Despite VPN usage often being considered a pretty niche activity, it’s now three in 10 internet users who have used these tools to get online, up from just under a quarter in Q1 2016. And as Global Web Index research makes clear, it’s Turkey which is the current leader for this activity.
Turkey’s recent censorship efforts against many of the major social networks and messaging apps are likely to be having an impact here as this market has not always been the global leader on this metric – Indonesia has typically been the top market for VPN usage since Q4 2013, when GWI began tracking this activity.
But it’s not just a desire to circumvent online censorship initiatives which is driving this behavior, with our research showing that it’s the search for better entertainment content (such as accessing content libraries in other markets) and online privacy concerns which comprise the top two motivations behind VPN usage.
