• by Jason Mander , Op-Ed Contributor, July 2, 2014

We’re all used to seeing ad campaigns which target Gen X, Gen Y or – increasingly – Gen Z. But we’d argue that there’s a new generation on the block who deserve just as much attention. Step forward, Generation V – the millions of internet users across the world who are deploying Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or Proxy Servers to get online.

For anyone unfamiliar with these tools, they allow people to bypass traditional connection and tracking methods to use the internet via a remotely located server; essentially, it’s as if people are entering the internet discretely via a side door rather than through the main entrance – with the servers in question often based in nations like the US, UK, Sweden or the Netherlands rather than the user’s home country. 

To date, VPN usage has often been viewed as a fairly niche behaviour – something that’s largely the preserve of tech geeks. But our latest research shows that it’s already transitioned into a fairly mainstream trend; in 2014, more than a quarter (28%) of internet users globally now say that they’ve used one. Across the 32 countries in which we conduct our quarterly research, that figure translates to more than 415 million people aged 16-64. Hardly niche, then. And with VPNs being readily available to download, easy to use and – very often – completely free of charge, this is a number that’s only going to go in one direction.

There are multiple reasons for using VPNs and Proxy Servers. Some internet users are simply looking to protect their anonymity, a trend which is particularly pronounced in some of the most mature internet nations like France. But by far the most popular motivations are the desire to access content or sites which are restricted in one’s own country. It’s about using BBC iPlayer from outside of the UK, for instance. Or accessing that social network/news website which is subject to an official ban – something which explains why our data picks up significant audiences in China for sites like Facebook, and why authorities in Turkey found it so tricky to prevent access to Twitter earlier in the year. 

Across the board, our research shows that internet users in fast-growth markets are the most likely to turn to VPNs – led by Indonesia (where 42% of 16-64s say they’ve used one), Brazil (37%), China (36%) and Taiwan (36%). Compare that to the US (16%), UK (14%) or Australia (14%), and the difference in engagement is pretty stark. Work out what that means in terms of VPN user numbers in a country like China (165 million), and it becomes more than a little concerning if you’re a content provider or advertiser.

Above all, VPN usage brings major implications for how we understand web traffic: lots of visitors who are traditionally geo-allocated to the US or other mature markets based on their IP addresses are actually based in fast-growth nations. In particular, our datasets show that large swathes of internet users in Asia Pacific and Latin America are essentially “going under the radar” when connecting to social networks, using search portals or consuming content / news. If we take a site like Bing.com as an example, data from passive web analytics will typically show that its traffic is dominated by American internet users. In contrast, our actively collected data shows that – while the US is still certainly an important market for Bing – the biggest share of its audience actually comes from China. India, Brazil and Indonesia account for significant segments, too. 

It’s a similar picture for a range of other sites, including Facebook. Very consistently, then, audiences in mature nations are being over-estimated – just as those from fast-growth markets are being dramatically under-appreciated. All this means that free or ad-supported content stores are being raided by users from other countries – a clear sign of unmet demand and of how willing people are to obtain the content they want. Arguably, though, these trends create their biggest headache for advertisers; each year, VPN usage means that billions of dollars of geo-targeted ad spend is potentially being misdirected.