Hamihan wrote: Yesterday, it was reported that the office building of Digikala, an online retail platform, was temporarily closed. The reason for this incident was made clear by the photos posted of Digikala female employees, where female employees sometimes do not wear headscarves. A problem, of course, became a problem for Digikala in February last year, and they announced by publishing a statement that the photos posted were not of the Digikala premises. But this time, the PR of this brand confirmed the news of the closure of the office building, although they confirmed that the online part of Digikala is active.
Attribution of the veiled advertisement to Digikala
At the beginning of February 1401 and during the unrest in the country, pictures of naked girls were posted on Twitter and Instagram, which caused a sensation for the Digikala platform. The story is that the official page of Digikala liked the pictures of the veiled girls. This case led to the rumor that these people are employees of Digikala. In the aftermath of these events, the Tehran Prosecutor ordered the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Police to identify the perpetrators. Ali Salehi, the Public Prosecutor of Tehran, in response to the publication of these photos in cyberspace, stated that after examining the matter, Digikala’s legal representative was invited to the Tehran Public Prosecutor’s Office to provide clarifications on this issue. However, some hard-line local media outlets published reports titled “Digikala Behjabi Payee” and demanded to deal with this Iranian brand. Digikala’s legal vice president informed the Tehran Public Prosecutor’s Office that the place where people’s headscarves were discovered is not inside the company, the photos were not published by Digikala employees, and of course, the people intended to destroy and abuse them. In a letter titled “Considerations for Dress in the Workplace,” Digikala told its employees to follow the country’s laws, including the Islamic headscarf.
Earlier, the London media attacks
Not only was “Digikala” attacked by some local media, but in a period of four months, from the end of November to the end of February 1401, it was attacked by social media and some media on the other side of the water. The story began when the international network, in a report entitled “Who’s Behind the Two-Face Youth of Digikala”, presented this online retailer as government-linked and described a $100 million investment in 1995 in a shady startup. In this network’s report, referring to Sarava’s presence as Digikala’s investor, $100 million investment in this company is mentioned as a strange measure.
But Hamid Mohammadi, CEO of Digikala, indicated in his tweet that this startup, with the initial capital of its founders and the efforts of the best young people in the country, achieved 6 years of 100% growth without attracting capital, and in 2011 it was necessary to register a new private equity company to attract capital. Mohammadi added, following the series of tweets: “In 2015, the first foreign investment in the amount of $100 million was attracted from a European fund, and at that time we were not a new startup!” We were a 10-year-old company.”
The founder of Digikala continues to write: “Digikala did not have any direct or indirect shareholders from the beginning of its activity until today, and Sarava (presented by Iran International as the owner of Digikala) is a private company that today owns 26% of the shares (in Digikala). This does not mean Sarava’s ownership of digital goods, as this was part of (Iran International’s) lies.”
Digital goods and people
Just a few days ago Digikala published its annual report. A public report was difficult for everyone, and even more difficult for them. According to Central Bank data, online shopreki business transaction volume and DigiKala’s share is estimated at 4% of the total online retail share, 2% of the share of online stores and 2% of the share of social networks, half of the share of online stores is for DigiKala. But one of the things added in the 1401 report was an ISPA survey that surveyed the Digikala brand among people. He stated in his annual report: “To become a well-known and beloved brand for all Iranians and to provide the best services to customers, prompted us to conduct social and professional research to obtain a detailed understanding of people’s opinions, tastes and judgments.” The statistics published in this report are substantial. For example, somewhere the statistical community was asked: “In general, when you hear the name Digikala, how do you feel about this company?” Just over 61% of respondents said they had a good or very good feeling about the brand, and only about 5% had a bad feeling. It is also mentioned in this report that for the second year, Digikala was introduced as the first employer famous brand in Iran Talent’s famous employer brand report in 1401.
Hasty decisions and their impact
He says it has been one of the most successful brands in Iran in recent years. However, there seem to be currents that do not support the development of Iran’s technological ecosystem. Domestic extremists and foreign extremists have been throwing all kinds of stones in the path of this ecosystem for a long time. Digikala, which has just gone through critical days, on Saturday night encountered the same problems it had in February last year. The publication of some non-veiled photos attributed to Digikala employees led to the closure of Digikala’s office building this time by order of Amken. The public relations of this company announced that the Digikala online store is still active and all departments are serving and fulfilling their obligations to customers and sellers. It is noteworthy that the Judicial News Agency announced last night the formation of a “judicial case regarding the headscarf of female employees in one of the Digikala departments.” Of course, Digikala’s public relations announced that the online part of this platform is still active in serving people and there is no problem about this problem in the online part. Like other frequent incidents, it is likely that the Digikala problem will be resolved soon and the administrative office of this company will be closed, but the main question is whether hasty decision makers have ever thought about the increasing immigration of Iran’s expert forces, material and spiritual capital, and assessed the impact of their behavior?
