Major Iranian Android app distributor Cafe Bazaar, a replica of Google Play services, has released its second quarterly market report for the quarter ending Sept. 22. It provides developers and tech enthusiasts insights into Iran’s expanding mobile services industry.

Bazaar regularly publishes such reports. In this issue, the Iranian startup identifies the most searched terms on the platform. It does not include the number of searches, but a score of 100 is the maximum each term could score.

The term “game” was the most searched with a 100 score. It is followed by the name of the popular messaging app WhatsApp with 75. Then comes the photo-sharing platform Instagram with 68, according to Financial Tribune.

Interestingly, social media platform Telegram, which has been banned in Iran for over a year, was at fourth place with 51. Telegram was removed from Café Bazaar after Iranian state authorities blocked access to the service.

With the exception of Instagram, all well-known international social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Telegram, have been blocked in Iran.

The number of users who have downloaded Cafe Bazaar is 40 million. Since most Iranian Android phone users have the popular app on their handsets, data in the report can provide a general image of the Android app industry in Iran.

Key Data

According to the report available on Blog.cafebazaar.ir, close to 63% of Android phone users in Iran have cellphones made by either Samsung or Huawei.

Data released by Café Bazaar show Samsung is once again the dominant smartphone maker in Iran with a 41.09% share, which held a 26.51% share in the previous quarter. It was closely followed by Huawei with 21.89%, LG 3.18%, Lenovo 2.49%, Sony 1.73%, HTC 1.23%, Xiaomi 0.98%, Nokia 0.91% and Asus 0.88% in the second quarter.

Bazaar reports that the number of apps published in the shopping category surged 10% during the period. The social media apps category also observed a 6% jump.

People are more prone to download apps around noon (11 a.m.) in Iran while games are mostly downloaded after 10 p.m.

The most populated category of apps on Café Bazaar is educational programs with an 18% share. It is followed by religious apps with 9%, books and references with 8%, tools 8% and entertainment 7%.

The number of people installing educational apps surged 26.8% during the period, compared to the first quarter.

On average, apps published in the tools category are installed by 4.75 million people. The rate is slightly lower for social media apps with 4.35 million.

Net Income

The Iranian Android industry’s net income reached 2.58 trillion rials ($22.7 million) in the last fiscal year that ended on March 20, 2019, marking an 89% increase year-on-year, the annual report of Café Bazaar published earlier showed.

Over 21,668 developer teams have published their work on the Android app distributor. While only 28% of the developer teams are based in Tehran, they hold a 71.6% share of the market turnover.

After Tehran, the provinces of Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan have the largest number of developer teams with a respective share of 8% and 7%.

In terms of net income, Tehran is followed by Khorasan Razavi Province with 11.8% and Alborz Province with 2.5%.

A total number of 162,870 applications, of which 31,000 were games, have been published on Cafe Bazaar, such that 26.8% were programmed in Tehran, 8.9% in Gilan Province and 8.6% in Khorasan Razavi.

By March, 1,653 Iranian firms had released products in the online market, which had over 10,000 active installations each.

A total of 375 Android game makers have published products that have over 10,000 active users.

In the last fiscal year that ended in March 2019, Cafe Bazaar attracted 4 million new users, recording an 11% year-on-year growth in its install base.

Over 15 million purchases, including paid apps downloads, in-app purchases and subscriptions, were conducted in the online market, indicating a 3.4% hike YOY.