Cafe Bazaar Now Has Over 40 Million Users

As of this week, Cafe Bazaar’s digital marketplace has now surpassed 40 million users. The story of how we achieved this important milestone is one about creating an advanced and efficient digital marketplace that establishes a bridge between an increasingly tech-savvy society and a community of gifted and forward-thinking developers who are changing how products, services and entertainment are developed and delivered in Iran.

When Cafe Bazaar was founded in 2011, the absence of services offered by Google Play and Apple’s App Store inside the country left consumers and developers with limited options and a desire for an innovative local approach. As Cafe Bazaar CEO Amin Amirsharifi explained, “when we started Cafe Bazaar, there were some applications and games available for free. But creating this digital marketplace, and the positive reception it received from users and developers, allowed for this industry to emerge and develop in a more serious way.”

How we got to 40,000,000

Product manager Ali Vahdani stated that “today, Iranians increasingly look towards information technology for their everyday needs. We’re proud to have created the means for them to access games, services and products that better their lives.” Only 6 years ago Cafe Bazaar had only 6 million users and was partnering with about 3 thousand developers. Today, the number of our users has surpassed 40 million and we are working with over 21,000 developers. Some of the most important keys to our success:

• Understanding the market: Market knowledge, a deep relationship with the consumer, proven communications strategies and a capacity to provide support allowed us to efficiently tailor our services for a Persian-speaking audience.
• Partnering with developers: Partnering with and supporting the increasingly sophisticated community of developers in Iran was also central to how we provided better products and services in our marketplace that are innovative and reliable.
• Foreign developers: Cafe Bazaar has been working closely with application and game developers from around the world. Cafe Bazaar’s commanding position in the market means a partnership with Cafe Bazaar puts a foreign application or product within the finger’s reach of tens of millions of users.
• E-Commerce: Building a secure and reliable mechanism for financial transactions was also very important to our success as it facilitated e-commerce for consumers and attracted revenue for developers. The increase in revenue contributed to a continued professionalization and commercialization of the developer community.

As we look to the future, Cafe Bazaar will be looking to improve its marketplace and deepen its partnerships with the developer community. During the next year, we will also be updating you on new initiatives involving video content, artificial intelligence and web infrastructure that will both improve our marketplace and provide new opportunities to developers and informational technology entrepreneurs.