China has a long history of Internet censorship, and has its own tools to replace global services like Google and Facebook.
The Chinese government also shields its citizens from the external world with the so-called Great Firewall, which helps control what citizens can get access to.
Virtual private network (VPN) services are some of the most popular tools to circumvent it.
New research by NordVPN reveals that when looking for VPN services on Baidu, the local equivalent of Google, the Chinese are mostly trying to get access to Google – in fact, 40,35% of all VPN service-related searches have to do with Google.
YouTube comes second on the list, accounting for 31,58% of all searches.
Other research by NordVPN has shown that YouTube holds the most desired restricted content, with 82,7% of Internet users worldwide searching for how to unblock this video sharing platform.
Most popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram share the rest of the interest of Chinese citizens and made it to the Top-five list of sought-after online platforms. Each site accounts for roughly 8% of search queries.
VPN is widely used in the country. This is mainly for two reasons: to access restricted online services and to enhance online security.
China is the leading country by the number of exposed user credentials. NordPass researchers found that 2,6-billion Chinese user entries, including email addresses and passwords, are up for grabs on the dark web.
This makes privacy tools more of a necessity in the country.
“When choosing a VPN provider, users must look beyond marketing promises and check if the provider keeps no logs as promised,” says Daniel Markusson, digital privacy expert at NordVPN.