Latest Data on Iran: Surge in Social Media Use

Canadian social media management platform Hootsuite and UK-based marketing and advertising agency We Are Social has released their 2018 Global Digital report, according to which the number of Iranians using social media platforms shows a 135% year-on-year increase.

Published in a blog post over the weekend on wearesocial.com, the report says that there are some 40 million active social media users in Iran or almost half of the population. Some 23 million people joined a social media network for the first time in 2017.

In other words, an estimated 63,013 people started using social media for the first time every day over in the past year in Iran — that is more than 43 new users every minute. 

More than 3 billion people around the world now use social media platforms, indicating a 362 million (13%) increase compared to January of last year, more than 11 new users every second.

In terms of percentage growth, with a 135% jump, Iran is ranked third after Kiribati with 191% and Tajikistan with 172% y/y increase.

Regarding the largest growth in the number of mobile social media users, after China (84 million), India (63 million) and Indonesia (28 million) comes Iran with a 23 million year-on-year hike.

Personal computers have the largest share of web traffic by device in Iran with 56% (unchanged), followed by 42% mobile phones (up 2% YoY) and tablets 1% (down 26%). The remaining constitutes of gaming consoles and other smart devices that can be connected to the Internet.

>Different Platforms

The messaging app Telegram, which through its channels and groups can be employed as a social media network, is the most popular platform in Iran with over 40 million users. Almost a half of the population uses the service. Telegram has about 100 million users worldwide.

The second most popular social media platform in Iran is the photo-sharing service Instagram. There are 24 million Instagram users in the country or 29% of the population. Close to 45% of Instagram users in Iran are women and 55% men.

Iran is the seventh biggest market for the photo-sharing app. The platform reported 800 million active users in September 2017.

Instagram’s parent company Facebook is less popular in Iran partly because it is blocked by the authorities for almost eight years. However, there still are 5.7 million Facebook users (via VPN) of which 35% are women and 65% men. Moreover, 91% of Facebook users in Iran access the platform via their smart handsets. There are 2.17 billion active Facebook users in the world.

>Popular Websites

The report further lists Iran’s most visited websites based on data from the web analytics service Alexa. The websites are ranked based on the number of visitors to each site and the number of pages viewed on each site per visit.

Google.com is the most visited website followed by local video sharing and streaming service Aparat. The title of the third most visited website in Iran is claimed by online retailer Digikala followed by sports news website Varzesh3.

Yahoo search engine is in fifth place followed by Wikipedia and Shaparak (domestic online payment network).

The status of Digikala and Shaparak attest to the point that e-commerce is growing gradually. The report states that 18% of the Iranians make online purchases or pay bills on the Internet. This is while some 45% of all Internet users in the world now use e-commerce sites.

>Communications Overview

Iran’s total population is estimated at 80 million with 70% living in urban areas. The country reportedly has 56.7 million Internet users and Internet penetration is said to be 69%.

The total number of active mobile Internet users is 51.7 million up 63% compared to Jan 2017. The number of active mobile SIMs has registered a 4 million (3%) YoY increase. 

An estimated 125 million SIM cards have been sold in the country so far of which 83 million are active. Some 73% of the subscribers use pre-paid services and 27% post-paid. Over 50% of the mobile SIMs support broadband Internet (3G and/or 4G).