Hamneshin’s media conference was held with the presence of the media and Sobhan Foroughi, the CEO of Tapsell, and Shahab Khodabakhsh, the CEO of Cafe Bazaar, focusing on the acquisition of Bazaar by Tapsell.
According to Ideaagency, in this meeting, it was announced that this cooperation can bring about big changes in the startup ecosystem and lead to cross-border activities and the use of current world trends such as AI in the country.
The purchase of Cafe Bazaar, one of the oldest and most successful digital platforms in Iran, by Tapsell (Pegah Dadehkavan Sharif), was one of the important events of Iran’s startup ecosystem in recent years. This transaction not only shows the maturity of this ecosystem, but it can also have a wide impact on Iran’s technology and digital industry.
Tapsell CEO: We bought Bazaar for 45% more than our initial offer
Sobhan Foroughi, the CEO of Tapsell, at the Cafe Bazaar acquisition press conference, pointed out the history of Tapsell and the process of this transaction, and gave important points about the company’s future plans. He said:”We decided to stay in the country and do software projects in the early 90s, at the same time as the technology was expanding in Iran. At that time, I came across Cafe Bazaar and found it to be a valuable and inspiring project. This acquaintance made me think of creating Tapsell, a company that today has become one of the main players in the field of digital advertising and content.
Buy Cafe Bazaar: Game of Destiny
Foroughi mentioned Hezardastan Holding’s offer to buy Tapsell before the Corona era and said: “Before Corona, Hezardastan had offered to buy Tapsell, but this time the roles were reversed and Tapsell managed to buy 100% of Cafe Bazaar shares. I was even supposed to go to Cafe Bazaar for a while, but it didn’t happen and finally, it was fate that Tapsell got the full ownership of Cafe Bazaar under my management.”
In response to a question about the merger of the two companies, he explained: “The ownership of Cafe Bazaar has been transferred from a holding company to a new company, and the teams of the two companies will remain independent. It is not clear what will happen in the future.”
Tapsell is considering other acquisitions in the future
“Tapsell has paid 45% more than its initial offer to buy Cafe Bazaar,” Foroughi explained about the purchase price of Cafe Bazaar. This decision shows our belief in the values of this company and the potential of cooperation between the two groups. We believe that this investment can lead to the creation of great added value for both companies.
Tapsell’s CEO also stated that they continue to make smart acquisitions and have a special look at the ecosystem for other acquisitions in the future: “Maybe some of these will be announced before the new year and some will be announced next year.”
In this meeting, the CEO of Tapsell said about the news/rumor of the purchase of Sheypoor shares by this company, which was neither confirmed nor denied before: “Our reaction to this news is clear and similar to the previous one, we did not react and we will not react now.”
Foroughi believes both Cafe Bazaar and Tapsell include customers from other businesses and expect to receive new services: “This deal is good news for all businesses as all our parameters are going to change and new services will be introduced.”
There is not going to be any change in the human resources of Cafe Bazaar
He also mentioned the independence of the teams after the deal and said, “Although the ownership of Cafe Bazaar has been transferred to Tapsell, the teams will remain independent. Management changes, if they happen, will only be aimed at improving performance and creating more coordination between the two companies. We respect the Cafe Bazaar team and believe their experience and expertise are essential to the company’s future success.”
About Tapsell and Cafe Bazaar’s international programs, Foroughi said: “We plan to expand our activities beyond the borders of Iran. Cafe Bazaar and Tapsell both have experiences in international markets and we believe that by working together we can achieve more success globally.”
AI and game market development; Two future strategic plans
In another part of his speech, Foroughi mentioned Tapsell’s plans in emerging fields such as AI and the gaming industry. He said: “AI is changing the world and we at Tapsell plan to use this technology to improve our services.
Also, we have plans to export Iranian games to global markets. We want to bring Iranian gamers to the best global content and at the same time export domestic games abroad. This work is similar to import and export in the field of games and can help the growth of this industry in Iran.”
Noting that the country’s market is going to be shaken by the results of this deal, Foroughi said in response to a question about how to finance this purchase: “At the beginning of autumn, the negotiations to buy Cafe Bazaar became more serious, and any company that wanted to do this had to ask for the help of its shareholders. “Tapsell was able to complete this contract with the help of all its business partners.”
He also said about Tapsell’s plans to enter the stock market: “We previously had doubts about entering the specific market of startups and knowledge-based companies, and despite doing preliminary work, we did not finalize it. But now we have decided to definitely enter the stock market.”
The CEO of Tapsell announced that they interact with sixty million users in a month through various advertisements: “The number of these interactions reaches more than 2 billion daily.” He also emphasized: “Advertising is a double-edged sword and content should be provided to the user that makes them happy to see them, even though there is some dissatisfaction in this.”
AI Revolution
In part of his speech, Foroughi mentioned the role of AI in future developments and said: “In the 1990s, smartphones and applications revolutionized the way we interact with the world. Today history is repeating itself and AI is creating a new revolution. This technology is going to change all our interactions with others and transform the way we live, work and communicate.
He added: “Cafe Bazaar will be reborn in the era of AI, and this evolution will affect the lives of 45 million Iranian users. Cafe Bazaar plans to do great things in this field and use AI technologies to improve user experience and provide innovative services.”
Importance of teams in startups
Foroughi also pointed to the importance of teams in the success of startups, saying, “In startups, teams play a very important role in addition to the product. Considering the high rate of immigration in Iran, maintaining and strengthening capable teams is one of our main priorities.
The Cafe Bazaar team is very valuable to us, and if there is a change in the managers of this platform in the future, this change will be in the direction of improvement and progress. Of course, we are not looking for management changes at all, and our goal is to maintain constructive cooperation and joint growth.”
At the end of his speech, Foroughi pointed out the challenges and opportunities facing Tapsell and Cafe Bazaar and said: “We welcome competition and even see the removal of the Google Play filter as an opportunity. Our performance has shown that we can be successful in the competitive market and become the first choice of many businesses and users because the competition will make us progress.
Finally, I must say that being the first choice among companies does not mean monopoly, but creates an atmosphere similar to monopoly because everyone wants to work with us, and I recommend that other companies show the same performance.”
Cafe Bazaar has always been profitable and continues to be profitable
“Shahab Khodabakhsh”, the CEO of Cafe Bazaar, also mentioned the role of this platform in the formation of Iran’s digital ecosystem by reviewing the history of Cafe Bazaar. He said: “Cafe Bazaar started its activity in the early 90s at the same time as the popularity of smartphones in Iran. At that time, there was a need for a native app distribution platform and Cafe Bazaar filled the gap.
From the very beginning, this company has always been profitable and in 2014, with the development of Divar service, it took a big step towards expanding its services. Currently, between 45 and 50 million people use Bazaar, 13 years have passed since the beginning of the market, and we are considered the largest Android store in Iran.”
Khodabakhsh further mentioned the process of transferring the ownership of Cafe Bazaar to Tapsell and said: “I believe that we should ask why the investor has not left Cafe Bazaar until today, because the exit of shareholders after 13 years from a startup is very obvious and we had reached enough maturity since 2018.
We pitched Cafe Bazaar to multiple investors and finally, Tapsell made an attractive offer. Tapsell and three or four other investors were our final options and after careful consideration, we decided to transfer 100% of Cafe Bazaar shares to this group. This decision was made with the aim of creating synergy between the two companies and achieving greater success.”
Shahab Khodabakhsh mentioned the strategies of Hezardastan Holding and explained the main reason for the sale of Cafe Bazaar. He said: “The main reason for facilitating the sale of Cafe Bazaar was Hezardastan Holding’s strategies. This holding came to the conclusion around 2020 that Divar needs more focus and it is better not to fight on multiple fronts. Therefore, he decided to focus on the development and growth of Divar.”
He also mentioned the issue of Cafe Bazaar’s admission to the stock exchange and added: “We managed to get the certificate of admission to the stock exchange this year, but due to the change of shareholders, the process of entering the stock exchange has been delayed a little. “For now, there is some correspondence and paperwork left, which we hope will come to fruition soon.”
Combining the experiences of Tapsell and Bazaar will create a powerful synergy
Khodabakhsh highlighted the future collaboration between the two companies and said,
Cafe Bazaar is like a media outlet and Tapsell has been active in content areas for years. “Combining the experiences of these two companies can lead to the creation of more innovative and value-added services for users. We believe that this cooperation can lead to powerful synergy.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Khodabakhsh hinted at Cafe Bazaar’s future plans, saying, “AI has changed the world and we at Cafe Bazaar are using this technology to improve our services. Currently, many operations on this platform are done with the help of AI. Also, we are interested in the field of fintech and we believe that this field has a lot of room for growth in Iran. “Our plans to develop digital financial services are under review.”
BazaarPay has not stopped working
One of the other important issues that Shahab Khodabakhsh mentioned in the press conference was the fate of the BazaarPay service. BazaarPay, as one of Cafe Bazaar’s in-app payment services, has been helping digital developers and businesses better monetize for years. However, Khodabakhsh stressed that the service is not going to shut down, but there may be changes to its business model.
Khodabakhsh said: “BazaarPay is one of the important parts of the Cafe Bazaar ecosystem and we look at it as a strategic service. However, a final decision has not yet been taken on whether BazaarPay will operate as a B2B (business-to-business) or B2C (direct-to-consumer) model. We are considering different options to choose the best model to continue the service.”
He also mentioned BazaarPay’s past collaborations with services like Tapsi and said, “The termination of BazaarPay’s collaboration with Tapsi does not mean the service is closed. “We are looking to optimize and improve our services and may see changes in the way we offer BazaarPay services in the future.”
Cafe Bazaar has not experienced a decrease in visitors and users after filtering
Shahab Khodabakhsh continued his speech and also mentioned a topic that was of interest to many technology industry analysts: After removing the Google Play filter, the number of visitors to Cafe Bazaar has not changed significantly. This topic not only shows the strength of the Cafe brand, but can also provide interesting analysis about the behavior of users and the future of digital platforms in Iran.
Khodabakhsh said: “After the removal of the Google Play filter, many predicted that users would go to this global platform and Cafe Bazaar would face a significant decrease in visitors. But contrary to these predictions, we didn’t see any serious change in our visitor numbers. We have always been a serious opponent of the Google Play filter. By the way, now that Google Play has been unfiltered, we are very happy and we are sure that we are ready for development.
We were always more successful in periods when there were no filters and sanctions, because there are powerful foreign and domestic competitors that motivate growth. Even this time, removing the Google Play filter did not affect Bazaar’s performance, and our metrics did not change much, and this is a sign of our maturity and the stability that the market has reached.”
At the end of his speech, Khodabakhsh mentioned the value of the Cafe Bazaar brand and said: “Cafe Bazaar is one of the oldest and most reliable brands in Iran’s startup ecosystem. The company’s intangible assets, such as its experience, brand, and products, are highly valued. We are optimistic about the future of this company and believe that with Tapsell’s cooperation, we can achieve more success.”
According to Khodabakhsh, if a sharing of Tapsell and Bazaar data is established so that the user sees better ads, it will bring many benefits: “For example, a user sees a fun game, but an ad sees a mind game that he doesn’t like. Improving the display of ads and reducing annoying and irrelevant ads are the most important results of this subscription.”
The importance of the Tapsell and Bazaar deal for Iran’s startup ecosystem
This transaction is considered one of the biggest purchases in the history of Iran’s startup ecosystem and it shows the maturity of this ecosystem; The transfer of ownership of Cafe Bazaar to Tapsell can be a model for other startups and show that even in challenging economic conditions, it is possible to make big deals. The possible effects of this transaction on the technology industry are as follows:
1. Synergy: Combining the experiences of Cafe Bazaar in the field of application distribution and Tapsell in the field of advertising and content can lead to the creation of innovative services.
2. Healthy competition: The deal could increase competition in areas such as digital advertising, app distribution and fintech.
3. Internationalization: The joint plans of these two companies to expand their activities outside of Iran can help to introduce Iranian technology at the global level.
As mentioned, the purchase of Cafe Bazaar by Tapsell is not only a big financial deal, but also represents an important development in Iran’s startup ecosystem. The deal could lead to synergies between the two companies and pave the way for further innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence, fintech and digital advertising. However, the success of this cooperation depends on managing the challenges ahead and making the best use of the opportunities.
This deal also shows that Iran’s startup ecosystem is still dynamic and growing despite economic and political challenges. In the coming months and years, we should see the effects of this deal on Iran’s technology industry and even beyond the country’s borders.
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