Internet Use in Iranians Daily Life

According to the latest statistics of IWS, June 2017, 56,700,000 Iranians are using Internet in their daily life, 70.0% of the population. This amount increased 28% percent in comparison with 2016 and doubled from 2015. Constitution of majority of Iran’s population with young people, popularity of instant messaging services like Telegram and WhatsApp, popularity social media like Instagram, and growth usage of online services and ecommerce intensify the growth of Internet users in Iran.

According to the statistic of Tech Chrunch in online shopping in 2017, Twenty-three percent of Iranians are shopping online at least once a month, 16 at least once a week, and 5 percent are doing so on a daily basis. About the products they have purchased in the past 3 months, apps and digital (34 percent) came at top followed by travel tickets (27 percent), games (23 percent), and electronics (22 percent). After apps and software, the second most desired category is clothing (23 percent), followed by event tickets (19 percent), insurance (19 percent), and electronics (17 percent). Iranians expect that in the next 6 months foreign companies will usher in greater access to electronics (65 percent), apps and software (43 percent), travel tickets (27 percent), games (25 percent), and clothing (21 percent).

The top concern of Iranian users continues to be fraud. That’s followed by a whole host of issues ranging from the quality of products to payment security online. Image below listed the top of users concern in using Internet for online shopping and why some people still prefer going to store rather than shopping online. “Iran’s online banking system, contrary to outside view, is pretty solid when it comes to fraud protection,” says Hossein Entekhabi, Operations Director at Bamilo, an 18-month startup that is now the second largest e-commerce company in Iran. “There are challenges with invalid payments or terminated transactions on payment gateway; nevertheless payment fraud is very low, especially compared to high rates of offline banking fraud.” People are often surprised when they hear how comfortable Iranians are paying online. 87 percent shop using their debit card that can be used to purchase online when activated to the Shetab network, an interbank card switch introduced back in 2002.