Platforms put a number on what their sellers and creators earn

Digikala and Aparat put a figure on what their sellers and creators take in. Vaib extends credit to pensioners, Sepidar moves to the cloud and the card network adds online refunds.

The week in numbers

1.2 billion toman, Digikala’s average sales per seller, year to March 2026. 326 billion toman, creators’ earnings on Aparat, as its chief executive stated them. 100,000, Vaib’s daily transactions, a record by its own count.

This week’s signals

Market · e-commerce. Digikala’s average seller sold 1.2 billion toman in the year to March 2026. The figure comes from data in Digikala’s annual report for the year to 20 March 2026, which also estimates the platform’s share of Iran’s total retail at 1.8 percent. The same report counts 426,865 active sellers at the year’s end, the base the average is spread across. The item gives an average only: no median, no top seller’s sales and no breakdown by category or city. Company report, as relayed. Why it matters: Digikala’s own reports, on our record, put the average at 360 million toman in the year to March 2023, 588 million a year later and 831 million in the year to March 2025, so the latest year’s rise is about 44 percent in toman, before inflation. TI record 29 Oct 2026 · Signal record.

Market · media. Aparat’s chief executive puts creators’ earnings on the platform at 326 billion toman. Mostafa Ahmadi gave the figure at Aparat’s second specialist panel at the Media Expo exhibition, titled “From views to income”. He said a main task of a video platform is to bring each video to the right audience, and pointed to Aparat’s growth in short videos. The passage we hold states no period for the 326 billion toman, no creator count and no measure of how the figure is counted. Executive statement, as relayed. Why it matters: On our record Aparat said on its creators page that it paid creators more than 283 billion toman in the year to March 2026, and because this figure carries no period the two cannot be read as growth. TI record 31 Oct 2026 · Signal record.

Product · fintech. Vaib reports 100,000 transactions a day and extends purchase credit to Social Security pensioners. The platform says it recorded 100,000 transactions in a day and is expanding credit for pensioners of the Social Security Organization. Under a plan it calls “digital salary”, pensioners’ purchase credit is to be switched on from the 20th of each month. Vaib also says it offers credit facilities of up to 500 million toman and plans to extend its services to other salaried groups. The item names no lender, rate, term or user count. Company announcement, as relayed. Why it matters: The largest credit line Digipay reported for a single user in the year to March 2026, on our record, was also 500 million toman, so Vaib’s stated ceiling sits at the top of what an established provider says it has granted. TI record 1 Nov 2026 · Signal record.

Product · enterprise software. Sepidar unveils a cloud edition of its business software, with an AI assistant and no installation. Sepidar Cloud was unveiled on Thursday 29 October 2026, the second day of System Group’s event. It adds an AI assistant, a staff workspace, a network between companies and an accounting services network to financial, commercial and administrative systems. It runs in System Group’s data centres and, unlike the current Sepidar, needs no local installation; businesses can try and buy it online. The item gives no price and no customer count. Product launch, as relayed. Why it matters: System Group’s own filing of 22 April 2026, on our record, set up jointly owned cloud software for Sepidar’s market with its subsidiary Sepidar System Asia, revenue split 20 to 80 in the subsidiary’s favour, though neither source says this product falls under that agreement. TI record 29 Oct 2026 · Signal record.

Infrastructure · payments. Iran’s interbank card network, Shetab, moves to version 8, with online refunds and support for chip cards. The network’s operator says version 8 is in operation, with changes to security, encryption and the protocol banks use to exchange messages. It provides the base for services such as purchases with prior authorisation, online refunds to the card and transactions on smart cards built to the EMV standard. The item does not say when banks or payment providers will offer these services to customers, and gives no transaction volume. Operator announcement, as relayed. Why it matters: Alibaba.ir alone recorded 881,849 refunds of purchased orders in the year to March 2026, on our record, so the refund route the network now provides meets a flow that one platform on our registry counts in the hundreds of thousands. TI record 1 Nov 2026 · Signal record.

From the registry: additions and evidence updates

Two records added at reported tier: Vaib and Sepidar, with legal name, website, group and ownership left blank until a source establishes them. Evidence drawn from the record: Digikala’s seller averages across four annual reports, Aparat’s earlier creator statement and its 2021 report, Digipay’s largest credit line, System Group’s April filing and Alibaba.ir’s refund count, each with its passage on file.

Analysis: Platforms put a number on what their sellers and creators earn

In one week two of the largest platforms on our registry put a figure on what their sellers and creators take in. Digikala’s average seller sold 1.2 billion toman in the year to March 2026 (signal 1). Aparat’s chief executive put creators’ earnings at 326 billion toman (signal 2).

Digikala’s figure has a history on our record: 360 million toman a seller in the year to March 2023, then 588 million, 831 million and now 1.2 billion, rises of about 63, 41 and 44 percent, all in toman and before inflation.

An average hides the shape of the base. The Digikala year on our record that gives both the average and the top is the year to March 2023: the largest single seller sold 224 billion toman, about 620 times the average. Later reports on our record give the average and the count, 426,865 active sellers at the end of the year to March 2026, but not the top or a median.

Aparat’s figure is harder to read. Its period is not stated in the passage we hold, and its creators page, on our record since 4 October, put payments at more than 283 billion toman for the year to March 2026. The only creator count on our record, more than 4,800 in its monetisation programme, dates from the year to July 2021, so neither total gives a figure per creator.

Our hypothesis, labelled as one: platforms publish these figures to recruit and keep sellers and creators who can sell or post elsewhere. The record gives it some support. Aparat’s earlier figure came with an invitation to creators to repost short videos made for Instagram and YouTube, and Digikala’s sellers put their satisfaction with the platform at 63.55 percent in the year to March 2025, by its own report.

No public evidence identified on our record of either platform publishing a median, or the share going to its largest sellers or creators, for the latest year. That figure, when published, tells a new seller or creator what to expect.

What to watch: the period behind Aparat’s 326 billion toman and a current creator count; a median for Digikala’s sellers; the lender behind Vaib’s pensioner credit; Sepidar Cloud’s price; and the first bank or provider to offer refunds online on the card network.

Every named company is resolved to the Tehran Index registry; every published figure carries a source and evidence state, and every signal links to its record, where the source trail is exposed. Date basis: where a source publication date has not been independently verified, the date shown is the date the item entered the Tehran Index record, labelled “TI record”. FX: this edition carries no dollar conversion. Digikala’s seller averages and Aparat’s earlier creator payments cover periods that ended more than 90 days ago and are given in toman as published; the week’s other figures are recent or carry no stated period and are not converted.