The COVID-19 epidemic had a significant effect on how we live our lives today. It affected almost every nation, confining people to their homes and disrupting work and social activity in many ways. Many things began to take place online as a result, and internet usage has increased dramatically.
The growth of the Internet was aided by a rise in home working, remote teaching, and a change in media consumption habits. Despite COVID-19’s negative effects, the Internet streaming business has seen extraordinary subscriber growth. However, increased demand for online video material has also prompted more VPN use.
VPNs like Surfshark VPN are being used to get around geoblocking restrictions imposed by streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and the BBC in order to access material that isn’t available in certain regions.
1. By 2020, total global revenue was more than $69 billion from streaming subscriptions.
The worldwide demand for escapism and entertainment appears to have driven the number of streaming service memberships. Streaming time rose 20% across the world in a single week as coronavirus lockdown procedures were put into place (Griffith, 2020).
The pandemic accelerated existing trends in the media and entertainment industry, reaching 1.1 billion monthly video streaming subscriptions by 2020, with worldwide subscription revenue increasing from $53 to over $69 billion during this period (Bay, 2021).
2. A VPN is used by one-third of all Internet users.
By 2017, 27% of the world’s internet users had utilised a VPN. In 2020, that proportion was up to 31%, and it continued to rise in 2021. To put it another way, almost one-third of worldwide internet users have now used a VPN.
Following the World Health Organization’s declaration of a worldwide pandemic, Google Search data shows that searches for VPNs have increased dramatically. In May 2020, searches related to the term broke their previous record, shortly after lockdowns began in earnest.
3. VPN users are 40% more likely than the average person to use a subscription streaming service.
The most common reason for VPN usage is to improve access and privacy. Around half of all VPN users around the world are motivated by better entertainment access, according to a recent poll. In Canada and Mexico, 49% of VPN users use a VPN to access region-locked content. Brazil is in third place, followed by the United Kingdom, Ireland, and India (Vojinovic, 2021).
4. 36% of VPN users use it at least once a day.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) allow internet users to browse anonymously, access geo-restricted material, get around network filters, and quite a few other things. As a result, VPNs have become an essential part of many people’s daily lives. According to a global survey, 36% of VPN users in the UK and US use the service every day, or nearly every day (Mlitz, 2021).
