On a Saturday in mid-August, Iranian entrepreneur Mehdi Nayebi received an email from Apple Inc.’s App Store Review stating that his application, AloPeyk, a delivery service in Tehran, had been removed due to sanctions put in place by the U.S. government.
He wasn’t the only one. About a dozen other Iran-focused apps, including Delion Foods, a meals delivery startup, online store Digikala, Bamilo, an e-commerce marketplace, and ride-hailing app Snapp, were also similarly removed, according to Nayebi, and Delion’s co-founder Mahdi Taghizadeh.
