Belarus

Economy & income

1 USD = 2.89 BYN live rate

Currency: Belarusian ruble (BYN, Br); ~2.86 per USD (NBRB, Jul 2026)
GDP per capita: ~$8,600 nominal (2024, World Bank; ~$8.3k IMF est 2025)
~$33,200 PPP (2024, World Bank)
Average salary: ~$755 net/mo (Numbeo, Jun 2026; 2,156 BYN)
official gross avg ~3,000 BYN (~$1,050, Belstat/TradingEconomics, 2026)
Median salary: ~$730/mo (Belstat, Nov 2025; 2,082 BYN — released twice a year)
Minimum wage: 858 BYN/mo from 1 Jan 2026 (~$300/mo)
set by Council of Ministers, no regional variation
Cost of living: Low-Medium — Numbeo: cost of living ~52% below Germany
1-bed city-centre rent ~1,360 BYN (~$475), inexpensive meal ~30 BYN (Jun 2026)

Digital landscape

Population: ~9.0 million (2025; 8.98M per DataReportal Oct 2025, ~9.1M Belstat)
Internet users: 94.3% (~8.47M users; Oct 2025)
Social media users: 85.0% (~7.64M identities; 90.2% of internet users; Oct 2025)
Mobile connections: 11.4M cellular connections = 127% of population (Oct 2025)
Devices: desktop ~66% / mobile ~33.5% / tablet ~0.5% (StatCounter, Jun 2026 — Belarus is unusually desktop-heavy)
Ad spend: Total ad market ~314M BYN (~$110M, 2025)
digital ad spend ~$147M (Statista, 2024), largest segment banner/display
Top social platforms: TikTok ~7.64M 18+ ad reach

Instagram ~3.90M, 43.4%

LinkedIn ~1.10M, 12.2%

Facebook ~685K, 7.6%

Threads ~533K, 5.9%, fast-growing

X/Twitter ~176K, 2.0%
Messengers: Viber (very high penetration, legacy default)
Telegram (news channels + chat, dominant for content)
WhatsApp (secondary)
VK / VKontakte messages (RU-integrated)

Ad regulations

Gambling & betting Restricted

RESTRICTED — Legal but heavily state-controlled; online gaming/betting only via Ministry of Taxes & Duties (MTD) licence, Decree No.226 (Jun 2025) + national slot registry (Jan 2026); operators must be locally licensed and Minsk-based to accept crypto stakes

Crypto Legal

LEGAL — Legal and tax-exempt (extended through 2025) but only via High-Tech Park (HTP) residents under Decree No.8; exchanges/providers must register and operate inside HTP

Adult Banned

BANNED — Production/distribution/advertising of pornography is criminalized (up to 4 yrs); ISPs blacklist adult sites; 2024 rules classify LGBT/'non-traditional' depictions as pornography

Dating Allowed

ALLOWED — Mainstream dating permitted; adult/hook-up and any same-sex angle risk 'pornography'/'LGBT propaganda' enforcement — keep creatives modest and hetero-normative

Finance & loans Restricted

RESTRICTED — Consumer-credit & microloan ads overseen by MART + National Bank; must disclose full cost/APR, no misleading or aggressive claims

Nutra & pharma Restricted

RESTRICTED — Rx drugs and unapproved treatments cannot be advertised to the public; only Health-Ministry-approved products/claims; Rx ads limited to approved specialist media

Regulators

MART (Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation & Trade) — advertising
MTD — gambling
National Bank — finance
HTP — crypto

Notes

Ad Law No.225-Z (2007, amended)
Alcohol & tobacco advertising fully banned
Political/opposition content tightly controlled
'extremist' labels are a real legal risk
Russian-language creatives are standard.

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods: Bank cards — Visa/Mastercard, Belkart (national scheme) & Mir (~dominant in-store & online)
ERIP / Raschet (unified state billing system, 24 banks, ~13,000 points)
Cash (still common, esp. COD)
Mobile & internet banking apps
E-wallets: EasyPay
iPay
WebPay (gateway)
bePaid (gateway)
Belkart wallet (QR/NFC, Apple Pay/Samsung Pay via cards)
Cash on delivery: Cash-on-delivery still widely used for domestic e-commerce parcels, though card/online prepay is growing fast
E-commerce: Growing and marketplace-led
Wildberries + Ozon dominate, heavy cross-border shopping on Russian platforms
Notes: Belkart is the domestic card scheme
Mir accepted
Visa/MC still issued locally
Western rails constrained by sanctions — PayPal and many global gateways/subscriptions unavailable, so users rely on Russian/foreign cards & VPNs for foreign services.

Audience & culture

Languages: Russian (dominant; ~71% speak it at home)
Belarusian (co-official; ~26%, more symbolic/rural)
Religion: Orthodox Christian majority (~48-60%), Roman Catholic ~7-10%, non-religious/other ~25-30%
Median age: ~41-42 years (Worldometer/UN, 2025)
Key seasons: New Year + Orthodox Christmas (late Dec–7 Jan, peak gifting)
8 March Women's Day (beauty/flowers/nutra spike)
23 Feb Defenders of the Fatherland Day
Victory Day 9 May
Kupalle & summer holidays
1 September back-to-school
Black Friday / 11.11 (growing online)
Cultural notes: Price-sensitive and promo-driven
high trust in marketplaces and word-of-mouth
Russian-language creatives expected
strong Telegram/VK community habit
desktop still matters alongside mobile.
Where to find creators: Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Telegram channels
VK

Media landscape

Top media outlets

1 SB Belarus Segodnya Russian, state daily — largest paper, Presidential Administration publishing house
2 BelTA Multi-language, state news agency — official newswire (belta.by)
3 Onliner Russian, top private tech/lifestyle/e-commerce portal — huge domestic traffic (onliner.by)
4 Zerkalo Russian, leading independent outlet (ex-Tut.by team, now in exile / blocked in BY)
5 Nasha Niva Belarusian/Russian, historic independent paper (labeled 'extremist', operates in exile)
6 Zviazda Belarusian-language state daily (zviazda.by)

Top YouTube channels

1 ГЛЕНТ (Glent) ~24.6M
2 Lesha Maisak ~7.1M
3 ЛогикЛаб (LogicLab) ~6.2M
4 Flazin ~6.1M
5 perpetuumworld ~4.3M
6 NEXTA Live ~3.1M

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Vladislav Bumaga (Vlad A4) ~90M YouTube (also ~4.7M TikTok)

YouTubeChallenges/entertainment — Belarus's biggest creator, massive kids/teen brand reach

G

Glent (ГЛЕНТ) ~24.6M YouTube

YouTubeGaming (Roblox/Minecraft), kids/teen audience — A4 team

L

Lesha Maisak ~7.1M YouTube

YouTubeComedy shorts/sketches — youth entertainment

D

Dmitry Sivchik (SIVCHIK) ~7M YouTube (~2.6M TikTok)

YouTubeCatchy music & comedy skits — very young audience, brand jingles

L

LogicLab (ЛогикЛаб) ~6.2M YouTube

YouTubeScience/DIY experiments — family/edutainment

F

Flazin ~6.1M YouTube

YouTubeGaming let's-plays — teen male audience

N

Nastya AmyMyr ~3.3M YouTube

YouTubeGaming & family vlogs — female kids/teen creator

Celebrities

Aryna Sabalenka ~6M Instagram

World No.1 tennis player, multiple Grand Slam champion

Max Korzh ~3M Instagram

Musician/rapper — biggest Belarusian stadium act

Alexander Rybak ~1M Instagram

Eurovision 2009 winner, singer-violinist (born in Minsk)

Victoria Azarenka ~700K Instagram

2x Grand Slam champion, former World No.1 tennis player

Andrei Arlovski ~600K Instagram

Former UFC heavyweight champion (MMA)

Darya Domracheva ~110K Instagram

Biathlon legend, multiple Olympic champion

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals: iGaming (grey; targets RU/CIS & tier-2/3 geos)
Nutra / COD health & beauty
Finance — loans, credit cards, microloans
Dating
E-commerce / marketplace CPA
Mobile apps, utilities & sweepstakes
Active networks: Admitad (CIS-wide)
Leadbit
Cpamatica
ClickDealer
Everad (nutra)
M1-Shop / LeadGid
Payouts: iGaming FTD CPA for CIS below tier-1
nutra COD CPL ~$5-15
finance CPL ~$3-10
dating CPL ~$1-4. BY-specific volumes are thin.
Competition: Small domestic market — Belarusian media buyers mostly run traffic to RU/CIS & global offers, not BY itself
Local iGaming promotion must route to MTD-licensed operators.
Seasonality: Q4 (Nov-Dec) peak on New-Year gifting & year-end bonuses
pre-8-March beauty/nutra surge
summer slowdown.
Traffic sources: Facebook/Instagram (cloaked media buying)
Google UAC & search
TikTok Ads
Telegram & VK
Push/in-page (RichAds etc.)
Native + ASO

Good to know

Capital: Minsk (~2.0M)
Major cities: Minsk
Gomel (Homyel)
Mogilev (Mahilyow)
Vitebsk (Vitsebsk)
Grodno (Hrodna)
Brest
Time zones: Single time zone, UTC+3 (permanent Moscow time, no DST since 2011)
Android vs iOS: 58% 43%

Android 58% iOS 43%
Phone brands: Apple (~42%)
Xiaomi (~12%)
Samsung (~12%)
Huawei (~3%)
Top e-commerce: Wildberries (~56% of online shoppers)
Ozon
Kufar (classifieds/marketplace)
21vek.by (electronics/appliances)
Onliner (catalog + reviews)
Allegro
Peak activity: Evenings ~19:00-23:00 local (UTC+3) and lunch ~12:00-14:00; Telegram/Instagram peak in the evening, marketplaces on weekends
Creative taboos: Post-2020 politics & opposition are highly sensitive/risky
LGBT content effectively banned as 'pornography'/'propaganda'
the war in Ukraine
anything liable to an 'extremist' label
alcohol/tobacco ads prohibited
Also worth knowing: Sanctions degrade Western rails: Meta/Google ad billing, PayPal, and Apple/Google paid services are constrained — Yandex, VK and Telegram fill the gap and users lean on VPNs & foreign cards
The market is Russian-language and deeply Russia-integrated (VK, Telegram, Wildberries/Ozon)
Unusually desktop-heavy (~66% desktop) vs the global mobile-first norm — build desktop landers too.