With millions of people working from home, the coronavirus outbreak has seen global VPN demand surge. Demand for commercial virtual private networks in the U.S. jumped by 41% between March 13 and March 23, according to research from Top10VPN com, a VPN research and testing company in the U.K.
VPNs were already a growth industry before the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent shutdown of workplaces. The global VPN market was forecast to grow 12% year-on-year and be worth $70 billion by 2026, according to a Global Market Insights 2020 survey. North America was forecast to remain the leader in VPN usage, with around 30% market share.
Top10VPN.com found global VPN demand increased 41% over the second half of March and remains 22% higher than pre-pandemic levels, with 75 countries seeing significant increases in VPN demand since COVID-19 social restrictions and stay-at-home orders.
The largest VPN demand increases were in unlikely places: Egypt (224%), Slovenia (169%), and Chile (149%). The largest sustained increases (two weeks or more) were in Egypt (154%), Peru (119%), and South Africa (105%).
The growth is hardly a surprise, but some of the reasons cited are surprising.
Top10VPN’s Global VPN Usage Report 2020 found that 51% of people in the U.S. and the U.K. use a VPN to protect their privacy on public Wi-Fi networks. Another 44% of respondents said anonymous browsing was the main reason for using the VPN, followed by secure communication, cited by 37% of VPN users. In addition, 20% of American and British respondents use VPNs to access better entertainment content or restricted download, stream, and torrent sites.
I can relate. I am a big aficionado of Japanese music, but many of the major labels in Japan restrict YouTube viewership by non-Japanese visitors. The fix for me has been the Opera browser, with its native VPN.