Uzbekistan

Economy & income

Currency

• Uzbekistani som (UZS, soʻm)
• ~12,030 per USD (10 Jul 2026)
• ~12,100 avg 2026

GDP per capita

• ~$3,160 nominal (2024, World Bank)
• ~$11,900 PPP (2024, World Bank)
• IMF WEO PPP est ~$10,100 (2025)

Average salary

• ~$460 net/mo (est. after 12% flat tax)
• gross ~6.38M soʻm ≈ $530/mo (Statistics Agency, 2025)
• H1-2025 avg 5.98M soʻm (~$470)

Median salary

• n/a — official median not published
• regional avg wages span ~4.48M soʻm (~$375, Qashqadaryo/Surxondaryo) to ~10.75M soʻm (~$895, Tashkent) (Stat Agency, 2025)

Minimum wage

1,271,000 soʻm/mo ≈ $105/mo (since 1 Aug 2025; up from 1,155,000)

Cost of living

• Low — Numbeo data thin/limited for UZ (few contributors, flagged)
• groceries, rent & transport well below Tier-1
• Tashkent is the priciest city (2025-26)

Digital landscape

Population

• 36.7 million (Jan 2025, DataReportal)
• 37.2M (Oct 2025)
• ~39M per 2026 national census

Internet users

89.0% (~33.1M users, Oct 2025)

Social media users

37.9% (~14.1M identities, Oct 2025; 53.7% of adults 18+)

Mobile connections

• 33.9M cellular connections = 91.1% of pop (Oct 2025)
• 95.6% broadband

Devices

• mobile ~25.0% / desktop ~74.7% / tablet ~0.3% (StatCounter, Jun 2026) — NOTE: StatCounter UZ is anomalously desktop-skewed by pageview weighting
• real usage is mobile-first (DataReportal: 92% mobile connections, 95%+ mobile broadband)

Ad spend

• n/a — DataReportal does not publish UZ ad-spend
• local digital ad market small but fast-growing (est. low tens of millions USD), mobile/social-led

Top social platforms

Instagram ~14.1M, 37.9% — #1 social

TikTok ~2.59M adults 18+

Facebook ~2.30M, 6.2%

LinkedIn ~1.10M, 3.0%

• Telegram — dominant — primary content + messenger, ~70-80% of users
• YouTube — very high reach; local music/TV

Messengers

• Telegram (dominant — ~70-80% primary messenger; channels/bots are the real distribution engine)
• WhatsApp (~22%)
• Instagram Direct
• IMO (older/rural users)
• Facebook Messenger (~507K)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Uzcard & Humo (national bank cards — dominant, near-universal)
• Payme (~10M+ users; runs on Uzcard/Humo)
• Click (cards + Visa/Mastercard)
• Uzum Bank / Uzum Pay (QR, BNPL, installments)
• Cash / cash-on-delivery (still common, declining)
• Visa/Mastercard (limited, mostly cross-border)

E-wallets

• Payme
• Click
• Uzum Pay
• Oson
• Apelsin (Kapitalbank)
• Alif

Cash on delivery

• High but falling — cash-on-delivery still common for marketplace orders
• Payme/Click/Uzum adoption steadily replacing cash

E-commerce

• Low — ~$1.2B GMV in 2024 (~3.8% of retail)
• KPMG forecasts 9-11% of retail (~$1.8-2.2B) by 2027

Notes

• Payme + Click + Uzum cover >90% of online payments
• 2 card operators (Uzcard, Humo) + 49 licensed payment organisations (early 2025)
• mobile-money-style super-apps (Uzum) rising

Audience & culture

Languages

• Uzbek (~91% native; sole official language)
• Russian (~14% speak; urban/business lingua franca)
• Tajik (~3.3%)
• Karakalpak (~2.2%)
• Kazakh (~1.8%)

Religion

• Islam ~96-97% (mostly Sunni, Hanafi school)
• Eastern Orthodox/other Christian ~2-8%
• nonreligious/other remainder

Median age

27.0 years (DataReportal 2025-26)

Key seasons

• Navruz (21 Mar — biggest holiday, ~10 days of festivities)
• Ramazon Hayit / Eid al-Fitr (~Mar 2026 — family, gifting)
• Qurbon Hayit / Eid al-Adha (~May 2026)
• New Year (1 Jan — major secular gifting season)
• Independence Day (1 Sep)

Cultural notes

• Conservative, family-oriented Muslim society
• strongly mobile-first
• Instagram + Telegram central to daily life
• price-sensitive
• Russian-language creatives reach the urban/educated segment while Uzbek-language lifts trust in regions
• very young (median 27), fast-growing audience

Where to find creators

• Instagram
• Telegram (channels)
• YouTube
• TikTok

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Shahzoda ~5.8M Instagram

Pop singer & actress (real name Zilola Musaeva); star across Central Asia

Yulduz Usmonova ~3.7M YouTube

Legendary singer/composer, People's Artist of Uzbekistan

Ozodbek Nazarbekov ~1M+ across platforms

Singer, People's Artist & Minister of Culture

Sevara Nazarkhan ~200K+ Instagram

Internationally acclaimed singer (world/folk-pop)

Rayhon ~1M+ Instagram

Pop singer & actress (Rayhon Gʻaniyeva); CIS-wide fame

Eldor Shomurodov ~783K Instagram

Footballer, Uzbekistan national-team captain (İstanbul Başakşehir)

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Gambling/betting (newly regulated 2025)
• Nutra (COD)
• Finance — microloans / BNPL / credit cards
• E-commerce / COD
• Dating
• Sweepstakes & mobile utilities/VPN

Active networks

• ClickDealer
• Cpamatica
• MyBid
• Mobidea
• Let it Cash
• RichAds
• CIS-based COD/nutra networks (Leadbit-style)

Payouts

• Tier-3 lower payouts — gambling CPA ~$15-60, nutra COD ~$8-25/lead, finance CPL ~$1-5
• well below Tier-1 rates

Competition

• Growing but less saturated than Russia/Kazakhstan
• Russian-language creatives transfer well
• Uzbek-language increasingly needed for regional reach

Seasonality

• Peaks around Navruz + Ramadan (Mar), New Year (Dec-Jan) and monthly paydays
• ecommerce/COD strongest in cities

Traffic sources

• Facebook/Instagram ads
• TikTok ads
• Telegram channels/ads
• Google/YouTube
• Push & pop networks
• In-app/mobile

Good to know

Capital

Tashkent (Toshkent)

Major cities

• Tashkent
• Samarkand
• Namangan
• Andijan
• Fergana
• Bukhara
• Nukus

Time zones

Single zone — UZT (UTC+5), no daylight saving

Android vs iOS

79% 21%

Android 79% iOS 21%

Phone brands

• Samsung (~30.8%)
• Xiaomi (~29.2%)
• Apple (~13.5%)
• Huawei
• Oppo
• Artel (local)

Top e-commerce

• Uzum Market (local leader, ~30% share)
• Wildberries (RU)
• Asaxiy
• Olcha
• AliExpress (CN)
• Ozon (RU)
• Yandex Market (RU)

Peak activity

Evenings ~19:00-23:00 local (UTC+5) are heaviest; lunch ~12:00-14:00; weekend daytime — Telegram/Instagram usage peaks after sunset

Creative taboos

Mockery of Islam/religion, alcohol & pork imagery, adult/LGBT content, immodest dress, and criticism of the state are all high-risk in creatives

Also worth knowing

• Telegram (channels/bots) is the real distribution engine and often out-converts Instagram for offers
• COD + national cards (Uzcard/Humo) are essential to any funnel
• Uzbek-language creatives raise trust vs Russian-only outside Tashkent