Post Company Also Spots Profit in E-Market

The state-owned Iran Post Company is looking for a slice of the online packet delivery pie with the help of new app-based services.

Director of the company, Hossein Mehri, said this week, “For now the online package delivery companies are allowed to operate independently,” local technology website Webna.ir reported.

“However, by the next fiscal (March 2018) they will be required to collaborate with the Post Company.”

Currently, several businesses are offering online package delivery services in Tehran and other major cities like Isfahan and Shiraz. The major players in the growing sector are Snapp Box and Alopeyk.

Through their motorbike delivery applications, Snapp Box and Alopeyk, find  the closest driver in the vicinity of the customer reducing waiting time significantly.

Snapp, co-owned by Germany’s Rocket Internet and MTN-Irancell through its holding company, Iran Internet Group, has emerged as one of the leaders on the domestic startup scene.

Alopeyk, privately owned, is the other leading startup in the local motorbike delivery market.

Both businesses’ applications are available for download on Google Play and App Store in addition to the local Android market Café Bazaar.

According to the official website of the Post Company, the organization is set to launch its own package delivery service, dubbed Post-e Man.

This is not the first time that traditional businesses try to enter a market already claimed by private online firms.

After the launch of several ride-hailing applications in Tehran, earlier in March the city’s Taxi Organization inaugurated its own app called Carpino.

However, the business has so far not been able to grab a big enough share of the market simply because the prices offered by its rivals are lower.

The Post Company operates under the Telecoms Ministry. While the ministry trumpets the increasing share of online businesses in the economy, one of its underlings is set to create a new hurdle in the way of e- companies.