Despite sanctions from the US, some of Iran's high-tech firms are thriving. From application companies to smartphone makers, they're trying to survive from US economic pressure. Our correspondent Hossein Nematzadeh has the details from Tehran.

There are more than 64 million mobile internet users in the Islamic Republic of Iran -- a country of 80 million people. Smartphone ownership has sky-rocketed while the country's Internet penetration rate has reached over 90%. Usage of the mobile internet has risen in Iran along with the growth of social media and start-ups. Iranian tech entrepreneurs have learned to live with and develop under the US sanctions.

HOSSEIN NEMATZADEH CGTN REPORTER "Apple and Google have removed popular Iranian apps from their online stores. Access to some American social media apps is also restricted here but locally established android and IOS markets have filled the void. The Café Bazaar is an Iranian giant android market that's emerged because of the US sanctions."

AMIN AMIRSHARIFI CEO OF CAFE BAZAAR "Café Bazaar was launched about eight years ago when Google Play stopped its service for Iranian users. A team of students from Sharif University of technology started working on an application called Bazaar, which means market or market place."

Cafe Bazaar was launched in 2011. It is now the most popular app store among Iranians. It offers apps one can see in Google Play and local apps as well, making room for Iranian startups and app developers to launch their products in their homeland.

AMIN ALI REZA AHMADI, MANAGER MEDIA DEPARTMENT OF CAFE BAZAAR "Google play is actually not available in Iran, you have a lot of Iranian people looking to international market place for applications and technologies for their daily lives, you have a lot of developers in Iran were trying to produce applications in games both groups were having trouble dealing with international marketplace, and what happens if we end up creating this bridge between those two communities and things really take off from there."

Cafe Bazaar now has 40 million users. There are over one hundred eighty thousand apps available in Café Bazaar's platform covering a wide range of categories. The value of the company is estimated to be at 380 million euros. Café Bazar is increasingly looking towards games to drive future revenue as Iran has an estimated 25 million gamers.

AMIN AMIRSHARIFI CEO OF CAFE BAZAAR "Cafe Bazaar is planning to expand its business with international game developing companies we can help them to localize their apps and games in Iran for Iranian users."

AMIN ALI REZA AHMADI, MANAGER MEDIA DEPARTMENT OF CAFE BAZAAR "We are going to go to ChinaJoy in August, it is going to be a great opportunity for us to directly engage with those game developers so its going to be a really good opportunity to see what we can do in terms of expanding the cooperation that we already have with Chinese developers."

Talented young Iranians haven't let the US keep their country from enjoying the global trends in business and technology. Iran's ICT minister said that the absence of US tech giants such as Amazon, Google Play and Uber have allowed their Iranian equivalents to grow rapidly thanks to 3G and 4G technology, with 5G on the way. Hossein Nematzadeh, CGTN Tehran.