Iranian youth are falling in love with a Russian instant messaging app that is also gaining popularity in the Arab world. ICQ Messenger was the original instant messaging service that set the trend for today’s applications. Originally it was developed in Israel and later was acquired by the Mail.ru Group. Igor Ermakov, the head of the Instant Messaging division at Mail.ru, gave an interview to Sputnik Persia about the app and its popularity among Russian, Iranian and Arab youth. Sputnik reports: First it was the Telegram instant messaging service and now it is ICQ that is gaining major recognition in Iran. The company Mail.Ru Group just announced its intention to promote ICQ Messenger in the Iranian market. The company’s Vice President Yuri Gorska said, “We are engaged in the marketing investigation and research of the Iranian market. Our company is working with IT-specialists of this country and wants to learn all the rules of the game so that when we come into the market we don’t lose.” To date, about 35 thousand Iranian users have already downloaded the ICQ messenger. In an interview with Sputnik Persia, Igor Ermakov explained the new-found popularity of ICQ. “At the end of last year we completely updated our [...]