> On Nov 14, 2015, at 00:21 , Roland Dobbins <rdobb...@arbor.net> wrote: > > On 14 Nov 2015, at 13:36, Jean-Francois Mezei wrote: > >> With regards to VPNs: while they may not be very well known in the USA, they >> are outside the USA where many people need VPNs to access foreign content >> that is geoblocked in their home country. > > I do not live in the United States; I live outside the United States, where > many expats and others want to access content from their home countries that > is 'geoblocked'. > > The percentage of the Internet user population who use VPNs is tiny. It is > growing a bit, but it isn't even a sizable minority.
Today. Why on earth do you assume that this will not continue to expand and/or accelerate its rate of expansion as word spreads that it is possible? There was a time when on-line download or streaming was dwarfed by DVDs and Blu-Ray sales. There was a time when DVD/Blu-Ray/other digital formats didn’t represent even 1% of the market vs. VHS. This is a typical adoption rate issue. If people want a functionality that is not currently available to them, they will adopt and adapt technology to meet that desire over time. The adapt part is already mostly done with VPNs as has been pointed out. There are now GeoBlock Bypass services readily available and easily installable. The next step will be growth in adoption. We’ve already seen this occur in NZ. Likely it will spread fairly quickly to other geographies subject to geoblocking. It is unlikely to spread rapidly in the US because the US suffers from very little geoblocking or censorship in general. Likely the first major market where it will see very rapid adoption will be someplace like China where it can be used to circumvent a wide variety of government network restrictions. However, if Quebec and/or NY manage to block gambling as they are currently attempting to do, it’s very likely that such services will also catch on quickly in those localities. Owen
