Digikala

The DigiKala Group is an Iranian e-commerce company based in Tehran, founded in July 2006 by Hamid Mohammadi and Saeid Mohammadi.

The e-commerce platform digikala.com offers a wide range of consumer products, which includes sports and entertainment goods, electronics, groceries, personal products, and digital products with a return option and express delivery service. The group also has subsidiaries involved in other areas of ecommerce.

History and growth
DigiKala was founded in 2006 by the brothers Hamid and Saeid Mohammadi, prompted by an unpleasant experience they had trying to buy a digital camera. The pair used $10,000 of their own savings to start the company. The company's valuation was $150 million in 2014 and $500 million in late 2015. As of 2021, more than 4 million products have been offered for sale by nearly 160,000 sellers. In 2021, the platform had 30 million visitors per month and 17.2 million visits per day. In May 2022 it was ranked as Iran's 2nd most visited website.

DigiKala has benefited from the Iran's increasing digitization. By 2017, 62% of Iran's households were connected to the Internet and this development has driven demand for Internet services that mirror Western digital platforms. The company does not publicize its revenue, but has said sales are growing at a rate of 200% a year, and that it is receiving orders from even the most remote villages in Iran.

Iran's economic volatility forced DigiKala to lay off 175 workers in 2018. To survive, the platform adopted several initiatives such as a pay-per-sale strategy which allow users to receive a commission if a directed customer purchases a product. In March 2019, DigiKala also addressed the issue of author authenticity of products in the platform after receiving complaints over the quality of goods being sold. In a statement, the company claimed that only 0.2% of the 2 million products sold were unoriginal and that the company has taken steps to implement stringent quality control.

Investment
DigiKala started with Hamid and Saeed Mohammadi's initial personal investment.

Office building hijab shutdown
Vanak Plaza 31, In 23 July 2023 its office was shutdown by law enforcement command for lack of hijab by its businesswomen.

Shareholders
The ownership structure of Digikala e-commerce group was publicly the CEO of Digikala. Accordingly, 33.12% of the company's shares belong to Hamid and Saeed Mohammadi, the co-founders of Digikala, followed by IIIC European Investment Fund with 32.67%, Sarava Pars Company with 25.64%, incentive shares for managers and key employees with 4.46%, and other shareholder companies with 11.4%, including Lilian Mod Tejarat, Bazar Ati Ara, Pomegranate Investment AB, Kia Asa Tejarat Toos, and Pars Gostar Dina.

Number of employees
In 2021, Digikala planned to increase its number of associates to 10,000. As of 2022, Digikala employs more than 8,000 people.

Products and services
At first, DigiKala sold only digital and electronic goods on its website. Since 2014, DigiKala has changed its strategy to become an online store with many different types of goods available.

Subsidiaries
The DigiKala Group is active in logistics, e-commerce, content, fintech, martech, and innovative fields. Digikala owns more than 10 subsidiaries, including Fidibo, Digistyle, Digipay, Pindo and Komoda.

Fidibo
Fidibo is a Persian e-book store that has been operating since March 2014. Digikala bought an interest in the company in 2016 and became its main owner in 2017.

Digistyle
Digistyle, an online fashion and clothing store, was founded in 2016.

Digipay
Digipay was founded in 2018, focusing on mobile and web payments. Digipay services include Smart IPG, merchant management dashboard, mobile payment gateways, customer refund services, personal and organizational wallets, mobile payment applications, and installment purchase facilities.

Komoda
Komoda is a social buy-and-sell startup platform. It was founded in July 2018 and has been a Digikala group member since late 2019.

Pindo
In 2021, DigiKala launched Pindo, a platform for registering Consumer to Consumer advertisements.

Smartech
Smartech offers marketing technology services and was added to the Digikala group in 2019.

DigiExpress
DigiExpress provides online Logistics Services and was founded in 2019.

Digikala Jet
Launched in 2021, DigiKala Jet is a personalized online grocery shop in major cities like Tehran, Karaj, Mashhad, and Shiraz.

Lawsuit
In 2024, the attorney general of Iran threatened legal action for selling coffee mugs and shoes decorated with the name of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad and wife of the first Shiite imam Ali.