Internet in Indonesia is like a big tease. Sure, we have access to most of the internet, but the good stuff, like porn, Reddit, Vimeo, and many other essential websites, are big no-nos and blocked by the government.
That’s why virtual private networks (VPN) are in huge demand in Indonesia. If you’re an internet noob and don’t know what VPN is, it’s essentially something that bypasses government internet censorship by tricking the system into thinking you’re surfing the web from another country.
However, we had no idea that VPN use in Indonesia was this huge. According to a study done by market research firm GlobalWebIndex, which was picked up by Wired.co.uk, an incredible 41% of Indonesian internet users rely on VPN.
That’s the highest percentage among the 34 countries surveyed, which include Thailand (39%), Turkey, UAE, and Brazil (all 36%). Even in China, a country with some of the harshest internet restrictions in the world, only 29% of netizens use VPN.
Looking at the chart from the study, it appears Indonesians mostly use VPN “To access entertainment content from iTunes, Netflix, Youtube, etc.” and “To access networks and sites restricted in certain countries” (so… probably porn).
GlobalWebIndex surveyed almost 200,000 respondents from 34 countries for the study. The firm has been tracking VPN usage worldwide since 2013.
