What happened at the “Smart Economy and Financial Development” conference: From the latest Snapp and Digikala statistics to the promise of several startups going public
The first national conference of “Smart Economy and Financial Development” was held yesterday. The CEO of Tehran Stock Exchange announced in this event that one of the largest companies in the digital economy will be listed on the stock exchange within a month. The CEO of Snapp also pointed to the daily record of 4 million trips in Snapp and stated that they are now among the 5 largest companies in the world in the field of online transportation. The financial vice president of Digikala also said that this company has delivered more than 130 million goods in the form of more than 29 million orders in 1401.
The first national conference of “Smart Economy and Financial Development” organized by Iran Financial Association was held yesterday. Managers from the Stock Exchange Organization, National Bank and private companies in the field of digital economy were present in this conference.
“Mahmoud Gudarzi”, the CEO of Tehran Stock Exchange Company, announced in this conference that one of the big digital economy companies will enter the stock market by the end of the month: knowledge-based companies in the capital markets of the world have risen strangely in the rankings. 32.5% of the total IPO of the world’s capital markets was related to technological companies. We are also trying to admit one of the largest companies in the field of digital economy to the Tehran Stock Exchange by the end of this month.”
Gouderzi also promised that another large company from the field of digital economy will enter the stock market in June.
He believes that they do not define a special board for technological companies in the world “We are not looking for this either. These companies must have a defined index.”
What happened at the “Smart Economy and Financial Development” conference: From the latest Snap and Digikala statistics to the promise of several startups going public
The first national conference of “Smart Economy and Financial Development” was held yesterday. In this event, the CEO of Tehran Stock Exchange announced that one of the largest digital economy companies will be listed on the stock exchange within a month. The CEO of Snapp also pointed to the daily record of 4 million trips in Snap and stated that they are now among the 5 largest companies in the world in the field of online transportation. The financial vice president of Digikala also said that this company has delivered more than 130 million goods in the form of more than 29 million orders in 1401.
The first national conference of “Smart Economy and Financial Development” organized by Iran Financial Association was held yesterday. Managers from the Stock Exchange Organization, National Bank and private companies in the field of digital economy were present in this conference.
“Mahmoud Gudarzi”, CEO of Tehran Stock Exchange Company, announced in this conference that one of the big digital economy companies will enter the stock market by the end of the month:
“Knowledge-based companies in the capital markets of the world have risen strangely in the rankings. 32.5% of the total IPO of the world’s capital markets was related to technological companies. We are also trying to admit one of the largest companies in the field of digital economy to the Tehran Stock Exchange by the end of this month.”
Gouderzi also promised that another large company from the field of digital economy will enter the stock market in June.
He believes that they do not define a special board for technological companies in the world “We are not looking for this either.” These companies must have a defined index.
Mohammad Khansari, the head of the Information Technology Organization, also pointed to the experiences of the smart government and said: “There are many experiences of intelligentization in the government. People do not need to refer to different devices or systems to receive a national service and receive service from a single portal. Currently, 97 percent of devices are connected to the national portal of government services.
Stating that more than 1900 different services are provided to 330 devices in the information exchange center, he stated that in 1401, more than 4 billion requests for the Corona check service were registered, which the private sector used to protect people’s health.
“Mehran Moharmian”, Vice President of New Technologies of the Central Bank, stated in this event: “The Ministry of Digital Economy, which is an updated version of the Ministry of Communications, has been formed in some countries, and its potential can be seen in our country.”
He dedicated his speech at the Smart Economy Conference to the discussion of financial crimes and said:
“The global statistics of financial crimes and its effects on the performance of companies show that in companies with revenue above 10 billion dollars, more than half of these companies experienced an economic crime in the previous two years, which for 18% of them led to huge revenue effects. In this field, cybercrime plays a prominent role. “There has also been customer fraud and misappropriation of assets.”
Snapp among the 5 largest companies in the world
“Mohammed Khalaj”, the CEO of Snapp, was another speaker of this conference, in which he announced that these online taxis are now among the 5 largest companies in the world in the field of online transportation:
“We have approximately 20 companies in the Snapp group, serving 55 million users and 10-12 million people using our app every day. We have 5 million registered driver users, of which 1.2 million are active monthly. With a record of 4 million trips per day, Snapp is among the 5 largest companies in the world in the field of online transportation.
He believes that high-quality internet and proper access to it is necessary for the growth and promotion of the country in the international field of digital economy: “Unfortunately, not much investment has been made in the field of communication and telecommunication infrastructure.”
“Ali Abdulahi”, CEO of National Informatics Company, referring to various approaches in the field of artificial intelligence, believes that the best approach to which the smart economy can be tied is the system building approach: “Intelligent system is a self-adaptive learning system based on intelligent agents. “Smart tax, smart insurance, smart startup, etc. are the same smart agents.”
Stating that achieving a smart economy is a requirement, he emphasizes that in order to become smart, you must have digital capabilities and you cannot become smart overnight:
“Iran ranked 75th in the artificial intelligence readiness index in 2022 and 72nd in 2021. If we want to change this situation, we must have quick financing and investment to effectively exploit the opportunities. “If we start today and invest one billion dollars annually, we can play a role in the smart economy.”
“Mohammedreza Hamidi”, Vice President of Shasta Science Foundation, stated in this conference that generally in the country, smartness is reduced to tools, while tools are a part of the issue of smart economy:
“The dragon of intelligence has three characters: “decision”, “diagnosis” and “execution”, and its four heads are “individual”, “process”, “structure” and “system”. If any of them is not there, there is no fruitfulness and it is not possible to move towards intelligentization.
He emphasized that it is not possible to reach new goals with old ways and transformation requires a transformational perspective.
DigiKala sold 130 million items in 1401.
“Javad Najafi”, the financial vice president of Digikala, announced in this conference that this company has delivered more than 130 million goods in the form of more than 29 million orders in 1401.
Najafi also said that last year Digikala had 10 million active customers, 320 thousand sellers and 8700 employees and offered more than 8.2 million products on its platform.
According to him, the share of the retail market in Iran is 60 billion dollars, and online retail has a 4% share of this market. The financial vice president of Digikala said that 50% of the online market share is owned by Digikala and the other half is owned by social networks.
Najafi called the development of social justice, job creation, creation of new ideas and increasing productivity in the entire ecosystem as the benefits of an innovative economy.
“Ali Fayazbakhsh”, CEO of Sarava Company, said in this conference: “Looking at the Tehran Stock Exchange and comparing their technology indices with the overall index, we realize that more than 55% of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and 20% of the New York Stock Exchange are made up of technology-oriented companies; But technology-oriented companies make up only 2.83 percent of the Tehran Stock Exchange.”
According to him, currently 19.5% of the world stock market is made up of technology-oriented companies. Among the 7315 most valuable companies in the world with a value of more than 88 trillion dollars, there are 908 technology-oriented companies with a value of more than 19 trillion dollars.
FayyazBakhsh considered reducing the emigration of elites and bringing them back as one of the advantages of investing in technology-oriented companies and said that out of 25 key managers of Digikala, 10 to 12 of them were educated in foreign universities and worked in international companies.
He emphasizes that technology and, consequently, technology-oriented companies have a significant impact on energy, time and cost efficiency: “With the help of technology, Digikala has reduced the route of its fleet by 34% and the delivery time by 11%, as well as increasing the utilization or reducing the number of the fleet by 37%.”
Referring to the calculations made with the purchasing power method, the CEO of Sarava stated that Iran’s gross domestic product is currently estimated between 200 and 300 billion dollars: “Now, assuming that 0.15 of the gross domestic product is invested in an Iranian company, we will reach a capital between 300 and 450 million dollars, which is far from the current procedure of attracting capital in Iran.”
Source: Digiato
He considered the need for the development of Iranian businesses in the countries of the region to attract the required capital and said that if the required capital of these companies is provided, countries like Iraq and Afghanistan are suitable options for the development of Iranian businesses.
Fayyazbakhsh believes that the cost of creating jobs in digital economy businesses is much lower than the cost of creating jobs in upstream and parent industries.
HamrahCart is offered in the stock market
Masoud Vakilinia, CEO of Farda Communication Group, the digital arm of Ayandeh Bank, expressed his hope that this year the company’s entry into the stock market will be completed and we will see the public offering of this company in the first half of the year.
According to him, the mobile card collection with more than 20 million installations is also waiting to enter the capital market: “We hope to start the process of its stock exchange this year and use the nature of the capital market for the growth of subsidiary companies.”
Stating that the market value of knowledge-based companies in the world is more than 9 thousand billion dollars, Vakilinia believes that the leading country and the leading economy are avoiding the development of knowledge-based companies: “I hope that with the presence of more knowledge-based and technology-oriented companies in the capital market, we will witness the growth of the investment ecosystem.”
Mohammadsadeq Karimi Mehrabadi, Vice President of Strategic Planning and Project Management of Rightel also announced in this conference that 90% of the companies that enter the startup space will completely disappear after a few years.
He considered one of the most important reasons for the failure of startups to be jumping from innovation with technical functions and said that not using new technologies can lead to failure.
Saying that an average 10% increase in mobile bandwidth leads to a 0.8% increase in GDP, Karimi said that the more accessible the mobile phone network in the country and the higher the speed, the higher the country’s GDP will be.
The importance of innovation in the smart economy
As another speaker at the Smart Economy Conference, Keyvan Mohitmafi, the CEO of DigiNext, mentioned the importance of innovation and said: “97 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies list innovation as their top priority, and 94 percent are dissatisfied with their organization’s current plans for innovation.”
According to him, in the absence of innovation, the slow pace of research and development activities, the inability to create a competitive advantage, and problems caused by stagnation in the market will occur.
Mohitmafi pointed out the main reasons for the failure of startups and said: “42% lack of need to market and not assessing the market, 29% lack of liquidity and 23% inappropriate teammates. We are trying to solve the first and third in DigiNext, but regarding the second reason, laws and policies are needed.”
He cited the challenges of financing in the field of startups and technology as the short-term and risk-averse view, the difficulty of exiting the investor before entering the stock market, uncertain economic and policy conditions, and global sanctions for foreign investment. Mohitmafi considered the high global demand and the possibility of product export, human resources with competitive domestic talent, small initial investment with a very high growth rate and creating real value and solving problems on a global scale as investment opportunities in this field.
