Dollar crisis to limit or even halt Facebook ads

Meta platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Whatapp's official advertisement services will be "unavailable or limited" in Bangladesh until further notice due to dollar crisis, said Meta's revenue collection agent Httpool Bangladesh Limited.

In a letter to clients on Tuesday, Httpool Bangladesh Limited director Sunny Nagpal said the company was not finding available dollars and having difficulties remitting the Meta revenue abroad.

As a result, there will be limited ad space on the Meta platforms offered by Httpool, the letter reads.

The digital advertising clients might face less or no ad space, Httpool said, adding that it was working diligently to solve the issue as soon as possible.

TBS contacted the Httpool Bangladesh and also the Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and spokesperson Md Mezbaul Haque to learn the details of the dollar payment crisis. However, the requests and queries remained unanswered till the report was being written.

Social media platform Facebook has emerged as the largest digital ad platform in Bangladesh due to a significant user base and their higher browsing hours every day.

"The problem will hurt online sellers most, especially the Facebook based entrepreneurs or f-commerce as they attract new customers through the Facebook ads and even their daily sales depend on the extent of their digital outreach" said Shahab Uddin, vice president of E-commerce Association of Bangladesh.

E-commerce industry and advertising agencies will suffer, while payment gateways, e-commerce delivery companies will face a crisis due to the threat of a slowdown amid a decline in order volume, he added.

Moreover, there will not be a level playing field between local and foreign e-commerce companies as foreign companies can advertise from outside the country if they want, but local e-commerce companies cannot, he said.

"Digital ads democratized advertising as it enabled small businesses to reach a vast customer base in a cost effective way and the small entrepreneurs would be hit hard if Facebook ads are halted," said Muhammad Risalat Siddique, chairman of advertising firm Analyzen Bangladesh Ltd.

Not only digital businesses, nowadays marketers of other products and services also are significantly depending on digital ads and large firms would manage their way to reach customers through other ways like TV, newspaper ads, while their small competitors cannot, added Siddique who is also the chairman of the Standing Committee on Digital Marketing at Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (Basis).

A K M Fahim Mashroor, a digital entrepreneur and former president of Basis, said alongside widening the gap between local and foreign, small and large businesses, the halt in the only legal way here to pay Facebook against its ad services would fuel more informal payments and that would not be good for the country.

He estimates the digital advertising turnover here has grown to at least Tk2,500 crore, while at best 20% might be through the formal channel and the rest of the payments are being done from abroad.

Government collects 35% taxes and duties when digital ads bills are paid formally, while the informal payments do not involve such a high tax according to Mashroor.   

Informal payments are directly paid to Meta from abroad and anyone can avail the informal services in this regard sitting in Bangladesh.  

Mashroor also estimates 30,000 entities, including both the businesses and nonprofit organisations, are putting their ads in Facebook here.