Factors Affecting the Entry of Iranian Media Companies into the Social Network Market

Foreign media companies have attracted the majority of the domestic market of social media in Iran. Despite imposed restriction on Telegram, it is considered as the main player in this field and domestic companies have not been able to compete in this area. Since the local messengers failed to compete with the foreign social media platforms even under supportive and regulatory policies by the government, it is crucial to pursue competitive market-based strategies and identify the factors affecting the entry of domestic media companies into this market. Consequently, it can lead to providing a comprehensive overview for businesses intending to enter this market. Although awareness of the present situation and identification of effective factors does not lead to the development of an entry or business model, it can prepare the ground for the formation of a perspective based on competitive strategies in this ecosystem for business managers. In this paper, the key factors influencing the entry of domestic media companies into the mobile phone messaging market have been identified based on Porter's five competitive-force model.

The present exploratory study was conducted using the content analysis method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 experts in different fields and managers of internal media. The purposeful sampling was applied and the theoretical saturation rule was used to determine the sample size. Qualitative analysis method and qualitative coding technique were used to analyze the data.

The research findings indicate that following factors are the most significant factors affecting the entry of Iranian media companies into the social media market: "transmission difficulty and technological adhesion", "poor quality of local messengers", "difficulty of providing capable manpower", "technical infrastructure problems", "wrong filtering method", "political outlook and destructive local competition", "lack of comparative advantage and appropriate development model", "strong global competitors", "lack of a comprehensive reference law in the field of media", and finally "media reputation problems".

Regarding the existing condition of the domestic media environment, the empowerment of the political perspective has caused various institutions to be interested in developing social media messengers. It has led to the increasing entry of new competitors into the market. However, these institutions have not succeeded in designing a proper business model based on the value chain of messengers.