Nepal

Economy & income

Currency

• Nepalese rupee (NPR, रू/Rs)
• ~140 per USD (2025 avg ~139; ~152 by mid-2026)

GDP per capita

~$1,512 nominal (2025, IMF); ~$5,050 PPP (2024, World Bank)

Average salary

• ~$230/mo gross (~Rs 32,000; wage.is 2025-26)
• net lower, large informal sector

Median salary

• ~$110/mo implied (~half of workers earn <Rs 180,000/yr, wage.is 2025)
• no official median published

Minimum wage

• NPR 19,550/mo (~$140) from 17 Jul 2025 (basic Rs 12,170 + allowance Rs 7,380)
• national statutory minimum

Cost of living

• Low
• Numbeo single-person ~NPR 50,760/mo excl. rent (~$365, 2025) — Numbeo sample thin for Nepal

Digital landscape

Population

29.6 million (Jan 2025)

Internet users

55.8% (~16.5 million)

Social media users

48.1% (~14.3 million identities)

Mobile connections

39.0 million connections = 132% of pop

Devices

mobile ~62% / desktop ~37% / tablet ~0.4% (StatCounter, Jun 2026)

Ad spend

• Social-media ad spend ~$22.4M (2025, Statista)
• total digital ad market ~$70-95M
• whole ad industry ~$150M (2025 est.)

Top social platforms

Facebook ~14.3M, 48% of pop

Messenger ~10.9M

Instagram ~3.9M

TikTok ~2.2M+, surged after Aug-2024 unban

LinkedIn ~2.0M

X/Twitter ~390K

Messengers

• Messenger (~10.9M, dominant)
• WhatsApp (widely used)
• Viber (calls/OTP, popular)
• IMO (remittance/diaspora families)
• Telegram (rising)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Cash / COD (dominant for e-commerce)
• Mobile wallets — eSewa, Khalti (major)
• Mobile & internet banking
• connectIPS / Fonepay QR (interbank)
• Debit/credit cards (limited penetration)

E-wallets

• eSewa (~70% wallet share, 8M+ users; oldest, since 2009)
• Khalti by IME (Khalti + IME Pay merged Jul-2025, ~12.7M users, now largest)
• IME Pay (now part of Khalti by IME)
• Fonepay (bank-backed QR network)

Cash on delivery

High — cash-on-delivery still the default for online orders (Daraz etc.) due to low card use and trust gaps

E-commerce

• Rising ~20%/yr
• market ~$928M (2025)
• Daraz dominant, plus SastoDeal and Foodmandu

Notes

• Mobile-money adoption fast post-2020
• QR (Fonepay/NepalPay) ubiquitous in cities
• rural still cash-heavy

Audience & culture

Languages

• Nepali (~44.9%, lingua franca)
• Maithili (~11.1%)
• Bhojpuri (~6.2%)
• Tharu (~5.9%)
• Tamang (~4.9%)
• English (business/online, widely understood)

Religion

Hindu 81.19%, Buddhist 8.21%, Islam 5.09%, Kirat 3.17%, Christian 1.76% (2021 census)

Median age

25.3 years (DataReportal 2025); young population

Key seasons

• Dashain (Sep-Oct — biggest festival, peak spending/shopping)
• Tihar/Deepawali (Oct-Nov — lights, gifting)
• Nepali New Year, Baishakh 1 (mid-Apr)
• Wedding season (Nov-Feb)
• Holi (Mar), Chhath (Nov)

Cultural notes

• Family/community-driven purchases
• remittance economy (~25% of GDP) funds household spending
• strong festival-linked buying spikes
• conservative on adult/dating themes
• highly price-sensitive

Where to find creators

• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Facebook

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

A

Aditi Budhathoki ~2M Instagram

actress/model (Kri) — among most-followed Nepalis on IG

Priyanka Karki ~1.5M Instagram

actress/producer, Nepal's highest-paid actress

Swastima Khadka ~1M Instagram

film actress and model

Anmol KC ~390K Instagram (1M+ Facebook)

leading film actor/producer (Hostel, Kri)

P

Paul Shah ~285K Instagram (1M+ Facebook)

film actor/model (Nai Nabhannu La 4)

S

Sushant KC ~225K Instagram

singer/songwriter — most-streamed Nepali artist on Spotify

Sandeep Lamichhane ~1M+ Instagram

cricketer, leg-spinner, ex-national captain — biggest sports star

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Nutra (Nepal a top RichAds nutra GEO — weight-loss, joint, beauty)
• E-commerce / COD (Daraz-style gadgets, fashion)
• Sweepstakes / app installs
• Dating (grey, modest creatives)
• Education / study-abroad & IELTS
• Gaming & mobile apps
• Remittance / fintech

Active networks

• Daraz Affiliate Program (largest local, e-commerce)
• Amazon Associates (diaspora/global)
• Global CPA/push networks (RichAds, Adsterra, PropellerAds)
• ClickBank / CJ (nutra, digital products)
• Web-hosting & app-install programs (Hostinger etc.)

Payouts

• Tier-3 low payouts
• nutra CPA ~$5-20 (COD models common), CPL/CPI low
• USD payouts very attractive vs. local wages

Competition

• Moderate
• low-cost traffic and cheap CPMs
• local advertiser sophistication rising

Seasonality

• Peaks around Dashain-Tihar (Sep-Nov) shopping
• New Year (Apr)
• exam/admission cycles for edu offers

Traffic sources

• Facebook & Instagram ads
• TikTok
• Push/pop & native (cheap CPMs)
• YouTube
• SEO / blogs

Good to know

Capital

Kathmandu

Major cities

• Kathmandu
• Pokhara
• Lalitpur (Patan)
• Biratnagar
• Bharatpur
• Birgunj
• Butwal
• Dharan

Time zones

Single zone UTC+5:45 (Nepal Standard Time), no DST — a rare 45-minute offset

Android vs iOS

75% 25%

Android 75% iOS 25%

Phone brands

• Samsung
• Xiaomi/Redmi
• Realme
• Vivo
• Oppo
• Apple (premium niche)

Top e-commerce

• Daraz (dominant)
• SastoDeal
• Foodmandu (food delivery)
• Gyapu
• HamroBazar (classifieds)
• Muncha.com

Peak activity

Evenings ~7-10pm NPT (TikTok/FB prime time); lunch ~12-2pm; Saturday is the only weekly holiday — weekend traffic peaks then

Creative taboos

• Religion (Hindu/Buddhist sanctity; cow is sacred — avoid beef), monarchy/politics, caste, India-Nepal relations
• keep adult/dating creatives modest

Also worth knowing

• Remittances ~25% of GDP drive consumer spending funded from abroad
• COD + wallet (eSewa/Khalti) is the winning checkout combo
• gambling and crypto are illegal and blocked, so those verticals are high-risk — nutra, e-com COD, study-abroad/edu and sweeps are the safer plays