Virtual Private Network (VPN) Market Overview, 2024-29

In a world where every click and keystroke leaves a digital fingerprint, the global VPN market stands like a fortress of anonymity providing users with an ability to move across the internet like a ninja secure. The idea of VPNs actually came about in the late 1990s when the whole world realized the need for secure communication over the Internet. Modem-driven early VPNs were mainly used by businesses to connect remote employees securely to the company network. These encryption technologies and tunneling protocols, like Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, laid the foundation of VPNs.

The technology was to evolve with the growth in usage of the Internet and the heightening of cybersecurity threats. The first ripples of VPN adoption in the consumer market began in the 2000s, where users became more sensitive to online privacy and security in the light of data breaches and surveillance concerns. Over the past decade, the global VPN market has experienced massive growth for a number of reasons. Given that the frequency and speed of cyber-attacks, data breaches, and other such privacy concerns are only increasing, individual users and organizations look for stronger security solutions.

COVID-19 accelerated this growth even further due to remote work and digital services becoming more prevalent. Among the most influential factors driving the global VPN market are urbanization and digitalization. The more digital a city is the greater is the demand for safe and private access to the internet. Normally, cities also have higher internet penetration rates and more connected devices, therefore demanding better cybersecurity solutions.

According to the research report "Global VPN MarketOverview, 2029," the market is anticipated to cross USD 93 Billion by 2029, increasing from USD 44 Billion in 2023. Digitalization has equally changed the way people work, communicate, and consume content. Aided by online services, cloud computing, and remote work, VPNs have become core to the protection of sensitive information and assurance of secure access to corporate resources. There are varied dynamics across different regions in the global VPN market. In North America, internet penetration is high, underpinned by advanced digital infrastructure and strong cybersecurity awareness. The second front is Europe, which is very close.

Regulatory frameworks like GDPR are changing the scene in the region and furthering the adoption of VPNs. On the third front, the Asia-Pacific region is rapidly growing, with increasing access to the internet and digitalization exposures that increase the risk from cyber-attacks. Latin America and Middle East & Africa also show growth, driven by the extension of internet infrastructure and enhancing cybersecurity awareness. In the VPN market, the aspects of regulatory compliance and protection of data become very important as more and more governments enact stringent laws to protect personal information and ensure cybersecurity.

Regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act in the United States, not to mention many others, have also emphasized that the VPNs adhere strictly to the stipulations in terms of the handling of data and securing privacy for the user. COVID-19 dramatically changed the market outlook for VPNs with its accelerated pace of switching to remote work and telecommuting.

Companies from all industries have started remote work policies, and this demand increases very fast for secure and reliable access to corporate networks and resources. VPNs are tools that today enable secure remote work hence, employees could securely and safely access sensitive data and applications. Some of the features that now become must-haves when customers choose their VPN service include a no-log policy, high speeds, and good variety in geographical locations of servers.

Market Drivers

• Rising Cybersecurity Threats:The escalating frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks are a primary driver of the global VPN market. With cyber threats such as data breaches, phishing attacks, and ransomware becoming increasingly common, both individuals and organizations are seeking enhanced security measures. VPNs provide an essential layer of protection by encrypting data, masking IP addresses, and securing online communications, thereby mitigating the risk of cyber threats and protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access.
• Growing Concerns Over Privacy and Data Protection: Privacy concerns have become a significant driver of VPN adoption. With increasing awareness about data privacy issues and government surveillance, users are turning to VPNs to safeguard their online activities and protect their personal information from prying eyes. Regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have also heightened the focus on data protection, driving demand for VPN services that offer strong privacy features and no-log policies.

Market Challenges

• Regulatory Compliance and Government Restrictions: The global VPN market faces significant challenges related to regulatory compliance and government restrictions. Different countries have varying laws and regulations governing the use of VPNs, often influenced by concerns over national security and data sovereignty.

For instance, in countries like China, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates, VPN usage is heavily regulated or restricted, with strict penalties for non-compliance. These regulations can create barriers to market entry and operational challenges for VPN providers. Companies must navigate complex legal landscapes and ensure their services comply with local laws, which can be both costly and time-consuming. Additionally, regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe impose strict data protection requirements, adding another layer of complexity for global VPN providers

Market Trends

• Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is a major trend shaping the global VPN market. AI and ML technologies are being utilized to enhance various aspects of VPN services, including threat detection, user behavior analysis, and network optimization. AI-powered algorithms can identify and mitigate potential security threats in real-time, improving the overall security posture of VPN services. Additionally, ML can be used to optimize server performance and user experience by predicting and adjusting to network demands dynamically. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, AI and ML will play a crucial role in providing advanced protection and ensuring a seamless user experience.
• Rise of Mobile VPN Solutions: With the increasing reliance on mobile devices for internet access, there is a growing trend towards mobile VPN solutions. Mobile VPNs cater to the needs of users who require secure and private internet access on their smartphones and tablets. These solutions are designed to offer robust security features while maintaining optimal performance on mobile networks. The rise of mobile VPNs is driven by the proliferation of mobile internet usage, the growing number of mobile apps, and the need for secure access to sensitive information on the go. Providers are focusing on developing user-friendly mobile applications with features such as automatic connection, split tunneling, and enhanced encryption to meet the demands of mobile users.

The growth of services in the global VPN market is due to the surging demand for expert help in deploying, managing, and maintaining VPNs, particularly as companies struggle to cope with complex security challenges and resource constraints.
The demand is created by the fact that modern security threats are getting too difficult to resolve without specialized knowledge, while many businesses often lack resources. As businesses have come to depend upon VPNs to protect their remote and online operations, so too has the level of complexity involved in deploying and managing these solutions. Services like installation, configuration, troubleshooting, maintenance, and training from the VPN vendor or third-party service providers have become more critical for keeping the VPNs running effectively.

The rapidly evolving threat landscape and related need to update and patch VPN solutions against new vulnerabilities have further driven the demand for VPN services. Such services enable a business to keep pace with the emergence of new threats and ensure that VPN solutions are always optimized in terms of security and performance. The growth of services in the global VPN market is the lack of adequate cybersecurity skills in most enterprises. This makes outsourced VPN services quite alluring to them, since they would otherwise lack the necessary in-house skills for the proper management of their VPN solutions.

The growth of the VPN services market is the trend toward cloud-based VPN solutions. Although cloud VPNs bring a number of benefits, they add many new integration, management, and security complexities, therefore making services such as cloud VPN management and cloud VPN security assessment all the more important to many enterprises. The trend of managed services outsourcing the whole management of a VPN infrastructure of a business to a service provider also continues to fuel growth in the VPN services market. Managed VPN services help offload to the service provider the burden of day-to-day VPN management and allow a business to focus on core operations.
On-premise VPN solutions are finding huge growth globally for reasons such as the demand increasing for better control, customization, and data sovereignty in the area of growing cybersecurity threats and strict regulatory compliance.
While data breaches and cyber-attacks continue to grow in terms of frequency and complexity, many enterprises find on-premise solution deployment providing them with some advantages that align well with their approach to security posture and compliance requirements for VPN deployment. On-premise VPNs can grant any organization full control over its hardware, software, and the overall VPN infrastructure.

Control on this level will, without a doubt, be most inviting to sectors dealing with sensitive information, like healthcare, financial, and government sectors, where the question of data sovereignty and compliance rules of regulations like the GDPR, HIPAA, or industry-specific mandates are highly relevant. Hosting their VPN infrastructure in-house helps a company double-check that data is not off their servers. This way, it reduces the chance of risk exposure to third-party actors. An key driver of growth for on-premise VPNs is customization. These types of solutions can be designed in accordance with the needs of an organization by easily integrating into the network architecture and the security protocols in place. Specifically, this flexibility be uniquely helpful to large enterprises that have complex network environments or special security needs not adequately addressed by cloud VPN off-the-shelf solutions. Performance is another reason on-premise VPNs are gaining in popularity. Organizations with high-bandwidth needs or seeking low latency in their links can find on-premise solutions perform better since they do not rely on some external internet to remotely connect with the VPN servers hosted in the cloud. This can be most critical for businesses in which even a short delaycause large operational effects. This creates value over a large scale, long period despite the relatively high cost factor at the onset that on-premise solutions prove through hardware investments and maintenance. Organizations with a large base of users find the on-premise VPN to give them lower ownership costs than the cloud VPN services that are subscription-based over time.
The consumer segment is on a growth track in the global VPN market, with rising concern and awareness for online privacy and security.

People are getting more aware of the risks associated with online activities and hence are being compelled to take measures for safety. High-profile data breaches, government surveillance, and devastating cyberattacks have sensitized users about their online privacy and security. As such, consumers yearn to find ways of protecting personal data and online activities from unwanted exposure. The proliferation of smart devices and increasing usage of public Wi-Fi have made consumers aware that their online activities should be protected using a VPN. Growth in the usage of social media, online banking, and e-commerce has played its part.

Consumers are coming to realize that their personal data is being compiled and used by companies, governments, and cybercriminals. This has increased interest in VPNs used for the encryption of Internet traffic, IPs, and safe connection to the web. Also, the demand for VPNs has been accelerated by the increase in streaming services as consumers try to access more geographically restricted content and bypass censorship.

Since VPNs became easy to use and cheap, they found their way into more and more consumer devices. Most of the service providers in the VPN market allow users easy access with user-friendly interfaces, mobile applications, and quite affordable pricing plans. Apart from this, increasing consciousness about online security risks means consumer education and awareness also grow, many of whom turn to a VPN to help guard them against such threats.
The popularity of site-to-site VPNs in the worldwide VPN market has increased, since this given technology gives its subscribers the ability to interlink whole business networks securely across the public Internet for unproblematic collaboration.
Traditional remote access VPNs are efficient in offering access to individual users, in managing connections between a number of offices or branches, such VPNs prove unwieldy. This is what makes setting up and managing individual VPN tunnels for every user or device really time-consuming and complex in the case of large organizations with geographically dispersed locations. Site-to-site VPNs resolve this challenge by establishing one secure tunnel between the whole networks, enabling only authorized users and devices on each network to access the resources on the other as if physically connected to a private network.

This removes the headache of per-user complex configuration and makes network management much easier. Growth drivers for site-to-site VPNs include increasing adoption of cloud-based applications and services. Firms are increasingly moving away from on-premise infrastructure to storing data and applications in the cloud. This has created a need for secure and reliable connections between the on-premises network of a company and cloud resources through a site-to-site VPN, which would allow seamless access to critical applications and data for employees working remotely or across different branches.

The workforce globalization and ever-increasing trend for business process outsourcing also demand secure communications and sharing of resources among teams spread across geographical locations. Site-to-site VPNs offer secure collaboration between head offices, branch offices, and even associate organizations that result in efficient workflows and enhanced productivity. This is especially true for businesses with geographically dispersed teams or those collaborating with international partners. Another driver for site-to-site VPNs is the need for data security and compliance with regulations.

With growing concerns over data breaches and cyber-attacks, safe communication channels are guiding considerations by organizations. All data traffic between the connected networks is encrypted by site-to-site VPNs, ensuring that sensitive information remains protected while it travels through the public internet. Additionally, certain regulations require specific measures of data security, site-to-site VPNs help companies comply by offering an extremely secure and fully auditable link.

APAC has been developing at a very fast pace in the VPN market due to the increasing censorship and surveillance of the internet, which is coupled with an enhanced sense of digital privacy and security among the rapidly growing online population.By the end of the decade, the APAC region will outperform other regions in the global VPN market, driven by a diverse and heterogeneous digital landscape characterized by differing levels of freedom, censorship, and state surveillance of the internet. This growth is powered by the needs to bypass online restrictions, protect personal data, and secure Internet connections in a highly connected world.

One of the major reasons behind the increased adoption of VPNs in APAC is certainly the strict Internet censorship and surveillance policies of some governments. That of China is a case in point, it has one of the largest, most sophisticated censorship systems globally, blocking access to a myriad of foreign websites like major platforms including Google, Facebook, and Twitter. In such a scenario, a Chinese user usually resorts to a VPN as a way to bypass these restrictions and access the internet at large. Likewise, in cases of political unrest or protests, the Indian government ordered shutdowns starting from the Internet to particular websites and social media platforms.

In this period, Indian users rapidly joined the league of becoming VPN adopters to retain their access to critical information and communication channels. Apart from censorship, increasing surveillance activities by governments in the APAC region are raising concerns over digital privacy and security. In Thailand and Vietnam, for example, lawmakers have enacted legislation allowing authorities to keep a close eye on online activities and gain access to personal data without stringent judicial oversight. The all-encompassing surveillance environment has exerted a growth spurt on VPN usage by people seeking to protect their online privacy and put a lid on unwanted access to personal information.

It is also driven by the rapid digital transformation and exponential growth of Internet users in APAC. Countries like Indonesia and the Philippines have increased their Internet penetration rates exponentially, driven by the wide adoption of smartphones and affordable data plans. As more and more people log on, there is a growing awareness of the risks of cyber threats, breaches, and identity theft. VPNs offer a practical solution to these concerns by providing a secure internet experience through the encryption of one's Internet traffic.

The APAC business environment is fast realizing the essence of cybersecurity. With the advent of work-from-home hastened by the COVID-19 outbreak enterprises all across the region have resorted to VPNs as a secure way of remotely accessing enterprise networks. This has particularly been the case in countries such as Japan and South Korea, with advanced technological infrastructure ensuring smooth working-from-home environments, which their corporations are implementing with robust security measures to protect sensitive corporate data.

• In March 2023, Google Inc. announced the launch of a virtual private network (VPN) service to all Google One subscribers to strengthen its security and privacy offering. Additionally, Google's VPN service will be available to all subscribers, including those on basic plans, across all platforms, such as Android, iOS, Windows, and MacOS.
• In January 2023, Etisalat partnered with Huawei Technologies to implement and evaluate 5G portable private network multi-access edge computing (MEC) capabilities. As part of Etisalat UAE's stand-alone commercialization program, the company aimed to provide a 5G alternative to conventional VPN services, with the aim of improving remote work experiences for businesses in the UAE, leading to enhanced connectivity and increased productivity.
• In November 2022, RadioIP announced its collaboration with NextNav, a leading provider of vertical location positioning technology. This partnership aims to enhance RadioIP's VPN solutions by incorporating mission-critical z-axis location intelligence. By leveraging NextNav's expertise, first responders and security agencies can ensure the safety and secure positioning of their personnel.
• In August 2022, Microsoft is upgrading the security and privacy of its Edge browser by integrating a free built-in virtual private network service, according to a Microsoft support page. By allowing users to browse the web using a virtual IP address, the new function also will enable them to conceal their location.
• In February 2022, Nokia announced the world's first commercial 5G Edge Slicing deployment in collaboration with mobile operator Cellcom and Telia. Nokia's edge-slicing solution allows operators to provide enterprise customers with secure, dependable, and high-performance VPN services over other commercial 4G/5G networks.
• In September 2021, Kape Technologies, a cybersecurity company headquartered in the UK, completed the acquisition of Express VPN service from Express VPN International Ltd for a substantial amount of USD 936 million. This strategic move by Kape Technologies expanded its presence in the commercial digital privacy sector and doubled its customer base from 3 million to 6 million.
• In January 2021, Nord Security took significant strives ahead in the VPN software market. They recently developed NordVPN. NordVPN is a leading VPN software program recognized for its robust protection functions, full-size server community, and user-friendly interface. With military-grade encryption, no-log coverage, and specialized servers for streaming and torrenting, NordVPN gives reliable on line privateness and access to geo-restrained content material. Trusted via millions of customers international, NordVPN maintains to set the usual for VPN answers in an ever-evolving virtual landscape.

Considered in this report

• Historic year: 2018
• Base year: 2023
• Estimated year: 2024
• Forecast year: 2029

Aspects covered in this report

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) market Outlook with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Various drivers and challenges
• On-going trends and developments
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

By Component

• Solution
• Services

By Deployment

• Cloud
• On Premise

By Type

• Remote Access
• Site-to-site
• Others

By End User

• Commercial
• Consumer
• Service Provide

The approach of the report:

This report consists of a combined approach of primary and secondary research. Initially, secondary research was used to get an understanding of the market and list the companies that are present in it. The secondary research consists of third-party sources such as press releases, annual reports of companies, and government-generated reports and databases. After gathering the data from secondary sources, primary research was conducted by conducting telephone interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducting trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Post this; we have started making primary calls to consumers by equally segmenting them in regional aspects, tier aspects, age group, and gender. Once we have primary data with us, we can start verifying the details obtained from secondary sources.

Intended audience

This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations, and organizations related to the Virtual Private Network (VPN) industry, government bodies, and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing and presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.


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