Up to 60 percent of the Internet content in Iran is provided by local databases, the secretary of the Steering Council of Local Search Engines said at the launch of Parsijoo [Persian Search], an Iranian search engine.

Alireza Yari added, �The Iranians mostly search the Internet for news, ads, games and social networks.�Deputy Communications Minister Nasrollah Jahangard, who was also on hand at the event, said, �Up until two years ago, the ratio of databases hosted by Iran to those overseas was about 10 percent, but a recent report by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) shows that 64 percent of Iranian Internet users have local IP addresses, and that gives Iran the leading position in the region on that front.�