekşi Sözlük