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Comment by bflesch | Hacker News Reader

Why is Mullvad making so much money and other VPN providers are seemingly not?

They're really the original "trustworthy" VPN that people that know about them will recommend. It's very straightforward.

IVPN is very similar kind of focus and branding, same with Obscura.

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/

The ones I can recommend that aren't on this list are Obscura and Nym.

(Carl from Obscura here)

Thanks for the shout-out Cider! :)

Hey Carl!

(A bit of a tangent) Ever been a bitcoin core contributor before? I have seen your tag on in the commit log before..

Because they have a very strong track record of good performance, reliability, and defense of privacy. VPN businesses largely sell trust and Mullvad has earned a lot of it

If anyone recommends VPN, it is usually the one. Others have greater chance to be scam or selling your data.

Does that include Proton's VPN?

It is also very controversial

Yes.

I think this is a good rule of thumb: "If a company invests so much money in advertising over the long term and promotes its products so aggressively, the product must be subpar."

Is Mullvad spending a lot on marketing, or is Proton?

Proton VPN. They inverst very much in youtube sponsoring and every other twitch streamer is partnering as well.

Mullvad spends a lot on irl marketing. VPN providers are essentially just about trust as they provide essentially the same service, so marketing is hugely important.

Mullvad and IVPN both don't do affiliate links. Proton is the only VPN that I can recommend that does use affiliate link marketing. They also do a lot of sponsorships. Proton really is a great company with great products.

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/

They have a product good enough that they don't need a huge advertising budget that involves every channel on YouTube

Are they? I can only imagine MordVpn makes a lot of money

I think Mullvad is likely the biggest of privacy VPNs but those consortiums likely make a lot.

https://kumu.io/Windscribe/vpn-relationships

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