Timor-Leste

Economy & income

Currency

• US Dollar (USD, $) — official legal tender since 2000
• issues own centavo/dollar coins pegged 1:1 to USD
• no exchange rate (it IS the USD) (2025)

GDP per capita

• ~$1,341 nominal (World Bank, 2025; IMF WEO ~$1,464, 2025)
• ~$4,809 PPP (World Bank, 2025)
• Non-oil economy
• heavy reliance on the Petroleum Fund

Average salary

• ~$350/mo gross (formal sector; Ministry of Commerce/ILO est., Feb 2026)
• net take-home ~94% of gross (~$330)
• Formal wage jobs are a small share of employment

Median salary

• ~$125/mo (~$1,500/yr; wage.is/ILO, 2026)
• Most people are in subsistence agriculture/informal work, so median formal wage data is thin

Minimum wage

• $115/mo statutory minimum (Decree-Law 4/2012; set 2012, unchanged since ~2016; under government review 2025–26 but not yet raised)
• Living-wage estimate ~$199/mo (2024)

Cost of living

• Low in local terms but imported goods costly (island, USD-priced)
• Numbeo data is very thin/limited for Timor-Leste (few contributors) — treat as indicative only

Digital landscape

Population

1.41 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal; World Bank 1.42M, 2025)

Internet users

34.5% (~486K users, Jan 2025); ~65.5% still offline

Social media users

41.8% (~589K identities, Jan 2025)

Mobile connections

1.75M cellular connections = 124% of population (Jan 2025)

Devices

• mobile ~38.1% / desktop ~61.3% / tablet ~0.6% (StatCounter, Jun 2026)
• NOTE: StatCounter is page-view weighted and skews to desktop/urban-office traffic here
• real consumer usage is mobile-first (mobile = 124% of pop, only ~49% of connections are broadband)

Ad spend

• n/a — DataReportal reports no digital ad-spend figure for Timor-Leste
• market is too small/under-measured
• Facebook/Meta is the primary paid channel
• formal programmatic/display spend is negligible

Top social platforms

Facebook ~589K, ~42% of pop — dominant platform

TikTok ~180K users, fast-growing, under-25 skew

Facebook Messenger ~99K

Instagram ~80K, urban/youth

LinkedIn ~44K, +132% YoY, professionals

X/Twitter ~10K, niche

• YouTube — widely used for music/streaming

Messengers

• Facebook Messenger (dominant chat app)
• WhatsApp (common for personal/business)
• Telegram (minor)
• No local mobile-money messenger (no M-Pesa equivalent); Mosan & T-Pay e-wallets are separate apps

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Cash / USD banknotes (dominant, near-universal — the default for almost all transactions incl. e-commerce COD)
• Bank transfer & debit cards (limited; only ~48% of adults have an account or use a digital financial service)
• Mobile-money e-wallets (~180K users, ~22% of adults; +111% in 2 years — fastest-growing rail)
• Agent banking (BNCTL, extending reach into rural areas)
• Inbound remittances (~$228M in 2025, Statista — significant income source)

E-wallets

• Mosan (Telemor Fintech, since 2018; e.g. EDTL electricity top-ups)
• T-Pay / Timor Pay (Telkomcel, since 2019)
• BNU Mobile (Banco Nacional Ultramarino)

Cash on delivery

• Very high — cash-on-delivery is the default for social/e-commerce
• card-not-present online payment is rare and low-trust

E-commerce

• Low / nascent — mostly social commerce via Facebook groups & Marketplace
• Halodili is a local Dili delivery app (food, grocery, electronics)
• No large domestic marketplace

Notes

• USD cash economy
• ~48% financially included, ~60% unbanked
• E-wallets (Mosan, T-Pay) are the growth story but still urban-skewed
• expect COD-first funnels

Audience & culture

Languages

• Tetum (official; national lingua franca — Tetun Prasa ~30% mother tongue, widely spoken)
• Portuguese (official; government, law & formal education)
• Indonesian (widely understood, esp. older adults & via Indonesian media)
• English (limited; business, NGOs, tourism)
• 30+ indigenous languages (Mambai ~16%, Makasae ~11%, Baikeno, Kemak, Fataluku, etc.)

Religion

Roman Catholic ~97.5%, Protestant ~2%, Muslim <1%, other <1% (2022 census) — one of the most Catholic countries on earth

Median age

21.7 years (DataReportal, 2025) — very young population, ~54% under 25

Key seasons

• Christmas & New Year (biggest spending/social period — deeply Catholic)
• Holy Week / Easter (major religious processions, near week-long observance)
• Restoration of Independence Day, 20 May (national celebration)
• Proclamation of Independence Day, 28 Nov (festivities, esp. in Dili)
• All Saints'/All Souls', 1–2 Nov (family & grave visits)

Cultural notes

• Conservative, family- and community-driven Catholic society
• Facebook-centric
• word-of-mouth and group trust matter
• Tetum-language creative resonates far better than Portuguese/English
• Low disposable income → highly price-sensitive
• COD builds trust for physical goods

Where to find creators

• Facebook
• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

José Ramos-Horta n/a Instagram; large Facebook following (independence-era statesman)

President of Timor-Leste (2022–); Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1996)

Xanana Gusmão n/a Instagram; reach mainly via Facebook & press

Independence hero; Prime Minister (2023–) and first President (2002–07)

Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo n/a (revered religious figure)

Catholic bishop; Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1996)

Taur Matan Ruak n/a Instagram

Former President (2012–17) & PM (2018–23); resistance commander

Mari Alkatiri n/a Instagram

Fretilin leader; first Prime Minister of independent Timor-Leste

Kirsty Sword Gusmão n/a Instagram

Activist, education advocate, former First Lady

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Mobile app installs / utilities & VPN
• E-commerce COD physical goods (gadgets, beauty, nutra)
• Finance — mobile-money, microloans, remittances
• Gaming & entertainment app installs
• Betting/iGaming (grey — targeted despite domestic ban; must geo-block residents)
• Dating (small, conservative)

Active networks

• Involve Asia (regional SEA network, covers TL within ID/SEA)
• Indoleads (SEA/Indonesia-focused CPA)
• Meta/Facebook Ads (primary media buy)
• Google Ads / AdSense
• Global CPA/CPI networks (Mobidea/Adcombo-type) that bundle TL into SEA/Indonesia geos

Payouts

• Tier-3, low payouts: app CPI/CPA ~$0.05–0.50
• COD product leads low
• finance CPL modest
• CPMs low (~$0.20–1.00)
• Monetization capped by low incomes, thin card penetration and small internet base (~486K)

Competition

• Low — small, under-served market
• usually run as part of Indonesia/SEA campaign buckets rather than standalone

Seasonality

• Peaks around Christmas/New Year and Easter
• boosted by remittance inflows and public-sector pay cycles
• national days (20 May, 28 Nov) drive engagement

Traffic sources

• Facebook (organic pages/groups + ads — dominant)
• TikTok (fast-growing, youth)
• Google / YouTube
• Push / pop & in-app ad networks
• Instagram

Good to know

Capital

Dili

Major cities

• Dili
• Baucau
• Maliana
• Suai
• Lospalos
• Same
• Aileu

Time zones

Single time zone, UTC+9 (no DST) — same clock as Japan & Korea

Android vs iOS

79% 21%

Android 79% iOS 21%

Phone brands

• Oppo (~22%)
• Apple (~21%)
• Samsung (~20%)
• Realme (~7%)
• Vivo (~7%)
• Xiaomi (smaller); Android budget brands dominate (StatCounter, Jun 2026)

Top e-commerce

• Facebook Marketplace & buy/sell groups (primary channel)
• Halodili (Dili delivery app — food, grocery, electronics)
• Instagram/Facebook Shops (social commerce)
• Cross-border from Indonesia (Shopee/Tokopedia via forwarders, informal)

Peak activity

Evenings ~19:00–23:00 local (UTC+9), after work; strong weekend daytime use. Facebook prime time in the evening

Creative taboos

• Respect Catholic faith (avoid mocking religion)
• avoid sexual/explicit creative
• be sensitive to the Indonesian-occupation independence struggle
• keep messaging in Tetum for trust

Also worth knowing

• Ultra-Facebook-dominant + COD-first: build funnels around FB pages/groups and cash-on-delivery, not cards
• Very young, mobile-first audience but a small internet base (~486K) and low incomes — high volume potential only at low payouts
• USD economy removes FX risk for advertisers, but e-wallet (Mosan/T-Pay) adoption is the key rising rail to watch