Report: Over 480 million mobile VPN apps were downloaded around the world in the last 12 months

In the past few years, the security awareness of people all over the world has gradually increased. This is reflected in the growing censorship of social media platforms and other entities that hold our data in some way. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the recently released Global Mobile VPN Report 2019, the global downloads of 480 million VPN mobile applications witnessed an annual growth rate of 54 %.

Android accounted for 75% of the market with $358.3 million, followed by Apple with $121.9 million. On the other hand, by country, Indonesia had 75.5 million downloads, with a growth rate of 111%. India ’s VPN download growth rate has reached a record of 405%.

However, further analysis of VPN download growth in other countries reveals more insights. First, cybercrime legislation for censoring content in countries such as Vietnam and Singapore appears to have triggered a surge in VPN downloads. The surge in the national interest in VPNs in some countries is due to the desire to bypass increasingly stringent dictatorships. For example, Nigeria’s attacks on journalists and restrictions on freedom of speech have promoted VPN downloads in the country.

The above figure strongly supports this assertion. Is it a coincidence that the most locked VPN downloads in the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and North Africa? The answer may be no. Most of the countries in these regions lack political stability and human rights, of which there is a clear connection. Although VPN companies can mine important information from this report, the fact that 84% of downloads fall on free services is quite worrying.

Via: top10vpn