The ‘Carte Technologique” or How Tunisia is Shooting Down Digital Growth

Facebook ads have an average cost-per-click (CPC) of $1.86 and cost-per-thousand-views (CPM) of $11.20, which varies based on factors from ad quality to competition. According to a Facebook report, the average small business advertising on Facebook spends around $1,000-$2,000 per month.

The case

So how does the above statement compare to Tunisian small businesses?

To have a very generic and rough answer we did some time traveling to land in Tunisia where the government grants digital agencies and tech startups what is called “La Carte Technologique Internationale”(CTI) / “International Tech Card”. A bit like “Le Big Mac”.

This card allows local companies to buy tech services online and internationally — like facebook/google ads for example.

WTF? You might ask

To make a long and intricate story short, in Tunisia, local companies and individuals are not allowed to hold or send foreign currencies. Hence the time traveling comment.

So what’s the CTI all about?

The spending limit on the card is EUR3K per year for regular companies and around EUR28.5K per year for companies under the Startup Act label. If you don’t know what the Startup Act is, just pretend you do, this won’t affect the rest of the post.

Let’s break it down.

• EUR 3K/year that’s EUR 250/month for a non Startup Act company. Note that for now companies who are not under the Startup Act label represent roughly around 90% of web and tech companies in Tunisia including agencies.
• EUR 28.5K/year that’s EUR 2,375K/month for the remaining let’s say 10% of the ecosystem.

Looking back at the numbers stated in the first paragraph, all this nonsense would mean that:

1- Most tech and web companies in Tunisia don’t have the chance to be competitive online, internationally (and nationally vs Startup Act companies) in terms of Ads spend.

2- Non Startup Act companies who spend more than the legally allocated budget are definitely doing some shady business with foreign currencies OR have set-up a subsidiary company abroad (generally in Europe for those with enough funding).

3- Startup Act companies might be leading the market in a rather unfair manner.

Conclusion

Tunisian digital startups with hopes of becoming competitive regionally or globally — while following local rules & regulations — might have to look into opening foreign subsidiaries in “startup-friendly” markets.

In the meantime, focus a big part of spending and efforts into growing an organic presence can help in the long-run.

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