Guatemala

Economy & income

Currency

• Guatemalan quetzal (GTQ, Q)
• ~7.63 GTQ per USD (14 Jul 2026; 1 GTQ ≈ $0.131) — one of Latin America's most stable currencies, kept in a narrow band by Banguat
• USD widely accepted and central to the remittance economy

GDP per capita

• ~$6,150–6,340 nominal (2024, World Bank/macrotrends) → ~$6,500 (2025, IMF WEO/Statista est.)
• ~$13,000 PPP (2025, World Economics; World Bank ~$14,369 for 2024) — a lower-middle-income economy, the largest in Central America by total GDP but low per-capita

Average salary

• ~$760/mo gross average (≈ Q5,800, wage.is 2026)
• net typically ~$550–680/mo — formal-sector figure only
• CRITICAL CAVEAT: ~65–70% of workers are informal and earn far less
• deep urban/rural and Ladino/indigenous income gaps

Median salary

• n/a — no official headline monthly median wage published (INE reports household income via ENEI, not a wage median)
• the huge informal sector makes any single figure unrepresentative
• Rough estimate ~$350–450/mo economy-wide

Minimum wage

• Sector- & zone-based (Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025, from 1 Jan 2026)
• Zone CE1 (Guatemala dept.): non-agricultural Q4,002.28 + Q250 bonus = Q4,252.28/mo (~$558)
• agricultural ~Q4,041 (~$530)
• maquila ~Q3,660 (~$480)
• Zone CE2 (rest of country) ~5% lower (non-ag Q4,066.90 total, ~$534)

Cost of living

• Low — single person ~$762/mo excl. rent
• family of four ~$2,817/mo excl. rent
• ~35% cheaper than the US, rent ~49% cheaper (Numbeo, Jun 2026)
• Numbeo's sample is thin and skews to Guatemala City/expat prices — rural costs are much lower

Digital landscape

Population

• 18.5 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal) — 53.8% urban
• median age just 23.4 (one of the youngest populations in the Americas)
• 50.4% female

Internet users

60.8% (~11.3M users; ~7.2M still offline) — moderate penetration held back by rural poverty and coverage gaps

Social media users

56.1% (~10.4M identities; 92.3% of internet users are on social; 57% male / 43% female)

Mobile connections

20.4M cellular connections = 110% of population (98.8% broadband-capable)

Devices

mobile ~52.5% / desktop ~46.6% / tablet ~0.8% (StatCounter page-view share, Jun 2026) — StatCounter skews desktop-heavy vs. real consumption, which is strongly mobile-first

Ad spend

• Total digital ad market ~$220M (2025 est., Statista Outlook) → ~$266M by 2028 (~7.7% CAGR)
• search is the largest slice (~$70M, 2024)
• social & mobile growing (48% of spend mobile by 2028)
• Meta & Google dominate
• CPMs are low — a cheap, high-volume market

Top social platforms

Facebook ~9.05M ad reach, 48.8% of pop / ~80% of internet users — the true dominant platform

TikTok 10.4M 18+ self-reported ad reach — likely overstated, but genuinely surging with youth

YouTube ~7.03M, 37.9%

Messenger ~5.65M, 30.5%

Instagram ~3.60M, 19.4%

LinkedIn ~1.80M, 9.7%

X/Twitter ~890K, 4.8%

Messengers

• WhatsApp (dominant — de facto standard for personal & business/COD chat)
• Facebook Messenger (~5.65M reach)
• Instagram Direct
• Telegram (growing, niche)
• Tigo Money (mobile-money rail — phone-number payments/transfers, not a chat app but the key mobile wallet)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Cash / quetzales — still primary for the majority, esp. rural & unbanked (large informal economy)
• Cash-on-delivery (COD) — used by ~54% of online shoppers; the key e-commerce trust bridge
• Credit cards (~68% of e-commerce volume — urban, formal buyers)
• Debit cards (~16%)
• Bank transfer (~11%)

E-wallets

• Tigo Money (leading mobile-money wallet — phone-number payments/transfers, M-Pesa-style)
• PayPal (most-used wallet for cross-border)
• Fri (local Guatemalan wallet)
• Zigi / bank wallets (Banco Industrial etc.)
• Google Pay / Apple Pay (growing, urban)

Cash on delivery

• High — ~54% of online consumers pay cash-on-delivery
• distrust of prepayment plus a large unbanked population make COD the default for physical-goods affiliate/COD offers

E-commerce

• Growing off a low base
• total digital-payments value ~$10–12B (2025)
• Cross-border/international stores account for ~68% of e-commerce sales (projected +20% in 2025)
• Top local stores: Cemaco, Kemik, Pacifiko, Max, Guatemala Digital

Notes

• A cash- and COD-driven market with a big unbanked segment — Tigo Money (mobile money) and COD are the Tier-3 essentials
• Offer cash/COD + cards + Tigo Money/PayPal at checkout

Audience & culture

Languages

• Spanish (official, ~93% — the language of ads & commerce)
• Mayan languages (~30% of population, 22 recognized: Qʼeqchiʼ ~8.3%, Kʼicheʼ ~7.8%, Mam ~4.4%, Kaqchikel ~3%, others)
• Xinca (indigenous, small)
• Garífuna (Arawakan, Caribbean coast)

Religion

• Evangelical/Protestant ~42–44% (mostly Pentecostal, fast-growing — projected to overtake Catholicism by ~2030)
• Roman Catholic ~42–45% (declining)
• no religion ~11% (higher among youth)
• small Maya spiritual, and tiny Buddhist/Jewish/Muslim communities

Median age

• 23.4 years (DataReportal, Jan 2025) — one of the youngest in the Americas
• a huge Gen-Z/young-millennial, mobile-first base

Key seasons

• Christmas & fin de año (Dec — biggest spend; the mandatory aguinaldo + Bono 14 bonuses inject cash)
• Semana Santa / Holy Week (Mar–Apr — major, esp. Antigua processions; heavy domestic travel)
• Día de Todos los Santos / giant kites (1 Nov — Sumpango & Santiago Sacatepéquez barriletes gigantes)
• Independence Day (15 Sep — patriotic season)
• Back-to-school (Jan)
• El Buen Fin / Black Friday & Cyber Monday (Nov — imported, growing)

Cultural notes

• Young, family-oriented, religious and price-sensitive
• Remittances (~20% of GDP) from the huge US diaspora fund consumption and give strong US cultural influence
• Commerce runs on Facebook + WhatsApp
• COD is the trust default
• big informal economy and Ladino/indigenous divide
• Keep creatives Spanish, mobile-first, aspirational-but-affordable

Where to find creators

• TikTok
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Ricardo Arjona ~6M Instagram

Singer-songwriter — one of Latin America's best-selling artists ever (80M+ records); Guatemala's biggest global star

Gaby Moreno ~246K Instagram

Grammy & Latin Grammy-winning singer-songwriter (blues/jazz/soul/Latin); UNICEF goodwill ambassador

Óscar Isaac n/a (limited social presence)

Hollywood actor (Star Wars, Dune, Moon Knight) — born in Guatemala; globally famous, limited personal social presence

Rigoberta Menchú n/a (limited social presence)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1992) — Kʼicheʼ Maya indigenous-rights activist and national icon

C

Carlos Ruiz ('El Pescado') n/a

Footballer legend — long the all-time top scorer in World Cup qualifying history; the face of Guatemalan football

Olger Escobar ~148K Instagram

Footballer — rising national-team attacking midfielder/winger (CF Montréal, MLS)

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Nutra / health & beauty COD (weight-loss, diabetes, joints, potency)
• Sweepstakes / mobile content & pin-submits
• iGaming / sports betting (grey — foreign operators)
• Dating
• Finance / microloans & fintech
• E-commerce / physical COD goods
• Crypto & trading

Active networks

• Global CPA nets serving LatAm — AdCombo, Cpamatica, Mobidea, ShakesPro (nutra)
• Dr.Cash & TerraLeads (nutra COD marketplaces)
• Golden Goose (sweeps/dating)
• Hotmart (huge in LatAm for courses/info-products)
• Amazon Associates & Temu affiliate (cross-border e-com)
• iGaming/betting CPA nets (foreign-facing, grey)

Payouts

• Tier-3 LatAm ranges (lower than Tier-1/2): nutra COD ~$8–20
• iGaming ~$20–80 CPA/FTD
• dating ~$0.5–3 CPL
• sweeps ~$0.5–3
• finance/loans ~$2–8 CPL

Competition

• Low–moderate — a young, high-volume Tier-3 LatAm market with cheap traffic and low CPMs
• Spanish creatives carry across Central America, so many advertisers run GT bundled with the wider CA/LatAm region

Seasonality

• Q4 peak (Dec — aguinaldo + Bono 14 bonuses + Christmas)
• Semana Santa (Mar/Apr) travel
• back-to-school (Jan)
• betting spikes around the national team (World Cup qualifying, Gold Cup) & major football

Traffic sources

• Meta (Facebook / Instagram) Ads — the primary channel
• TikTok Ads
• Google Search & YouTube
• Push & native (PropellerAds, RichAds, MGID)
• WhatsApp / influencer & creator collabs

Good to know

Capital

Guatemala City (Ciudad de Guatemala / Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción)

Major cities

• Guatemala City (~1M city / ~3M metro area)
• Mixco (~500K)
• Villa Nueva (~600K)
• Quetzaltenango / Xela (~180K, western hub)
• Escuintla
• Cobán
• Huehuetenango
• Antigua Guatemala (tourism hub)

Time zones

• Single zone — Central Standard Time (CST, UTC−6)
• no daylight saving time

Android vs iOS

69% 31%

Android 69% iOS 31%

Phone brands

• Samsung (~35.2%)
• Apple (~30.9%)
• Xiaomi (~8.5%)
• Motorola (~7.9%)
• Honor (~7.0%)

Top e-commerce

• Amazon (cross-border — top destination)
• Temu (surging)
• Shein
• Cemaco (cemaco.com — home/retail)
• Kemik (kemik.gt — electronics)
• Pacifiko (pacifiko.com)
• Guatemala Digital
• Max (electronics/appliances)

Peak activity

Weekday evenings ~19:00–23:00 CST (prime), with a midday ~12:00–14:00 lunch bump; heavy weekend browsing — mobile-first throughout

Creative taboos

• Deeply religious (Catholic + fast-growing evangelical) and socially conservative — keep adult/edgy creatives discreet
• avoid trivializing gang/violence or migration hardship
• respect indigenous Maya identity (avoid stereotypes)
• politics/corruption are charged

Also worth knowing

1. Remittances (~$25B in 2025, ~20% of GDP) are the demand engine — spending spikes track diaspora inflows.
2. Cash + COD dominate and a large share is unbanked — Tigo Money (mobile money) + COD are essential at checkout.
3. A very young (median 23.4), mobile-first, Facebook/WhatsApp/TikTok audience with low CPMs; Spanish creatives reuse across Central America — GT is usually run as part of a broader LatAm/CA bundle.