A new price search engine has been launched called Torob meaning Horseradish in Persian. The new site offers prices on all sorts of devices and home products from a variety of suppliers. Originally reported on Webna on Tuesday, the site was developed by relatively unknown startup developer Ali Babaei last September, but only appeared online in mid-April.
The entirely Persian language service aims to compete with traditional price comparison websites like Emalls.ir which plays different online retailers off against each other.
The 'intelligent' search engine, as it calls itself, hopes to carve a share of the growing Persian-language search market, as international players are still absent to this day, so the site owners think it has a chance.
The search engine aims to give technical specifications on different items for sale, including image and competitor links. Alexa states the site is currently in 9,713th place among popular sites throughout Iran, with average user rate of 10 minutes on viewing periods.
Torob.ir also has an email service that allows users to keep track of price changes of their desired items. Although not new in the West, online comparative sales websites are relatively new in the Iranian online community, with many people still opting for traditional methods of shopping.
Similarweb.com states that the site's most searched term is real estate currently and the most clicked link is mobile phone prices. Whether the website gains traction in the online shopping community remains to be seen.
