Last updated:

October 24, 2024

“Internet businesses are struggling/ The sun of barley”

Is there a significant economic benefit for the supporters of the plan to protect the virtual space behind the curtain?

How do rentiers benefit from the profit protection plan and by what method?

What benefits does this plan have for defenders?

Answering these questions requires large-scale investigations and research, but it seems that by implementing this “exclusive” spatial plan, it can take shape in the field of online services. By creating a closed and limited space on the Internet, information rentiers and behind-the-scenes investors can gain the power to design and offer domestic applications and platforms. The supply side of this market falls into the hands of influential “insiders” and the demand side, which includes emerging internet businesses and the people and customers, will have no choice but to support these national examples. Domestic rentiers forcibly eliminate global competitors in the virtual space, and as a result, a large portion of the audience turns to insecure domestic platforms to meet their needs in emergency situations. Apart from how successful alternative native applications have been so far, it forces online businesses to close. This situation is likely to have a lot in common with the automotive industry, which has a large number of “unwanted customers” due to its absolute monopoly. Therefore,

But how much does it cost to create a job in Iran and how have social networks taken the place of productive investments?

How much have governments spent on internet disruptions, slowdowns, and interruptions so far?

Which social network is more popular among Iranians for business?

And does the employment protection plan threaten several people?

These are the questions that the upcoming report is trying to answer.

Whatever happens, now the possibility of losing access to the internet can be added to the end of the queue of economic insecurities; a possibility that could permanently remove Iran from the global economic scene and place it alongside countries like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Turkmenistan; all in a time when most countries in the world are moving towards the new generation of internet and the experience of higher speeds for better income. The internet outage can become the third side of the poverty triangle; after sanctions and an economic growth rate close to zero percent.

Many consider this plan to be a carrier of “economic black intelligence”, a content that some even suspect the Russians have prepared for Iran.

How much does creating a job cost?

Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp have taken over the hand of home businesses in a time when Iran’s economy is struggling to survive, as evidenced by statistics. The economic growth rate, inflation rate and unemployment rate are all accurate indicators of the critical state of business and production in the country. Last month, the Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, Mr. Raeisi, said that “with one million tomans, it is possible to create a productive job.” (2) Although Mr. Abdolmaleki did not explain how a job can be created with this amount of capital, he was likely referring to various small home-made products and sales through online applications. However, the statistics of the Ministry of Industry clearly show how much it costs to create a job in different sectors of the economy.

As the statistics of the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade show, the average investment required to create an industrial job has been on an upward trend since 2018. In 2017, the required investment for each job in the industrial sector was equivalent to 280 million tomans. The following year, it increased to 590 million tomans, and in 2020, it reached a significant jump of 1.48 billion tomans. According to the Ministry’s statistics, the average capital required to establish a production unit in 2020 has reached 25.5 billion tomans. (3) Similarly, the nine-month statistics of the Ministry of Industry in 2021 show that investment in the basic metals sector is the most costly investment. 224 trillion tomans is spent to create jobs for only 47,324 people, which means that each job costs 4.7 billion tomans. (4) In this situation, the government has also announced its plan

The most beloved platform is Instagram.

In recent years, online commerce has been aided by the large army of unemployed Iranians. In the first ten months of 2019, around ten thousand businesses were successful in obtaining the “E-Namad” (E-Namad) or electronic trust symbol. This number had a growth rate of one hundred percent in the following year and reached around twenty-eight thousand. The boom in the virtual space has occurred at a time when Iran’s economy has faced a negative growth rate of 4.6% and the widespread COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. According to a member of the board of directors of the Union and Association of Virtual Businesses, this number has now reached between forty to fifty thousand people. Although there is still no survey that indicates the quantity and quality of Iranians’ presence in the online business space, the Iranian open database has revealed some aspects of Iranians’ presence in online businesses. According to this survey, one-third of respondents use the virtual space to generate income. Six

What this statistic reveals is the destructive impact of internet disruption or restriction on businesses and self-employed individuals; consequences that the Iranian government has repeatedly imposed on internet users.

How much does internet disruption and disconnection cost?

Although internet censorship and restrictions have been a burden on citizens’ rights in Iran for over a decade, the complete shutdown of the internet in November 2019 and its slowdown in December 2017 have had heavy economic consequences. The vice chairman of the Internet Commission of the Tehran Computer Trade Association in 2017 stated that “according to the largest internet business activists in Iran, they have suffered 500 billion tomans in damages due to internet disruptions.” The secretary of the Internet Business Association also stated at the time that “with the continued filtering of the messaging application Telegram, more than 100,000 internet sellers across the country will lose their businesses,” which has likely come true to this day. After the internet shutdown in November 2019, Fatemeh Hosseini, the head of the Technology and Innovation Faction in the Parliament, stated that “direct damages to technology businesses have been estimated at 2.2 trillion tomans per day. The Islamic Consultative Assembly must limit internet access

How many jobs are being threatened now?

How many people are affected by the internet disruption in Iran for their livelihood? Although there is no official statistic on this issue, Reza Alfat-Nasab, a member of the board of directors of the Union and Business Association, had previously stated that today, 40 to 50 million users are on these platforms and the issue of providing their livelihood in chaotic economic conditions is very serious. Corona has also dealt a blow to many businesses and many jobs have been closed. In these circumstances, many people have turned to Instagram to make a living. The number of people employed on Instagram was 150 to 200 thousand before the spread of the coronavirus, but after the pandemic, this number has reached over 300 thousand and even the figure of one million has been mentioned. According to him, it is not possible to implement the protection plan in the current situation and it should not be like the head of the parliament who immediately announced that the platforms will not be blocked, giving false hope and denying

Disruption in the internet is destroying many job opportunities; a subject that has caused concern and despair for many people in working age. Perhaps the increase in Google searches for the word “migration” by Iranian users reflects the pain of concern about the internet being cut off.

Notes:

1- Malaki, Shida, discussed the effects of the conservation plan on the economy at Clubhouse: What is the economic background of the conservation plan?, Digito, 19 Esfand 1400.

2- Labor Minister: With one million tomans, a job can be created, online economy, 13 Dey month 1400.

3- Official website of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, Statistics and Information section.

4- Details of the behavior of industrialists in 9 months of 1400, Economy Online, 1 Esfand 1400.

5- Online Business: Instagram is the most widely used platform for Iranian income generation, Iran’s open database, March 3, 1400.

6- The immediate impact of Telegram filtering on online businesses in the country, Samet newspaper, 14 Dey 1396.

7- The internet shutdown “daily 2500 billion tomans” caused damage to the online economy, Radio Farda, 19 December 2019.

8- Does the plan for protecting the virtual space threaten the employment of several people?, Hamshahri Online, 10 August 2021.

Created By: خورشید شَعیری
March 21, 2022

Tags

Barley sun Censorship Filtering Instagram Instagram businesses Maintenance plan Monthly Peace Line Magazine Online businesses peace line Peace Line 131 The Commission for the Protection of the Parliament Trading platform ماهنامه خط صلح