TikTok en Tunisie — Market Intelligence Vol 01

This report opens a series dedicated to MENA markets within the TikTok ecosystem. Volume 01 covers Tunisia; Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and the GCC (Saudi Arabia) will follow. Each volume applies a funnel logic — digital macro → social media → TikTok → TikTok LIVE — and draws exclusively on primary sources (DataReportal/Kepios, World Bank, GSMA Intelligence, Ookla) and recognised sector analyses. The aim is to deliver a clear, dated and actionable market read.

01. A mature digital market under economic pressure. Tunisia combines high connectivity (84.3% internet penetration, median mobile speed of 67.12 Mbps, up +153% year-on-year) with a strongly digital young population. But GDP growth remains weak (+2.5% in 2025) and youth unemployment reaches 38% — making the creator economy a real and growing economic outlet.

02. TikTok consolidates its dominant position among adults. With 6.00M adult users at end-2025 — 67.6% of the 18+ population — TikTok now overtakes Instagram (3.65M) in ad reach. Facebook still leads in raw reach (7.80M), but TikTok captures attention and screen time among the under-35s.

03. A two-speed growth trajectory re-accelerating in 2025. Adult reach grew +15.8% between early and late 2025 (5.18M → 6.00M), following a temporary dip in late 2024 attributed to ad-platform corrections. The market is in a clear expansion phase.

04. TikTok LIVE as the primary direct monetisation lever. The Creator Rewards Program is not available in Tunisia. Direct creator revenue therefore flows mainly through LIVE gifts and B2B partnerships — placing LIVE streaming at the heart of the local creator economy.

05. A market in structural transition. Accelerating mobile speeds, the gradual arrival of LIVE Shopping and the professionalisation of local creators are converging toward a more structured Tunisian creator economy from 2026-2027 onward.

02 — Country context

DEMOGRAPHICS & POPULATION PROFILE

Tunisia had 12.4 million inhabitants at the end of 2025 according to the United Nations, with modest population growth (+0.6% YoY). The population is 71.3% urban, concentrated mainly around Greater Tunis and the coastal strip. Median age stands at 32.9, and the country shows an age structure favourable to heavy video-platform usage: 9.3% aged 18-24, 14.1% aged 25-34 and 15.1% aged 35-44. The 13-44 cohort represents approximately 46% of the population — close to 5.7M people — the demographic core of the TikTok audience.

_Population distribution by age bracket (%)_

_Source: United Nations / DataReportal Digital 2026, October 2025 data_

ECONOMIC CONTEXT

The Tunisian economy remains in slow growth. GDP expanded by +2.5% in 2025, supported by an agricultural rebound, the components industry and private consumption, but stays below its pre-Covid level. Unemployment stands at 15.2% in Q4 2025 (down from 16.5% a year earlier), while youth unemployment among 15-24-year-olds reaches 38% according to the World Bank. This pressure on youth employment structurally explains the appeal of the creator economy as an alternative or supplementary income stream — a decisive factor in reading this market.

NATIONAL DIGITAL STRATEGY

The Tunisian government has placed digital transformation at the heart of its strategy through the "Digital Tunisia 2025" national plan. This policy has driven the modernisation of telecom infrastructure and the training of approximately 65,000 annual higher-education graduates, of which ~16% in ICT fields, building a mature technical talent pool that supports the adoption of new digital usages.

03 — Digital infrastructure

Tunisia's digital infrastructure ranks among the most advanced in North Africa and forms the foundation that makes intensive TikTok and LIVE streaming usage possible. Connection speeds went through a spectacular acceleration in 2025.

• 15.5M Mobile connections — 125% of population
• 80.4% Mobile broadband — 3G / 4G / 5G
• 67 Mbps Mobile median — +153% in one year

MOBILE CONNECTIVITY

GSMA Intelligence counts 15.5M active cellular connections at end-2025 — 125% of the population, a signal of strong multi-device equipment (secondary SIM cards, eSIM, professional usage). Mobile "broadband" connections (3G/4G/5G) reach 80.4%. The market is led by three operators (Ooredoo, Orange, Tunisie Telecom) engaged in pricing competition that favours heavy data usage.

INTERNET SPEEDS — A HISTORIC ACCELERATION

Ookla measures a median mobile download speed of 67.12 Mbps (August 2025), up +153% over 12 months. Fixed broadband also progresses, to 16.99 Mbps (+60.6%). This improvement is critical for LIVE streaming: it reduces technical friction on the creator side (broadcast quality, latency) and on the viewer side (extended consumption, real-time interactions without buffering).

INTERNET USAGE

10.4M Tunisians used the internet in October 2025, i.e. 84.3% of the population. The country ranks among North African leaders in internet penetration, ahead of Morocco (92.2%, but on a larger demographic base) and well ahead of Egypt (82.7%). Around 1.95M Tunisians remain "offline", mostly older or rural — a limited but structural growth reserve.

Indicator · Tunisia · Morocco · Egypt · Saudi Arabia

Population (M) · 12.4 · 38.5 · 118.7 · 34.7

Internet users (M) · 10.4 · 35.5 · 98.2 · 34.4

Internet penetration · 84.3% · 92.2% · 82.7% · 99.0%

Social identities (M) · 7.83 · 22.8 · 51.6 · 38.6

TikTok 18+ (M) · 6.00 · 16.7 · 48.8 · 38.6

_Regional comparison · Source: DataReportal Digital 2026, October 2025_

04 — Social media landscape

The Tunisian social landscape is dominated by Meta (Facebook + Instagram), but shifted in 2024-2025 toward a co-dominance with TikTok, which now closes in on Facebook in adult audience.

VOLUME AND REACH BY PLATFORM (LATE 2025)

Kepios identifies 7.83M active social identities in Tunisia in October 2025, i.e. 63.3% of the population and 75.2% of internet users. YoY growth is strong (+9.5%, +680k identities), driven by TikTok and by Instagram's rise among younger adults.

_Advertising audience by platform in Tunisia (millions, late 2025)_

_Source: DataReportal Digital 2026 · Native ad-tool data (Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn) — October 2025_

PLATFORM-BY-PLATFORM READ

SHARE OF ATTENTION

Beyond ad reach, share of attention is the key indicator for assessing the monetisable potential of a platform. According to DataReportal Digital 2026, TikTok holds the highest average daily time per user worldwide (~55 minutes/day). In Tunisia, observed patterns converge toward 60-90 minutes per day among active users.

ENGAGEMENT TRENDS

Several signals observed in 2024-2025 confirm the inflection:

GENDER SPLIT — A STRATEGIC KEY

At the level of global social identities, Tunisia shows a slight imbalance (46.5% female vs 53.5% male). But this ratio masks strong platform-level disparities: Instagram skews female (52% F), while TikTok is markedly male (58.2% M). This asymmetry has direct implications for the creator ecosystem and for content category strategy.

05 — TikTok deep dive

TikTok has established itself in Tunisia as the most dynamic platform in the social landscape, with a growth trajectory that has doubled in pace since the second half of 2025.

AUDIENCE — 6 MILLION ADULTS

TikTok's ad planning tools count 6.00M users aged 18+ in Tunisia at end-2025, i.e. 67.6% of adults. If 13-17-year-olds are added (not published by TikTok but estimated by DataReportal at between 800k and 1.2M), total reach approaches 7 million — essentially the entire Tunisian connected social audience.

_TikTok adult audience evolution in Tunisia_

_Sources: DataReportal Digital 2024, 2025 and 2026 — TikTok ad planning tools_

READING THE CURVE

Q4 2024 saw a temporary decline (-7.9% between October 2024 and January 2025), interpreted as an ad-platform "correction" effect (inactive-account cleanup) rather than a real drop in usage. The clear rebound in 2025 (+820k users over the year) confirms that the platform is in an active expansion phase in the Tunisian market.

TIKTOK AUDIENCE PROFILE

· A male-skewed audience

With 58.2% men and 41.8% women, TikTok Tunisia follows the MENA pattern where the M/F gap is more pronounced than in Europe or North America. Observed implications:

· Male-led categories are over-represented (gaming, sport, automotive, debate)
· Female creators are under-represented — a growing niche
· LIVE PK (battles) — heavily male — finds fertile ground here

TUNISIA'S REGIONAL POSITIONING

Within the MENA ecosystem, Tunisia is a modest-sized market but with high unit penetration:

_TikTok 18+ audience — MENA comparison (millions of users, late 2025)_

_Source: DataReportal Digital 2026 · TikTok ad planning tools_

However, in terms of penetration rate on the adult population, Tunisia ranks among the most mature MENA markets (67.6%), just behind Saudi Arabia (which exceeds 100% due to duplicated accounts and expatriate populations). This maturity explains why the country regularly serves as a pilot market for new TikTok features deployed in the region.

DOMINANT CONTENT CATEGORIES

Qualitative analysis of top Tunisian creators (Favikon, Kapitalis, StarNgage rankings) reveals several saturated categories and several niches with strong potential:

Category · Maturity · Creator volume · LIVE density

Humour / sketches · Saturated · High · Medium

Music / covers · Mature · High · Strong (LIVE concerts)

Gaming · Mature · Medium · Very strong (PK, tournaments)

Beauty / fashion · Growing · Medium · Strong (haul, tutorials)

Food / cooking · Growing · Medium · Medium

Lifestyle / couples · Growing · High · Strong (Q&A, daily)

Sport / fitness · Emerging · Low · Very strong (coaching)

Education / languages · Emerging · Low · Strong (LIVE classes)

Personal finance · Niche · Very low · Very strong

Diaspora / travel · Niche · Medium · Strong

_Qualitative read — May 2026_

TOP TUNISIAN CREATORS · SNAPSHOT

The Favikon 2025 top 5 ranking (Douha Laribi, Rahma Laribi, Hagani, Ghofran Khmiri, Ayoub Meftah) illustrates a market trait: short-video creators are not all LIVE creators. The LIVE skill set — which demands stamina, interactivity and discipline — is still concentrated in a narrow subset. It is precisely this skill that separates the viral creator from the professionally monetisable LIVE streaming creator.

It is also worth noting that Karim Kroubi, recognised at the 2024 Digital Creator Awards in Qatar as "best live content creator", illustrates the regional recognition starting to emerge around Arabic-language LIVE.

06 — TikTok LIVE

TikTok LIVE is the most accessible direct monetisation channel in Tunisia, given the absence of Creator Rewards Program (CRP) eligibility. This section describes the global economic mechanisms, their adaptation to the Tunisian market and the order of magnitude of the potential.

GIFT MECHANICS — MODEL REMINDER

Viewers buy "coins" which they convert into virtual gifts sent during LIVE. On the creator side, gifts are counted in "diamonds", a fraction of which is then converted into cash. Since the update to TikTok's rewards model, a creator can now reach up to 53% of the post-TikTok gross through two stacking mechanisms:

Component · Cap · Conditions

Per-LIVE missions · 40% · Average session duration + new unique followers

Weekly missions · 13% · Valid days ≥25 min + Creator League + active fans

Maximum total · 53% · Stacked combination of the two mechanisms

_Source: TikTok Creator Rewards Model — Black Ads Agency operational data (live-income-calculator)_

Before this update, the classic split was 50% to the creator (after TikTok's take). The new model rewards consistency (valid days, session duration) and audience growth (new followers, active fans) rather than gift volume alone. The operational reference rate used for projections is USD 0.005 net to the creator per diamond, before agency commission.

GLOBAL ORDER OF MAGNITUDE

• $3.5B TikTok LIVE revenue 2024 — Gifts + LIVE shopping
• $1.12B IAP Q4 2024 — TikTok record quarter
• 60,000 US LIVE creators — Part-time income

According to an Ipsos study commissioned by TikTok (June-July 2025), more than 60,000 US-based LIVE creators earned more in 2025 than the median income of a part-time job, from gifts alone. 68% of TikTok users have already tried gifting, and 50% say they intend to gift in the next 30 days. LIVE has therefore become structurally a mainstream channel — not a niche.

CREATOR INCOME BRACKETS — GLOBAL BENCHMARKS

On global benchmarks (Teleprompter / Amra & Elma, specialised agencies), an active LIVE creator typically earns between USD 1,500 and 40,000/month in gifts, with average sessions of 16 minutes (top streamers sustain >25,000 concurrent viewers). For an order of magnitude applicable to Tunisia: a creator receiving 200,000 diamonds/month generates a post-TikTok gross of approximately USD 920 at a 46% rewards rate — a T2 partner tier level on the Black Ads Agency operational framework. The top Tunisian streamers, lifted by diaspora viewers, go well beyond this threshold thanks to battle pots and tier acceleration.

TUNISIAN MARKET-SPECIFIC CONSTRAINTS

THE "DIASPORA" LEVER

Tunisian creators targeting the MENA diaspora in Europe (France, Italy, Germany) and the GCC enjoy monetisation potential above the local average, because their viewers send gifts in hard currencies. This cross-border dimension is one of the structural strengths of the Tunisian market: the country exports its digital culture to its high-purchasing-power diaspora.

THE STRUCTURING ROLE OF AGENCIES

Official TikTok LIVE agencies (Standard and Senior Partner statuses) play a critical role in professionalising the market. They handle: (1) creator training on LIVE mechanics, (2) the setup of regular broadcast schedules, (3) administrative and tax management, (4) access to TikTok promotional programs. The regional ecosystem counts approximately 1,650 active TikTok agencies (analysis of the TikTok MENA professional Lark group), but only a fraction holds the Senior status, which creates a significant quality asymmetry in the market.

07 — Outlook 2026 — 2027

Based on observed growth rates (+15.8% YoY on TikTok 18+ audience, +9.5% on social identities, +153% on mobile speed) and the progressive widening of TikTok LIVE features (LIVE shopping, subscriptions, AR effects), the following trajectories appear reasonable:

Indicator · Late 2025 · End-2026 projection · End-2027 projection

TikTok 18+ audience · 6.00 M · 6.8 – 7.0 M · 7.5 – 8.0 M

Reach 18+ (%) · 67.6% · ~75% · Plateau ~80%

LIVE usage rate · Moderate · Expected growth · Mainstream

Active LIVE creators (est.) · ~3,000 · 5,000 – 7,000 · 10,000+

Median mobile speed · 67 Mbps · 100+ Mbps · 150+ Mbps (5G)

_Projections based on observed historical trends_

EXPECTED TRANSFORMATION DRIVERS

METHODOLOGY

This report aggregates data from primary official sources (DataReportal/Kepios reports produced with Meltwater and We Are Social, World Bank, GSMA Intelligence, Ookla, ITU) and from recognised secondary sources (Statista, Tubefilter, Favikon, influence rankings). Figures shown prefer the most recent versions — typically October 2025 for TikTok and Meta data. Projections are estimates based on historical trends.

METHODOLOGICAL LIMITATIONS

PRIMARY SOURCES