Iran

Economy & income

Currency

• Iranian Rial (IRR, ﷼)
• free-market ~1,809,000 per USD (14 Jul 2026, Bonbast/open-market) — prices are quoted colloquially in Toman (=10 rials, so ~180,900 toman/USD)
• Official/NIMA trading rates differ sharply
• The rial is among the world's weakest currencies, gutted by sanctions and 30–40% inflation
• parliament approved dropping 4 zeros & renaming to 'toman' but it is not yet in force

GDP per capita

• ~$5,190 nominal (2024, World Bank — uses a blended/official conversion; free-market-adjusted reality is far lower, IMF shows only ~$3,415 nominal for 2026)
• ~$19,903 PPP (2024, World Bank) — PPP is the more meaningful measure
• Nominal USD figures swing wildly with which exchange rate is used

Average salary

• ~$250–300 net/mo (Numbeo, Jul 2026)
• Tehran far higher (~$900/mo)
• Iran's Statistics Centre implies ~$400–500/mo — all highly volatile as the rial slides
• Gross varies widely by sector

Median salary

• n/a — no official median wage is published by the Statistical Centre of Iran
• sanctions, a large informal economy and extreme rial volatility make any USD median unreliable

Minimum wage

• Base 103,909,680 IRR/mo (~10.39M toman) for year 1404 (2025/26), ~$90–110/mo at free-market rate (+46% nominal YoY)
• with allowances a married worker with 2 children gets ~163.5M IRR (~$140–170/mo)
• In real terms it collapsed from ~$238/mo in 2016 as the rial fell

Cost of living

• Low in USD terms — Numbeo (Jul 2026): Tehran 1-bed rent ~$261 (outside centre) to ~$427 (centre)
• but domestic inflation is ~30–40% and squeezes local purchasing power
• Treat USD figures as low-confidence given rial volatility

Digital landscape

Population

• 92.0 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal; +1.0% YoY)
• Median age 34.0
• 77.9% urban

Internet users

79.6% (~73.2 million users, Jan 2025); ~18.8M still offline

Social media users

• 52.2% (~48.0 million identities, Jan 2025; = 65.5% of internet users)
• Gender split of population ~50.8% male / 49.2% female

Mobile connections

• 152 million cellular connections = 166% of population (many people hold 2+ SIMs)
• 93.1% broadband-capable

Devices

mobile ~61.5% / desktop ~38.2% / tablet ~0.3% (StatCounter, Jun 2026) — note the unusually HIGH desktop share for a Tier-3 market

Ad spend

• Total advertising market ~$2.22B (2024, IMARC), projected ~$3.15B by 2033. Digital is led by DOMESTIC ad-tech — Tapsell alone serves ~51B impressions/mo (mid-2024), plus Yektanet & Adivery
• International platforms (Meta, Google) CANNOT sell ads targeting Iran due to US sanctions, so DataReportal publishes no Meta/Google ad-reach for Iran

Top social platforms

Instagram THE dominant platform — ~80.7% of social-media referral share, StatCounter 2025; officially blocked but ~40M+ Iranians use it via VPN; core for social commerce & influencers

Telegram ~54% referral share; blocked since 2018 but ~40M+ Iranian accounts — huge for news channels, groups, file-sharing & commerce

Domestic Rubika / Eitaa / Bale state-promoted; ~89M sign-ups claimed by officials — likely inflated & duplicated

• WhatsApp — officially unblocked Dec 2024; widely used for chat & business, access fluctuates
• YouTube — blocked/only partially unblocked; heavily used via VPN for music & how-to
• X / Twitter — ~34% referral share; blocked, political/journalist niche

Messengers

• Telegram (the default for channels, groups & informal commerce, via VPN)
• WhatsApp (unblocked late 2024, growing fast)
• Instagram Direct
• Domestic state apps — Rubika, Eitaa, Bale (banking-linked), Soroush, iGap (pushed via cheaper domestic bandwidth)
• imo / others for diaspora calls

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Shetab-network debit cards (dominant for nearly all non-cash payment — Melli, Mellat, Saderat, Parsian etc.); routed through the Shaparak switch
• Cash / Rial (bazaars, informal trade, rural & smaller purchases)
• PSP online gateways & mobile wallets (Zarinpal, Sadad/Behpardakht, Asan Pardakht)
• Bank transfer (Sheba/IBAN via Paya & Satna)
• Cash on delivery (COD) — common for e-commerce
• BNPL — Snapp Pay, Digipay, Tara
• NO Visa/Mastercard/PayPal — blocked by US sanctions

E-wallets

• Snapp Pay (BNPL + wallet)
• Digipay (BNPL)
• Ap wallet (Asan Pardakht)
• Tara (BNPL)
• Sekkeh
• Blu
• Zarinpal (PSP)

Cash on delivery

High — Digikala and most stores offer cash-on-delivery and trust-first buyers use it, though prepaid Shetab-card payment is also very common in cities

E-commerce

• Growing off a modest base — market ~$3.29B (2025 est.)
• Digikala holds ~60% of online retail with ~40M monthly active users, but e-commerce is still a small slice of total retail

Notes

• Rails are fully domestic (Shetab/Shaparak) — international cards simply don't work
• Shetab has been linked to Russia's MIR network since Nov 2024. Build funnels around local cards + COD + BNPL
• Cross-border affiliate settlement typically routes through crypto or hawala because of sanctions

Audience & culture

Languages

• Persian / Farsi (official; near-universal lingua franca of media & commerce; ~53% as a first language)
• Azerbaijani & other Turkic dialects (~16–18%, mainly the northwest)
• Kurdish (~10%, west)
• Gilaki & Mazandarani (~7%, Caspian north)
• Luri (~6%)
• Arabic (~2%, Khuzestan) & Balochi (~2%, southeast); plus Turkmen

Religion

• Islam ~99.4% (official state religion): Shia ~90–95% (Twelver, dominant), Sunni ~5–10% (mostly Kurds, Baloch, Turkmen)
• Recognized Christian, Jewish & Zoroastrian minorities ~0.3%
• the Baha'i are the largest unrecognized minority (persecuted)
• NOTE: independent GAMAAN diaspora-run surveys report far lower self-declared Shia religiosity than official figures

Median age

34.0 years (DataReportal, Jan 2025)

Key seasons

• Nowruz / Persian New Year (~20–21 Mar — the biggest spending, gifting & travel window; a ~13-day national holiday)
• Yalda Night (21 Dec, winter solstice — family gatherings & gifting)
• Ramadan + Eid al-Fitr (nightly post-Iftar activity & spending)
• Chaharshanbe Suri (fire festival just before Nowruz)
• Muharram / Ashura (Shia mourning — somber; AVOID promotional/celebratory creative)
• Summer travel season

Cultural notes

• A young, highly-literate, digitally-savvy but VPN-dependent audience with strong Persian national pride and acute price sensitivity amid inflation
• Women are major online consumers and influencers despite legal restrictions
• A very large, affluent diaspora (US, Canada, Europe, Gulf) engages with the same Persian creators and often converts far better than sanction-walled in-country users

Where to find creators

• Instagram (dominant, via VPN)
• Telegram
• YouTube (via VPN)
• Domestic apps (Rubika/Eitaa)

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

H

Hasan Reyvandi ~19.9M Instagram

InstagramStand-up comedian — massive mainstream reach; broad FMCG/entertainment brand fit

S

Serna Amini ~9.9M Instagram

InstagramActress & internet personality — youth lifestyle content

S

Sina Valiollah ~8.9M Instagram

InstagramTV presenter & entertainer — mainstream lifestyle/brand content

Hadi Choopan ~7.6M Instagram

InstagramPro bodybuilder & Mr. Olympia 2022 winner — fitness/sports-nutra relevance

S

Sadaf (Sadaf Beauty) ~3.1M Instagram

InstagramBeauty & makeup creator — tutorials & product reviews (cosmetics/nutra fit)

T

Tina Pakravan ~1.2M Instagram

InstagramLifestyle, fashion & travel influencer — brand-partnership content

Celebrities

Golshifteh Farahani ~16.9M Instagram

Internationally acclaimed actress (diaspora)

Ali Karimi ~14.7M Instagram

Football legend ('the Wizard of Asia') & former manager; outspoken political voice

Mohammad Reza Golzar ~12.7M Instagram

Actor, TV game-show host & musician

Ali Daei ~12.4M Instagram

Football legend — long the all-time top men's international goalscorer

Ebi ~11.4M Instagram

Veteran pop-music superstar (diaspora)

Sardar Azmoun ~6M Instagram

Star striker of the Iran national football team

Mehdi Taremi ~6M Instagram

Iran national-team striker (Inter Milan / Olympiacos)

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• E-commerce & social commerce (Digikala, Basalam, Instagram shops)
• VPN & anti-filter tools (enormous demand given pervasive blocks)
• Mobile games & apps (CPI)
• Nutra / beauty / fitness supplements (grey, IFDA-restricted)
• Crypto & forex (grey/underground, popular)
• Fintech & BNPL
• Betting (illegal but a large underground market)

Active networks

• No Western networks operate (sanctions block Meta/Google/ClickBank billing)
• Domestic e-commerce programs: Digikala Affiliate/Marketplace, Basalam, Torob
• Domestic ad networks: Tapsell, Yektanet, Adivery, Mediaad, Adro
• Local CPA/CPL brokered informally via Telegram & Instagram

Payouts

• Tier-3 low — in-country payouts are in a weak, volatile rial and small in USD terms
• cross-border CPA/CPL settlement is complicated by sanctions (crypto/hawala are the common workarounds)
• Display CPMs are very cheap

Competition

• An isolated, sanction-walled market with very cheap domestic CPMs but hard monetization — no international ad or payment rails, VPN-distorted geo-targeting, banned grey verticals, and heavy currency-conversion & payout friction
• Best treated as a domestic-ecosystem play or a diaspora play

Seasonality

• Nowruz (mid-Mar) is the peak e-commerce & travel window (Digikala runs big sales festivals)
• Yalda (Dec), Ramadan/Eid and back-to-school (Sept) also lift spend
• Muharram/Ashura is a somber no-promo period

Traffic sources

• Instagram (via VPN — the top engagement channel)
• Telegram channels
• Domestic messengers (Rubika/Eitaa/Bale)
• Tapsell / Yektanet ad networks
• Google & YouTube (via VPN)
• Influencer / UGC

Good to know

Capital

Tehran

Major cities

• Tehran
• Mashhad
• Isfahan
• Karaj
• Shiraz
• Tabriz
• Qom
• Ahvaz
• Kermanshah
• Urmia

Time zones

• Single zone — Iran Standard Time (IRST, UTC+3:30)
• Iran ABOLISHED daylight-saving in 2022, so there is no longer a +4:30 summer shift
• Mind the unusual half-hour offset when scheduling

Android vs iOS

84% 16%

Android 84% iOS 16%

Phone brands

• Samsung (~46.1%)
• Xiaomi (~29.0%)
• Apple (~15.6%)
• Huawei (~3.5%)
• Honor (~0.6%)

Top e-commerce

• Digikala (the dominant marketplace, ~60% share)
• Snapp (Snapp Market / Snapp Express / super-app)
• Basalam (artisan/marketplace)
• Torob (price-comparison)
• Emalls
• Divar & Sheypoor (classifieds)

Peak activity

Evenings ~20:00–24:00 IRST, skewing late-night; activity shifts to post-Iftar during Ramadan. The weekend is Thursday–Friday (Friday is the holiday)

Creative taboos

• Mandatory hijab & women's dress (extremely charged since the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests)
• alcohol & pork (haram)
• LGBTQ themes (illegal)
• nudity
• dating/pre-marital relations
• criticism of the regime or Supreme Leader
• Israel
• and disrespect toward Shia Islam or the Baha'i question
• Keep creative modest and apolitical

Also worth knowing

1. Sanctions isolate Iran — Meta, Google, Visa/Mastercard and PayPal don't operate, so ad buying and payouts run domestically or via crypto/hawala.
2. VPN use is near-universal, which distorts geo-targeting and creates huge demand for VPN/anti-filter offers.
3. Nowruz (March) is the mega shopping & travel season — build the calendar around it.
4. The only 'clean' owned channels are domestic ad-tech (Tapsell/Yektanet) and state messengers (Rubika/Eitaa/Bale), yet Instagram & Telegram still drive the real engagement despite being blocked