Cambodia

Economy & income

Currency

• Cambodian riel (KHR, ៛)
• ~4,050 KHR per USD (2025, managed/stable)
• Economy is heavily dollarized — USD is the de facto co-currency (~80–90% of bank deposits & larger transactions priced/paid in USD)
• riel used mainly for small change and rural trade — simplifies affiliate payouts (USD widely accepted).

GDP per capita

• ~$2,762 nominal (IMF WEO, 2025)
• ~$8,403 PPP (IMF WEO, 2025)

Average salary

• ~$300/mo net economy-wide (wage.is, 2025)
• urban/formal-sector average markedly higher ~$650–905 gross (market salary surveys, 2025)
• Large informal & rural spread pulls the true national figure down.

Median salary

• n/a — no official national median published
• NIS reports only averages
• Informal-sector majority (agriculture, services, labour) earns ~$200–400/mo (2024–25 est.).

Minimum wage

• No national minimum wage
• a statutory minimum is set only for the garment/textile/footwear/travel-goods sector — $208/mo (2025) rising to $210/mo from 1 Jan 2026 (Prakas 214/25, Ministry of Labour, Sep 2025)
• Other sectors unregulated.

Cost of living

• Low. Numbeo data for Cambodia is thin & rate-limited (few contributors — flag as unreliable)
• Phnom Penh is mid-range for SE Asia, rural provinces very cheap.

Digital landscape

Population

17.7 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal)

Internet users

• 60.7% (~10.8M users, Jan 2025)
• rising to ~67.3% (~12.0M) by late 2025

Social media users

• 72.4% (~12.9M identities, Jan 2025)
• ~77.9% (~14.0M) by late 2025

Mobile connections

25.3M cellular connections = 143% of population (Jan 2025)

Devices

• mobile ~36.6% / desktop ~63.4% (StatCounter, Jun 2026) — ANOMALOUS: Cambodia is strongly mobile-first (mobile connections 121–143% of pop, smartphone penetration >80%, nearly all commerce on phones)
• StatCounter KH is a known sampling artifact, treat desktop share with caution.

Ad spend

• DataReportal publishes no single total for KH
• Statista: digital-advertising market ~$97M (2024)
• social-media advertising ~$39.6M (2025, +10.7% CAGR)
• influencer advertising ~$5.9M (2025)
• Meta & TikTok capture most spend.

Top social platforms

Facebook ~12.9M, 72% of pop — dominant platform & ad base; ad reach ~11.65M

TikTok ~10.7M adults 18+; highest ad reach ~88% — leader for marketing

Messenger ~8.6M, 48%

Instagram ~1.65M, 9%

LinkedIn ~780K–880K, ~4%

X/Twitter ~615K, 3.5%

Messengers

• Telegram (widely cited as the #1 messaging app in KH — est. ~4M (2024) to reportedly 10M+ users; heavily used for commerce, news, groups, dating & even gov't/ministry announcements)
• Facebook Messenger (~8.6M reach)
• WhatsApp / Viber / LINE (minor)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Cash / USD cash (still dominant offline; the country is heavily dollarized)
• KHQR — national interoperable QR standard (>47% of non-cash retail transactions in 2025; 400K+ merchants)
• Bakong — NBC's CBDC-style instant-payment backbone (~8M+ wallets)
• Bank apps: ABA Mobile / ABA Pay & ACLEDA (top-ranked finance apps)
• Cash on delivery (COD) — still widely used for e-commerce, especially outside Phnom Penh

E-wallets

• Wing (market leader — ~8M users, ~30K cash-in/out agents; mobile-money backbone)
• ABA Pay
• Pi Pay
• TrueMoney (Cambodia)
• Bakong wallet

Cash on delivery

• High outside Phnom Penh
• most social-commerce orders (Facebook/Telegram) settle by COD or bank transfer/QR on delivery

E-commerce

• Growing — e-commerce ~$1.78B in 2025 (~6.7% of GDP)
• Distinctive: NO Shopee/Lazada presence
• commerce runs through social media (Facebook ~11.65M, Telegram, TikTok) plus local apps
• Grab acquired local super-app Nham24 in 2025.

Notes

• Dollarization means USD payouts are straightforward
• KHQR + Bakong interoperability is rising fast
• Chinese UnionPay/Alipay/WeChat wallets used heavily for tourism corridors.

Audience & culture

Languages

• Khmer (official, ~96%+ of population)
• Cham (Muslim minority)
• Vietnamese & Chinese (urban minorities)
• Indigenous NE languages (Tampuan, Jarai, Brao etc.)
• English (business, youth, growing)
• French (older generation, legal/administrative, declining)

Religion

• Theravada Buddhist ~96.5% (state religion)
• Muslim ~2.6% (Cham)
• Christian ~0.3%
• other ~0.5% (2024 census)

Median age

26.2 years (DataReportal, Jan 2025) — young, mobile-native population

Key seasons

• Khmer New Year / Choul Chnam Thmey (mid-April — biggest holiday; travel & spending peak)
• Pchum Ben / Ancestors' Day (Sep–Oct — family gatherings, spending)
• Water Festival / Bon Om Touk (Nov — Phnom Penh crowds)
• Chinese New Year (Jan/Feb — large Chinese-Khmer community)
• Christmas/Valentine's (commercial, urban youth)

Cultural notes

• Intensely mobile-first and social-first — Facebook + TikTok + Telegram dominate daily life and shopping
• social commerce (livestream selling, Facebook/Telegram shops with COD) far outweighs marketplaces
• Conservative on adult/LGBT-overt content
• face/status-conscious, so social proof and soft-sell convert well
• prices commonly quoted in USD.

Where to find creators

• TikTok
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Telegram

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Vannda (Mann Vannda) ~990K Instagram / ~5.2M YouTube

Cambodia's biggest rapper; 'Time to Rise' cultural milestone; performed at Paris 2024 Olympics closing

Preap Sovath ~2.7M Facebook / ~75K Instagram

Veteran singer/actor, 'King of Cambodian Pop'; brand ambassador; TV talent-show judge

A

Aok Sokunkanha ~1.6M Instagram

Leading singer/actress & brand ambassador; The Voice / Cambodian Idol judge

S

Sokun Nisa large FB/YouTube following (approx)

Popular singer & actress (Rasmey Hang Meas Production)

Laura Mam ~47K Instagram

Cambodian-American singer; founder/CEO of Baramey Productions; original-music movement

Hun Manet multi-million Facebook (approx)

Prime Minister of Cambodia since 2023; most prominent public/political figure

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Nutra & beauty/skincare (COD)
• E-commerce / gadgets & fashion (COD)
• Mobile apps & utilities / game installs
• Sweepstakes & lead-gen
• iGaming (grey — banned locally, run as offshore/geo-targeted)
• Finance/microloans (legal but sensitive)
• Dating (mainstream)

Active networks

• Involve Asia (regional CPS, covers KH)
• Global CPA/COD networks serving SEA (AdCombo, Mobidea, ClickDealer)
• Ad/push networks (Adsterra, PropellerAds/Monetag)
• TikTok / Facebook creator & shop affiliate (informal)

Payouts

• Tier-3 — low payouts: COD nutra/e-com typical
• CPI/CPL often sub-$1 to a few dollars
• iGaming CPA higher but legally grey
• CPMs among the cheapest in SE Asia.

Competition

• Low–moderate — small market, cheap CPMs, less saturated than Vietnam/Thailand
• Khmer-language requirement and small ad budgets deter some advertisers.

Seasonality

• Peaks around Khmer New Year (April), Pchum Ben (Sep–Oct) and year-end
• purchases track monthly payday cycles.

Traffic sources

• TikTok (organic + ads — dominant for reach)
• Facebook (Ads, Pages, Marketplace)
• Telegram (channels/groups — unusually strong in KH)
• YouTube
• Google UAC / search
• Push & pop networks

Good to know

Capital

Phnom Penh

Major cities

• Phnom Penh
• Siem Reap
• Battambang
• Sihanoukville (Preah Sihanouk)
• Poipet
• Kampong Cham

Time zones

Single zone — Indochina Time (ICT), UTC+7, no daylight saving

Android vs iOS

48% 52%

Android 48% iOS 52%

Phone brands

• Apple (~52% StatCounter — inflated by sampling artifact)
• Oppo (~15.6%)
• Samsung (~8.1%)
• Vivo (~5.9%)
• Xiaomi (~4.2%)

Top e-commerce

• Facebook shops / social commerce
• Telegram shops
• Nham24 (food & quick-commerce; Grab-owned since 2025)
• Khmer24 (classifieds)
• L192 / Little Fashion
• Smile Shop
• Grab

Peak activity

Evenings ~7–10pm ICT (post-work/dinner) are strongest; lunch ~12–1pm secondary; weekend late mornings. Month-start/end payday cycles lift purchases.

Creative taboos

• Government criticism & politics (real legal risk), monarchy, Khmer Rouge history, border disputes (esp. with Thailand & Vietnam), nudity/LGBT-overt content, gambling promotion
• always respect Buddhism.

Also worth knowing

1. Telegram is unusually dominant in Cambodia — a primary channel for commerce, news, groups and even government announcements, so include it in media plans, not just Meta/TikTok.
2. No Shopee/Lazada — commerce is social (Facebook/Telegram/TikTok) + COD, so creative should drive DMs/chat, not marketplace links.
3. Online gambling and retail crypto are banned/grey with active 2025–26 crackdowns (scam-park deportations, exchange blocks) — high compliance risk for iGaming & crypto affiliates.