Is the market really so big for VPN services? Or is it because it’s something that is easier to sell than other products?
My understanding is that Youtube uses targeted advertising: so Youtube has decided that some people are in the market for VPN services–and thus get a lot of those ads–while most don’t.
Personally I haven’t noticed as I use an ad-blocker.
They’re promoted just as heavily in-line, in my experience. Or whatever that ad type is called. The one where the presenter themselves is promoting the product, often leading into it as part of the video topic itself. It’s not a YouTube ad, just an ad on YouTube.
NordVPN, Brilliant, and Jane Street are the biggies among my top channels. Probably not hard to guess which one I watch for anyone into the same ones.
I have a YT subscription, so these are actually sponsors that the content creators talk about in the video itself.
I watch a fair number of tech/gaming related content and VPN ads/sponsors are pretty common. But, if you’re into tech and online gaming then you’re quite possibly interested in VPNs for anonymizing yourself or to access region-restricted stuff.
When watching videos about other topics, I don’t see (or notice) VPN ads. But I could imagine them being on channels for TV/movie/media content (for people trying to evade region blocks or illegal downloads) and probably other related video genres that aren’t popping to mind.
What use case of a VPN are you talking about: VPN to provide security usually in a business setting (remote workers…) or VPN to abet copyright infringement (ranging from torrents to avoiding country restrictions in streaming services)?
That’s the main way I’ve seen it advertised by the Youtubers I watch - “The Adventures of Jizz Funkwell isn’t available on American Netflix, but with NordVPN you can log in from an Estonian server and watch at no extra cost!”
VPN ads/sponsor spots that I’ve seen don’t usually suggest a direct use case. Just vague statements about privacy and security. “ACME VPN provides excellent coverage with hundreds of global access points providing fast speeds and assured privacy…”
I assume far more of their audience is in the evasion camp for anonymity than the corporate security camp.
Seems like the actual market isn’t really that big, but it’s easy to make it sound like something you need, even if you don’t (you probably don’t).
Not to mention it’s all a bit of a “who do you trust more” game, your VPN or your ISP?
With some international sports you can only get one or no feed(s) in a given country. Want to watch the TdF while listening to commentary from the great Sean Kelly? Then you need to get the Eurosport coverage, not the USA coverage.
I watch a lot of debunkers of junk science, and VPN is a heavy sponsor of these. Mostly for security. They are good if you travel a lot and stay at hotels with no or weak wifi passwords.
Interestingly, I watch a lot of YT videos and I don’t recall seeing a vpn ad.
This. Daniel Whiteson, a particle physicist and co-host of Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, has ads for Express VPN on his podcast which he personally presents.
I have friends and family in other countries, who often cannot see YouTube stuff I send them without using a VPN. I assume the VPN folks realize this and thus advertise in those areas. I see OP has in the past said things like “I’m used to variable rate mortgages, but in the US I understand the situation is different”, which suggests they’re overseas and thus fits my hypothesis above.
I am in the U.S. and have not seen the ads either, BTW.
I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen an “ad”, but they sponsor a lot of video channels in the educational/mathematics/science segment and the hosts will do personalized presentations (ads) for the sponsor.
My guess would be that they’re trying to target techies and scientist types, as the people most likely to be tech savvy enough to think “Maybe it’s worth bumping up my online security.” Or financial secure enough to think, “Gee, I need to watch more TV from foreign places. There isn’t enough being produced domestically.” Or educated enough and financially motivated enough to want to get around the censors of their local government.
Yes, I see ads for them on Youtube all the time. I guess they see YT viewers as their target audience.
As someone else mentioned, there are different types of VPNs. NordVPN and the other VPN services being advertised on Youtube can provide privacy/anonymity, but do very little in the way of security.
Last time I saw it was actually this video https://youtu.be/sjVXy9B4gRk
There is some Australian TV I would like to watch that is not available in the US (but freely available if you are in Australia). So, I set my VPN to Australia and it still doesn’t work. I think the TV companies have gotten savvy to them and have identified all of their IP addresses used in Australia and block them.
Or something else. Whatever they are doing, I cannot see their shows.
Several of the channels I subscribe to run Surfshark sponsorship bits on a weekly basis. I assume Surfshark has a shotgun approach and offers some kind of deal to creators with X number of subscribers. It’s probably an easy source of revenue for channel owners if they’re looking to make some extra bucks off of their videos.
I have puzzled over this as well. And it is just weird. Like others, Brilliant, Jane Street, plus Nebula, are in the mix along with VPNs. Add in highly dubious art investment. VPNs seem to have fallen off a little but not much.
These are all content sponsor ads, not algorithm, and have the content creator perform the spruiking. Some are very creative and put a lot of effort into the advertising. (Sampson Boat, and the rebuilding of the Tally Ho, is both a fabulous channel but also go the extra distance on VPN ads. )
Clearly in some cases the company has contacted the creator to offer sponsorship.
The principal spiel is security quickly followed by accessing geo blocked content. The only blocked content I would be interested in won’t get past a VPN, and other providers play whack-a-mole with the IP addresses of VPN terminations.
So, I conclude that the economics of providing a VPN are such that it is still easy money and enough people sign up, even if they later drop out to make it all work.
Whether they play the game of highly discounted entry price, ratchet it up to something significant, and make exiting difficult, I have never heard. But that is a good trick to bolster income. One mostly never hears much bad about them. Indeed not much at all.
If I needed a VPN for security I would just establish one at home, and route traffic through it when travelling. Doing that also lets you ad-block.