Oman

Economy & income

Currency

• Omani Rial (OMR, ر.ع. / RO)
• ~0.385 per USD — fixed peg since 1986 at 1 OMR = $2.6008 (Central Bank of Oman)
• world's 3rd-highest-valued currency unit
• 2026

GDP per capita

• ~$20,000 nominal (IMF, 2025; ~$21,600 est. 2026)
• ~$41,664 PPP (World Bank, 2024) — high-income, oil/gas-based Gulf economy
• total GDP ~$110B

Average salary

• ~$2,530 net/mo (OMR 974, Numbeo Jun 2026)
• no personal income tax so gross ≈ net
• other trackers put avg ~$2,210 (OMR 850, early 2026)

Median salary

• n/a — no reliable published median
• Numbeo avg net ~OMR 974 (~$2,530)
• wide Omani-national vs expat wage dispersion skews the mean

Minimum wage

• OMR 325/mo (~$845) for Omani nationals in the private sector (basic OMR 225 + OMR 100 allowances; unchanged since 2013)
• No statutory minimum for expatriates — set by contract/market
• many South Asian workers earn far less

Cost of living

• Medium — single person ~$805/mo (OMR 309) and family of four ~$2,860/mo (OMR 1,099) excluding rent
• ~33% below Germany (Numbeo, Jun 2026)
• moderate rents for the Gulf (~$530/mo for a 1-bed in Muscat city centre)

Digital landscape

Population

5.40 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal; ~89% urban) — national NCSI count ~5.27M, of which ~43% Omani nationals / ~57% expatriates (largely South Asian)

Internet users

95.3% (~5.14M users; ~254K offline)

Social media users

60.9% (~3.29M identities; 75.4% of adults 18+; ~64% male / ~36% female)

Mobile connections

6.71M cellular connections = 124% of population (97.3% on 3G/4G/5G)

Devices

mobile ~51.6% / desktop ~46.1% / tablet ~2.3% (StatCounter, Jun 2026) — desktop share unusually high vs other Gulf markets

Ad spend

• Digital ad spend ~$351M (2023, Statista) growing to ~$429M by 2027 (~5%/yr)
• Search is the largest segment (~$129M, 2023)
• ~48% of digital spend mobile, ~79% programmatic by 2027. DataReportal Oman 2025 gives no ad-spend figure

Top social platforms

YouTube ~3.29M / 60.9% of pop

Instagram ~2.50M / 46.3%

Snapchat ~2.15M / 39.8%

TikTok ~1.83M adults / 47.1% of 18+

Facebook ~1.75M / 32.4%

LinkedIn ~1.10M / 20.4%

X/Twitter ~937K / 17.4%

Messengers

• WhatsApp (dominant, near-universal — though VoIP calls historically throttled/blocked by the TRA)
• Instagram Direct
• Snapchat (heavy Gulf messaging use)
• Facebook Messenger (~926K reach)
• Telegram
• Botim / imo (VoIP popular with expats to bypass VoIP blocks)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Cash on delivery (still the most-trusted online method)
• Debit cards (OmanNet national card switch)
• Credit cards (Visa / Mastercard)
• Bank transfers
• Mobile wallets (Thawani, growing fast)

E-wallets

• Thawani (Thawani Pay)
• Apple Pay (launched Sep 2024)
• Samsung Pay (launched Apr 2024)
• pay+ (OmanNet)
• Mojab
• Google Pay

Cash on delivery

High — cash on delivery remains the most trusted method for online shopping, but non-cash transactions surged ~703% (2020-2025) as cards and wallets spread

E-commerce

• Growing — market ~$660M (2025) at ~13-14% CAGR
• smartphones ~83% of e-commerce
• Muscat-centric, mobile-first

Notes

• Thawani is the leading homegrown fintech — first CBO-licensed non-bank (Thawani Pay consumer wallet, Tajer merchant app)
• OmanNet is the national card scheme/switch
• The CBO issued 16 new fintech licences in 2025 (52 more under review)
• contactless POS surging
• High card/mobile penetration but cash is still culturally trusted

Audience & culture

Languages

• Arabic (official, Gulf/Omani dialect)
• English (business & second language, widely used)
• Balochi (large Baloch community)
• Hindi / Urdu / Malayalam / Bengali (South Asian expats)
• Swahili (returnees from Zanzibar/East Africa)
• Persian

Religion

• ~86% Muslim — Ibadi Islam is Oman's distinctive state-associated branch (the world's only Ibadi-majority country; also Sunni and some Shia among citizens)
• ~6.5% Christian, ~5.5% Hindu, ~0.8% Buddhist (mostly expatriates) — CIA 2021 / national data

Median age

29.7 years (DataReportal, Jan 2025) — young population

Key seasons

• Ramadan (night-active, biggest commercial season; dates shift ~11 days/yr)
• Eid al-Fitr / Eid al-Adha
• Khareef / Salalah monsoon (Jun-Sep — huge domestic & GCC tourism to Dhofar)
• Oman National Day (18 Nov — also late Sultan Qaboos's birthday)
• White Friday / Black Friday (Nov)
• Muscat Festival & back-to-school (winter / Sep)

Cultural notes

• Conservative but famously tolerant and hospitable
• weekend is Fri-Sat
• Ramadan reshapes the daily rhythm (daytime fasting, very active nights)
• ~57% expatriate population means highly segmented targeting (Omani nationals vs South Asian workers vs Western professionals)
• modest dress expected
• the Khareef season draws large Gulf tourist flows to Salalah

Where to find creators

• Instagram
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• YouTube

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

B

Buthaina Al Raisi ~6M Instagram / ~4.8M TikTok

Omani actress & TV personality (Gulf drama series); influencer, runs Beeba cosmetics line

H

Haitham Mohammed Rafi ~559K Instagram

Singer (Arabic/Hindi/English); first Omani to win an Indian reality show (Dil Hai Hindustani, 2017)

Ali Al-Habsi ~705K Instagram

Legendary retired goalkeeper (Bolton, Wigan, Reading; FA Cup winner 2013) — Oman's most successful footballer

J

Jokha Alharthi n/a (author; limited social media)

Novelist — first Arab author to win the (Man) Booker International Prize (2019, 'Celestial Bodies'); Sultan Qaboos University professor

Haitham bin Tariq n/a (monarch, limited personal social media)

Sultan of Oman (since January 2020)

Muhsen Al-Ghassani n/a (national-team footballer; no verified public count)

Star striker for the Oman national team; AFC Cup winner with Al-Seeb, plays club football abroad

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• E-commerce (fashion, beauty, electronics)
• Travel & tourism (Salalah/Khareef, hospitality)
• Food delivery & q-commerce (Talabat)
• Mobile apps & gaming
• Finance / fintech (licensed)
• Nutra / beauty (MOH-compliant)

Active networks

• ArabClicks (GCC incl. Oman)
• Boostiny (ArabyAds, MENA)
• DCMnetwork (MENA)
• Admitad / Mitgo
• Awin (global)
• Amazon Associates
• Noon affiliate
• Adcombo (global with MENA)

Payouts

• Premium CPS/CPL — e-commerce on CPS
• travel and finance CPL higher
• strong buying power but modest absolute volume vs KSA/UAE

Competition

• Low-moderate — small (~5.4M) but affluent, high-CPM market
• usually bundled into GCC (KSA/UAE) campaigns rather than run standalone

Seasonality

Peaks at Ramadan/Eid (night-active), Khareef/Salalah tourism (Jun-Sep), Oman National Day (Nov) and White Friday (Nov)

Traffic sources

• Meta (Instagram/Facebook)
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• Google / YouTube
• Influencer / KOL
• Native (Taboola/Outbrain) & push

Good to know

Capital

Muscat

Major cities

• Muscat
• Seeb
• Salalah
• Sohar
• Nizwa
• Sur
• Bawshar

Time zones

Single zone — Gulf Standard Time (GST, UTC+4), no DST

Android vs iOS

79% 21%

Android 79% iOS 21%

Phone brands

• Apple (~21%)
• Samsung (~20%)
• Xiaomi (~14%)
• Realme (~6%)
• Oppo (~6%)
• Huawei

Top e-commerce

• Amazon (.ae/.sa serving Oman)
• Noon
• AliExpress
• Talabat (food & q-commerce)
• Carrefour Oman
• Lulu Webstore / Hypermarket
• Namshi (fashion)

Peak activity

Evenings ~8pm-midnight GST; during Ramadan shifts strongly to post-iftar late nights; weekend is Fri-Sat

Creative taboos

Religion/Islam, criticism of Sultan Haitham or the ruling Al Said family / the government, Ibadi-Sunni-Shia sectarian framing, alcohol, LGBTQ, nudity/immodesty, gambling

Also worth knowing

• Oman is affluent, young and mobile-heavy but with an unusually high desktop share (~46%) and a strongly Android market (~79%) — plan creatives for both
• Cash on delivery still leads online, so COD + local Thawani/OmanNet rails convert better than card-only checkouts
• The market is small (~5.4M, ~57% expat) so it is usually run inside GCC bundles
• the Khareef/Salalah tourism season (Jun-Sep) is a distinctive travel-vertical window that most Gulf calendars miss