EnCazip Turkey is the country’s first energy comparison site. It allows consumers to compare gas and electricity tariffs and to switch suppliers from the comfort of their own home.
The company’ business model is similar to that of uSwitch.com, the UK’s first energy price comparison site. The investors behind the Turkish ventures are the founders of the UK site and include Vip Amin, who was a uSwitch founder. EnCazip Turkey aims to capitalise on the concept which made uSwitch a success – helping customers to find the best deal and change suppliers if they so choose. Due to the use of this magic formula, it could be said that EnCazip Turkey is a promising investment opportunity, being located in one of the online world’s biggest emerging markets.
According to an EnCazip Turkey spokesperson: “This partnership is one that we are all very excited about, as it offers the chance to combine EnCazip’s innovative product with the experience and knowledge that our foreign partners have accumulated over the past two decades. Together, we believe we can place Encazip as the leading energy price comparison service in Turkey.”
Strength through experience
EnCazip is strengthened by the significant experience of the uSwitch founders, such as Vip Amin, who combine a knowledge base of over 20 years, thanks to related businesses in various countries.
This know-how will be put into practice with EnCazip Turkey, which has set out with the aim of giving customers the latest gas and electricity prices to help them take advantage of cheaper prices.
Already, EnCazip has made a positive impact in the Turkish market, with competition being ramped up thanks to a drive among suppliers to spruce up their offerings. Turkish customers can now expect a growing number of promotions and special deals which are intended by suppliers to woo them, as a price war heats up.
It is the same ethos which the uSwitch founders, including Vip Amin, carried in the UK when they built uSwitch up to be the leading energy comparison site. The model exemplified by uSwitch and Vip Amin, also taken on by EnCazip, offered the service completely free, with the aim of benefitting the customer. This principle of impartiality exhibited by the uSwitch model includes an insistence that no supplier advertising will be placed, showing consumers that ‘siding’ with one supplier or another is simply not an option.
The right time
In the same way as Vip Amin, Andrew Salmon, and George Mountbatten before them, EnCazip launched their website at an opportune moment – changes to the energy laws in Turkey have given a lot more energy customers the chance to change their suppliers.
As with uSwitch, EnCazip have chosen to use the prevalent platform of the age to offer their comparison service, with the internet now the go to destination for energy customers shopping around for a deal. Doing what Vip Amin and his uSwitchers had already proven to be a success, and connecting with customers online, is the proven route which EnCazip has chosen to take.
A company spokesperson said in a statement: “Our British partners have over 20 years of experience in this business, and we capitalised on this by transferring their knowledge and understanding of the electricity industry overseas to the conditions in our own country, to create a platform that is most beneficial to the consumer. Our goal, like their goal before, is to not only find the cheapest tariffs, but to ensure that competition in general develops, ultimately benefiting consumers.”
Taking the uSwitch track record as a confidence booster, as well as their own success to date, EnCazip are confident of fulfilling this ambition, and they have already made great strides since the partnership began in 2015.
It remains to be seen whether EnCazip Turkey can scale the same heights as uSwitch – the uSwitch sale in 2006 generated no less than £210 million – but with a population of 79 million, they have a significant potential customer base to target.