Will Iranian messengers replace Instagram and WhatsApp?

During the last week, Instagram and WhatsApp were filtered; But can Iranian messengers replace these foreign social networks?

Surveys indicate that due to the filtering of foreign social networks such as Instagram and WhatsApp, Iranian users still use filtered foreign platforms instead of domestic platforms; But what is the reason for the failure of local platforms and with the continued filtering of Instagram and WhatsApp, will Iranian users inevitably switch to using Iranian platforms?

The reason why users do not accept Iranian messengers

Siavash Ali Ahmadi, an expert in the field of technology, said that in Iran, platforms such as Snap and Tapsi are also used by Iranian users, and even with the arrival of Uber internet taxi, which is considered as their global competitor, users continue to use Snap and Tapsi. will continue

This expert emphasized, but internal platforms have very weak infrastructure, and also their main code has been removed from open source projects. In fact, foreign sample codes are used in their design, but due to the lack of access to the main sources of the codes, they cannot provide security infrastructure. It should be noted that open source projects are projects whose codes are available to the public and programmers can develop them.

Ali Ahmadi further stated that in 2017, when Telegram was filtered, IGP Messenger was launched as an internal messenger that was completely similar to Telegram, but it was not welcomed by the people. The reason for the lack of acceptance was that users were not sure whether their privacy would be secured in this messenger or not.

This expert in the field of technology further mentioned malwares and said that due to the fact that there are many malwares in the web space and it causes a violation of people’s privacy in mobile phones, Iranian users are not willing to use internal platforms and they believe that Their privacy will be at risk in internal messengers.

Ali Ahmadi further pointed out the lack of facilities of domestic platforms compared to foreign platforms and said that there is a big difference even between foreign messengers in terms of facilities; For example, Telegram offers its users more features than WhatsApp.

Welcoming foreign messengers despite filtering

Reports indicate that currently 71% of Iranian users use WhatsApp, 53% use Instagram and 40% use Telegram. Also, Iranian users depend on various Google services, including Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube. In addition, more than 300,000 Iranian online businesses operate only on Instagram.

On the other hand, ISPA polling center published a report in June 1401 that shows that the Iranian application Rubika with 5.7% of the audience was able to get the most followers among domestic platforms. Ita Messenger with 4.4%, Soroush with 3.6%, Yes with 2.2%, iGap with 1.8% and Gap with 0.3% are in the next ranks.

Spending large budgets to develop internal platforms

In the current situation where many foreign social networks are filtered, the authorities may spend several billion tomans for the development of internal platforms, as in previous years, but it is unlikely that such an action will be effective this time as well; Because experience shows that in May 2017, the authorities offered a loan of 5 billion tomans to their developers to support domestic messengers. Also, in the second phase, a budget of 300 billion Tomans will be allocated to them.

But due to all the huge expenses spent on the development of internal platforms, they still could not get the trust of Iranian users and achieve the necessary improvements. According to Ali Ahmadi, it is likely that the government will allocate large budgets for the development of these platforms.