Dollar crunch forces Httpool to limit ad services for now

Business Desk :
The ongoing dollar crunch has hit F-commerce shores, as Httpool Bangladesh, Meta’s authorized sales partner in the country, has announced that it will be unavailable to continue its services due to scarcity of the US dollar and subsequent difficulties in remitting it abroad.
However, the problem is only limited to the organization, and not to people outside their client base, who have their own advertisement managers and payment methods in order.
In a letter signed by its director Sunny Nagpal, Httpool told its customers that there will be limited availability of ad space on the platform, which may result in the reduction of available ad space for their clients’ upcoming campaigns and the possibility of rejection/blockage of ongoing and upcoming ad campaigns.
Nagpal also stated that this measure was taken in light of current economic conditions, which were unexpected and disruptive beyond their control, and that they were working diligently to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Httpool was reached out for further comments, with the organization promising to answer Dhaka Tribune’s queries soon. There has been no response at the time of filing this report.
Other payment methods to clear advertisement charges on Facebook such as Payoneer, dual currency credit cards and others are still available and will not be affected by this decision.
Individuals or agencies can pay for ads in Meta and its related platforms through dual currency and co-branded debit/credit cards, or PayPal.
However, as everyone is not eligible for dual currency cards often resort to agencies for payment to Meta, with incidents reported in social media over scammers taking advance payment from individuals to run their ads but blocking them soon after receiving payments.
That is why authorities stress choosing trusted digital marketing agencies for such transactions, especially those agencies that are members of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB).
F-commerce and other IT outlets that are members of e-CAB since 2021 have been able to send $10,000 a year abroad to foreign companies such as Facebook and YouTube, without the approval of Bangladesh Bank.
The money can also be sent through banks and international credit or prepaid cards.
By card, the maximum of $10,000 can be sent in five $2,000 installments.
In the case of remittance, authorized dealer banks have to comply with foreign exchange transaction regulations, value-added tax (VAT) deduction and deposit, and e-CAB recommendations.
This money can be sent through international credit or prepaid cards and banks.
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have been hovering around $31 billion for the past few months, but the burden on forex reserves may ease further in the coming months.
Reserves dropped to $31.14 billion on March 7 after the payment of import bills worth $1.05 billion was made to the Asian Clearing Union for the months of January and February. The reserve remained at $31.14 billion on March 30 and $31.16 billion on April 12.