Internet in Iran has certainly changed in the past 12 months, with a radically different result in the leading website chart through 2015.
Leading the charge in first, second and third places in 2015 is our monthly leader Telegram Messenger. The instant communications platform took two of the top breakout slots, meaning a search increase of over 4,000%, which indicates its rising influence.
Two provinces, which led the search for the most popular term of the year, are North and South Khorasan provinces.
The drastic shift in search results is in stark comparison with 2014, as the leading search result was “Daesh” written in Persian, referring to the terrorist group currently waging war in Syria, Iraq and France through the past year.
In second place throughout the previous year was Iranian singer Morteza Pashaei, who died young of cancer.
The third search term of 2015 was once again Telegram written in English with a search increase of 3,650%. The northern province of Qazvin led the search term with West Azarbaijan Province following suit.
In fourth place through 2015 was Khandevaneh, written in Persian, Iran’s top comedy show on IRIB’s Nasim channel. Khandevaneh was practically the first show on Iran’s state-run television channels to present standup comedy, a rarity on televised programming. Residents of South Khorasan’s Birjand were the most interested in the TV show and led other regional cities in searching for the program.
In fifth place was “Divar” Iran’s most searched for Internet sales board, with an increase of 200% in people looking to buy new and secondhand products. The city using the sales website the most was the holy city of Qom, followed by Arak in Markazi province.
In sixth and seventh places was social image website Instagram written firstly in Persian and then in English. The most image-obsessed city is Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province followed by Mazandaran’s Qaemshahr.
Video-sharing website Aparat written in Persian ranked next with a 60% increase in the number of viewers looking for videos. The website has made a concerted effort in recent months to emulate YouTube as much as possible by re-uploading many of the videos listed on the blocked American video site.
The western Ilam province led with search results this year with peak searches following the Iranian New Year in March.
Lastly, Internet shopping made it into the top searches this year with DigiKala, written in Persian hitting the big leagues with a 60% increase in search request throughout the year. The city of Birjand led search queries for the Internet retailer.
What will 2016 bring to Iran’s search results? With current trends, it is likely to remain on the commercial and social side, as more join the smartphone revolution.
