Ecuador

Economy & income

Currency: US Dollar (USD, $)
officially dollarized since 2000, 1:1 with USD (mints only its own centavo coins), so no FX risk on USD payouts
GDP per capita: ~$7,200 nominal (2025 est., IMF WEO; ~$7,575 for 2026)
~$16,900 PPP (2024, World Bank current int'l $)
Average salary: ~$500/mo net (Numbeo, Jun 2026)
INEC avg labour income ~$393/mo Q3-2024 (incl. large informal sector, real Dec-2023 $)
formal tech/finance job postings ~$850+
Median salary: ~$510/mo (INEC ENEMDU median labour income, Q1-2024)
Minimum wage: USD (dollarized): Salario Básico Unificado $470/mo (2025) → $482/mo (2026, Ministerio del Trabajo)
Cost of living: Low — Numbeo (Jun 2026): 1-bed city-centre rent ~$340/mo, single person ~$490/mo excl. rent, ~55% cheaper than US
data reliable given Quito/Cuenca expat hubs

Digital landscape

Population: 18.2 million (Jan 2025)
Internet users: 83.7% (~15.2M users)
Social media users: 74.0% (~13.5M identities)
Mobile connections: 18.0M cellular connections = 98.8% of pop
Devices: desktop ~66.6% / mobile ~32.8% / tablet ~0.7% (StatCounter pageviews, Jun 2026) — but ~75% of e-commerce is transacted on mobile
Ad spend: n/a — DataReportal Digital 2025 Ecuador did not publish a headline total-ad-spend figure
national ad market est. low-hundreds of millions USD, increasingly digital-led
Top social platforms: TikTok ~13.5M ages 18+ ad reach

Facebook ~12.6M / 69%

YouTube ~11.4M / 63%

Messenger ~7.5M / 41%

Instagram ~6.45M / 35%

LinkedIn ~5.2M / 29%
Messengers: WhatsApp (dominant — primary chat & social-commerce channel)
Facebook Messenger (~7.5M reach)
Telegram (growing)
Instagram DM

Ad regulations

Gambling & betting Restricted

RESTRICTED — online sports betting licensed & taxed since 2024 (Exec. Decree 487, Ministerio del Deporte; 15% income tax + 15% prize withholding); land-based casinos & gaming halls BANNED by 2011 referendum

Crypto Restricted

RESTRICTED — not legal tender nor an authorised means of payment (Central Bank/BCE); buying, holding & trading digital assets is permitted; no dedicated consumer crypto-ad framework

Adult Restricted

RESTRICTED — pornography legal for adults and sex work regulated, but sexual/explicit content in mass media limited by watershed rules under the Ley Orgánica de Comunicación

Dating Allowed

ALLOWED — no specific restrictions; standard consumer-protection and data-protection (LOPDP 2021) rules apply

Finance & loans Restricted

RESTRICTED — interest-rate ceilings set by the Junta de Política y Regulación Monetaria; lenders licensed by Superintendencia de Bancos / SEPS; misleading financial ads prohibited

Nutra & pharma Restricted

RESTRICTED — ARCSA requires registro sanitario for foods/supplements/cosmetics/drugs; prescription-drug advertising banned in mass media; health claims policed ex-post (fines up to $500k for misleading ads)

Regulators

ARCSA (health/pharma/food/cosmetics)
Superintendencia de Bancos & SEPS (finance)
Ministerio del Deporte (sports betting)
consumer ads under Ley Orgánica de Defensa del Consumidor
personal data under Superintendencia de Protección de Datos Personales (LOPDP)

Notes

Dollarized economy
enforcement is moderate and largely ex-post
grey areas persist in nutra/COD and crypto advertising
Misleading-advertising fines can reach US$500,000.

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods: Debit & credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex; debit used more than credit online)
Cash — COD and cash-at-agent via Servipagos & Facilito networks
Bank transfers
BNPL / installments (growing among younger shoppers)
E-wallets: Deuna (Banco Pichincha — market-leading wallet)
BIMO (Banred, real-time P2P)
PayPhone
PayClub / Diners Club Pay
PayPal (cross-border)
Cash on delivery: High — >60% of the population is unbanked, so cash-on-delivery and cash-at-agent remain crucial, especially outside Quito/Guayaquil/Cuenca
E-commerce: E-commerce ~$6.4B (2024) → >$7B (2025)
online is only ~10-15% of retail
~75% of e-comm sales happen on mobile
Notes: Mobile-first but heavily cash-reliant
no M-Pesa-style telco mobile-money — bank-backed wallets (Deuna, BIMO) fill the P2P gap
Offering COD lifts conversion.

Audience & culture

Languages: Spanish (~97%, official)
Kichwa/Quichua (~527k speakers)
Shuar (~60k)
other indigenous (~3.2% of pop speak an indigenous language)
Religion: Roman Catholic ~74% (80.4% of the religious), Protestant/Evangelical ~11%, other ~2%, none/atheist/agnostic ~8% (INEC)
Median age: 29.3 years (DataReportal/UN, 2025)
Key seasons: Black Friday / Cyber Monday (late Nov — extended into a 2-week 'Black Month'; >$1.23B in 2024)
Navidad / Christmas (Dec — peak gifting)
Día de la Madre / Mother's Day (2nd Sun of May — one of the biggest commerce dates)
Carnaval (Feb/Mar)
Fiestas de Quito (Dec) & Guayaquil independence (Oct)
Back-to-school (Apr coast / Sep sierra)
Cultural notes: Mobile-first, price-sensitive, family-oriented
heavy WhatsApp use for chat and social commerce
football-obsessed (Ecuador at World Cup 2026)
strong COD/cash-trust preference on first purchases
Where to find creators: TikTok
Instagram
YouTube

Media landscape

Top media outlets

1 El Universo Spanish daily (Guayaquil) — largest-circulation national paper
2 El Comercio Spanish daily (Quito) — traditional paper of record since 1906
3 Expreso Spanish daily (Guayaquil) — centrist broadsheet
4 La Hora Spanish daily — network of localized provincial editions
5 Primicias Spanish digital-native — fast politics & economy coverage
6 GK Spanish digital-native — investigative & explanatory journalism

Top YouTube channels

1 Soy Suco ~31M
2 Enchufe.tv ~28M
3 Mis Pequeños Actores ~12M
4 Sipess ~5.7M
5 Ecuavisa ~2.0M
6 Teleamazonas Ecuador ~1.5M

Creators & public figures

Top creators

S

Soy Suco ~31M YouTube

YouTubeGaming (Free Fire) — Ecuador's #1 YouTuber; huge young-male reach

L

Leito Granda ~4.4M TikTok (~1M Instagram)

TikTokComedy & activism, family-oriented; broad mainstream reach

J

Jorge Ulloa ~3.2M TikTok

TikTokComedian/actor (Enchufe.tv co-founder); Ecuadorian humor

A

Anthony Lencina ~2.8M Instagram

InstagramCooking & family content (Guayaquil); strong female/household reach

N

Nancy Risol ~2.8M TikTok

TikTokIndigenous rural life, comedy & lifestyle; authentic mass appeal

M

Miguel Ángel Montero ~550K TikTok

TikTokEcuadorian culture & daily-life comedy

Celebrities

Antonio Valencia ~3M Instagram

Retired footballer, ex-Manchester United captain & national icon

Moisés Caicedo ~3M Instagram

Footballer (Chelsea FC), Ecuador national-team captain

Piero Hincapié ~2M Instagram

Footballer (Bayer Leverkusen / Arsenal)

Enner Valencia ~1M Instagram

Footballer — Ecuador's all-time top scorer

Daniel Noboa ~1M Instagram

President of Ecuador (since 2023)

Danilo Carrera ~2M Instagram

Actor & model (Televisa telenovelas)

Jefferson Pérez n/a (limited social presence)

Olympic & 2x world-champion racewalker — national sporting hero

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals: iGaming / sports betting (newly regulated, pre-World-Cup momentum)
Nutra COD (weight-loss, joint, potency)
Sweepstakes & e-commerce COD
Dating
Finance — microloans / BNPL
Mobile apps & utilities
Active networks: MyLead
Mobidea
Cpamatica
AdCombo (COD nutra)
TerraLeads (COD nutra, LatAm)
N1 Partners (iGaming)
Hotmart (infoproducts, big in LatAm)
Mercado Libre / Amazon affiliates (cross-border e-comm)
Payouts: Tier-3, lower payouts: betting FTD ~$20-60, nutra COD ~$8-18/approved order, dating CPL ~$0.5-3, finance CPL ~$1-5
Competition: Moderate — less saturated than MX/BR/CO but a smaller overall volume pool
Seasonality: Peaks in Nov (Black Friday) and Dec (Christmas)
Mother's Day in May
football tournaments spike betting
Traffic sources: Facebook & Instagram Ads
TikTok Ads
Google / UAC
Push & pop (RichAds, PropellerAds)
Native ads
Telegram / WhatsApp

Good to know

Capital: Quito
Major cities: Guayaquil (largest, commercial hub)
Quito (capital)
Cuenca
Santo Domingo
Machala
Manta
Ambato
Portoviejo
Time zones: Mainland ECT UTC-5
Galápagos GALT UTC-6
no daylight-saving time
Android vs iOS: 75% 25%

Android 75% iOS 25%
Phone brands: Samsung (leader)
Apple (~25%, = iOS share)
Xiaomi
Huawei
Motorola
Tecno/Infinix (budget)
Top e-commerce: Mercado Libre (regional leader)
Amazon (cross-border)
Marathon Sports
De Prati
Almacenes Tía
Corporación Favorita (Supermaxi/Megamaxi)
Facebook Marketplace
Temu / Shein / AliExpress (cross-border)
Peak activity: Evenings ~7-10pm local (UTC-5); lunch lull 12-2pm; WhatsApp engagement steady all day
Creative taboos: Security & gang violence / states of emergency
political polarization
regional Costa-vs-Sierra (Guayaquil-vs-Quito) rivalry
respect for Catholic majority and indigenous communities
Also worth knowing: Offer COD/cash options — trust and unbanked share make card-only funnels underperform.
Sports betting only recently legalized and is the fastest-rising vertical ahead of Ecuador's 2026 World Cup run.
StatCounter shows desktop-heavy pageviews, but ~75% of real e-commerce is mobile — design mobile-first creatives.
USD economy means clean, FX-risk-free payouts for affiliates.