VPN usage in Hong Kong and Taiwan: some care about cybersecurity, while others prioritize access to restricted content

Taiwanese still choose to use free VPNs, while Hong Kong knows their real price

LONDON, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest research by NordVPN showed that residents of Hong Kong and Taiwan have very high knowledge of VPN products. In fact, only 22% of Hong Kong residents could not name a VPN brand. Similar numbers can be observed in Taiwan, with 36% of respondents unable to identify a brand.

However, there are certain differences in usage. In Taiwan, free VPNs are almost twice as popular as paid ones, while people in Hong Kong mostly choose paid VPN options.

"It's always best to go premium if you want the best quality available. While the option of a free VPN is enticing, you must remember that a service needs to make money somehow. If the service is free, your data is normally the price you pay for it," Daniel Markuson, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN, says.

41% of Taiwanese choose free VPNs to access restricted content

Hong Kong residents will use a VPN mainly for security (39%) and privacy (38%) purposes.. Privacy became especially important to people of Hong Kong in 2020, when the new national security law came into power. It stated that all content publishing platforms in Hong Kong must provide data or restrict access to users upon police request. The new law put millions' of people's online privacy under question and since then VPNs became the only way to maintain security while expressing yourself online. People can't afford to be caught, so paying for a premium online privacy tool is paramount

VPN usage in Taiwan, however, has been more frequently linked with getting access to region-locked content (41%)  rather than cybersecurity, that is why they choose free VPNs more often. Taiwanese are especially interested in Japanese content and the increase in demand for VPN coincides with each new online game release or anime premier.

That also correlates with the fact that 40% of residents from Hong Kong stated that they are concerned about being watched online. Only 32% of Taiwanese stated the same, however, this number has increased by 25% since the last time the survey was conducted in August.

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