- The COVID-19 outbreak has led to a global lockdown which results in huge VPN usage spikes.
- VPN helps the users to stay secure while working from home.
- Different VPN providers revealing stats about the rise in their usage around the world.
The recent outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has changed the daily routine of people around the world. We are going through a global lockdown and most of the people are working from their homes. This has led to a notable rise in VPN usage around the world.
VPN creates a private network over the public network which allows us to connect securely to another network. As there is no proper technology infrastructure available at home, companies are instructing their employees who are working remotely to use VPN to make sure that their data is securely transmitted. VPN also helps you to access those sites blocked by your government and hides your browsing details. It's safe to say that you are surfing anonymously over the internet while using a VPN.
Atlas VPN shared the data in a blog post recently showing the increased number of their users after the coronavirus outbreak. According to the company, there was a 48% rise in VPN usage in Italy when comparing the period from March 15 to March 22. In Iran, it rose to 11% while in the US, stats show a rise of 71% over the said period. There was 22%, 11%, and 23% rise in usage in Spain, Germany, and France respectively. The usage jumped by 21% even in Russia. Atlas VPN says that the rise might be due to more people stuck in their homes practicing social distancing and companies encouraging their employees to work from home. The global lockdown has also led the people to access geo-restricted sites by using a VPN.
Express VPN also shared the details in the form of a chart showing the global average usage has jumped by 21% in the past few weeks. The details show that there is a usage growth of 43% in Belgium from February 24 to March 22. The company’s VPN usage jumped by 16%, 27%, 26%, and 34% in Italy, Norway, Spain, and France respectively.
Asia-Pacific region countries such as the Philippines and Malaysia have seen a usage spike of 27% and 23% respectively. The company also stated that the usage increased in the North American continent after the coronavirus outbreak. The figures show a rise in usage of 24%, 26%, and 18% in Canada, USA, and Mexico.
NordVPN also revealed a report about the worldwide usage of its services. The company said that the usage of their services increased by 165% globally.
"Additional usage data revealed several countries, including Canada, France and the Netherlands, are using their business VPNs an extra 2 hours per day."
A huge increase in VPN usage seems to be the result of global lockdown forcing the masses to work from home. But people gaining access to inaccessible sites in their countries through a VPN might also be the reason. What might be the case, VPN usage isn’t going to decrease until the lockdown is over.
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