Chile

Economy & income

Currency

• Chilean peso (CLP, $)
• ~933 per USD (Jul 13, 2026; peso ~4.4% weaker MoM)

GDP per capita

• ~$17,700 nominal (2025, IMF WEO Oct 2025; World Bank 2024 ~$17,000)
• ~$30,450 PPP (2025, IMF WEO) — highest income per head in South America

Average salary

• ~$961 net/mo (INE ESI 2024 avg CLP897,019 net, published Aug 2025)
• Numbeo avg net ~$950/mo (2025-26)
• gross mean higher — big gap between mean and median

Median salary

~$655/mo (INE ESI 2024 median CLP611,162 net — half of workers earn ≤ this; men ~CLP698k vs women ~CLP555k)

Minimum wage

• CLP539,000/mo (~$578) single national minimum from Jan 1, 2026 (was CLP529,000 from May 2025)
• reduced rate CLP402,082 for under-18/over-65
• set via CUT-government accord (~54% cumulative rise since 2022)

Cost of living

• Medium — Numbeo: single person ~$661/mo excl. rent (Jun 2026), family of 4 ~$2,391/mo excl. rent
• ~44.9% cheaper than the US
• among the pricier LatAm markets

Digital landscape

Population

19.8 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal; 88.2% urban, median age 36.9)

Internet users

94.1% (~18.6 million users, Jan 2025)

Social media users

74.7% (~14.8 million identities; 92.2% of adults 18+)

Mobile connections

30.7 million cellular connections = 155% of population (98.8% broadband-capable)

Devices

mobile ~50.5% / desktop ~48.8% / tablet ~0.7% (StatCounter, Jun 2026 — mobile only just overtook desktop)

Ad spend

• Total ad market ~$2.08B (2025, +5.2% YoY)
• digital ~54-56% of spend (~$1.17B), programmatic ~$881M (75% of digital, +10.6%), in-app ~$422M
• Statista projects broader digital adex ~$3.70B by 2026. DataReportal publishes no CL ad-spend figure

Top social platforms

WhatsApp ~89.7% of internet users — #1 most-used, Q2 2025 GWI

Instagram ~86.4% use; ~12.9M ad reach / 64.8%

Facebook ~83.3% use; ~12.9M / 64.8%

YouTube ~76.3% use; ~14.8M / 74.7% — top by ad reach

LinkedIn ~9.2M / 46.4%

• TikTok — ~67.5% use; very high 18+ reach

Messengers

• WhatsApp (dominant everyday app — 89.7% use)
• Facebook Messenger (~7.6M / 38.4%)
• Instagram DM
• Telegram (secondary, growing for news/betting channels)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Credit cards (~60% of online payment volume; ~61% by 2027)
• Debit cards / Redcompra (near-parity with credit — very high banking penetration)
• Webpay (Transbank — dominant online gateway; ~74% of bank-transfer/gateway share)
• Bank transfer / A2A incl. Khipu (~16%)
• Digital wallets — Mercado Pago, MACH, PayPal (fastest-growing, ~12% CAGR)

E-wallets

• Mercado Pago (~5M users — wallet leader)
• MACH (BancoEstado/BCI)
• Tenpo
• Chek (Ripley)
• Fpay (Falabella)
• PayPal

Cash on delivery

• Low — high bank-account (74%+) and card penetration mean cash-on-delivery is uncommon vs other LatAm markets
• card and A2A/wallet flows dominate e-commerce

E-commerce

• High for the region — market ~$11.5B (2024) → ~$16.9B by 2029 (7.6% CAGR)
• MercadoLibre leads, Falabella strong
• CyberDay/CyberMonday are national sales peaks

Notes

• Card-and-bank-centric market
• Transbank/Webpay is the default rail and MercadoPago's ecosystem (payments+credit+logistics) is expanding fast
• MACH, Tenpo, Chek and Fpay drive wallet adoption
• installments ('cuotas', esp. CuotasCMR/retail cards) are a key conversion lever

Audience & culture

Languages

• Spanish (official; near-universal — distinctive Chilean slang: 'cachai', 'po', 'bacán')
• Mapudungun (Mapuche indigenous, ~southern regions)
• English (business & urban youth; limited overall)
• Haitian Creole & other immigrant languages (Venezuelan, Haitian, Peruvian communities)

Religion

Catholic 53.7%, Protestant/Evangelical 16.2%, no religion 25.8% (2024 Census) — fast-secularizing, especially under-35s

Median age

36.9 years (DataReportal 2025) — one of the oldest, most-aged populations in Latin America

Key seasons

• Fiestas Patrias (Sep 18-19 — the #1 national celebration & spend peak, 'dieciocho')
• CyberDay & CyberMonday (May & Oct/Nov — biggest e-commerce events)
• Christmas & New Year (Dec)
• Black Friday (Nov)
• Festival de Viña del Mar & summer holidays (Jan-Feb)
• Back-to-school (March)
• Día de la Madre / Mother's Day (May — major gifting)

Cultural notes

• Urban (88%), highly connected, high card/banking penetration — a 'quality' Tier-2 LatAm audience
• Price-sensitive but higher purchasing power than most of the region
• football-obsessed (drives betting demand)
• CyberDay is the commercial superbowl
• Chilean Spanish slang in creatives builds local trust and separates you from generic LatAm copy

Where to find creators

• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Germán Garmendia ~55M JuegaGerman / ~44M HolaSoyGerman

YouTubecomedy & gaming — first Spanish-language channel to 50M; massive youth reach, broad brand fit

I

Ignacia Antonia ~33M TikTok

TikTok/Instagramlifestyle & comedy (Chilean based in Mexico) — one of the largest Chilean creators; beauty/FMCG appeal

D

DeGoBooM (Diego González) ~24M YouTube

YouTubeMinecraft & gaming — top male gaming reach; gaming/app brand relevance

N

NachitoJuegaJuegos ~17M YouTube

YouTubegaming/kids content — huge younger-audience reach

N

Naya Fácil (Javiera Grandón) ~2M Instagram (viral TikTok)

TikTok/Instagramreality/lifestyle viral influencer — strong mass-market Gen-Z pull and brand-deal magnet

K

Kel Calderón (Raquel Calderón) ~2.5M Instagram

Instagramfashion, beauty & lifestyle — top female influencer with strong endorsement portfolio

T

tomiii 11 ~10M YouTube

YouTubegaming/kids creator — very high young-audience reach

Celebrities

Arturo Vidal ~20M Instagram

footballer — Colo-Colo & Chile NT (ex-Bayern, Juventus, Barcelona, Inter); 'King Arturo'

Alexis Sánchez ~17M Instagram

footballer — Chile NT star (ex-Arsenal, Man Utd, Inter)

Pedro Pascal ~12M Instagram

actor — The Last of Us, The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones; Chilean-born global star

Mon Laferte ~6M Instagram

singer-songwriter — top Chilean music export, multi-Latin-Grammy winner

Paloma Mami ~5M Instagram

singer — Chilean-American pop/reggaeton/urban artist

Gary Medel ~3.8M Instagram

footballer — Chile NT veteran ('El Pitbull')

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• iGaming & sports betting (grey — huge demand, regulation pending)
• Sweepstakes & prize offers
• Nutra (weight-loss, beauty, potency)
• Finance (loans, cards, crypto trading)
• E-commerce / retail
• Dating & mobile apps

Active networks

• MercadoLibre Afiliados & Falabella affiliate programs
• Hotmart / Monetizze (digital products — big in LatAm)
• Admitad / Awin / Impact
• Dr.Cash & Leadbit (nutra/finance COD-CPA)
• 1xBet / Betano / Mostbet Partners (grey iGaming)
• PropellerAds / RichAds (traffic + offers)

Payouts

• iGaming CPA ~$25-70 per FTD (grey)
• nutra COD/CPS ~$10-25
• finance/loan CPL ~$3-10
• sweepstakes CPL ~$1-4
• e-commerce on CPS % basis

Competition

• Moderate — a compact but high-value LatAm GEO with strong card/banking penetration, good conversion quality and payouts above the regional average
• Spanish creatives port across LatAm, but Chilean slang lifts CTR

Seasonality

• Peaks at CyberDay/CyberMonday (May & Oct/Nov), Fiestas Patrias (Sep), Black Friday & Christmas
• football (Copa América / league) drives betting spikes

Traffic sources

• Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads
• Google (Search, UAC, YouTube)
• TikTok Ads & creator collabs
• Push & popunder (PropellerAds/RichAds)
• Influencer / KOL partnerships
• Telegram channels

Good to know

Capital

Santiago

Major cities

• Santiago
• Valparaíso
• Viña del Mar
• Concepción
• Antofagasta
• La Serena
• Temuco
• Rancagua

Time zones

• Three zones — Continental Chile (Santiago) UTC-4 standard / UTC-3 DST (DST runs ~Sep-Apr)
• Magallanes & Antarctica UTC-3 year-round
• Easter Island UTC-6 / UTC-5 DST

Android vs iOS

78% 22%

Android 78% iOS 22%

Phone brands

• Apple (~22% usage share, StatCounter)
• Samsung (~13% usage; #1 by shipments)
• Motorola (~5%)
• Xiaomi (~5%)
• Google (~4%)
• Huawei — top-5 ~65% of sales (2025)

Top e-commerce

• MercadoLibre (leader)
• Falabella
• Paris (Cencosud)
• Ripley
• Lider (Walmart)
• AliExpress
• Temu
• Amazon

Peak activity

Evenings ~20:00-24:00 local (UTC-4 std / UTC-3 in summer) strongest; lunch ~13:00-15:00 secondary; weekends high for shopping

Creative taboos

• Pinochet dictatorship & human-rights legacy (deeply divisive), post-2019 'estallido social' politics & constitutional debates, the Mapuche land conflict in the south, classism, abortion
• keep creative apolitical and avoid trivializing the dictatorship era

Also worth knowing

• CyberDay/CyberMonday (May & Oct/Nov) is the commercial superbowl — plan launches around it; Fiestas Patrias (Sep 18) is the cultural/spend peak
• High banking/card penetration and low COD mean card, Webpay/Transbank and wallet (MercadoPago/MACH) flows dominate — build for prepaid, not cash
• Online iGaming is booming but legally grey — a licensing regime with a 20% tax is advancing fast (top urgency May 2026) and courts are already ordering ISP blocks of unlicensed sites