Did You Know There Are More Than 100K Iranian Android Apps?

Did you know there are more than 100k Iranian Android apps? Or did you know that these apps have made more than 80 billion Tomans (nearly $21M) in the past 5 years?

Last week Iran launched the second phase of National Information Network, a project to reinforce the domestic internet infrastructure and reduce the data transit to outside of Iran in order to make the internet cheaper for the end users. At the launching ceremony of this project, Hesam Armandehi, CEO of Cafe Bazaar, the Iranian Android market, announced that up until now, there have been more than 100K Iranian Android apps submitted to Cafe Bazaar. According to Armandehi, these apps have made more than 80 billion Tomans (nearly $21M) in last 5 years by selling their apps and its content.

Cafe Bazaar, the biggest Android market in Iran, has made a niche market for Iranian Android developers in the past 6 years. Android app market in Iran is growing really fast as the number of smartphones in Iran and internet users are increasing massively each year. “Right now, Cafe Bazaar’s app has been installed on more than 31M smartphones with more than 24M monthly active users and more than 17M user accounts,” Armandehi said during his speech at the launching ceremony of the second phase of National Information Network.

Creating content in Iran is a big issue. According to the official news, 70% of Persian content is either copy-pasted or spam. “Content business in Iran is similar to what happens in nature, you should fight for your survival,” said Armandehi. “94% of the published content on Cafe Bazaar Android market is native. Plus, in Android app market, we have witnessed more than 200% yearly growth rate in the past 5 years.”

With the growth of mobile internet in the past few years, you might be wondering about the internet connectivity of Cafe Bazaar users. Armandehi gave some statistics about this matter as well. According to Armandehi, 70% of Cafe Bazaar users are using 3G, 21% are using 2G and 9% are using 4G mobile internet connection. Most of the Cafe Bazaar users are connecting to the internet through the Irancell network (the second mobile network operator). Armandei also announced that Cafe Bazaar’s new payment method which is made through the user’s Sim Card account. Cafe Bazaar has started this method of payment with Irancell and Rightel. Surprisingly, the name of the biggest mobile network operator, MCI is missing from the list.

Tell us what you think about the Android app market in Iran and its future. With more than 40M smartphones in the country, there should be a promising market, don’t you think?