Paraguay

Economy & income

Currency

• Guaraní (PYG, ₲)
• ~6,100 per USD (Jul 2026, BCP/Investing) — guaraní has appreciated from ~7,300 in 2024

GDP per capita

• ~$6,416 nominal (2024, World Bank)
• ~$7,000 (2025 est., IMF/TradingEconomics)
• ~$18,524 PPP (2024, World Bank)

Average salary

• ~$500-575 net/mo (Numbeo Asunción, 2025-26, ~₲3.5M — thin sample, Asunción-skewed)
• gross national avg roughly $650-750/mo

Median salary

• n/a — no reliable published median
• INE reports mean labor income only, and Numbeo lacks a median for Paraguay

Minimum wage

₲2,899,048/mo = ~$475/mo (from 1 Jul 2025, +3.6%, MTESS Res. 677/2025)

Cost of living

• Low — one of South America's cheapest
• Numbeo single-person ~$600-800/mo ex-rent, 1BR city-centre ~₲3.35M/$550 (2025-26)
• Numbeo sample for PY is thin

Digital landscape

Population

6.97 million (Jan 2025)

Internet users

82.9% (~5.78M, +3.2% YoY)

Social media users

54.5% (~3.80M social media identities)

Mobile connections

9.18M cellular connections = 132% of population

Devices

desktop ~69.2% / mobile ~30.2% / tablet ~0.5% (StatCounter web traffic, Jun 2026) — note: e-commerce is inverse, ~81% of sales volume is mobile

Ad spend

• n/a — DataReportal's Digital 2025 Paraguay report does not publish ad-spend figures for PY (small market)
• for scale, digital payments market ~$3.8bn (2025) and e-commerce ~$700M (2024)

Top social platforms

Facebook ~3.80M, 54.5% of pop

YouTube ~3.80M, 54.5% of pop

TikTok ~3.71M adults, 80.1% of 18+

Instagram ~2.70M, 38.7% of pop

Messenger ~1.80M, 25.8% of pop

LinkedIn ~1.10M, 15.8%

X/Twitter ~603K, 8.6%

Messengers

• WhatsApp (dominant — primary chat & commerce/customer-service channel)
• Facebook Messenger (~1.80M reach)
• Telegram (secondary, growing)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Cash / Cash on Delivery (still common, esp. outside Asunción and for cross-border/informal sales)
• Bank transfer
• Cards — Visa/Mastercard/Amex via Bancard (no local card scheme)
• QR code payments (surging — ~13M transactions in Mar 2025; Tigo Money + Bancard alliance, 70,000+ merchants)
• Mobile-money / e-wallets

E-wallets

• Tigo Money (leading mobile wallet)
• Billetera Personal
• Zimple
• Wally
• Bancard vPOS

Cash on delivery

Notable — cash-on-delivery remains common for domestic e-commerce, particularly outside the capital and among lower-card-penetration segments

E-commerce

• Growing from a low base — e-commerce ~$700M in 2024 (+32% YoY), projected ~$1.5bn by 2027 (~28% CAGR)
• ~4 in 10 adults shop online
• ~81% of sales volume via mobile
• ~77% of sales are cross-border/foreign stores

Notes

• Digital-payments market ~$3.8bn (2025) forecast to ~$9.5bn by 2030 (~20-24% CAGR)
• QR + mobile money are the fastest-growing rails
• WhatsApp commonly used to close orders

Audience & culture

Languages

• Guaraní (spoken by ~90%+; ~30% mainly Guaraní at home — official, gives creatives authenticity)
• Spanish (~87%; ~28.5% mainly Spanish — official)
• Bilingual Guaraní+Spanish (~38.7% use both at home; 'jopara' mixing is everyday)

Religion

• Roman Catholic ~89%
• Evangelical/Protestant ~7-9%
• other Christian/none small minority

Median age

27.0 years (DataReportal, Jan 2025)

Key seasons

• Christmas & year-end aguinaldo bonus (Dec — biggest spending window)
• Black Shopping Weekend / Black Friday (late Nov)
• Reyes Magos (6 Jan)
• Semana Santa / Holy Week (Mar-Apr)
• Día de la Amistad (30 Jul — friendship day, gifting)
• Football tournaments (Copa América, World Cup qualifiers — betting spikes)
• Carnaval de Encarnación (Feb)

Cultural notes

• Deeply bilingual and football-obsessed
• family-oriented and price-sensitive
• Guaraní phrasing boosts trust
• WhatsApp is central to shopping and support
• Ciudad del Este tri-border zone drives a strong cross-border/bargain shopping culture

Where to find creators

• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Facebook
• HypeAuditor / Favikon rankings

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Nadia Ferreira ~4M Instagram

Model, Miss Universe Paraguay 2021 (1st runner-up), married to Marc Anthony

Larissa Riquelme ~2M Instagram

Model — global fame during 2010 World Cup

Miguel Almirón ~1.4M Instagram

Footballer — attacking midfielder, Paraguay national team (ex-Newcastle United)

Roque Santa Cruz ~1M Instagram

Footballer — legendary striker, record caps for Paraguay

José Luis Chilavert ~500K (X/Instagram)

Legendary goalkeeper — 3× IFFHS World's Best Keeper

Leryn Franco ~600K Instagram

Model & Olympic javelin thrower (2004/2008/2012)

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• iGaming & sports betting (post-2025 liberalization)
• Sweepstakes / prize offers
• Nutra (weight-loss, male-enhancement, joint/diabetes)
• Finance — loans, crypto & trading offers
• Mobile utilities / app installs
• Dating
• E-commerce COD (gadgets, beauty)

Active networks

• Adsterra
• PropellerAds
• RichAds
• PIN-UP Partners / Mostbet Partners / 1win Partners (iGaming)
• Mobidea
• MyLead / generic LatAm CPA networks
• dLocal (payments infrastructure)

Payouts

• Tier-3 (lower): iGaming CPA ~$20-30 (crash-game models from ~$15)
• nutra/COD and CPL offers a few dollars
• CPMs cheap

Competition

• Low-to-moderate — a small (~7M) but under-saturated GEO vs top LatAm markets (Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina)
• good cheap test market

Seasonality

• Q4 peak (Black Friday → Christmas → aguinaldo)
• betting spikes around Copa América & World Cup qualifiers

Traffic sources

• Facebook & Instagram Ads
• TikTok Ads
• Google / YouTube
• Popunder & push networks (Adsterra, PropellerAds, RichAds)
• Influencer & WhatsApp distribution

Good to know

Capital

Asunción

Major cities

• Asunción (+ metro: San Lorenzo, Luque, Capiatá, Lambaré, Fernando de la Mora)
• Ciudad del Este
• Encarnación
• Pedro Juan Caballero
• Coronel Oviedo

Time zones

• Single zone (America/Asunción)
• standard offset UTC-4
• Paraguay adopted permanent daylight-saving time (UTC-3) year-round from Oct 2024

Android vs iOS

77% 23%

Android 77% iOS 23%

Phone brands

• Samsung (~35%)
• Apple (~23%)
• Xiaomi (~13%)
• Motorola (~2%)

Top e-commerce

• Mercado Libre (regional leader)
• Falabella
• Nissei (electronics)
• Cross-border foreign stores (~77% of sales)
• Facebook Marketplace / Instagram shops

Peak activity

Evenings ~19:00-23:00 local; lunch break ~12:00-14:00; weekends strong; WhatsApp engagement is always-on

Creative taboos

• Conservative Catholic values — care with sexual/religious content
• political sensitivity
• respect Guaraní language & football pride
• avoid mocking national identity

Also worth knowing

1. Ciudad del Este (tri-border with Brazil/Argentina) is a huge retail/contraband hub — strong cross-border bargain-shopping behavior.
2. WhatsApp + COD is the default commerce combo; many sales close in chat.
3. Small population (~7M) and cheap CPMs make PY a low-cost test GEO but with limited volume; StatCounter shows desktop-heavy web traffic while purchases are mobile-heavy.