Share of Persian in Global Online Content Outstrips 2 Percent

EghtesadOnline: About 2.1% of the content published on the World Wide Web is in the Persian language and the share is growing fast.

News ID: ۷۴۸۶۰۲

02 October 2019

The figure was released byW3Techs that conducts technology surveys and provides information about the use of different technologies on the internet.

The source reports that Persian is the third fastest growing content language in the world.

English dominates the charts in terms of growth and share. It is used by 54.5% of all websites whose content language is known, followed by Turkish with a 1.7% share, according to Financial Tribune.

W3Techs says, “Our visitors often compare the use of Persian with Arabic … Data show that Arabic is used by 0.7% of all websites whose content language is known.”

As Iranians’ access to speedy internet services grow, their online presence has also expanded.

Iran’s population is estimated at 82.4 million with almost 75% living in urban areas. The country reportedly has 72.94 million internet users and internet penetration is said to be 89%.

The number of Iranian internet users shot up by 29% in 2018. In other words, 16 million people got connected to the web for the first time last year.

The average mobile internet speed was 30.58 Mbps in 2018, 75% higher than a year earlier while average fixed internet speed was 12.82 Mbps, indicating a 36% year-on-year increase.

Popular Sites Using Persian

The service lists popular sites using Persian as follows: Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, Office, WhatsApp, WordPress, Aparat, Digikala, Blogger and Varzesh3.

You can seldom search anything on Wikipedia and not find a Persian entry for it.

Microsoft Windows is the most popular operating system in Iran and almost all users have Microsoft Office installed on their computers. However, almost all Iranians use contraband versions of the OS and client software.

Aparat is a locally developed version of YouTube. Since the Google-owned American video-sharing website is blocked in Iran, people who respect the state-imposed online censorship use Aparat for watching videos.

Digikala is the largest Iranian e-commerce platform where people can buy a wide range of products from AC power adapters to zip bags.

Blogger is obviously a blogging platform enjoying popular among a large number of Iranians.

Varzesh3 is an Iranian website that primarily covers football, but also other sports to some extent.

Iranian are staunch fans of social media platforms. Latest statistics show that the number of Iranians using social media platforms reached 47 million in 2018, indicating an 18% year-on-year increase.

So, it is no surprise that Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are among widely used web services in the country.

Social Media Lovers

Canadian social media management platform Hootsuite and UK-based marketing and advertising agency We Are Social have released the Global Digital 2019 report, according to which the number of Iranians using social media services has observed a noticeable hike.

Published on Wearesocial.com, the report says Iran has some 47 million active social media users, or 57% of the population.

Over 7 million Iranians joined a social media network for the first time in 2018. In other words, an estimated 19,178 people started using social media for the first time per day last year in Iran—that is more than 13 new users every minute.

The growth rate had declined compared to 2017 when the number of Iranian social media users observed a 135% YOY jump.

More than 3.4 billion people around the world now use social media platforms, indicating an increase of 288 million (9%) compared to January of last year and reaching more than nine new users every second.

The global growth rate has also declined compared to 2017 when social media platforms got more than 11 new users every second.

Popular Platforms

Despite a ban in Iran, 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 half of the population uses the service.

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.

Instagram’s parent company Facebook is less popular in Iran partly because it has been 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.

Some 91% of Facebook users in Iran access the platform via smartphones. Active Facebook users have reached 2.17 billion worldwide.

Various local social media platforms have been established with the Iranian government’s support over the past year. However, failing to earn internet users’ trust, the platforms have not been able to gain traction, such as Soroush, Rubika and iGap.