Cuba

Economy & income

Currency

• Cuban Peso (CUP, $ / MN)
• ~24 official state rate / ~120 bank buy rate / ~440 informal-market rate per USD (Dec 2025, elTOQUE; rising through 2026)
• Convertible peso (CUC) abolished 2021.

GDP per capita

• ~$9,605 nominal (2020, World Bank — latest published figure; World Bank & IMF report NO data after 2020, and Cuba is not an IMF member so it is absent from the WEO)
• PPP ~$21,000 (2015, last available) — all distorted by the official 1:24 FX and widely treated as unreliable

Average salary

• ~$15 net/mo (ONEI: 6,649 CUP mid-2025, +16% YoY) at the ~440 informal rate
• ~$277/mo at the official 24 CUP rate — the informal rate reflects real purchasing power
• Gross≈net in the state sector.

Median salary

• n/a — ONEI (national statistics office) publishes only the state-sector average (6,649 CUP ≈ $15, mid-2025)
• no official median is released

Minimum wage

2,100 CUP/mo national minimum, unchanged since the Jan 2021 'Tarea Ordenamiento' reform ≈ ~$5/mo at the informal rate (~$88 at official rate)

Cost of living

• Low in nominal USD but defined by scarcity/shortages
• basic food basket far exceeds the average salary (remittance-dependent)
• Numbeo data for Cuba is very thin/unreliable (few contributors, dual-currency distortion) — flag it.

Digital landscape

Population

11.0 million (Jan 2025)

Internet users

71.3% (~7.81 million users)

Social media users

60.1% (~6.58 million user identities)

Mobile connections

7.05 million cellular connections = 64.4% of population

Devices

mobile ~62.1% / desktop ~36.9% / tablet ~1.0% (StatCounter, Jun 2026)

Ad spend

• n/a — DataReportal reports no ad-spend figure for Cuba
• near-zero formal digital ad market because the US embargo/OFAC blocks Meta & Google monetization and state media hold an ad monopoly
• digital ~n/a

Top social platforms

• Facebook — ~89% of social referrals — dominant, StatCounter Jun 2026
• Instagram — co-favourite with FB per ETECSA
• YouTube — high usage
• TikTok — rising fast, reparto/youth
• X/Twitter — ~2%
• Telegram — growing, also a marketplace

Messengers

• WhatsApp (dominant messenger)
• Telegram (2nd; heavy for news channels, classifieds & commerce)
• imo (popular for cheap international calls)
• Facebook Messenger
• No M-Pesa-style mobile money — value transfer runs via Transfermóvil/EnZona (bank apps)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Cash in CUP (dominant, informal economy)
• Transfermóvil (state mobile-banking app — #1 digital rail: bills, top-ups, transfers)
• EnZona (state e-wallet — P2P & small-business/e-commerce)
• MLC magnetic cards (FINCIMEX — for hard-currency 'dollar stores')
• USD cash (increasingly accepted in private MSMEs)
• COD — cash on delivery dominant for on-island e-commerce

E-wallets

• Transfermóvil
• EnZona
• QvaPay (Cuban crypto payment gateway, diaspora/P2P)

Cash on delivery

• High — cash on delivery dominates on-island
• diaspora 'buy-from-abroad, deliver-on-island' model pays by foreign card while the recipient gets goods, not cash

E-commerce

• Low but growing, and overwhelmingly diaspora-funded (remittances-in-kind)
• Feb 2026 rules gave Banco Central de Cuba control over who may receive foreign-currency payments.

Notes

• Dual economy + acute USD scarcity + volatile informal FX define everything
• Remittances (Miami/Spain) are the real spending power
• QvaPay is the notable local fintech.

Audience & culture

Languages

• Spanish (official, ~99%+, Cuban/Caribbean dialect)
• Haitian Creole (largest minority language)
• Lucumí (Yoruba-derived, Santería liturgical use)
• Russian entering schools from the 2026-27 year

Religion

• Nominally ~60% Roman Catholic (very low observance)
• Afro-Cuban syncretic faiths (Santería/Regla de Ocha, Palo, Vodú) very widespread (~11-17% primary, consulted by a majority)
• Protestant ~5%
• unaffiliated ~23% (18% agnostic + 5% atheist)
• No authoritative census — estimates vary widely.

Median age

42.2 years (DataReportal 2025) — notably old for a Tier-3 market, driven by mass emigration + very low fertility

Key seasons

• Mother's Day (2nd Sun of May — the single biggest gift/remittance spike)
• Christmas & New Year + Three Kings Day (Dec-early Jan)
• Father's Day (mid-June)
• Back-to-school (September)
• Carnival (Jul-Aug, Santiago & Havana)

Cultural notes

• Consumption is diaspora-funded (remittances), not salary-funded (~$15/mo)
• Scarcity economy — people hunt goods via Facebook Marketplace-style groups & Telegram classifieds ('Revolico' culture)
• Family gifting is central
• reparto/reggaeton dominates youth culture.

Where to find creators

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Telegram

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Camila Cabello ~62M Instagram

Pop superstar, born in Havana (ex-Fifth Harmony, 'Havana')

Ana de Armas ~16M Instagram

Hollywood actress (Blade Runner 2049, No Time to Die, Blonde)

W

William Levy ~12M Instagram

Actor & telenovela heartthrob

Osmani García ~7M Instagram

Reggaeton singer ('La Voz'), viral hit maker

Gente de Zona ~2M Instagram

Reggaeton/latin-pop duo (Alexander Delgado & Randy Malcom), multi-Latin-Grammy

Yotuel ~600K Instagram

Rapper (ex-Orishas), co-author of Grammy-winning protest anthem 'Patria y Vida'

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Diaspora e-commerce & remittances (send food/meds home)
• Nutra / health (chronic medicine shortages)
• Dating / romance (Cuban singles ↔ diaspora)
• Connectivity — VPN, eSIM, ETECSA top-ups, apps
• Crypto / P2P (USD-scarcity workaround)
• Sweepstakes / gift cards
• Gambling (grey, diaspora-targeted, never on-island)

Active networks

• Limited — most global CPA networks geo-exclude Cuba under the US embargo/OFAC
• Diaspora-targeted programs monetize instead: Supermarket23 / Katapulk / Cuballama / DimeCuba referral & remittance affiliates
• Some EU/RU grey networks accept CU geo at low value

Payouts

• Tier-3 / near-zero for on-island traffic (typically excluded)
• real value comes from diaspora conversions priced as US/ES traffic
• Local CPA/CPL is minimal.

Competition

• Low on-island volume (excluded geo, ~$15/mo incomes)
• moderate competition on diaspora-facing 'send to Cuba' keywords out of Miami/Spain

Seasonality

• Sharp peaks at Mother's Day (May) and the Dec-Jan holidays
• remittance-driven spikes overall

Traffic sources

• Facebook & Instagram Ads
• Telegram channels/groups
• TikTok
• Push / native
• WhatsApp

Good to know

Capital

Havana (La Habana)

Major cities

• Havana
• Santiago de Cuba
• Camagüey
• Holguín
• Santa Clara
• Guantánamo
• Bayamo

Time zones

Single zone — Cuba Standard Time UTC-5 (observes DST, becoming UTC-4 CDT in summer)

Android vs iOS

96%

Android 96% iOS 5%

Phone brands

• Samsung (~39%)
• Xiaomi (~30%)
• Motorola (~7%)
• Apple (~4.5%)
• Tecno (~4%)

Top e-commerce

• Supermarket23
• Katapulk
• Tuambia
• Cuballama
• Cubamax
• DimeCuba
• Mall Habana / TuEnvío (state)

Peak activity

Evenings ~7-11pm local (home Wi-Fi/Nauta Hogar & cheaper data windows); midday lunch break secondary; expect drops during frequent power blackouts

Creative taboos

• Politics is the hard line — no criticism of the state/Revolution or 'subversive' content (Decree-Law 35)
• Avoid anti-government, embargo-baiting, or religious-mockery angles
• Economic hardship is real but touchy
• LGBT more accepted post-2022 Family Code but still conservative in places.

Also worth knowing

1. The US embargo/OFAC means most Western ad networks & payment processors legally can't serve Cuba — monetization runs through the diaspora abroad, not on-island.
2. Connectivity is a state monopoly (ETECSA): expensive, patchy, with frequent nationwide blackouts — build mobile-first, low-data creatives.
3. Real purchasing power sits with remittance senders in Miami/Spain, not on-island salaries (~$15/mo), so target the diaspora.