Behind the veil: a glance at Iran’s leading app store

Heard of Cafe Bazaar? I doubt it rings a bell unless you’re in the Middle East or keeping tabs on trends in emerging mobile markets. It’s the third-party app store that runs the show in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Hessam Aramandehi, Cafe Bazaar’s CEO, recently said during our panel talk at October’s Game Connection that his company’s app store covers “85 perecent of the market with 25 million active installs.” This veritable monopoly makes sense when you consider that neither Google’s nor Apple’s app stores serve Iran, due to obvious issues concerning current and ongoing sanctions (and are often even altogether blocked). This creates the rare time-sensitive opportunity that Cafe Bazaar is neck-deep in benefiting in.